the longest day

I had referred to the previous night’s dinner at a local pizza joint in Sheridan as my last supper. Today was our longest day of the trip at 112 miles. I was not convinced I would survive it.

A few days earlier while swimming in the campground pool, I was discussing (read: whining) with one of the other bicyclers about the route, and wondered if there was a way to break up the 112 miles between Sheridan, Wyoming and Gillette, Wyoming. A lady laying out at the pool overheard our conversation and told us that while there were some towns in between the two cities, they were so small that if you sneezed, you’d miss them. She wasn’t playing…





In one of the towns, there was a single commercial establishment that could meet the resident’s every need – Ted’s Hotel / Café / Bar / Post Office / General Store / Grocery Store / Gas Station.

I figured that my best shot at surviving the day would be just to get it over and done with before the heat of the day. I’ve found that the energy I gain by pacing myself and taking it easy in the morning hours is (more than) offset by the energy that the sun saps out of me. It makes me feel like I’m made out of liquid, and the sun pokes a little hole in me and I drain away to bits. So I hightailed it out of the gates (and the gates opened quite early today at just before 6:00 AM) and made great time through the morning’s 15 mile climb and arrived at the Spotted Horse Café (mile 75) by noon. We had a Coke at the café, and it was a cool, eclectic place that contained all sorts of odds and ends.



We started chatting with a guy there whose job involved collecting natural gas and pressurizing it so that it could be put into the pipeline. I hadn't even thought about the fact that gas is transported at high pressure, so I took the opportunity to educate myself a bit on pipeline transport.

The afternoon stretched on and was filled with rollers – up and down and up and down – all the way into Gillette. I’d reached a snail’s pace by the last 10 miles. The afternoon was hot (in the mid 80’s), but not nearly as bad as it could have been. In previous years, the average temperature for the area is 110 degrees – yikes! I think we must have won some kind of weather lottery this year – we’ve had beautiful and amazing weather for the trip thusfar.

One fun thing I noticed is that in Wyoming instead of waving hello, they hold up their hand in a shape that looks like a steer by extending all fingers except the middle and ring fingers. I wasn't brave enough to try it back, but it's pretty cool.

After rolling into the high school we were staying in that night, I laid around for a good hour before I could be bothered to get my bags and set up camp (although we got to stay inside, so I didn’t have to put up my tent :o)). Even though there was a restaurant ¹⁄₄ mile from the school, it just seemed like entirely too far to walk, so I rounded up a crew for ordering pizza, and we completely devoured it. I slept better than well that night. :o)