July 1, 2021
Day 50 - Rawlins, WY to Jeffrey City, WY
Rode flat
We woke up at our standard time of 6 today and went right to mukwano coffee. I ordered a pour over that was great, but took 15 minutes to get. I will say that it didn't effect me like drip coffee does on the road. I didn't have to pee like 5 times, so I was grateful for that. We had a downhill ride to Jeffrey city today and the day started off great, it was partly cloudy with little wind and a little chilly. We rode up a couple continental divide crossings, which were easy. They were only a few hundred feet up each. We stopped on the side of the road to eat some food and a couple of us parked just inside an open gate. A lady flew out of her house about 100' away and got into her car. She drove right up to us and slammed on the brakes. She got out and told us to get off her property and said we were disrespecting her no trespassing signs. She shut the gate and drove back to her house. Oh well. We went back to the ride and eventually made it to muddy gap where there is a gas station. We re grouped with everyone. Keely had another flat, Alex found another two license plates, and Alex also had a flat. We continued on and rode right past split rock monument. We stopped to take a photo and climb around some of the rocks.
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There must be great climbing spots here if you can find it in non private land. After split rock, the winds turned into our face and we struggled on rough pavement for the last 15 miles or so. You could see Jeffrey city coming a few miles away, and the first thing you can see is the church.
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There are only 3 things in town: a bar, the abandoned cyclist hostel church, and a crazy potter artist guy. We stopped at the church first to shower and unload.
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The church has a giant gymnasium and kitchen. You can write all over the walls too and most cyclists write their tag lines or draw funny things. We tried to walk to the potter, but he wasn't there, so we went over to the bar to kill some time. Bars in Wyoming are interesting because you can buy unopened to go beer and liquor. We didn't stick around too long but when we were about to leave, we saw someone over at the pottery shop. We were waiting for the rest of the group to settle up and saw and friendly dog in the back of a truck. Alex and Mark were patting it for a minute before a dude in a cowboy hat and pencil mustache came out of the bar and told us off. He said, "unless you're buying feed for that dog, leave it alone" and angrily turned around back into the bar. I guess it's not ok to pet dogs anymore. Apparently he went back inside and scorned us for being tourists. He had Oregon plates though, so...
Anyway we went across the road to the third establishment, monk king bird pottery, the purported home of a mad/drunk potter.
We arrived and Byron definitely seemed mad, but he said he gave up drinking 3 years ago. His place was eclectic and he had lots of amazing pottery. He had been doing pottery since the 80s. We made sure to check if it was ok to pet his dog, since that's a thing we have to do now... I wanted to buy something, but I didn't have any cash. Mary was back at the church so hopefully we can stop by tomorrow morning. After getting back we ate some taco stuff that Mary prepared and alot of people went to sleep in the big gymnasium, while some people slept upstairs in the old sanctuary. The gym was very echoey, so I was ready with my ear plugs.
Mileage:70
Altitude gain:1800
Today's ride: 70 miles (113 km)
Total: 2,641 miles (4,250 km)
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