Day 2 - Reprieve
I woke up this morning at 5:30 and messed around until finally hitting the road at 7am. It was lightly drizzling, the skies looked like they’d hold back the sun for me. I prefer cold and drizzly to hot and sunny, just makes riding easier. I threw my rain gear on and headed into the unknown. I was a little afraid of the ride ahead of me after yesterday. My knees were sore from all the slow climbing and my cold has yet to cut me some slack, but thankfully the weather and topography were with me. The first 40 miles of the ride was all downhill!
No joke! I didn’t slip under 20 mph (well maybe once or twice) for that first leg of the ride. At 10am I had already ridden just over half of the ride! The scenery was also beautiful as I cruised through the Wind River Reservation. 
(I can’t wait until towns are closer together than 85 miles. I wonder if that used to be a full days ride horseback, and so these towns popped up for people to stay at in between destinations.) After the 40 miles of downhill I found myself in these meandering rolling hills. It was almost a surreal scene. It started with a climb up a hill, which then I found myself on the top of another hill, which lead to a climb up another hill. But from any one hill you couldn’t see what was behind the next hill.
It ended up not really mattering as it was only hills behind each hill, but it was a little comical at times and I was laughing to myself about it.
I stopped at the Hines General store on the Reservation and ate a hamburger and bought a new gallon of water, since I only needed to fill up 3 ¾ of my bottles I had to chug the last bit of the gallon… between that and the burger I felt like I swallowed a bowling ball. It was tough to pedal but I really kept hoping that I’d find riding as easy as that morning and that really kept me motivated. As I pedaled out of the store I saw a stone marker for Sacagawea’s grave, which it told me was 3 miles down the road on the left. Now what’s ironic about this sign is that they tell you it's down the road, but their isn’t a sign at the turn that you need to take in order to see the grave. That was to be one of the sights I wanted to see on the trip, but alas it will have to wait.
Speaking of irony I’m glad to know that the weather has retained its sense of humor. What I had been most nervous about on this trip has been the heat, but since mid-day on the 1st it has been chilly and showering! It is now thundering and lighting out, and once again I have sought the safety of a motel room. I had setup camp in the Lander City park, as they allow free camping there, when it started thundering. Being setup under trees in an open area I started calling all the motels, and I was there within 20 minutes as was the rain. I’m going to need a day off soon to let my body do some healing, but for now I’m sitting here sipping on tea. It’s nice to be able to enjoy some tea after a long bike ride.
