Mile 1545.42 - In which he angers the East Wind

Most of Day 20 I was reminded of Menelaos, who after victory failed to sacrifice the proper hecatombs and was thus thwarted from making his homecoming until he retraced his steps and offered the gods the proper sacrifice. Unlike Menelaos, I have no pure young calf, nor gold to gild its horns, nor am I sure which god I angered. Until I hear better, I still think Hermes is the most relevant god for bicycle tourists. Whoever you are, if you simply identify yourself and what you want from me, I'll make arrangements to appease you in exchange for clear passage.

Regardless, I was fighting the east wind for nearly every inch I advanced today.

On 450 just out of Wright, I found a young male antelope at the side of the road. We locked eyes a moment, then the race was on. Unfortunately, uphill and against a steady 15-20 mile an hour wind, he had every advantage. He quickly outpaced me and ran to the top of the hill. There he stopped and turned around to wait for me to catch up. When I got up to him, he took off again, staying in the 20' margin between the road and the barbed cattle fence. Again he quickly got ahead of me. So, a couple hundred yards ahead of me, he stopped a second time. This time when I caught up, I had a better downhill so was able to keep up with him for maybe a full minute. But his natural speed and far greater aerodynamicity won out again. This time, about 1/8th of a mile ahead of me, he suddenly veered across the road and into an open pasture to my right. By the time I made it to the gate, he was nearly over a hill and out of sight. So far in the races, that's Antelope 2, Josh and Penny 1.

I crossed the grassy hills of Thunder Basin and came to Black Thunder, North America's largest surface coal mine. I got to the train cars both loaded and waiting to be, lined up by a giant coal hopper dumping the black rock into each car in turn. The conveyor leading to the hopper was around a mile long. There were signs warning of blasting and to avoid the orange smoke. Duly noted. And all that was before I got to the mine proper, or rather the huge piles of inert rock left over after sifting through it all.

I came to a parked car and saw a small boy whose attention was torn between me and the mine as I approached. When I got to him, he told me that if I waited, big trucks of coal drove along the road beneath us. I didn't quite hear him the first time and stopped to ask him to repeat himself. I was soon talking to his grandmother and, I assume, mother, who told me he likes to stop to watch the big trucks. Naturally, we were soon talking about my ride and I gave out another card. I hope half of the cards I've given out turn into readers. Hello you all! Thanks for being a positive enough part of this adventure that I'd want to share more of it with you.

Anyway, I started on and within a couple hundred feet was on the bridge under which the coal trucks traveled. Ok, I've seen double long semis and tanker trucks, there aren't a lot of big trucks that would impress me. Then I heard a rumble and watched as, at about 8mph, this enormous dump truck loaded with coal went under the bridge. The truck was the size of a split-level suburban house. In fact, I would not have been shocked if my parents' house would fit comfortably on the back, and that's not a small house.

There's not a whole lot else to say about this day. It seemed every time I fought my way to the top of a hill, I'd see the next two hills, the second, of course being the tallest. When I got to the top of it, I'd see the next two, and the pattern would be the same. As I was going almost due east, the wind was blowing straight at me almost the whole time. Also, because I had pushed my legs as hard as I could to get up the hill, there was nothing left to push going down. Even downhill, I had to work to get to 13-15mph. There was a hill that I know I would have gone down around 28-30 without wind and in the 45 range if the same wind was behind me, but I was just barely pushing 17. I have to say, there were a couple times in this process where I said aloud 'Oh, screw this!' I was not having fun.

I got to a point where I had only 8 miles left to go until I hit 16 just outside if Newcastle. I thought 'how many hills could they pack in 8 miles?'. Six, not including the climb into town on 16. There was one part approaching town that the wind slacked a bit and moved around to the southeast, but that only helped slightly as once I got to 16, I was pointed right back into it.

I had planed to try to make it the next 27 miles to the South Dakota border, but my legs were done. I went through the whole town of Newcastle trying to find a room, but nowhere had vacancy. Finally I secured a room pretty close to the far edge of town. I had passed by all sorts of good looking taverns and restaurants through town, but now past it, and having no desire to walk the mile and a half back up hill to downtown, my dinner options were slim: Pizza Hut, Subway, or the gas station. I walked into the Pizza Hut where I was promptly ignored by the waitress who was talking with some friends at a table. I grabbed a menu. I stood there. I started to walk to a table, though none of them were set as they were closing in an hour and a half. She made eye contact with me a second time, then went back to her conversation. I slapped the menu on the table, said 'screw this' and stormed out, not even looked at the waitress as she gawked at me. I'm sorry, you just lost business. You can't give me a 'Hi' or 'I'll be right with you' or even an 'I acknowledge your existence, but you are a low priority and I'll get to you eventually'? Well, ask anyone who's served me so far on my trip, I'm a standard 20% tipper. Your loss.

Yeah. Today ranks right up there with the climb to Carson Pass and the climb to Park City in the hardest days of cycling so far. This is exemplified by being the first day that, for the entire day, I averaged under 10 miles per hour. Come on, Wyoming, I thought we were friends.

Day 20, Wright, WY - Newcastle, WY
71.4 miles in 8:00:52 today. Boo. That brings me to 1545.42 in 132:38:02 for the trip. Top speed was a hard earned 25.1mph