Written by Dave

Day 32 – June 29

Seems like we’ve been running around all day – hardly very restful but that’s how it goes when you roll your own adventures. We started the day killing the brekkie buffet as any good cyclist would. We held up the team’s reputation. After brekkie we hit the grocery store to resupply for the road ahead. It was very handy having Cindi’s car as everything is spread out in Casper where the car is king. Gas costs $2.65 a gallon here (about $1AUD per liter, something like a 2001 price).

After brekkie Curtis and I inspected all of the brake pads on our collective bikes. No issues or replacement needed until we reach Rapid City around the 4^th of July. We also did a microscopic review of our tires. We found two of those pesky steel wires from the exploded truck tires we run over every day. The average touring cyclist will share our joy in pulling the small wires – for sure each of them reflects a future flat tire avoided.

The highlight of the day for us had to be having lunch with Chris and his siblings (and their spouses). We met Chris’s brother Daniel back on day 2. I knew Mary, Chris’s sister, back in my work days in the 1990s. I recognized her immediately, she’s hardly changed one bit. Seeing the three of them interact was fun. It was pretty clear that they were related. We hope that their mom’s ceremony this afternoon went well for all of them.

After lunch we walked around town, there’s not much to it really. I snapped a few more alley art photos and we visited the famous Lou Taubert’s Ranch Outfitters store. The store reportedly has over 10,000 pairs of cowboy/cowgirl boots ranging in size AAA-EEE 6 to 16. Nancy had her eyes on a pair of snake skin beauties until she realized that she wouldn’t be able to attach an SPD bicycle cleat – there was no indentation or mounting holes.

Chris and Cindi dropped us back at the hotel, saving us a walk from town and we decided that it was not too hot to walk up the hill the Casper National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. In the hot afternoon sun, this was a bit of a slog but once there we enjoyed a couple good short films and some of the displays. As hard as life was for the American pioneers, the pioneer film made little mention of the impact that migration had on the Native American population. Thankfully in a side theatre, they had a specific film dedicated to the indigenous people. We were not looking to disrespect the pioneers but too often, the original inhabitants get the short end of the stick at these centers.

Wyoming is on the right side of the political spectrum, we knew that before arriving here. Some of our interactions here have veered into political space but so far we have avoided conflict. Nancy gracefully handled the chap in the room next to ours the other day when he said that he didn’t like Mexicans and that there were too many in Florida where he moved from. Today I bit my tongue at brekkie when the MAGA t-shirt guy started complaining about Mohamed Ali protesting the Vietnam war (for the record, Ali served prison time for his convictions while the leader of the MAGA movement had “bone spurs”, just saying). Anyway, Casper and Wyoming are interesting – we’ll get through and continue keeping things civil. Just know that we haven’t been checking the real-estate prices when we pass the realtor offices.  And, for some odd reason, the PBS channels on the TV don’t seem to work…

Tomorrow we head to Douglas, a small town about 60 miles east of here. We met some other cyclists in town today that had stayed at the town park in Douglas where travelers can spend up to a couple nights for free. We have some headwinds in the forecast, so we’ll see how we go.  We have five days travel from here to Rapid City and the 4^th of July where we look forward to another break.