Day 41 : Wyoming = Windy...

From Saratoga, WY to Rawlins, WY - 44.2 miles

Story [in numbers]:

Time on bike: 5:13:59
Average speed: 8.4 mph
Max Speed: 23.8 mph

Story [in words]:

we woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise over the lake and mountains that were just off to the one side of our tent. and to our pleasant surprise, the winds were not blowing at the moment. so, we got loaded up, ate a few pop tarts, and got out on the bikes.

the beginning of the morning was nice...it seemed like we were going generally downhill, and we were able to ride next to each other quite a bit, which was really nice. (wyoming seems to generally have nice wide shoulders) before long, we found ourselves riding up to a lady with a stop sign for some apparent construction ahead. we heard her say to the car in front of us that she would have to wait about 14 minutes...but as we cycled up to her, she asked if we wanted to go or if we needed a break...we said that we would like to go ahead as we were trying to beat the wind. she radioed ahead to make sure that it was okay, and after getting the 10-4, she told us to go ahead. it was fun because there was a pilot car (truck) taking traffic back and forth, and every time the lady would drive past us, she would give us the biggest wave you have ever seen.

unfortunately, a couple of hours into our ride, the wind did pick up, and the cycling became quite difficult. as we neared walcott, we knew that we were going to be making a road change, but weren't sure what road we were getting on...we pulled out the maps, and to our surprise, it said that we were supposed to ride on i-80. in most states it is illegal to ride a bicycle on an interstate, but apparently not in wyoming. it was definitely a little scary, but there was more than adequate shoulder, and so we felt like we were safely clear of the traffic.

we continued to make very very slow headway as we worked our way into rawlins. we had had hopes of going past rawlins today, but the wind had thoroughly demoralized us, and we were confident that going further was not going to be in the plans for today. as i was cycling, i was thinking that if there is ever an alternative needed for chinese water torture, maybe they could just put people on a bicycle and tell them to ride straight into a 20-30 mph headwind for an hour or two. it was demoralizing to say the least.

after a stop for lunch at taco bell and a trip to the grocery store to stock up for tomorrow, we pedaled across town to our campsite for tonight. it is a very nice place for a fairly reasonable price...i think it gets the award for the best campsite on the route so far.

so, it is going to be early to bed tonight, and then the plan is to get up and be ready to pedal out with the sun. the forecast is for less winds tomorrow, but regardless, the winds are almost always more favorable in the early hours, so we are going to try to knock out as many miles as we can before things get hairy. hopefully it is better than today.