Day 17 Sheridan to Gillette WY

We made  it!

One hundred and twelve miles. 3,900 feet of climbing; the 2nd most we have climbed thus far in our journey across the USA. To be honest, I still cannot believe we did it. It was quite the challenge. We've done that kind of mileage before, and we've done that much climbing but not both in one day. We are officially 1/3 of the way through our trip; we've traveled 1,190.8 official miles. In reality, the number is higher since John and I have accrued "bonus miles", a result of missed turns and screw ups.

This was a good news/bad news day. Good news - 30 mile of generally down hill riding from miles 20 through 50. Bad news? The rest was generally up hill, beginning with a 15 mile climb to begin the day and 62 miles of hills that where mostly up and some down. As I said before, we gained 3,900 feet of altitude today - that's a lot of climbing. Traditionally the weather for this day of the ride is 110 degrees with a headwind. Good news? We had no wind to speak of and temps in the mid to high 80's. Hot enough for me. If it had been a 110 degrees, I am not sure how I would have done it.

Wyoming, like Montana, is a lot of land with not a lot of people in it. For that reason, there are not many cities or services. There was literally one restaurant between Sheridan and Gillette today. (Did I mention that was a hundred and twelve miles?) It came at mile 72 and is called The Spotted Horse Cafe. The good news? It has great burgers and onion rings to die for. I ate them both with gusto. Both John and I felt renewed afterward. Bad news? A storm was coming and we had to get our butts on the road before it hit. We still had 50 miles to go!

Inside the cafe.

Outside the Painted Pony Cafe

In the end, we beat the storm in, took showers and headed out for a steak dinner at a local Sheridan eatery. We ate our fill and are about to fall over. I will add more thoughts on Wyoming, but right now I have to sleep. Tomorrow we have a mere 75 miles of "relatively" flat roads. Should be an easy day.