Sunday - No Moaning in Wyoming

Evening all,

We got up this morning after a great nights sleep and still full from the previous nights feast (cheers again guys), this of course didn't stop us tucking into a nice breakfast set aside by Lora (cheers). After this we got on the road around 6am only to find that it was cold, very cold outside. Over the past few days we have got accustomed to applying sun block at 7am and being hot within minutes of leaving the tent but apparently this isn't the case when you're 6000ft up in Utah!

We yet again joined the I-80 to leave Park City and eventually Utah behind. The road took us through some more brilliant scenery through some red rock canyons and small farming towns towards the east of Utah. There were no notable events for the morning apart from Ben being told off by a local for 'urinating' around the back of a gas station when their was a perfectly good rest room in side, a scary moment for him but a funny moment for the rest of us.

As we started our first ascent of the day Jeremy and his brother in law Jed drove past, parked up and got on their bikes with us for the remaining 25 or so miles left of Utah into Evanston, Wyoming. It was great to have them with us as it gave us someone different to talk to (bored of each other, on rides now have an hour of silent cycling and then a break for five minutes when we moan about cycling) and also made those last few miles go a hell of a lot quicker. We were also helped by the fact that Jeremy, who did 175 miles the day before, was pushing our bikes from behind when any of us got tired or started to lag behind. One word, machine! We then crossed into Wyoming (our 4th state) and managed to get a photo with our first state line sign!!

Before we go on with todays blog I feel I have to clarify the rules of the 'Truck wheel count-a-rama' game. When we say we spotted a 22-wheeler we do not mean 22 wheels in total, the rules of the game simply state that you count the sets of wheels not the individual wheels themselves. So for instance what an average american calls an 18 wheeler the game would dictate that that was a 10 wheeler (5 sets on each side). Clear? I hope so.

Other great topics of conversation of the day have revolved around time zones. Like for instance how great would it be if as a school kid you lived in one time zone then travelled into another for school, possibly giving you an extra hour in bed! Exciting stuff.

Anyway the blog. After arriving in Evanston around 11am we all pulled into a gas station to grab some water and say our goodbyes. Here we happened to meet some random bloke with a silver van who knew about Tom Jones (famous welsh singer) but was generally a bit of a nutter and weird. After that encounter we said goodbye to Jeremy and Jed for the last time. Again a big thanks must go out to Jeremy for orchestrating our smooth and comfortable passage through Utah, cheers buddy!!

We popped into a subway (again) for some food and didn't end up getting back on the road until 2pm. There were multiple reasons for this, firstly Tom, as always, spent ages faffing around looking for a fleece as it was starting to get cold. Secondly the lady in the Wyoming information centre was useless and only told us about wild horses (?) and not where we could/nt camp/. Thirdly we couldn't be bothered.

Once back on the road we had three big peaks to get over, the Three Sisters. Tom and Ben mounted the first sister and Jack, again, brought up the rear. The second sister was a little easier than the first and all the boys quite easily got their legs over her. The third sister however proved a little more difficult and stubborn but in the end we all managed to get over her as well.

After some great scenery including wind farms and massive mountains (Wyoming is nice, it has grass!!) we rolled downhill pretty quickly to avoid an ominous rain cloud into the small town of Fort Bridger for some food. Here again we had a chat with a lovely couple and sprightly waitress about our trip and what was coming up before heading on. We also ate some apparently 'English Chips' which were nothing of the sort. This town also managed to fascinate Ben due to the drive-thru liquor store, the epitimy of laziness!!

A short ride later and we were at our destination for the evening, Lyman, where we stayed at a KOA. Here we met a lovely couple for provided us with some good chat, marshmallows and pizza (cheers)!! In return we spread the word of Loras cookies further and yet again they were met with roaring reviews!

And now its time for bed before our cold journey in the morning up some more mountains......only four or so days of mountains left before the downhill and flat begins! Exciting.