Rest Day in Rawlins, Wyoming

June 13: 66 miles from Colter Bay, WY, to Dubois, WY

Colter Bay sits on the opposite side of Jackson Lake from The Grand Tetons. These are gorgeous mountains so long as you're warm enough to enjoy them. The temperature in the morning was in the upper 30s and warmed to the low 40s by the time we left, and made me appreciate the idea of staying in hotels vs. camping. Colter Bay is a small stop within the Grand Teton park, and has almost like a small resort feel. There is a restaurant, souvenir/outdoors-shop/grocery store, gas station, and the cabins/campground area.

While stuffing our faces at the buffet breakfast, we saw some very cold-looking cyclists coming in to begin stuffing their faces before the day's ride. It was a group of 3 riders doing the Trans-America trail (which we are also following): Karen, Hans, and Art. Karen is an art professor at Shepardstown College in West Virginia, Hans is a dentist from Holland, and Art is also from Holland but somehow I missed what he does. They were camping in Colter Bay and looking forward to some warm coffee. When we shook hands they remarked that our hands were so nice and warm, while we remarked that their hands felt like ice packs. Their destination for the day was also Dubois, so we were sure to see them again.

The ride was not very long, but included a ride up the steep Togwotee Pass (reaching an elevation of 9,688 feet). This climb was not too bad because it did have some flat sections that are marvelous and really help you to recharge or stop to grab some water without having difficulty regaining moment. The weather was cloudy going up, started to lightly rain after I got to the top. There was plenty of snow, and even 2 cross-country skiers with their dog around the top of the pass.

We took some pictures up there, and then rode down as we heard thunder and the rain began to get heavier. Normally I would appreciate a 20-mile descent, but when it's raining and the temperature is in the mid-40s this is not desirable. My hands were numb from around 3:30 until 6 that day with the cold and wet weather. Also, your glasses become pretty much useless with the rain on them. On top of this, I got a flat tire and had to stop change it, which is not fun when your hands are freezing to begin with. Needless to say, I was very glad to reach Dubois. When I was signing in at the hotel, the woman asked if my pen was working okay, to which I replied that it was but my hands were too numb to function.

Fortunately, though, the rain had stopped by this point and we were able to get a good dinner (wonderful strawberry-peach pie with exactly a dallop and a half of ice cream on top) and get some laundry done.

June 14: 77 miles from Dubois, WY, to Lander, WY

The restaurant next to our hotel opened at 6am, and we ate there soon after. The menu items were okay, but the donuts were out of this world! I've never had a donut so good in my life: a boisenberry donut with vanilla frosting, with so much boisenberry filling that it poured out after every bite.

After 2 days of rain and the possibility of rain every afternoon for the next week, I was a bit on edge about this ride. I was also suspicious of my rear tire needing to be changed, so I switched the front and rear tires for today's ride. The rear tire takes much worse of a beating that the front because it's the one carrying all of my weight plus the weight of the BOB trailer.

Fortunately the weather was nice all day, but unfortunately my front tube went flat after 30 miles. This told me that it was officially time to get a new front tire, so I put on my spare one at a rest area. As I was doing this, a tour group from "Southern Alabama" riding a bus around the western states began crowding around. They were asking lots of questions, and Larry and I soon realized that we were the tourist attraction - good PR for the Ride for Jim.

Along the route we met up with an older rider named Tyler, who was ride all over the country over the course of several months. He was from ouside of Los Angeles, where he began his trip, and had ridden up to Oregon, all around the Western states, and was now following the Trans-America for a bit. He left in early May and planned to have his wife pick him up in Washington, DC, on September 5. He was very nice and we saw him a couple of more times throughout the day.

We got to Lander in the afternoon, which was early for us, and spent a couple of hours doing some much-needed bike cleaning. The rain makes everything grimy on the bike and this can be pretty corrosive with time and use...and we're getting lots of use out of our bikes.

We had dinner with Karen, Hans, and Art, followed by some ice cream from the Scream Shack that night, and bid them farewell since they were resting in Lander and also taking 2 days to get to Rawlins.

June 15: 130 miles from Lander, WY, to Rawlins, WY

The weather forecast called for this day to have the worst thunderstorms all week. The region to which we were heading had had reports of large hail, thunderstorms, and even some tornados earlier last week, and the weather channel predicated the possibility of this stuff all week long. What we though we'd try was to split this distance into 2 days: Rawlins to Jeffrey City (58 miles), and then go the rest of the way to Rawlins on Tuesday. Unfortunately, there is really nothing along this entire route, so Jeffrey City is the only such opportunity for a motel that we knew of (although we later found out that Muddy Gap has a place to stay and is an 80-mile ride from Lander). We got to Jeffrey City without any problems, but I was worried because we had been unable to reach the motel previously and there was no cell phone reception along the route.

The wind maintained a 10-20 mph speed all day, which started as a cross-wind and became a tail wind 15 miles before Jeffrey City. When reaching Jeffrey City, we found the Split Rock cafe, which is owned by the woman who also owns the hotel and is more importantly the site where Dr. Haar had the best hamburger of his entire trip on the 2008 Ride for Jim. Naturally, we stopped and enjoyed the delicious Split Rock burger. Let me say that again: DELICOIUS! Unfortunately, the motel was full because of some workers coming through the area, but a very nice guy who owns the Monk King Bird pottery store offered to let Larry and me stay at his place. With the winds in our favor, though, we decided we could make it to Rawlins and enjoy a Tuesday of rest. Also, the weather was actually nice so we lost the fear of thunderstorms.

With the strong wind, we burned up 22 miles to Muddy Gap in no time. We were moving between 25-30 mph on the flat plains, which is twice as fast as we'd gone previously except down steep mountains. Hauling a trailer or panniers makes for slow movement usually, so I was grateful for such a good opportunity. At Muddy Gap, though, this turned into a slight cross-wind because of the road's course, so we resumed our regular speed.

25 miles outside of Rawlins we saw a lot of storm clouds to the North and Northeast, and some lightning between Northeast and Southeast. We were moving Southeast, so this was a bit scary and we slowed it down. The visibility was probably 10-20 miles, and we were fortunately able to watch the storm move north. Between waiting for the storms to move and a 7-mile uphill stretch 15 miles outside of Rawlins, we didn't reach town until after dark (9:30p). McDonald's was the only thing open, but anything was good to have. We were so exhausted but glad to know that a rest day awaited.

June 16: Resting in Rawlins.

We're just relaxing and doing a few errands. I got some food at a grocery store for breakfast and though I'd share this with everyone. My breakfast consisted of: 8 wheat rolls, 1/2 lbs. of turkey, and 1 bunch of grapes. It's nice to have something other than a high-fat breakfast while still keeping up the calories, although I'm still dreaming of the boisenberry donut from Dubois.