More in Wyoming

Jeffrey City to Lander.

Before we left in the morning, and after the "zombie photo", the other four stopped to film a few scenes in their "remake" of Children of the Corn, the Stephen King story that was made into a movie back in the '80's, I think. Maybe that doesn't make much sense - I'll explain.

Rob (who reminds me a little of 11, and whose favorite holiday is ALSO Haloween) is a big fan of bad horror movies like Blood Shack and Children of the Corn. For fun, he has shot scenes in various locations from Kansas to Wyoming, using his camera and Jess, Deanne and Melanie in many of the roles (he also is featured prominently). To his credit, he has shot the scenes completely out of order, without a script, and without any written guide to keep track of what else needed to be shot. He hopes to piece it together later.

So, using Jeffrey City as a suitable locale, they shot a few scenes before leaving. We went on ahead, knowing they would eventually pass us; and they did, even before the first rest stop at Sweetwater Station. They waited for us there, and we had a nice visit.

There is almost nothing of note between Sweetwater Station and Lander; the geology continues to exhibit huge shelves of sedimentary rock jutting up from the earth at odd angles, and the vegetation was still largely sagebrush and even a few cacti.

Lander is a larger city, for Wyoming; we arrived in town and found the Fab Four in a restaurant, having just ordered, and joined them. Really, they were happy to see us.

A little research led them to find that the city park was the place to camp for the night, but that there was a barbecue going on from 5 to 7, and the four of them being vegetarians, not exactly a suitable place to "hang out" for the time being, so we went to the local outdoor store for some provisions. Nancy got a lightweight headlamp and I got a new plunger for our fuel bottle; in the meantime, Jess had gotten a flat tire and had to repair it out in front of the health food store. Eventually we decided we were ready to take showers and enjoy a swim.

We all headed over to the Lander city pool for showers and a swim. It didn't open until 6, so we had to wait for a while there, laying on the grass in front of the building.

Once inside, we found that they also have a hot tub, of which we made liberal use. It was a nice way to end the days' ride; we decided to go get milkshakes afterwards before heading to our campsite.

While we were in the pool, I had foolishly left all my stuff in an unlocked locker. With the presence of several teenagers with skateboards (who clearly did not intend to go swimming), I should have expected that my locker would be ransacked, and taken my wallet with me. But no, trusting as I am, I left it in there, and lost the relatively little cash I had. I also discovered later that the perpetrator had also taken one of the two sticks of beef jerky I had in my backpack. I know it was one of the teenage skateboarders because all my credit cards were still there, as was my passport and my new sunglasses. I was upset, of course; the lifeguard at the front desk called the police for me, and I gave them a report, but eventually I chalked it up to my own stupidity. Either way, I was starting not to like Lander very much.

We got the milkshakes, and stopped at the grocery store for some sundries (clementines, juice, oatmeal); to help cheer me up, the Fab Four bought me a York Peppermint Patty and some Hot Tamales (after a brief consultation with Nancy about what I might like). They are so sweet.

We got to the park, and discovered that a local baseball game was still in progress; however, it was in the ninth inning, so there was hope. We parked under the pavilion and started setting up our tents out on the grass. When they had stopped by the park earlier in the day, they had encountered another cyclist heading west named Phil. He had started in Fairplay and was going on the same route, so he invited himself along with them. As we were setting up, Phil showed up and told us that he had camped there last night and the sprinklers had gone off around midnight. When we asked his advice about where to camp, all he said was "just be ready for that". Good advice - we camped under the canopy.

Well, the baseball game went into extra innings. Tied at 3, they continued play (we could hear the announcer for the game, who was not especially good at the job) until, in the top of the 13th, the visiting team scored 2 runs. I figured that would end it; but no, the home team also scored 2 in the bottom of the 13th, so they went on. Finally, after the visiting team scored a lone run in the top of the 16th, the home team failed to register a run in the bottom of the inning and the game was over, just a little past 11pm. Some of the fans lingered in the parking lot until after midnight, talking loudly and playing music, but that was a minor inconvenience compared to what happened next.

The sprinklers went off at about midnight. The first set covered the area where we had originally set up the tents, before Phil's words of warning. Unfortunately, it also covered part of the pavilion, near enough to our tent that we moved it closer to the center. Deanne also moved her tent away to the side area, which did not appear to be at any risk of sprinkler imapct. Our clothes, hung to dry on a line between posts, were temporarily safe.

The second set started immediately after the first set shut off, about half an hour after they started. It was also near the pavilion, and directly threatened our drying clothes. We scrambled to move them to safety; I also insisted on putting the rain fly over our tent, despite the roof. It wasn't the rain I was worried about now - it was the rain of terror from the sprinklers.

The third set did not directly threaten us or our clothes. Those sprinklers were over by the playground, and lulled us into a false sense of security. Of course, the fourth set was on the last side of the pavilion that had not yet been watered, and at first I thought it would not affect any of us. But the one right at the edge of the concrete was set just far enough that it hit the post right next to Deanne's tent, and then sprayed directly at her tent. She was already asleep, but woke up drenched right away.

We all moved quickly to rescue her and her tent, and all the stuff on that side of the pavilion. I gave her my jacket, since she was wet and it was a cold night; we also immediately broke out the spare air mattress, and invited her to the relative safety of our tent. We believed the sprinklers would only make one cycle, and that we would thus be safe. For once, that worked out; our tent finally held the number of people it was designed to sleep, and we eventually all got to sleep, around 2 in the morning.

Lander is now my least favorite part of Wyoming.

Once we got up in the morning and were all packed up, ready to go, a park worker came by. He told us that the camping area was back behind the ballfield; we couldn't see it because parked cars blocked our way the night before. Nice.

We staged a picture, with the help of the Fab Four, of us and three of them forming "K's" to indicate the fact that we had passed the 5,000-mile mark the day before. Jess took the picture for us. We also participated in the filming of one of the last t wo scenes of the movie they were making, taking roles as the adults that the Children of the Corn attack at the beginning of the movie. We sat at a checkerboard in front of the playground, and as the film started rolling, I announced "We're adults!", whereupon Nancy said "We play chess!". At that point, Deanne, Jess and Melanie emerged from various points off-camera, screaming and pretending to attack us; we then fall dead to the table between us. High camp, to be sure.

After that, we headed off to Dubois, a distance of 76 miles. More in the next entry!