We ruined a rim on one of these in Astoria years ago when the wheel slipped into a gap. Fortunately Rachael wasn’t hurt and there was a bike store nearby that could help us out.

I did get a flat near the end of the trail, long after all the wooden decks. It seemed to be caused by a thorn, not a wood splinter. Maybe I just got lucky on the boards. It's easy to imagine splinters on the most warped boards.

The cloud pattern is very real. West of the Cascade range, all the moisture comes from the Pacific Ocean. A "marine layer" forms in the atmosphere almost every night. During winter the marine layer stays around all the time and we never see sun. During summer the marine layer burns off in the morning and we have sunny afternoons.
Most of the country has the pattern that you are familiar with. Mornings are clear, and clouds gradually form as heat builds in the atmosphere. The chance of rain is much higher in the afternoon than in the morning.
It's helpful for a bike tourist to understand those patterns. An early start is more helpful in your part of the country than in my part of the country.

That's interesting that you mention the cloud pattern. I had never thought of the differences depending on the area of the country. I did have another rider point out to me that the clouds slowly gather during the day - one cloud calling all of it's cloud buddies over so they could do a rain dance on hapless cyclists as they climb the pass. That was her exact description. We were riding up the Slumgullion Pass at the time - so we had plenty to concentrate on without worrying about rain!

I've always wondered about old decking on bicycle bridges - if a bicycle tire could get a flat from a splinter!

Glad to see you stopped for a burger. It seems like the socially responsible thing to do.

Amazing country. I’ve never been through this region.

I was looking into the sun, so I did considerable contrast correction to make the shadow detail and colors show up. No polarizing filter.

Interesting - I thought I recognized this photo, I took this exact photo on my Transam ride in 2015 - but the colors in mine are washed out, yours is much better! Looks like you used a polarizing filter.

https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/buddy/day-63-dubois-to-lander-wy-high-plains-drifter-96a/#32589_af-indian-rsrvtn-wind-rivHALL8902

"Wyoming is the least-populous U.S. state, and my theory is that people in Wyoming have an exaggerated sense of necessary personal space compared to most of the country."

I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense.

I assume that was a very, very low-quality tire on the WalMart bike, if the entire bike was so cheap.

On my recent tour, several men were puzzled that my tires last so long. They seemed to think that bicycle tires only last a couple of weeks. I assumed they were buying extremely low-quality tires from WalMart or someplace like that.

Silver City had two bike shops when I passed through many years ago.

Sinclair oil company originated in the town of Sinclair, Wyoming. There is still a Sinclair refinery there, but the company headquarters is now in Salt Lake City.

Speaking of WalMart bikes - on the Great Divide page on FB, in Silver City, NM a man needed a 29er tire. WalMart didn't have any, except on a fully built bike. He bought the $165. bike just to get a tire!

Part two of the Horizon movie is coming out right now. I missed part 1. Reviews aren't very good, but I was raised on good old cowboy shows. I want to see it!