Day 65, Rawlins to Jeffery City, Wyoming.

Wyoming has real cowboys. We saw this one rounding up cattle with his trusty dog leading the way.

Lone wind mill. There is a herd of antelope in front of that tank.

What the? There were several large over sized loads that blew past us. One of them was this huge round tank that took up the whole road. I was so scared, I forgot to take a shot.

This is part of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail. I was tempted, but my street tires wouldn't let me.

Continental Divide crossing number three, we cross the darn thing eleven times.

Stream on the high plains. Lisa wanted to go skinny dipping. I think. She didn't actually say that, but that's what I think.

Split rock. This famous land mark was used by the early settlers to let them know that they were on the right trail. Even if they had GPS's with them, the satellites weren't in place yet, so this rock was all they had.

There are hundreds and hundreds of miles of these fences all along the highway. They stand about 15 feet or more tall. I thought they were to prevent the antelope from jumping on to the road. WRONG!!! These as snow drift fences. They help keep the snow at bay.

I could see the other side of the ridge through that opening. Cool shot if I may say so myself.

Another salt pond. This one is pretty big. It just seemed out of place way out here. There's no ocean for miles.

I climbed up on those rocks to have a better look. I could see all around. Took way too many pictures so i decided not to post any.

Somebody out there must know what these are. They grow wild here in Wyoming.

Desolate beauty. That's the best I can describe the high plains. Hostile, yet alluring.

Here's another shot of that little meadow with the opening in the ridge.

The Split Rock Monster. This little creature and his buddies lived under the rocks at Slit Rock Look Out.

Little house on the prairie, They out to make a television series like that.

Strange rock formation. Those cracks are all natural. I looked at them closer, and found that they are huge slabs of rock that had separated for some reason.

Imagine being left out here stranded with no food or water. Now, riding a bike across here doesn't sound that bad, does it?

I like these old log and wooden structures. Just think the stories it would tell if it could.

This is Gramma's Cafe where we had lunch. The map said town of Lamont, but this is all we found. By the way, the food was pretty good. French dip, Mmmmmmm..........

This doe thought I couldn't see her. She was in a small ravine just off the high way, and stood so still, at first I though she was a dummy.

Lisa and I thought this young antelope was hurt, because she just lay there next to the fence and wouldn't get up even when we stopped. Once we got rolling again, she stood up and started to follow us, that's when I shot her.

This is the inside of the Baptist Church in Jeffery City where we spent the night. For a moment there, i thought the place was haunted. Late in the night, I heard the faint sound of a woman moaning softly. I thought,"Oh,oh!", but then realized it was actually Lisa. She must have had a Bad, I mean, "GOOD" dream.


Day 65, Rawlins to Jeffery City, Wyoming. “The Great Divide Basin” 70.72 miles.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Rawlins is one of the windiest places I have ever been. We were in the older section of town which is up hire, and more exposed to the wind, maybe that’s why it seemed that way.

We left our motel shortly before 7:00AM. We wanted to get an early start, and since the restaurants weren’t open yet, we decided to just eat what we had on our way. I got an e-mail from Fabian last night about a geocache he left for us to find. He gave me the coordinates, but when I went to enter it, my GPS said my way points memory was full, so I had to use the pointer to locate the exact location that way. As we were on our way out of town, we saw two deer feeding on the center strip of the highway. They did not even seem to notice us until we stopped.

It was cold this early in the morning, especially at this altitude, so taking pictures was more of a chore than it normally would be. We saw antelope, deer, and a host of little critters through out the day, but nothing to get really excited about. The terrain changed from being very flat and wide open, to mountains surrounded by more plains and desert. Some of these extended for maybe 60 or 70 miles I would guess. The expanse out here is incredible. About 30 miles into our ride, we came across Gramma’s Cafe. It was out there by itself with nothing else around except the residence. We had lunch there, and met Gramma herself. The wind had not quite gotten that bad yet. So we thought maybe we got lucky, and had a calm day. All that was to change later in the afternoon when we had head winds of proportional value. We stopped at Split Rock National Monument. A famous land mark used by early settlers to see if they were on the right path west. It is also one of the stops of the Pony Express.

From there, it was only about 15 mile to Jeffery City. But the longest 15 miles because of the wind I mentioned earlier. When we got thee, we found a ghost town. No motels open, a park that was unkept with no running water or restroom. We did find a cafe and were able to have dinner, but no place to stay. Lisa remembered reading a blog from last years crossing of a couple who had spent the night at the Baptist Church., so we made our way to the old Baptist Church. The sign read: Welcome. There was no one there, and the front door was locked. Now what? We thought. We went around back, and found the back door opened and went inside. There we found a large hall with a mattress, rest rooms (But no running water), and a kitchen. We decided it was here we would spend the night. Thank You again Lord for providing us with shelter.

Aloha and good night for now. Ted.