Day 17

Day By Day Notes From The Road
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This document updated July 17th, 2004

Seridan to Gillette Wyoming - 111 Miles

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By Lucija:

Sometimes I like to think of my biking as a video game.  I'm the hero and I have one of those little red bars at the bottom of the screen that measures my energy.   In my video game there are things that kill energy, and there are bonuses that increase energy.  My biking video game has the following killing and bonus factors:

Killers:

Energy Bonuses:

Today's ride had many killers.  It was LONG, very HOT (again around 100 degrees), and constantly HILLY.  Thank goodness there was no head wind!  I left at 6.30 in the morning and got into camp only at 4.30pm.  The last rider rolled in around 7.30pm - that's a long day on the bike!

By Erwin:

I started today full of energy, despite the strenuous day yesterday. I was ready to face the challenge of a long, hilly ride in the heat. At the same time, I wanted to make life easy for myself by riding fast. I set out to stay on my bike as much as possible to keep my body in active mode and to avoid wasting time and getting caught in the heat.

I started out biking together with David and Chris, two other Big Riders and working very well together we moved quickly up the first set of hills. Later, David and Chris stopped to stretch but I moved on alone. Unfortunately I had a flat tire - as I fixed my flat, I noticed that without the wind created by moving along, the heat was already bothersome by 9am.

As the day moved on, I biked together with Andrej, a very strong rider from Slovenia. It was fun to notice that I had gotten strong enough to keep up with him, while a week ago, I was not even close to being able to do so. I could not ride up front, however, and ride Andrej's pace while catching all the wind.

The scenery was awesome; we saw young antelope playing in the fields. They made huge leaps and looked like they were almost tipping over forward head-over-feet.

We got to Gillette, a fairly ugly town among dusty mines and prairie around 2pm, before the heat got too bad. It was a great day.

Photos:

Just when I think the landscape can not get any dryer and hotter, it does!  But check out the beautiful Wyoming mountains in the distance!

These days I take advantage of shade wherever I can find it.  This one was great  because it came with a seat and ventilation!  It was a view point over a humongous coal mine on the outskirts of the town of Sheridan.