RockyGrass 2009

The BBT, after 65 days on the road and 2300 miles has made its way back into wonderful Colorado. You know I really underestimated the distance of the BBT as I first thought it'd be around 1750 miles, but we're still 300 miles from home and have covered 2300 miles. It's amazing that we've still arrived everywhere we set out for on time.

One thing I've discovered after being on the road for so long is that my culinary discretion has competely gone out the window (if I ever really had any before is up for debate). The above pic shows both of us enjoying hot dogs and 64 oz of sugar water also called Coke at my favorite watering hole, Conoco. This one just north of Fort Collins. These are perfect spots to get off the bike for a spell. Free refills, onions for your hot dogs in a ketchup-like package, A/C, and clean bathrooms at your disposal.
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I have decided that the only way to actually eat like an "American" is to bicycle 70 miles a day. That is what we are doing lately with our ice cream and fast food and soda intake. Luckily we are burning it all off as we cycle. This type of eating can continue for only 2 days after we finish our cycle tour unless we want to gain 5 lbs. a day. But for the time being, it is what we are craving. I feel sorry for folks that eat this way and don't do outlandish exercise to offset it. That is a recipe for disaster.
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We arrived at RockyGrass on Thursday. After we checked-in we set out to set our tent up, seeking shade as our number one priority. It seemed odd to us that where we chose to set up was completely void of others but we just figured we were early, so we set up and headed out to visit our friend who lives in Lyons. I'm gonna make a long story short here. We we got back to our tent at around 8pm it was gone, literally. All our stuff was in too. We were sorta freaked out to say the least. Plus, the sea of humanity around where our tent used to be was completely out of control. You could not walk without tripping on a guy line of another tent. There was no grass left to be seen anywhere. I have never seen a festival camping scene with that sort a tent density. You could step from the door of one tent directly into another tent, I am not kidding. So we were sorta frantic for a bit, but the chaos of people made it so no one really knew (or cared) about the whereabouts of our tent and stuff. On our way to the main info desk, we stumbled on the new location of our tent. Someone (later we learn it was the RockyGrass "tent police", obviously ex-BlackWater employees) had moved our tent some 50 yards from its original spot. The must have drug it, because all our stuff was inside. They staked it out again (sort of) and now we were directly in a sun spot with neighbors about 1 foot on either side. Not our idea of a good campsite. So we decided to take the tent down and move to a more reasonable location. (Apparently we had set our tent up in a location that didn't "open" until like 6:30pm. Live and learn).
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But, as has happened on this trip all the time, our bad luck turned into better luck. We ran into some friends who had some ground saved and they offered it to us. A quick compass calculation showed that it'd be in the shade in the morning (most important for sleeping-in, which I planned on doing) and we had a new home for the next 3 nites.
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The lineup at RockyGrass is really unmatched by any other festival I've been to (except maybe MerleFest or Hardly Strictly). Any one of the many acts here would be the headliner at other festivals. They even had a TBA spot on the schedule that turned out to be none-other-than Yonder Mountain String Band. I was in heaven with all the good music. My favorite acts of the week had to be the Steve Earle, The Wilders (pictured below), Danny Paisley and Southern Grass, Del McCoury, California, Kruger Brothers, Steep Canyon Rangers, and Sarah Jarosz.

There there is the actual venue itself. A river runs thru it, literally. Some folks even put their chairs in the river as their spots from which to enjoy the shows. Here is a pic below of the mass of people cooling off in the river during the festival. The stage is nice because it has an open back that shows the trees swaying in the breeze with is way better'n any tapestry that could be created.

