From Rawlins, WY to Lander, WY -
Story [in numbers]:
Story [in words]:
in response to the brutal day, with respect to the wind, that was yesterday, we decided to get up with the sun and get riding. with that in mind, we were on the bikes at 5:45 riding to beat the wind. and we were riding along with our new friend, eli...a guy who ended up camping next to us at the campground last night...he started in new york and has pretty much made his own way across the country until just joining the transam yesterday.
we cycled along with eli for the first hour and a half of the morning...however, eli was talking about really wanting to push the miles and was hoping to get to lander...which we thought sounded absolutely crazy, even if the winds were good...because it would mean riding in the range of 124 miles for the day. so, after 20 miles or so, eli decided that he was going to push ahead of us in an attempt to get to lander. we wished him well and watched him ride off into the distance.
we rode another 12 miles or so, and came across this place called grandma's cafe. now what i should mention is that, shortly after we left rawlins, we entered the great basin, which is basically this huge bowl of nothingness in the middle of wyoming. but in the middle of this bowl of nothingness...literally in the middle of nowhere...was this cafe called grandma's. we cycled up, poked our heads in to make sure they were opened, and grabbed a seat to get some breakfast. the food was pretty good...although grandma seemed a little quiet and like she was maybe getting up in age a little bit.
a number of days ago, we made a tentative plan to ride to a city called jeffery city...however, we heard a couple of days ago from some eastbound cyclists that jeffery city was a pretty shady place and that we probably didn't want to stay there. so, with that information in mind, as we sat at grandma's, we studied the maps to decide where our ending point for the day would be. it was at that point that we realized that the best thing for us would be to make an attempt to push on to lander as well...so, as crazy as it seemed, we got back on the bikes, hoping to make the day total in the range of 124 miles.
we cycled and cycled, through mostly nothingness...the scenery was pretty bland, the ground fairly flat, and the winds relatively calm. until about 3:00, when we had completed about 75 total miles for the day. the winds began to pick up, as a very obvious sheet of rain began to build out in the distance. and before long, we were in the middle of the storm, with rain spitting on us and the winds gusting at what had to have been 30 mph. by about 4:15, we managed to make it through the storm to a rest area that was at about 85 miles for the day. there was camping in the area, so we were debating about whether we should just stay there for the night, or wait out the storm a little bit and then try to finish the 39 miles into lander...which we did know was mostly downhill.
when we actually got inside the rest area, we found about 7 other cyclists inside, one of whom was eli...he apparently was not able to push as hard as he had hoped and he had arrived at the rest area just about 20 minutes before we had. we talked with him for a little while and the three of us decided that we would wait the storm out a little while and if it cleared by about 5, we would push on together into lander.
the storm did clear, and by about 5 the skies were mostly blue and the winds were completely calm. so, eli, cailyn and i got back on the bikes and headed out. we had to climb about 300 feet as we left the rest area, and then as we crested the hill and began an amazingly long downhill, we found that the scenery had completely changed and that we were looking at one of the prettiest scenes of the trip. beautiful rolling hills for what seemed to be as far as the eye can see.
the ride into lander was indeed almost completely downhill and the three of us were able to make the 39 mile trek in just a little over 3 hours. and man were we glad that we pushed on to finish the day. it was really nice to be in a town of a little size and it also felt pretty cool to be able to say that we had gone 124 miles...easily 20 miles further than we had ever ridden.
however, as the day passed and the miles mounted, the abscess on my tooth and gum were continuing to grow and become more uncomfortable. since visiting the doctor on thursday, i would say that the abscess had easily doubled in size. so, when we arrived in town and i finally had cell reception again, i called my parents to get their medical perspective on things (my mom is a dental hygentist and my dad, a pharmacist).
after some discussion, it was decided that it was probably time for me to see another dentist and that it was probably also in my best interest to stop the cycling. the fear was that my body was just having too much trouble healing and doing all the cycling. we were just days away from our final destination of yellowstone...but it just didn't seem worth it to continue to push things at the risk of my bodies health.
here is where God is just absolutely amazing. as it turns out, my aunt and uncle, who were were supposed to be meeting in yellowstone in a few days, are in cody, wyoming for the night, which is just a couple of hours north of where we are right now. so, the plan is that we will try to make contact with them in the morning and see if there is any way they could come and pick us up and take us with them to yellowstone...and in the meantime, i will try to see another dentist and see what the next step in the process might be with this abscess.
it is a little hard to fathom that this is probably the end of the cycling portion of our trip. it is hard to believe that we are to that point already. we certainly would have liked to be able to cycle the final 3 days into yellowstone, but it is still pretty crazy to think that 42 days ago we were in yorktown, va, dipping our rear tires in the atlantic ocean, and now, we are in lander, wy. it really is crazy!
hopefully, over the next couple of weeks, i will write a few different posts reflecting on the ending, processing some of what we learned and what God is teaching us, and also a trip in review post where we will try to reflect back on some of the best moments and "award winning" people and places.
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