Day 20--Casper, WY to Lusk, WY

Day 20—July 08, 2006—Casper, WY to Lusk, WY—106 miles—2860’climb

It dawned a perfect day for a 106-mile ride through shadeless plains . . . in the low 80s and overcast in the morning with a slight tailwind, picking up to a stronger tailwind by mid-day and eventually turning to light rain before ride’s end. Those who were wagging the tail of the dog rode through patches of heavy rain, but claimed it only served to keep them cool..

This photo neatly sums up the area

The terrain today was dry, and rolling.  Again we are in a vast area where you can see forever. . . you don’t see much, but you can see a long way.  We’re starting to get into the grassland area that’s a little more interesting than the desert, but we still ride for miles without seeing a living soul outside of passing traffic. If souls are scarce, antelope and cottontails are not. Antelope grazed everywhere on both sides of the road and the rabbits were living up to their reputation as prolific breeders. They were abundant, both alive and roadkilled. We  passed through one prairie dog colony and all the dogs shrilled out their alarm whistle: “Biiiiiii-cyclists!  Biiiiiii-cyclists!”  I was surprised to see an oil well or two on our route today, too.  

Douglas was the only town that had services, and many of the riders stopped there for lunch. As in the day between Riverton and Casper, riders passed through many tiny towns. In Shawnee, the post mistress, Amy — who’d been there for 35 years — told us that the town population was 3. We cycled through another town (Lost Springs) that had a population of only 1, at least that’s what the sign said (see photo above), but judging from the size of the bar in this town, I’d say they needed to update their population count. The local bar was a very large two-story building . . . for 1 person?  This area adds new meaning to “small town America.”

Riders passed through the small town of Douglas, home of one of the largest jackalopes.  Actually, it's just a statue to honor the mythical animal.  It stands about 8 feet tall and overlooks jackalope park. A jackalope is a jackrabbit with antlers . . . probably spent too much time on the prairie with the antelope.  I guess they have a lot of these elusive little critters around here.  They are very wily, even the statues are wily because several riders missed seeing the statue even though it was 12 feet from the bike lane. Every once in a while, we'll see little antlers sticking above the sagebrush as these creatures spend the heat of the day in the shade.  I've never seen one as roadkill though . . . they must be pretty fast, unlike the numerous roadkilled rabbits we saw today who seemed to be a "hare" too slow.

After my visit to the doctor yesterday and a prescription cough syrup, I slept through the night for the first time in a week and so felt to get on my bike again. I rode to SS#1, a mere 30 miles, and then took the van to set up SS#3 while Christine rode the remaining 76 miles. (I am not coughing as much now and am wearing plastic gloves to handle the SAG food.)

SS#3 was at the top of a long shallow grade at two picnic tables that appeared out of nowhere. I booked it to get there before the front runners who were bent on getting to the motel to watch the World Cup. When I got there a border collie ducked under a fence and ran up to the picnic table. Obviously this dog knew that when someone stopped at the picnic tables, good things were at hand. We named the dog Hoover because it vacuumed up every piece of chip or crumb that fell to the pavement, with the exception of a rotten grape tomato which it nosed about for a bit and then refused. I set out peanut butter and bread and several other new taste treats that won unanimous approval from all (see OOTRT below).

SS#3 was also at the top of a long, shallow, uphill grade. Trains of coal cars passed regularly . . . super long trains, seemingly a mile long. Many riders arrived at the SAG winded after racing a train up the grade.

After we got to town, we found it full of revelers . . . there was a frontier days celebration going on complete with parade and reenactment of times gone

OVERHEARD ON THE ROAD TODAY:

• “That sandwich was much better than the steak I had for dinner last night.”
• “OOOOooooh, peanut butter and jelly!”
• “This is the BEST SAG Stop evaah!” [Guess who?] 
• “If we had that train in Switzerland, the back would be in one station and the front in the next.” [Rider commenting on the very long coal trains that we have begun seeing]