Day 20

I knew I wanted to get to Douglas, WY today (yep that’s closer to NE) and that meant it would be a long day. I started out early (8 a.m.) and it took nearly 1 hr to get out of Casper (It is about 8 miles long). I reached Glenrock, WY around noon and decided I would eat here and rest. I ate at a nice Pizza joint that eventually had no sitting room left. When I got out of the restaurant I decided that I should probably wait before I get back on the bike and so I layed inside a little rotunda. It was super nice because the concrete was still cold from the night before and it was in the shade. I was just going to relax there but then I heard little kids and realized I actually took probably a 1 hr nap there. Ooops, but it was a good nap! I stocked up on the water and started biking again around 3 p.m. I had a giant hill to climb and then got to Rolling Hills (yea that’s a town) and met the same gas attendant I had last time. I started biking again and thought I was going the right direction/on the right road until I started not remembering the highway being so curvy. Then I looked over the other hills and saw what I knew was the right highway. I am still unsure how many miles that little error cost me, but I had to bicycle back to Rolling Hills to get on the right highway. The hill after Rolling Hills is HUGE plus you have lots of semis going to and fro because of the new wind farm coming up. I think that one hill and the next took me a total of 1 hr and was probably only 2 miles. I had another 39 miles to go to get to Douglas WY and I knew it was going to be a race against time and water supplies. I met the Junction for Hwy 20 and still had water but still had another 26 miles. If I could make it to Fort Farahoon (an old historic site) than I would be good but that was still 17 miles away. I made it to the Fort, but was getting tired, and out of water, and the park was closed but I went ahead and trespassed so I could fill up on my water supply. It was great because I knew they had a drinking fountain that was refrigerated. After filling up I had only 9 miles to go but 3 big hills left. I defeated those three hills and coasted down into Douglas, WY. I promptly bought some Subway, an ice cream treat and some re-hydrating water. I had decided Douglas would be my final stop because its population is about 5,000 people meaning it has a movie theater and a nice library. Then I look at my cyclometer and it showed that I had down 72 miles in just one day! I am glad that I did 77 miles because I was on my bike for 10 hrs and would have been really disappointed had the mileage been around 50 miles. All and all, I would say my last day of my tour (today) was a good show of how as a bicyclist I have become more apt at conquering hills and in general more fit. 10 hrs and 77 miles is my new record for longest day yet…I would be curious, now, to see how many miles I can do on flat terrain such as Lincoln’s MOPAC trail. ~jake