Day Twelve: July 23rd (Walden, CO to Rawlin, WY)

Day Twelve: July 23rd (Walden, CO to Rawlin, WY)

Technical Data:

Distance: 109+
Power Tap has gone dead - will trouble shoot batteries tonight...

Waking up in Walden, CO was a blessing this morning as this small town is amazing! In a valley with 40 miles on one side and 30 on the other. Surrounded by the Colorado Rockies and some of the most beautiful mountain prairies I have ever scene. Beautiful place for sure!

And I can see that my computer is having some trouble with all this travel. When typing this the key strokes are sticky and some are not responding...
I sure don't want to lose my computer on this trip! Man this really sucks...
The morning was perfect, breakfast and load BoB then I was off, not knowing what I was gettin myself into! The first 22 miles to the junction was perfect, mostly downhill with a light tail wind, I was really thinking this was going to be an easy day after looking at the profile of the route from the fellow cyclist maps. I have this old atlas and I'm finding out all these other people have these detailed maps of the route and I'm just winging it with this old atlas and any wi fi I come across. I am in the middle of Southern Wyoming and feeling pretty good, though pretty pissed that my PowerTap is not workin.

From the junction I had another 55 miles to a little town called Saratoga where all the other cyclists were going to stay. I wanted to push on and wish I would have stayed as the wind was brutal today! From the junction the wind was blowig in my face all day and I had no other choice but to put my head down and ride. Stopping in Riverside for some water I chatted with a few motorcylist before pushing on. They were heading to Dubois, CO, I'll eventally get there but not today!
I just had to put my head down today and ride as this was the hardest day yet! 109 miles of 90+ heat and winds gusting up to 40+ miles an hour. It took a while! This part of the country is beautiful - reminds me a lot of the movie with Kevin Costner(Open Range)...

I have a feeling this post is going to be a lot shorter than I want, however I am exhausted and need to find a place to crash!

(break in writing)

It's morning and I crashed in Washington Park last night, a local park a few blocks from the historic WY State Pen. I would have rather stayed inside the Pen as it would have been warmer and a lot more comfortable. If anyone is interested in staying in a local park, look for sprinklers as I got hit with sprinklers all night long - I think a deterant for anyone attempting to sleep in the local parks. I thought it was starting to rain once I got hit, then I looked out of my single person tent and the stars were breathtaking so I knew it wasn't rain. Since I haven't really set up my tent since I started this trip, I usually just crawl in and use it as a bivy as its small enough to treat as...

Note* - Watch where you place your tent when you camp in a park!

Yesterday was not very hot but it was by far the hardest riding as the head winds were horrendous and the road conditions were not ideal for traveling, chip seal from the state line and loose chip seal at that. I did have an interesting bike test today though, while heading down a decent there was a deer carcus on the side of the road, right in on the shoulder in my path. Traveling at 35 mph with BoB does not make things very agile...I swerve left to avoid, then right and over compensated and ended up in some loose gravel/sand and was having trouble keeping it together. The mind was releasing more adrenaline at this moment in time then has been released on the entire trip! After fighting the bike for a couple more seconds, that felt like my entire life I was able to pull it back in line! I kept thinking as my mind went into the moment, this is going to hurt!

Since I'm having to recall my thoughts after a night of sleep things are not exactly fresh, again I like to write directly off the bike. Other things I saw yesterday - antelope, wide open spaces, porcupine, coyotes, more birds then I could count, farms miles from each other, long climbs over breathtaking landscapes, open roads with no traffic for miles.

Another interesting thing that happened yesterday was when I got to Walcott the next 20 mile stretch was on the Interstate which I thought was odd, but it was actually a lot more forgiving then I thought it would be as the truck traffic was wanted today, the wind generated by the trucks helped push me to Rawlins. Once into Rawlins I asked around about a park and coffee shop and could tell the people were a little less responsive then the folks in Kansas and Colorado. After spending an hour in the Coffee house I headed over to the park, made some dinner and thought about what the next day would bring.

