July 26 - 29: Shoshoni to Lusk

July 26 - We have finally turned east again as we left Shoshoni this morning.

At least there were some interesting rock formation every now and then, otherwise a lot of not much except the occasional oil well.

Hanging out at Hiland store, having lunch and waiting for the weather to clear a little. A local suggested we wait for the cloud to pass and offered us use of his pumphouse in case we didn't want to travel any farther.

Seemed like an appropriate place to rest since we had a major headwind ever since leaving Hiland.

We found this delightful lady, Jeanie, standing outside the Waltman Rest Area building wondering where her ride had gone. Turns out her husband and brother-in-law had driven off thinking she was still asleep in the back seat of the pickup. She didn't even have her purse with her so we let her use our cell phone to call him. He was almost to Casper before she could get him but that gave us plenty of time to visit and was well worth it for us! He was a bit sheepish when he showed up. We figure he'll be owing her for awhile! They are from Colorado Springs, CO.

The headwind didn't let up for the rest of the day. After we got Jeanie on her way we decided that the rest area was it for the day since we almost had 50 miles already.

July 27 - Our nice little spot at the rest area was actually quite quiet. There was high overcast but just little puffs of wind.

It was muffins and hot tea for breakfast along with some jerky.

Todd showed up last night as we were fixing dinner. He had been caught in the rainstorm at Boyson and had fought the same headwind we had so he was pretty weary on arrival at Waltman and most of his stuff was wet. He is in much better spirits this morning as he gets ready to head east.

Hell's Half Acre.

Powder River Cafe and breakfast #2 with Todd.

This puppy was enthralled with the strings on Todd's cutoffs and barely let him leave.

Leaving the Powder River store headed to Casper.

It never did rain and we made it to Casper by noon but not quite to a lunch spot before flat tire number 3 happened at the split of Highway 20 and Business 20.

This was about the nicest spot we saw in Casper. It was next to the Art Museum and was a display of historical documents like this one, the Declaration of Independence.

July 28 - Saturday - The beginning of Week 5 (+1300 miles) - The balloons got a calm, bright morning so were able to launch. We aren't sure if we saw Jeanie and Dewey's, but we saw a lot of them as we left Casper.

The North Platte River was a welcome sight after the desert of the last few days.

The little village of Glenrock gave us some local history ...

And a haircut. After a month Doug was getting pretty fuzzy. We actually ran into Todd again just after this when we went across the street to the cafe to get a snack.

We figured that we were officially in the prairie now not only because there is a lot of grass but we also saw bunches of prairie dogs along with herds of fat antelope. Doug whistled like a hawk, which really got the prairie dogs chattering and scattering.

Coming into Douglas which really does have Jackalopes all over town! We ran into Todd again at the Subway for lunch. He decided to push on to Lusk but we ended up staying the night here since we already had over 50 miles in for the day. Douglas also has a major drag strip which operated until 7 pm. It was interesting seeing cars go so fast after went slow all day.

July 29 - Short grass prairie again today so it is feeling less like we are still in Wyoming.

Just a few trails went through here over the years and the Native Americans probably had even more.

Finally ... a place smaller than Emblem.

The old school at Shawnee.

We heard this coal train a long time before he caught up with us on this uphill grade so we figure the train was barely making 10 mph. It did beat us on the downhill. Doug counted 133 cars on this one and we saw 4 over the course of the morning. A fellow we talked to later said that 70-80 trains a day go through his town carrying nothing but coal or returning with empty coal cars.

Eastern Wyoming ranch

The first rest area in Wyoming (1966) and the first to be reconstructed to have passive solar and geothermal elements (2000).

They recycled these roof supports from the old picnic shelters.

The whole town of Lusk was without internet while we were there. Saw a lot of motorcycles and finally figured that we must be close to the Sturgis Rally (it starts next Friday). We learned a new term from the biker that confirmed our suspicion; RUBs (rich urban bikers).

July 23 - 25: Cody to Shoshoni

July 23 - We left Cody about 7:30 and this horse was the first sign of life we saw for miles.

We told you we would be going through some small towns. We stopped at the Emblem Post Office for stamps and met 10% of the population! This was the beginning of the agricultural part of the Big Horn River valley.

This was the strangest thing to see in the distance out in the middle of Wyoming.

Turns out that was the boneyard for this Museum of Flight and Aerial Firefighting. It was next door to the rest area. We were hot and hungry so only looked at the planes next to the entrance sign.

This guy pulled up while we were taking pictures. He has traveled over 4,000 miles in 2 months in this ATV pulling a trailer. He is asking for permission to drive it up into one of the big tranport planes so he can get a picture of him driving out of it.

We had lunch in Greybull and pushed on to Basin where it was 103 by the time we checked into the one motel in town. That made for a 64 mile day. Guess climbing all those hills is starting to pay off. We had lunch in Greybull then biked on to Basin, population 1200. It is the county seat so had all sorts of services and was a lot more pleasant than what we had seen of Greybull.

The county library was a cool place to spend the afternoon after we took long showers.They had a very nice display of quilts.

Mom and Leslie ... this one had lots of embellishments!

July 24 - Wyoming may be about beef, oil, and cowboys but ...

The Bighorn River Valley is also about corn, alfalfa, malt barley, and sugar beets! (bet you've never heard of the Wyoming Sugar Association either)

We also saw lots of pronghorn antelope all day.

Coming into Thermopolis, known for its hots springs ... ­However, it was over 100, there was a hill at mile 60 and we were hungry and thirsty. Hot springs just didn't sound that thrilling at the time.

In fact napping in an air conditioned room was mighty appealing.

This is Janet, one of our angels of the road. While we were unloading she came by to offer us a Key of Happiness, made by her late father-in-law out of old computer parts. It was such a simple gesture but made all the difference after such a long, hot, difficult day. Donna almost cried. We talked with her and her husband Kevin several times during the evening and while preparing to leave the next morning. She is also a cyclist and was in dismay over leaving her bike behind for this trip. They are from Springfield, IL.

July 25 - These are the Thermopolis Hot Springs. They were a lot more appealing in the cool of the morning than in yesterday's heat so we took a ride through the park after breakfast before we left town.

Getting ready to leave Thermopolis and the Elk Antler Inn ... with more than its share of cute little bears.

Heading into the Wind River Canyon.

Shank: this picture is for you. This part of the ride was a major geology lesson.

Headed up the Wind River Canyon but back in time geologically-­speaking.

This train really echoed off the canyon walls. At first we thought it was a really big truck coming up behind us!

Wind River looked pretty inviting after yesterday's hot. We did see some people on a raft and in a kayak later.

We were also traveling through the Wind River Indian Reservation.

This is the older biker enjoying the shade.

As we reach the old end of the canyon.

Time to turn on our lights again. These tunnels were quite a bit shorter but they definitely didn't have any shoulder either.

As you can see we were pretty visible but still were glad nobody had to pass us.

Boyson State Park and Reservoir. There were numerous campgrounds and boat launches but not many trees. It almost looked like a watercolor painting as it stretched into the distance.

Keeping all the bikes dry at the Desert Inn in Shoshoni.

This was the first significant rain they have seen in Wyoming in months. It was accompanied by lots of thunder and lightening. The rain was such a big deal it was all the talk among the locals the next morning at breakfast. In fact, we ran into a couple of fisherman who said their campsite was flooded while they were out fishing on the reservoir and a mudslide had closed Wind River Canyon!