Day 63, Saratoga to Rawlins, Wyoming.

Any body know why they have this flame going off at refineries?

A salt pond we ran across next to the road. I though it was unusual.

The posted speed limit is 75, but guys go 80 to 90 easy.

Sorry officer, I didn't realize I was going that fast.

The refinery at Sinclair.

The town of Sinclair reminded me of a large prison.

Rolling into Sinclair. The noise got louder and louder.

Sinclair from the overpass above I-80.

Rawlins. The last large town for at least another week. We'll take a rest day here.

A panoramic view of the high plains desert.

I saw this in a store in Saratoga. I asked the owner if this was a big one. She said it was, so I snapped this picture.

To the left of this shot is a rest area that we had planned on stopping at. But the road to get to it was at least another 2 or 3 miles out of our way. What? Are they nuts?

Bikerted, the ninja turtle.


Day 63, Saratoga to Rawlins, Wyoming, “Onward to Rawlins”, 45 miles.

It’s Monday the 13th. We were up early after a somewhat good nights sleep. At about six o’clock, a warning siren sounded throughout the town. We looked outside, and noticed the sky was an eerie dark color, with a low ceiling. Lisa said it looked like a tornado warning. We turned on the TV and searched for the weather report, but nothing was unusual. Finally after no clue as to what was going on, Lisa went across the street for some coffee. When she returned, she said that the siren was at the volunteer Fire Department. There was a fire somewhere, and that was what all the excitement was all about. I have made a habit of thanking God for His protection throughout our journey. And for all of you as well. I know that nothing I can do will change what is in his plans. I also know that complaining and getting all upset over nothing, does nothing. By placing my trust in him not only eases my mind, but also allows me to enjoy the task at hand in a positive way. Thank You Lord, thank you for all You have given us………………

We left Saratoga at 7:00AM. We skipped breakfast and ate some leftovers we had with us. The sky had cleared up by now, and it looked like we were in for another gorgeous day of riding. Traffic was very light on route 130, allowing us to enjoy the country side and absorb the early morning air. We saw a number of prong horn antelope. One was trapped on the outside of the fence right next to the highway. He was a big one, and was doing fine until we showed up. At that point, he started running along the fence as if we were trying to kill um. Since we were on a slight down hill incline, it was not effort in trying to keep up with him. He must have ran for a half a mile. Eventually he slowed down and stopped. I stopped to get his picture, but he then turned around and headed the other way. I wish I would have thought about it earlier, but I could have gotten a video of him as he ran past me. I did get a video clip of him on the run earlier though.

The route today was surprisingly flat. Even though we were at about 7,000 feet in elevation, there were no major climbing involved. In fact, I don’t think I got out of the big ring till late in the ride when the head wind kicked in. There were mountains surrounding us on all side, and you could see herds of cattle off in the distance, along with a few herds of prong horns here and there. It kind of looked like a desert, no trees in sight, and you could see for miles in either direction. Up ahead, we noticed some dark storm like clouds that looked like they were ready to dump some moisture in our direction. I offered a prayer for good weather, and left it in The Lord’s Hands. With that, I forgot about it completely. After an hour or so, the situation had vanished, as if it had never been there. That is one of the great things about cycling. It gives you a lot of time to think, to sort of puts your life more into perspective. You get to see who you really are, and what you should or should not do to improve what you like about yourself. It’s a good healthy way to clear your mind.

We came to the intersection of I-80, a major Interstate running east to west. We would have to get on it for 17 miles till we reach Sinclair, before veering off on route 76 to Rawlins. We stopped at a gas station to get some snacks and drinks before entering this busy highway. I-80 had a very wide shoulder. Even though traffic was flying by at speeds up to 90 miles an hour (Posted speed limit is 75), we were able to stay well out of their way. It still was no picnic though. There were constant reminders of what can go wrong on highways like this such as broken tire fragments scattered all over the shoulder, long skid marks, broken glass, road kill, and make shift monuments along the road side. Thankfully we had no incidences or close calls.

Entering the town of Sinclair was an eerie experience. I could not even see the town as we approached because of the refinery which bears it’s name and supports the community. All I could see was this huge refinery with train tracks, and tanker trucks pulling in and out. As we got closer, the sound of escaping compressed air, and industrial noises became over whelming. It was loud! Once passed all of that, the town came into view. It reminded Lisa and I of a large prison. I swear, that is the impression we both got as we passed through. We didn’t even stop although we were quite hungry. Rawlins was just 9 more miles, so we decided to press on.

