Day 42, Rawlins to Riverside, WY

Miles – 60

Ave Riding Speed – 7-24 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 6

Weather – Sunny and 81

Last night we ended up doing a FaceTime interview with a television reporter, Heidi, from Kare 11, for a feature story that aired today on the 5pm news in Minneapolis, MN. We thought she did an awesome job highlighting our adventurous fundraiser to support the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance and raising awareness of lobular breast cancer (ILC). As Kim would say, ILC is a sneaky one! Kim’s wasn’t caught until it was Stage 3C, and didn’t show up on here routine mammograms! 

We’re working hard to raise the $100,000. Here’s is the segment from Kare 11 news:

(View the original Kare 11 segment and article by Heidi Wigdahl HERE)

We enjoyed simply doing very little yesterday while we hung around our motel room at The Hampton Inn in Rawlins, WY. We crashed at 10pm. We were up and moving about by 7:15am and headed straight to the hotel provided breakfast and coffee. We didn’t lollygag and Kim went for the oatmeal and coffee, while I went for the eggs, sausage and yogurt with coffee. We showered, packed and rolling our loaded bikes to elevator at 8:25 and hit the road at 8:30am.

Our route today was taking initially east on Hwy 76 till we hit Sinclair, WY. And yes, that’s the gas station people. In Sinclair, WY they have their own refinery. The crude hauling company I used to work for hauled for them out of Casper, WY. After Sinclair we headed east on Interstate 80. Pretty bizarre riding the shoulder of a Freeway with cars going by at more than 75mph. The saving grace was when we reached the road construction. Traffics heading east had to slide across to single lane oncoming traffic and we rode the east bound side on freshly laid pavement for more than 7 miles.

We exited the Freeway at Walcott Junction and picked up a two-lane highway 130 heading south. Walcott Junction had a gas station only, which was not on our route, so we moved on. As we rode south, we were getting a much better view of the mountains we’ll be needing to cross, in front of us, in the far distance. We could even see some snow at the tops of them.

The entire day we were on a gradual incline, taking us up about 600 feet. The rolling hills we’ve been riding for the past few days are closing in on us on both sides. We came across a couple dozen antelope along the fence lines. They would normally stare at us as we pedaled by or they’d run farther down the fence line, stop and then stare at us as we rode by. It was amusing and a nice change of pace.

19 miles up we rode into Saratoga, WY. It was a small, bustling community, so I kept my eyes peeled for a hardware store. Bingo! There was a small lumberyard/hardware store on main street so we pulled in. My hands have been aching and numb, more and more, so I took up the recommendation from my brother Duke, and picked up some foam pipe insulation. We rode up a block to the convenience store and I unpacked my Leatherman tool and cut a couple pieces to fit my handlebars and wrapped some orange duct tape around the foam to secure it. Kim grabbed a Gatorade, water and pretzels to snack on while we sat on the curb resting up for the last 20 miles stretch of our 60-mile day.

After continuing to ride south from Saratoga, Hwy 130 turned into Hwy 230 all the way into Riverside, WY. The sun was shining, not too hot, and we had a slight breeze at our backs. Upon arriving in Riverside we veered left a few blocks to our expected hiker/biker camping spot at the Lazy Acres Campground, RV Park and Campground. We rolled into the office and met the proprietor, LeRoy. Kim asked, if by chance, they had a cabin or motel room available. Bingo! He had a motel room available for just a little bit more that a camping spot, so we took it.

After unloading our gear, we checked our e-mails, as we have Wi-Fi and cell service here. I saw an email from Kare 11 that said our segment was going to air today, so we put the word out to our families. LeRoy said the Beartrap restaurant across the street and pretty good food, so we wandered over. I had the buffalo wings and a side salad, while Kim had a burger with cheesy tater tots and a side salad. 

While we ate our phones started buzzing. The clan watched the news and our Motch Across America segment was pretty cool and all seemed to think it was informative and we represented the LCBA and ourselves well.

As we left the Beartrap we noticed a couple walking across the street with their fully loaded bikes. We caught up to them and met Mark and Pat. They found a cabin at the establishment next to where we’re staying. They are headed west on the TransAmerica Trail and left a month earlier than us. They looked good for a newly retired couple that rode almost 3,000 miles. We chatted and handed them a card so we could help each other out with information on our respective routes coming up.

We’ve showered and I’m recharging our bike lights and Kim is confirming miles, elevations and destinations for the rest of the week. Tomorrow we’ll be in Colorado!  we’re just over 1,750 total miles so far. Colorado will out over 2,000 miles and close to halfway, which I’m expecting will fee pretty good!