Day 20 - Saturday - July 11 - (5014' elev) Casper to Lusk, WY

We started another long (106 miles) ride today through landscape that in no way compares to the splendor of the mountains and some other areas we have visited. Although the land east of Casper is more densely populated, it is still rather monotonous. Closer to Lusk, dry land farming and grassland is more prevalent than the desolate sagebrush we have seen. These two Longhorns paused their grazing to stare at me; you can see the rolling grassland that we were crossing. Strong tailwinds pushed us along very nicely for two thirds of the ride, but then the nasty headwind pushed at us for the final 40 miles or so.

Nonetheless, we arrived at the hotel about 3:45 and were able to line up a hike to Sunday vigil mass at 5:00.

After rap and our pizza party, we enjoyed some time working on the computer in Adirondack chairs on the expansive and plush motel lawn. Eventually we were chased inside by an ominous and flashing approaching storm. Luckily all we got from it was the bright rainbow segment shown below.

Our East Indian friend, Sarge, is shown relaxing in one of the big hammocks on the lawn.

Tom pretty well covered it. We did see long long coal trains probably headed for the power plants in the Midwest and east coast. That makes me a little melancholy knowing they will see Illinois long before I do. As Tom said it was very nice to sit outside tonight and not be straddling a bicycle seat. What the wind took from us Thursday it sort of gave back this morning as we flew for the first 65 miles. Even though the winds shifted after that the tone was already set for a good day. Tomorrow we cross another border into South Dakota.