Once in Rawlins, we began looking for a place to stay. The Adventure Cycling map had a few suggestions to places that welcome cyclists. The first two we found were no longer open. In fact, there were a lot of motels that have just shut down for some reason. We were getting concerned. I mean, how many motels are there in Rawlins anyway? We kept going till we finally found one. A place called: La Bella Motel. A nice little family owned and operated establishment. Only $50.00 a night. Good news since we are taking a rest day here. Wednesday we are planning a 125 mile day. We are not sure if we can do 125 miles with all the head wind, so we have a plan B just in case.

Good night everyone, we miss you all. Aloha, Ted.

Day 55, Eads to Fowler, Colorado.

This is the down pour that took place minutes after we checked into the Blue Sky Motel.

Fowler, Colorado. Our refuge from the storm.

The train station in Fowler.

Ordway has a really nice high school.

Sugar City, once a thriving sugar town.


This is probably the caboose to the long train we saw.

This cafe in Sugar City was where we ate lunch.

I took a break in the middle of no where. My bike waited for me. Lisa didn't.

This train was between eleven and thirteen miles long. Really, honest Indian. It was abandoned and left there to rot.

One of the hundreds of art work we saw on the train.

This cow was out on the side of the road. Either he got out, or he just roams where ever he goes.

I almost ran over this snake. I came with in inches from it. I'm glad he didn't try to bite me, cause he could have with no problem. I don't know what kind it is, but I wasn't taking any chances.

This is Greg from Arkansas, he is riding for the Alzheimer's Foundation.


This is said to be the nation's smallest jail house. At least that's what the sign said.

I thought this house was kind of neat. The guy must have said,"You know what? I'm moving to Hawaii."

His neighbor probably said the same thing.

Here's the sign that said "The Nation's Smallest Jail".

These combine drivers must have taken the 4th of July weekend off.

Okay train, I'm waiting.

Desolation, this picture tells it's own story.

A closer look at life on the plains.

Meet Ray Ward. The manager of the Blue Sky Motel, and the Mayor of the town of Fowler.

Down town Ordway. With the only hotel full, and no bathroom in the park, we fled this town.

The longest train I have ever seen.



I thought that was a town off in the distance. It was, but only had a population of 84.

Leaving Eads, our earliest start yet.


Day 55, Eads to Fowler, Colorado. “Saved Again”. 81.02 miles. Total= 2351.1 miles.

We got started early today. We had a 60 plus mile day planned, and we wanted to take advantage of the cool temperature, and the tail wind that was still in our favor. Since nothing was open, we ate what we had in our room, and was on the road by 6:45AM. With the tail wind aiding us, we were able to maintain an average speed of about 14 miles an hour. The roads were flat, we had cloud cover, and we were well rested from our day off. A few miles out of town, we heard a horse whinnying. I looked to my right, and there was a pony running along side us just on the other side of a fence. He was really moving along. I shouted out to Lisa so she could see him, he was actually running faster than we were moving and passed us. After a quarter of a mile, he gave up, and started back the other way. That was so cool, it was like he wanted to come with us.
Shortly after that, a deer ran across the road in front of us, and ran along the fence in the same direction we were going. It was hopping, like an antelope. At first I wasn’t sure what it was, but figured it was a deer because of its size………………………….. We met an east bounder by the name of Greg. He was alone, and stopped to talk story. Greg was from Arkansas and started if San Francisco, going to Yorktown. He and a few of his buddies were riding for the Alzheimer’s Foundation. Good luck Greg, and thanks for the bear spray. I hope the pepper spray helps you out in Kentucky……………………… As we left the town of Haswell, a small town with a population of 84, we stopped at the park where they boast the nation’s smallest jail. I guess it was the only attraction there, but unless you had absolutely nothing better to do, it wasn’t worth the stop. I did take a picture though.
About a half later, we reached the town of Arlington. It had a population of about three we didn‘t even stop. As we passed through, we noticed an abandoned train. I couldn’t believe how long the thing was. Somewhere Lisa read that it was eleven miles long. I think it was longer, maybe thirteen miles. It went from Arlington all the way to Sugar City and beyond. Sugar City was where we had lunch at a nice little café. There were only a couple of folks in there, and we talked with them as we ate. Nice folks every where we went. Sugar City we found out used to be a big sugar manufacturing town with two big mills. They made sugar from beets. I think that’s what the train was there for.
Ordway was only 6 miles further, a piece of cake. I was tempted to go sight seeing just to kill some time. Good thing I didn’t. The only hotel in Ordway was full, and the park where we would have camped had no bathroom. Not good for Lisa. She gets really grumpy if there’s no bathroom. So we decided to push on to the town of Fowler, sixteen miles down the road. As we were headed to Fowler, the sky ahead of us started to darken. It didn’t look good. We knew what it was like to ride in a storm, so we picked up our pace to try to out run it. I saw a flash of lightning, and thought “OH OH!”, but luckily for us, Fowler was two miles off route to the south. This took us out of the path of the storm.
We found the Blue Sky Motel. No one was in the office, so Lisa called the manager who was on their way back from Pueblo. He would be here in ten minutes. When he got here, he told us that there was a hail storm just up the road toward Pueblo where we will be heading tomorrow, shortly after checking in. The rain started pouring down with a vengeance, and lightning and thunder shook the ground. It was hell on earth. Can you imagine if we were out on the road just thirty more minutes? It would have been real bad. I believe again that The Lord held the storm back until we were safe. I believe all the prayers of our families and friends are partly responsible for our well being. And I thank The Lord for His Protection.
Tomorrow is a short day because of the extra sixteen miles we covered today. Thank you for all your prayers, we miss you all. Ted.

