July 13, 2006
Day 42: Walden, CO to Saratoga, WY
67.35 Miles, 5:42:14 Ride Time, 11.97 Average Speed, 37.0 Maximum Speed
I had left the windows open in my air conditioner-less room before going to bed, and it had gotten chilly in the night - I actually had to use the frayed blanket.
I was slow getting things together this morning, mostly because I had hurt my wrist again last night, while wringing out the clothes I had washed in the sink. That was dumb.
I decided to eat a baked apple pie I had been carrying around a few days for breakfast - I would stop somewhere for a real meal later. As I rode out of the motel parking lot, I noticed that my rear tire was low. I stopped and pumped it up, waited a few minutes while it seemed to hold the air, and decided I had a very slow leak that could wait until the next town for more attention.
I continued on SR 125 to the next town, Cowdrey. Everything in Cowdrey was defunct except for the post office, where I met a women who was driving a support van for her husband, who was riding West to East. She was mailing boxes of clothes back home, which puzzled me - later, I would learn from another rider who had met them that she had a business selling vintage clothing, and she was using the trip as a buying opportunity. That must work out well - I always wonder how the support-van driver in these situations deals with the boredom...
As I rode on, more careful than usual because of the wrist, I seemed to have a rare tailwind. I met two riders going the other direction: A guy from Fairplay, who said he saw me descending down to Breckenridge the other day, and the husband of the woman I had met at the post office. I talked to them for a few minutes, and by the time I rode away, my tailwind seemed to have disappeared...
After some more of the fairly easy riding, I reached the Wyoming State Line. While I was taking the obligatory picture, a thirty-something man and woman rode up. They were doing the same route as me, but had left June 12 (ten days after I did), and had already caught up with me. The guy, Park, had done the TransAm a few years before, and was doing it again with his wife (whose name I can't remember). They had also stayed in Walden last night, but were trying to get all the way to Rawlins (a 100+ mile day) despite their late start this morning.
As we rode away together, I wondered briefly how they would cover so many miles after the late start. I quickly saw how they could do it - the guy was an absolute machine, pedalling at a much higher cadence than me, while his wife drafted him, about one inch behind his rear wheel. I thought it would be fun to try to keep up with them for as long as I could, which wasn't very long - in a few miles, I encountered both the strongest headwind, and the toughest climb in a days. Despite my best efforts, the couple pulled away from me, and it wasn't long before I couldn't see them at all. They were, by far, the fastest cyclists riding loaded bikes I'd seen on the trip.
The wind got increasingly tough, and I got the sinking feeling that Wyoming was going to live up to its reputation as a very windy state - Kansas Plus. At about 44 miles, I caught my first glimpse of Riverside, where I had planned to stop and have lunch. The five miles to reach the town seemed to take forever. The problem with riding in the West is that you can see things (buildings, water towers, etc.) from miles away, but it always takes a while to get there...
I stopped at a little cafe in Riverside, where I had a chicken sandwhich, fries, and an ice cream sundae. I asked the waitress, an older lady, about the wind, and she seemed to take just a little too much delight in telling me that it was usually much worse, and that yes, it always blows in this direction. Gee, thanks for the pep talk, lady.
The next ten miles were North, and just like in Kansas, the wind wasn't against me when I rode in that direction. The final eight miles to Saratoga (pop.1,726), I was riding West, and the winds were the strongest of the day - some of the strongest gusts I'd seen, stronger than in Kansas, even. So far, most of Wyoming that I'd seen appeared to be a desert, almost a moonscape - few trees or streams. Saratoga, along the North Platte River, was very nice, however, with a vital-looking downtown. Towns like Saratoga have been my favorite on the trip - small, but not too small, with everything you need in walking (or biking) distance.
I got a room in the Riviera Lodge, which was right on the river. The motel was pretty nice, and my room was less than $50. For the second night in a row, however, there was no air conditioner. The fact that it gets cool in the middle of the night is not of much help to me when I'm trying to get to sleep at 10:00, and it's still hot. If I'm this picky about the motels, it's probably obvious why I've camped so rarely on this trip...
I rode around the town, checking out the dinner options, and decided on a place called Del Rio. It was a converted house, right on the river, just a few blocks from the motel. It was the kind of place where half the customers appeared to be related to the owner of the restaurant - very informal. I had a fish sandwich, which, given that I'm deep in the middle of beef country, was surprisingly good. I had an ice cream sundae for dessert, like I did for lunch. I've eaten a lot of ice cream on this trip - it will be interesting to see what happens if I keep this up when I return home; I predict a massive weight gain will occur...
I rode around town some more, seeing how fast I could ride my unloaded bike, then went back to my room and watched Larry King for a while (I'm not sure why - I never watch that stuff at home), then went to bed.
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Today's ride: 67 miles (108 km)
Total: 2,697 miles (4,340 km)
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