Day 21 (Three weeks on the road) – Rawlins, WY to Encampment, WY

Miles today – 60

Total miles – 1298

I know that I had told many people before I left on this trip that I like to stay at unusual places and that stating at a Holiday Express would be viewed as a failure.  Last night I stayed at the Holiday Express in Rawlins.  When they heard that I was riding across the country for the Arthritis Foundation, they gave us the suite for the same price of a regular room.  The suite had a separate room with a Jacuzzi and a flat screen TV.  It was great so I take back what I said previously…staying at the Holiday Express was definitely not a failure. They had a great spread for breakfast and I was on the road at 8:15.

Leaving Rawlins, you are required to ride up the entrance ramp to I–80 then turn onto an access road that goes through Sinclair, WY.  I hadn’t seen a Sinclair gas station for years until I got in Montana and Wyoming.  I remember Dino the dinosaur in commercials when I was a kid in the 50’s. Then the gas stations disappeared from the east coast. Sinclair, WY is the sight of a large refinery.

After passing through Sinclair, cyclists are required to get on I-80 for a harrowing 13 miles with traffic whizzing by at 75 mph.  The shoulder is wide and debris is surprisingly little so the ride really isn’t that bad.  I have developed the following ranking for driver courtesy and willingness to yield to cyclist based on my experience so far:

Most courteous – Long Haul Truck drivers and any vehicle with a sport rack for bikes and/or kayaks.  The long haul truckers may surprise you but it is true that they will almost always move far to the left and yield to cyclist.  Thanks, long haul truckers.

Less courteous – Local truckers and passenger cars.  These guys have developed a little attitude about cyclist on the road but they aren’t directly threatening.

Oblivious – Those people that think it is a good idea to pay $500,000 for a luxury “motor coach” then pull a full size car behind it because they can’t drive the motor coach around town after they dock the darn thing at the RV park.  These folks will never move left for a cyclist.  The craziest one or these that I have seen, and I’m not making this up, was a huge motor coach pulling a full size SUV that was pulling a trailer with a golf cart on it.  Are these people for real? Take all that money and travel to Europe for heaven’s sake.

Downright rude – Some construction and service workers and guys driving large pick up trucks that have been jacked up to accommodate oversized wheels.  These guys have testosterone issues…thus the big trucks that attempt to make up for other obvious inadequacies.

I’m just sayin’…

I hopped off I-80 and stopped at the gas station in Walcott (population 30) at 10:00 am to take a conference call. So, here I am standing in a gas station in Walcott on my cell phone with people from Boston, San Diego and Germany trying to nail down a deal…pretty cool.

I turned off of I-80 onto Rt 130.  The side road off 130 is called Rattlesnake Junction.  Over the next 3 miles, I passed seven dead rattlesnakes on the roadside.  It's like the snakes could read and knew where their juction was.

Route 130 leads to the little hamlet of Saratoga, WA which sits on the Platte River.  Donna met me there and we sat on the deck of a small restaurant, J. W. Hugus, and had lunch as the swollen river sped past.   All of the rivers and streams are running high because of the snow melt and recent rains here.  (It’s raining again as I write this.)  I took another conference call at 1:00 as Donna proceeded to Riverside and Encampment to scope out a place to stay.  Riverside began its life as a shipping center for the copper mines that used to dot the landscape of the nearby Sierra Madre Mountain Range. It was originally named Dogget, however, when people began calling it Dog-town, the citizens decided that Riverside would be a more suitable, less corruptible name for their home.
Riverside lies on the banks of the Encampment River, a popular attraction for fisherman, rafters, and kayakers.  I had previously checked out Riverside places to stay on Google and found the Riverside Garage and Cabins which sounded “unique”.  I arrived in town under threatening skies and sure enough, Donna had found the place and booked us into the Cowboy Cabin.

I quickly changed into street clothing and we hurried up to the Grand Encampment Museum.  The museum is really a village of buildings that have been moved to this location.  One of the buildings is a two story outhouse which was made necessary by heavy snow falls in the mining camp.  When the snow covered the first level, miners could climb stairs to the second level.  The seats on the first level were removed so that the waste could drop below.  I bet Spring clean up was really fun. Lucas, a local high school student, did a great job of guiding us through the local history

We walked across the street to the Bear Trap Café and had the best dinner of the trip.  Margaret from Seattle bought the place last year and has really turned it around.  I have a long day’s ride, mostly uphill, tomorrow so I will sign off.

David

June 25, 2009