Monday,September 18. Rawlins, WY to Saratoga,WY. 45 miles, 2,033 feet gained, 19 Garmin Beers Earned. With only a 45 mile day planned, we took our time getting ready to get back on the bikes today. A leisurely breakfast, and we rolled out at about a quarter to 10:00. The wind was already building from the southwest, and pushed us along quickly as we headed east. We rode through the town of Sinclair, and I don't think we saw a single car on the streets of Sinclair. It was eerily quiet. Maybe everybody in town works at the Sinclair refinery, as their parking lot was full. We took a few pix of the refinery, but didn't want to appear too obvious, lest we be thought "suspicious". I did mange to get a pic of the green, and pink, dinosaurs behind the fence.
Just past Sinclair, our route put us on Interstate 80 for a few miles. Riding on the shoulder of the freeway wasn't awful- traffic was fairly light and the shoulder was wide. With a quartering tailwind of about 25 mph, the miles easily passed by. At Walcott, we exited the Interstate and headed south, now with that 25mph wind right in our faces. By now the wind was fairly consistent at about 30mph with higher gusts. The 20 miles to Saratoga were slow and tough, but we looked forward to soaking in the hot springs in Saratoga. We persevered, and rolled into town looking for a cold beer before a hot spring soak. We stopped at the Rustic Bar-cold Fat Tire on tap, friendly locals, and a friendly bartender. The Rustic Bar had a huge diorama behind the bar of two cougars sparring over a deer carcass. After our refreshments, we rode over to the free, city managed hot spring pool and showers, where we met up with Janet, Jo, and Bob. They had toured the old Wyoming State Penitentiary and museum. In use from 1901 to 1981, they learned the history of the facility as well as some it's more notable residents.
We enjoyed the hot water at the springs,and then got cleaned up and headed to our camp for the night at the city campground at Saratoga Lake. $10.00 bought us a nice spot right on the lake. The skies now are clear, and the stargazing is awesome! Tomorrow we will see how the weather forecast looks. Right now, it's calling for even more wind than today!
--
J-Nut from Gmail
No comments:
Post a Comment