Day 48, Newton to Nickerson, Kansas.

Markus in the yellow shirt, and Per sitting, are from Sweden. They started their east to west journey from Washington D.C., and will end up in Seattle, Washington. I hope i got that right.

The welcome to Nickerson sign with a large grain processing and storage facility in the back.

This old retired tracker has seen it's days. I can imagine how hard this baby worked during it's time.

Roger on the right is from Australia, and David in the middle is from Brittan. I don't know who that it on the right. Oh, sorry, that's Lisa.

In the town of Buhler, nothing was open on Sunday. I mean nothing, as in zero.

I'm guessing this is an old jail house here in Buhler.

Down town Buhler. See? I told you nothing was open.

They should have put "Nothing Open On Sunday" on this wagon as well.

This entire pond was covered with this green muck. Or maybe it's some kind of organic substance.

Meet James. While we were passing through Hesston, he was across the street mowing the lawn when he noticed us at the stop light talking with Bob. He came over with ice cold frozen Gator Ade for us to take along with us. "Thank you James, You made our day".

Bob from Littleton, Colorado was out riding his bike and stopped to chat. His wife's family is from Hesston where this picture was taken.

This barn was different than any of the ones we've seen so far. The roof was of shake, and notice the up side down heart on the gable end.

A hawk on the hunt. Probably looking for field mice, ground hogs, rabbits, or a small, lost biker.

While we stopped for lunch in Buhler, this rabbit came out from under the fence, and let me shoot him.


As we were riding along, Lisa noticed what she thought was a knob on the telephone pole. It was actually this hawk, it even stayed put while I got out my camera.

The streets of some of these small towns are made of brick. Yes, red ones.

Sorry for the blurred picture, I shot it on the move. This is a combine cutting wheat. The thing moves pretty fast. Not like those old fashion ones that they told us about in school.

I'm guessing this thing picks up the cut wheat somehow, and transfers it to the big trucks. A girl was driving this thing. I don't know if that's good or bad. Lisa said it was good. So it must be.


One of two grain processing facilities in Buhler.

This is my new favorite mail box holder. Buhler is ahead at this point.

I don't really think the church is in that pond, but I took this shot anyway.

How would you like to have one of these in you back yard? Some of these houses do.


Sunday, June 28, 2009

Day 48, Newton to Nickerson, Kansas. “A Late Start, But Smart”. 60.85 miles.

