Day 42, July 25, Lamont, WY to Lander, WY

The night in Lamont was crazily windy. Considering that we were right up against the cafe, we were very surprised how much we were whipped around. Since we were on the sidewalk, we hadn't been able to stake down the tent, and so the poles scratched the sidewalk in a sort of inhuman way and the tent kept trying to roll over us.

We did get up pretty well rested though, must have been soft concrete, packed up quickly and headed into Grandma's for a breakfast. The place itself had some charm, with round tables and booths piled high with various condiments.

Grandma was not exactly who we expected. She was quiet, perhaps a little gruff, unmakeuped, had a hard time walking, I guess she looked like she had fathered sons who worked the oil rigs and dropped toolboxes on their sons' heads (story from grandson).

Her breakfast was good though and after about 4 cups of coffee and a similar number to her little girls and boys room, we set off at 7 on our 92 mile day towards Lander.

Our first delight was a male antelope eating just beside the road, just before we headed over the continental divide for the 4th time on our trip (less and less exciting each time).

We met two girl cyclists about 15 miles into our trip, Ellsbeth and Brook, who were doing the National Parks cycle tour. They were family childhood friends and seemed to have perhaps had enough close time together on the tour. They gave us some good tips on Lander though and what to expect, or rather not to expect from the places on the way there.

Brook had mentioned some very cool rock formations coming up that looked like "pile up elk poop", we're glad we're not the only ones losing our class, and these were very accurate descriptions, also sort of like drip sand castles. Split Rock was what it was called I think.

We went through Jeffrey City, a ghost town almost, only the bar and cafe was open still. When it was a uranium mining town I guess there were close to 4000 people living there, now just about 50. We had some oj and toast and our own snacks at their business, and set off again into the big open WY, since there wasn't much else to distract us.

At Sweetwater junction (a rest stop 20 miles further) we ran into 3 other bikers, a slightly skiddish LaVerne from Indiana doing the Parks tour also, an Australian smoker named Scott doing the TransAm East, and Steve, a pony-tailed late 40s smoker going west, who called us "monsters" when we said we did 60-90 mi usually. We do not consider ourselves monsters under any circumstances. The fact that anyone does this smoking kills me, or them. Who knows.

A bit refreshed, but still with numb fingers and sore seats, we pushed on to the last 40 miles, of which we were expecting some great downhills. The downhills were great, and the views that went with them, although there were lots of strange tarred ruts in the road that kept throwing our tires as we braked down the 6% grades for 5 miles at a time. But wow, this route was definitely the scenic byway to be on.

But then, there was a flat. Mine of course, but the other tire at least :=/ So grumpily we fixed it as a thunderstorm sort of seemed to be side stepping us. I realized it was still coming for us though, as Andy got my tire back together while I tried to convince him to abandon the project for minute, suit up for rain, and get away from our metal bikes on the other side of the road as lightning approached and we were definitely the tallest things around. When he saw the wall of water coming right for us, he acquiesed and we hopped onto the other side of the road, crouched down a few yards apart from each other and let the storm come. It came with hail that hurt and we quickly put our helmets. We kept our backs to the storm and watched the pelting hail, the surviving sunflowers, and the lightning.

It wasn't too long before it stopped, we got our now mud covered stuff back together and set off for Lander, now 20 miles in our future.

Some good hills, but mostly downhills awaited us, as well as firey red cliffs, streams, antelope, and striped rock forms.

We were still pooped when we got to Lander. We set up camp in their gorgeous city park with super tall trees, lush grass ?, and a creek, headed to the indoor pool for a quick swim and lukewarm showers, and then got us some fantastic grub for dinner. The town was a pretty cool place and we constantly beat around the idea of staying a day.

The movie theater was playing "Wanted" with Jolie, MacAvoy, and Freeman so we indulged our need for pop culture and went in. The movie (super violent, but entertaining) was a pretty big shock to our system and we realized what a cultural gap we will need to bridge when we return to "normalicy."

Riding back to camp in the pitch black, we were up later (11) than we had been in many many weeks, we hung our food, and went to bed.

Not five minutes passed before Andy realized that his phone was not with us and had probably fallen out at the movie. I could not stop laughing.

We got out. Looking vainly around the park in the dark, and then decided to go to bed. Realizing that it would have to be dealt with in the morning and that we were officially out of touch.

(but don't worry- his phone has since been recovered)