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 It was next to the Art Museum and was a display of historical documents like this one, the Declaration of Independence.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 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).
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