Last night was a real treat. Dinner with my family after not seeing them for over a month and a half, was a real joy. Especially seeing how happy my mom was to see me, and to know that we were okay. Thank you lord, for all the little things in life I tend to take for granted.
This morning Lisa and I had a late start. We didn’t get up till seven, and didn’t really make an effort to pack till nine. We were in absolutely no rush what so ever. We know we only had a little over fifty miles to go, and the forecast called for cooler temperatures for the area. At 7:30AM, it was only 69 degrees out side, as compared to 89 degrees a couple of days earlier. I took advantage of the time to check my e-mail, and surf the inter-net.
We pulled out of Newton at about 10:30 or so after breakfast at McDonald's. I know, I know. You’re thinking, “McDonald's again?” But let me tell you, when nothing else close by is open, and you want fast service, McDonald's is hard to beat. And the price can’t be touched by most restaurants in the area. Anyway, the reason it took a little longer than normal, is because this older guy in his late 60’s came over and started a conversation about our trip. Nice guy, very talkative, and he had this large drawing tablet with him, and a pencil over one ear. He told us he wrote poems, and that was it. Once he opened the book, he had Lisa reading all his poems. The guy was also an artist. And a not bad one at that. He had drawn pictures to go along with his poems, which were very professional looking. Both the drawings, and the poems. We didn’t get his name, but after a while, he told us he had to go cause he was late for church.
As we headed out of Newton, we were amazed at how comfortable the temperature was for this late in the morning. I must have still been in the upper 70’s to lower 80’s. We weren’t complaining, it was nice………….. The day before, I had bought a thermometer and a compass to place on top of my handle bar bag, just to see hot hot it got on the road. For $6.00, I thought it was a good deal. At one point during the ride, the temperature got up to 112. But it didn’t feel that way. I latter contributed it to the fact that the air was a lot drier that the previous days. I was hardly perspiring at all.
We rode for about an hour and a half before coming to the town of Heston where we met a roadie named Tom from Colorado who was in town visiting his wife’s family. We stopped at a stop light and chatted for about 15 minutes or so, and bid each other good luck as we started on our way. Just then, James, a guy from across the street who had notice us there, came over with two bottles of frozen Gatorade for us. James was mowing the lawn, so he knew how hot we were. He asked us where we were headed for. We told him, Nickerson. “Nickerson”, he asked. “Why you guys wanna go there?”. By this time we were wondering what was up with Nickerson, cause he was the third person today that said the same thing. With that, we were on our way.
We rode for another couple of hours or so before coming to the town of Buhler where we thought we would stop and have our lunch. As we rode through Main Street (It seems like every town we go through has one), we noticed that nothing was open. Really, not one thing. A car stopped in the middle of the empty street, and the driver rolled down his window and asked, “You guys are looking for something to eat, aren’t you?” He then told us that everything in Buhler closes on Sunday. It’s a church town, and I guess everyone there goes to the same church. Even the police station looked like it was closed. The mans wife then offered us baked potatoes, corn chips, and some home made goodies for desert. They had just come from a church potato bake, and had some extra that they wanted to share with us. They then told us that they were headed out of town, or the would take us home with them and feed us. We were very, very grateful, and thanked them from the bottom of our hearts. A little while latter, a gentleman told us we could go to his house to get fresh water. There was none anywhere where we were. As we were filling our bottles, he told us there was a rest room at the park not far from there. Good thing too, I had to go. The park was really nice. It had a swimming pool, a small lake, and very well kept. I wish we would have stayed there.
We left Buhler with our bellies full, and smiling once again. Being it that it was a Sunday, the traffic was very light, and we were able to stop almost anytime we wanted to take pictures and just enjoy the experience................ One funny mail box we saw had the name "Peachy Stoner" on it. I looked at Lisa and said, "There's a message in that. The guy is trying to tell us that he's gay, and that he smokes pot".
About mid way into our ride after lunch, we ran into a couple of east bounders who stopped and chatted with us. Roger, the older of the two was from Australia, and David was from England. They both met on the crazy guyonabike website and decided to travel together. I did get pictures of them, and we exchanged information about the route ahead.
Today we saw two dead deer, a couple of dead raccoons, and some turkeys, a family of wild ducks, and a hawk. We rolled into Nickerson at 5:30PM, and are spending the night at the city park. The park is pretty run down, and there are no showers, so it’s a sink bath again. The men’s toilet it clogged, so looks like I gotta use the wahine toilet tonight. A few minutes ago, two west bounders from Sweden by the names of Per (Pronounced Pat), and Markus came rolling in and will spend the night with us at the park. We will have plenty of time to get to know them.
Well, good night for now, we have no inter-net tonight, so I will post this at a later time.
Aloooooha, Ted.