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Hey there little fella! What's shakin'? September 17, 2008Leave a comment ;)
There are some sounds in life that you recognize immediately, without hesitation. The sound of glass breaking, the cry of your child, and the sound of a rattlesnake doing it's thing. I was pedaling up a steep grade between Lamont and Rawlins when this little critter made his presence know to me. I hopped off the bike and took a couple of pictures. I was hoping to get one of him striking at the camera, but I am not Jim from the Wild Kingdom, so I listened to the voice in the back of my head and kept my distance. Quite the impressive reptile. I left Lamont after getting a ride back to my ending point from yesterday. The ride was pleasant, but the shoulder was less than hospitable. Narrow and bumpy! And avoiding the infamous Wyoming Goathead stickers that rear their ugly head up through most of the cracks along the highway. One of the towns I passed was Baroil, WY. Way back in the 1970's I worked as a surveyor doing section breakdowns in the dead of winter. We were required to look for stuff that marked the corners of each section. Sometimes the early surveyors would use whatever they had at their disposal to identify the corner. I have found big stones with etched "x's" on the stone. Sometimes we found axles from cars, broken bottles, and occasionally an actual piece of rebar. For today's problem, what is a Section of land? How many square miles is that? How many acres? Square feet? Rawlins was only about 30 miles down the road and the winds were minimal. After stopping for lunch, I turned east and picked up a slight tailwind as I weaved through the small town of Sinclair. Sinclair gas has had a refinery here for many years it is was humming with activity. I followed my GPS ( I should have known better) and found myself in the parking lot of the Sinclair refinery. I was careful to avoid any cars that might be cruising between lanes, but I wasn't prepared for a woman in a green Jeep to come barreling off the main street and into the parking lot. She was probably topping 30 miles an hour and turned about 45 degrees and flew into the parking lot. She looked directly at me and didn't even slow down. I was screaming at the top of my lungs before she hit the brakes and came to a skidding halt about 5 feet from me. I was a stunned and she just stared in my direction and didn't say a word. No apology, no "I'm sorry," no eye contact. She just cruised by me and found a parking spot. I was livid!! Some people! She must have been on drugs or something. She didn't even have a cell phone stuck to her ear! All of this way on the highways to meet my demise in a parking lot courtesy of a Jeep! What an interesting way to begin the day. I would rather have played with the rattlesnake! After catching my breath, I joined I-80 for about 20 miles on the way to the turn on WY 130 toward Saratoga. I saw another touring cyclist on the frontage road who ended up doubling back to the Interstate after taking a side road that went to a dead end. We eventually caught up in Saratoga and then shared a ride in the back of a pickup when the winds picked up to 30-40 knots right down the middle of my forehead! If we had continued on, at 4 miles as hour, the last 12 miles would have taken how long? (I have two problems today, because I forgot the one last night. Sorry!) Denny is a Chinese lawyer, of all things, traveling across the country from Florence, OR to Virginia. He plans to write a book about the Americans he has met along the way. The wind was incredibly strong. The worst so far this trip. One of the locals took pity on us and gave us a ride the last 10 miles into town. We also ran across Aaron, traveling from Washington DC to San Francisco, CA. Another fun couple I met were Rachel and James traveling to Salt Lake City with their five year old puppy (thought it was a horse), Odin, named for the Norse Father of the Gods! I think my brain is getting fried from all of these miles, as I as mistakenly thought I had left my wallet on the counter at a gas station. The little voice in the back of my head told me that I didn't put it away in my handlebar bag and sure enough, it wasn't there. I hurried back to the store (2 miles one way) and ended up finding it on my front rack. At least I found it! That would have been really bad to lose. I will backtrack to my ending point tomorrow morning and then head toward Gould, CO and eventually over Cameron Pass toward Fort Collins and my daughter Jessica. Should be a beautiful ride, as long as the weather holds. More Images: ;)
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Hi John, I've been tracking your progress with a lot of interest and enjoyment the last few weeks and have been really enjoying your trip but today noticed something special - you included a photo of another touring cyclist, Aaron Waxman I've been following his journal on the Crazy Guy On A Bike site , the last time he posted was over a week ago in Colorado -- I'm glad to see he made it to WY!! Enjoy the rest of your trip, wish I were doing the same.