Day 36:
Woke up at 7:15. Standard routine. Broke down camp and was in the road by 8:15.
22 miles in we hit the Wyoming welcome sign.
On the way out of walden I was attacked by hundreds of mosquitos. I don’t really mind them so much at camp but when they’re bitting me while I’m riding I minded. There was nothing to do but try and ride in the middle of the road away from the grass. I put on my rain jacket to keep them off my arms.
Walden also happened to be the Moose Viewing Capitol of the World. The locals said moose will sometimes wonder the street. I didn’t see any though.
After getting to the Welcome sign we celebrated and took turns taking pictures.
The scenery was outstanding and the day flew by. A couple miles before hitting Riverside the wind picked up and I fought a headwind into town. The map said it should only take 15 minutes for 2 miles but it was more like 25 minutes. For lunch we ate at the only place in town. I wasn’t that hungry but I ate a grilled cheese sandwich anyway. The road turned and the wind wasn’t so bad. I didn’t stop until I reached Saratoga, the town for the night. We regrouped at the gas station and bounced ideas around on where to stay for the night. Mark has stayed at this town before and used his connections to let us stay in the Saratoga Alliance Church. It had a tv and kitchen and A/C. Even though the town had lots of local restaurants we decided to take advantage of having a full kitchen and cook our own food. We stopped by the grocery store across the street.
We decided on bacon chicken fettuccini Alfredo with tomatoes. For dessert chocolate cookies and fudge ripple ice cream. We even got eggs and milk and oatmeal and blueberries and coffee for breakfast. While waiting for the bacon to cook Ellen and I took advantage of the local pool showers to clean up. For some reason I get chain grease all over the inside of my right leg. It takes at least 10 minutes of subbing to get it off.
We came back to help finish making dinner. Evan had found a redbox had rented the movie Everest. Everyone helped with cooking dinner. It felt so much like Christmas we turned on some classic Christmas carols. When the chorus of the more popular ones came on we joined in singing along.
When it was done we rearranged some tables and chairs to face the TV. Dinner was definitely better than anything we could have bought. The movie was really sad and even though I knew the ending I got a little choked up. I ate a ridiculous amount of ice cream then headed off to bed. It was nice to be inside with A/C and no mosquitos.
