Catching up in Wyoming

Friday, August 18, Rawlins to Jeffrey City, WY; Saturday, August 19, Jeffrey City, WY, to Lander, WY; Sunday, August 20, Lander, WY to Dubois, WY; Monday, August 21, Dubois, WY, to near Moran Junction, WY.

We have been in areas remote enough to not have a signal, or where we did have a signal but it was too late to get anything written for the blog (as will soon become apparent - read on).

Friday morning we left Rawlins not really expecting to see the four cyclists we met at lunch yesterday, and again at the supermarket after dinner, because they had to wait around Rawlins to pick up a package. Even if the package arrived in the first batch, it would be noon before they could leave - we couldn't do the same and still make it to Jeffrey City, so naturally we thought they would stay another night there. Even as we left, we were expecting to only go so far as Lamont.

One of the last things I expected to find in Wyoming was a long, flat, straight road, but after we crossed the Continental Divide (for the third time, into the Great Divide Basin) and down a great, long, screaming descent, that's exactly what we fouund. The terrain is typically desert-like, and as we reached Lamont (much sooner than we expected), and had lunch at Grandma's Cafe, we decided to press on to at least Muddy Gap. Another cyclist we had seen (back in Saratoga), Bill, caught up with us there, and told us he was heading to Lander that day, another 90-some miles. Ugh. We wished him luck, and left.

Muddy Gap consists of a gas station-slash-store, and down the road is a sort-of junkyard and campground that we both silently agreed to bypass in favor of Jeffrey City up the road. We decided that in spite of the dire warning we had heard from Jess, one of the cyclists we met in Rawlins, that Jeffrey City was a uranium ghost town inhabited by zombies. In a morbid way, we kind of wanted to see it.

While in Muddy Gap, we saw Bill make the turn and go on up the road, so we figured we'd seen the last of him, too. We got some goodies at the shop, and some Gatorade to rehydrate. While there, we saw a really nice cookbook - the Donner Party Cookbook. I swear I am not making this up. It is filled with great recipes, none of which involve using a person as an ingredient (if you are not familiar with the Donner Party, I suggest googling it right now so you can get the joke).

We headed off from Muddy Gap and rode the remaining 22 desolate, almost totally unremarkable miles. Jeffrey City is hidden by a stout bluff as you approach from the east, so we couldn't see it until we were almost there; and as we rode past the motel, we decided after a short discussion that we'd rather camp at the RV park. We saw the "restaurant" as well, and as we rode past that a man called out to us that the motel was the only place to stay in town, and that the restaurant there was it for food. We thanked him as we rode by and went in search of the RV park. We went down some streets, past lots of abandoned buildings, but never really found the RV park, so we went back to the restaurant.

Turns out Bill had stopped there for dinner and a beer, and he was talking to another cyclist (the man who had called out to us) and his support crew (two guys driving a car with his gear in it). We spoke with them briefly to get the info about the RV park ($20, no water, no electricity), and the hotel ($40, running water, a bed and a roof). We had just decided to go back to the hotel when two of the four cyclists we had met in Rawlins rolled up, followed shortly by the other two.

It is time to introduce the Fab Four. They are Rob, an art student from Baltimore; Jess, a recently-graduated biology student from Connecticut; Melanie, a student at Western Washington University just finishing a stint with Americorps; and Deanne, also finishing a stint with Americorps and a former Peace Corps volunteer (she had worked in Madagascar). Rob and Jess started off together in Virginia, as had Deanne and Melanie, but they didn't meet up until they were in Kansas. They've been riding as a quartet since then.

With their arrival, we were emboldened to camp at the Lion's Club park, which was mostly overgrown but which still retained a two-sided picnic shelter with several tables. We camped there, under the canopy. Jess went off to explore the town a little more, and came back with a report of what she thought was a nightjar (but which turned out to be a nighthawk), resting peacefully on the crossbar of the abandoned football field.

We talked and ate our camp dinners, and Rob read a chapter from a book about the youthful Wright brothers and their first forays into building things (a sled, in this chapter) - a ritual they began only in Saratoga where they had bought the book for a quarter. It was nice. For a little while, once it was plenty dark, Nancy, Rob and I stood out in the field and looked up at the stars, even seeing a few shooting stars.

In the morning, before we all headed off together for Lander, we went back to the sign at the town limit to stage a picture in which we all prertended to be zombies (since we had not seen any, of course). I will document the rest of the destinations in a separate entry later; for now, I must go to sleep. More tomorrow!