When it comes to thoughts for the day. I would like to thank everyone for the "Warm Wishes" for my travels and all the kind thoughts on my blogging and sharing my journey with you. It means a lot as yesterday was a mental day. Not sure if for you but, after a 10-12 hour day of hard work I'm typically not thinking clearly and need some rest, I plan on taking today (Friday) as a lighter day hoping to eat and get a lot of sleep so it might be an uneventful day of writing, however I doubt it if I stay in the moment!

My last post I wrote a lot about the ups and downs in life and how turmoil can take hold on all our lives, my sister sent me an email the night before last that really affected me, I received it right after I shared my thoughts on my conversation and negative thoughts. I find it appropriate to share this as this is real life happening this week:

"Hi Lacey,
I don't mind you asking at all. I've been doing a lot of genealogical research on my own family history, and I know how important it is to know as much as you can know, both the good and the not so good, and the down right outrageous. I think it really has a way of centering us to know these things. I have discovered that I have a lot of "outrageous" in my own family, and I'm so glad I've been able to find out about it, and come to grips with it over time. It makes me feel more complete. You have just as much, if not more, "outrageous", in your own family history. I certainly don't know all the facts, especially going back to Baxter Springs, but I was really close to both of your parents and had a lot of experiences with both of them. For a time, it seemed like we were all nearly inseparable, and that included Bill, and our little tight sphere pulled in several other people, and groups of people, it was like a magnet. We were free . . . we were uninhibited . . . we didn't care what the rules were (and yes, we were reckless).

Your uncle Bill was one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet. He was a free spirit. He was gentle. He was a natural "girl magnet" (as I'm sure you have guessed from some of the photos) He never had a bad word to say about anybody. Bill was always ready for fun or the next adventure. If anybody said, let's go drive the Boulevard, Bill would say OK. For someone in his late teens, Bill was not one of those kids in some kind of teenage angst, trying to figure out who he was, or where he fit in. Bill knew who he was, and he was so content with who he was. I do think he was very bored, at times, especially later on, because most of the rest of us at least had some kind of job or temporary job that we had to go to, and that took us away from the tight sphere that we all had. In fact, I had actually started college, (aimlessly, at first, just taking a few classes that seemed half way interesting), and I think Bill was just kind of seeing it all change, or even dissolve, I mean it couldn't go on forever the way we were living (or maybe it could have, I still wonder that today . . . )

When Bill left us, it was devastating, to all of us. We were all stunned in a way that would leave us scarred for the rest of our lives. I was actually angry, at first. I went through so many head trips about this, I can't even tell you. I could not cry. I would not cry. I couldn't believe he would do this to us, how could he do this to us, take himself away, forever, like that. It was like the ultimate "I've got to head out now" kind of thing. This event really blasted us, all of us, into different directions, like shrapnel from an exploding grenade. Eventually, we all just kind of picked ourselves up from all the scattered places we had landed, dusted ourselves off, and decided we had to move on with our lives, without Bill. I did finally cry, the other day, when I found and scanned the first pic of Bill. Thirty some odd years, and I had never been able to let my tears come out. It brought me to a new place, it felt so really good, and so really right, to finally let these tears come out." G. Paul

I feel asleep thinking about this other night, how people can appear so together then they're gone. This story just reiterates to me that knowing, truly knowing someone is an "unknown"...I have lost a lot of people in my life, though not as many as others. I've lost a few surrogate parents and a couple close friends and I agree with G. Paul that letting go takes time however when the time comes to let go of the pain you hold inside, the feeling is liberating. Though those souls will never be forgotten, only cherished forever until scene again!

This morning has been a tough morning, I feel like I have lost my captain on this journey as communication has been spotty, leaving me feeling lonely out here on the road. Spending too much time with your thoughts can be a scary thing sometimes if your deep thinker like I am, sharing these thoughts with others is key to balance, hence why I needed another phone. Even though I may not see my friends at least I can talk to them! So if you feel like calling/texting go for it as I look forward to catching up...for some reason if I don't answer, the odds are high that I am riding my bike or my phone is dead and needs some charging...