Day 18: Riverton to Casper

And grim determination did get me through-- the longest bike ride I have ever done and the longest I will ever do-- 120 miles! You see to the right two representative pictures of the route-- suffice it to say that had I taken a picture every mile they would have looked about the same. Sometimes the road curved a bit to the right, sometimes it curved a bit to the left, but basically it was a whole lot of nothing.

I did see live wildlife for the first time-- both deer and antelope (have seen several dead deer by the roadside on previous days) and we did go by a very spectacular area called "Hell's Half Acre" that is like a mini Grand Canyon (and is actually about 350 acres) but otherwise it was just a ride across the plains. I kept telling myself that being an old lady whizzing through at about 13 miles per hour was better than trudging along in a cloud of dust behind a team of oxen and a Conestoga wagon. With this and other mental games the miles did go by.

For the first half of the ride the road was a smooth surface with a rumble strip and a rough shoulder. Wyoming law explicitly states that bicycles must be to the right of the rumble strip. Since the rumble strip is in segments about 25 feet long with a 6-8 smooth space separating each segment, I spent a good deal of time whizzing out onto the smooth part until I heard a car behind me, then dashing in to the shoulder till the traffic had passed, then returning to the smooth road surface. Then, suddenly everything changed. The road was rough and the shoulder was smooth so my game was over.

When I got to mile 98 and saw yet endless miles of road ahead of me I was desperate enough to do the most forbidden thing of all-- turn on my iPod. I knew that three riders and the staff riding sweep were behind me, that one of the vans was waiting for those three people and the other van had passed me and gone on to Casper. Being fairly certain that I would not get busted, I listened to 12 miles worth of Keith Jarrett's "Koln Concert" and it was enough to get me past the incipient mental breakdown

I am beginning to feel like a remarkable phenomenon among the group-- something like a pet dog who begins spouting Shakespeare. The others seem so pleased and proud that I actually finish each ride. I must have looked a very unlikely candidate when we began this adventure.

Now I am clean, fed, watered (with alcohol) and thrilled about a rest day tomorrow. John and I are going to go to the Historical Trails Interpretive Center; happily within walking distance.