Slept in a little this morning…up at 6:30. Slept well last night…yesterday wore me out. Going to Rawlings today and then assess from there. Yesterday was long stretches of wilderness with very few services….looks like a lot of the same for the next couple days at least….if you wanted to unplug and just get lost, this would be one place to do it.
Beautiful morning….sunny with a high of 81 today. Overall I’ve been very lucky with the weather….hope that holds out. Hit the road at 7:30am.
Stopped at the Sinclair gas station on the way out of town and picked up a banana nut muffin and bottle of orange juice for breakfast. Stood outside and watched antelope graze across the street while eating breakfast.
Stopped in Saratoga at 19 miles in for a good, real, breakfast at the Lollypops Cafe. Waffle, oatmeal, coffee, and orange juice. Saratoga is a nice looking little town—Main Street with that old western look.
11am took a break at a roadside marker for the Overland Trail. Nice morning but the wind is starting to pick up a bit…coming out of the west again and I’m headed North.
About 35 miles in met eastbounder, Tim who started in Oregon. He lives in Colorado so is going there and then see how he feels—may go further or may stop. We shared info about what’s up ahead. In about 10 miles I’m going to have to ride an 11 mile stretch on Interstate 80 because that’s the only road to Rawlings. I would rather go straight on the road I’m on heading to Medecine Bow and order me up a beer from Ms Kitty and have a chat with Doc and Festus, but I’ve got to turn left and head to Rawlings 🙂 Tim let me know about road construction on the interstate and riding it is going to be a pain….wasn’t looking forward to it anyway, but now even less so.
There are miles of these wood fences along the highway going out of Riverside. They are built with a slant and looks sort of like they are made from shipping crates—only very large ones. I can only assume they are to help divert the wind from the road. I can see how the wind could cause big problems for trucks and RVs….it’s brutal when it starts gusting.
Stopped at the shell station at the interstate on ramp to have a coke and mentally prepare for riding up the ramp and getting on I-80….ok, let’s do this….
Well, I survived the 11 mile stretch on I80, but it’s a miracle. For the first 7 Miles there was construction and the east bound traffic was diverted to the west lanes, so there were barrels separating the two lanes on my side—left lane going east and right lane going west. I was using the shoulder. Problem was, in order to not hit the barrels places down the middle of the road the semi’s and crazy RV drivers were having to straddle the rumble strip over on the shoulder. And the speed limit was 65….who sets a 65 mph speed limit in a construction zone? So, of course everyone was doing 75!
I was hugging the very right edge of the shoulder while constantly watching my rear view mirror and fighting a strong headwind coming out of the west—I was headed directly west now. That was a stressful 7 miles—I’ve ridden some bad stretches of road on this trip, but this ranks up there among the worst.
Once I got past the construction, and back to normal interstate travel, it really wasn’t so bad—the shoulder was plenty wide and I didn’t have to worry about traffic using it. Exited the interstate in Sinclair and am sitting in the restaurant at a truck stop having lunch and figuring out the rest of the day.
Entered Sinclair about 2:45 which I assume the town is named for the Sinclair oil company, or vice versatile, since it’s basically an oil refinery and that’s about it.
Finished the last 7 miles to Rawlings fighting a stiff headwind the entire way. Decided to call it a day here in Rawlings and checked in at the Marriott. If not for the wind I could have gone on another 33 miles to Lamont, but just can’t fight this afternoon/evening headwind. I posted a picture of some trees from the front of the hotel. You can see them bending to the right in the photo. They’re bending East, because the wind is coming coming out of the west that strong.
On the transam discussion boards people talk a lot about the wind in Kansas. Well, for anyone thinking of doing this, Kansas is only the start of the wind issues you will be facing. There has been wind, and strong wind, consistently through Kansas, Colorado, and this far in Wyoming. It starts picking up around 9-10am and gets stronger as the day progresses. It’s typically coming out of the West or South-West. Based on my experience thus far the wind will have more of an impact on how far, how long, and how fast you can ride each than anything else including mountains, heat, or storms. The wind is a beast out here!
Going to get up early in the morning and head for Sweetwater Station—85 Miles. Very limited services between here and there and only camping these. In fact, looks like it’ll be camping for the next 2-3 days…traveling through remote territory for quite a ways now.
Feeling good and strong, but really looking to get through Wyoming….going to be a lot of miles of remoteness followed by crazy drivers through Yellowstone. Looking forward to getting into Montana the turning west again.