We thoroughly enjoyed the festival and the town of Lyons. There is the Stone Cup Coffee shop that was only 1/4 mile from our tent door that had a $1 cup of joe and an honesty jar. How cool is that, especially since the lines to order specialty drinks snaked out the door. It was truly the place to hang out when not in the festival.
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We won the RockyGrass campground challenge (for Saturday). This is the challenge for the most eco-friendly campsite. We advertised our site as having nothing, and hence the smallest footprint and most eco-friendly and got the most votes. We won a nice prize and got the BBT announced on the main stage which was cool. We also won this award at Telluride BF. It's nice to get a bit of recognition for bicycling to the festival.
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I'm still sorta in shock that the BBT is somewhat over. We successfully hit 6 festivals in 8 weeks without any problems. I'm always grateful when we are able to this on any long-distance adventure, It is never a given since life can throw you many curveballs. Lucky of us, we are both good curveball hitters. Now we just have the 250 miles of riding to get home.
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For those of you that are considering bicycle touring in the future, I'd like to highly recommend it. I can think of no better way to simplify your vacation plans. Life gets so easy when you are bicycle touring. The activity of the day is bicycling. All you really have to worry about is water and weather. Camp wherever you get tired. Save money because your main activity is the biking which is free. Eat lots of food, guilt free. See the country in a way that is not possible from an auto. And each month that your spend traveling on a bicycle you become more in tune with your body and your inner self (you have lots of time to think while you are pedalling). Your happiness will grow in spite of yourself. If there is a downside to bicycle touring, I'm at a loss to think of it.
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Here's a closing pic: Biking about 1000 miles thru Wyoming has helped to deter us for ever wanting to try Meth. I guess that is a big problem for that state. Not sure why it's so bad there. Here is one billboard in downtown Laramie, WY.

Laramie, WY --> Lyons, CO RockyGrass!!!!!

From Laramie, WY we decided to just get the Lyons the most direct way and that meant taking 287 thru Fort Collins. That meant getting some time with our friend Andy. He put up some neat signs on the road that led us to his house via backroads, below is the first one we encountered.
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Kiki had her first corn dog today and I mean ever! I guess the touring has finally opened up some cravings in her that she has been suppressing. She actually didn't know that corn dogs were wrapped in "Corn" bread until I made the connection to her that that was why they were called "Corn" dogs. We had a good laugh.
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Got a great nights sleep and a great feed at Andy's house. How nice it is to land in friendly waters even after only 3 days of riding from the last festival.
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Took backroads to Lyons from F.C. and have now arrived to the granddaddy of bluegrass festivals out west. Lots of "Lance Armstrong" types on the roads cycling past us without so much as a wave or a howdy. I find that a bit odd, but I guess that big city for ya (Say it isn't so Joe!). I've never seen tents packed so tight as this year at RockyGrass. You literally cannot walk through the sea of tents with out hurting yourself on a guy line.
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Well, the library in Lyons is not offering long computer time, so I'll have to add more tidbits later. We'll be heading to friends in Boulder for visits on July 27-30th and then it's about 250 miles back to CB and the completion of the BBT. It's been a great "ride" and the lineup at RockyGrass is quite a reward for our efforts.

License Plates for Snodgrass

I am starting a new charity. It is called "License Plates for Snodgrass". Here's how it works: While bicycle touring you see about 2 license plates a day on average, on the side of the road. I thought I could pick up the plates and then have some of the greats musician I get to see at the festivals sign them. I can then sell them and donate the money to help save a local mountain in Crested Butte. More on that mountain the fight to save it at FriendsofSnodgrass.org.
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You can check back at this link often and see what new license plates are available as I'll be adding more as I find them and succeed in getting them signed. And remember there is only ONE of each plate available. This is a one-of-a-kind souvenir and for a good cause too.
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So if you'd like to donate to save a mountain while helping to beautify our highways and get a nifty autographed license plate you can do so by emailing me. I can send your plate when I return from the BBT after Aug. 5th. The plates can be purchased for $25.

This is a Nebraska Trucking plate signed by Steve Earle at his performance at RockyGrass 2009. A classic plate signed by the seminal truck driving song singer himself.


The ever cool, Spring Creek, posing with Colorado plate #1, Spring Creek is from Colorado too. (this plate is still available)





Wyomingans, Anne and Pete Sibley with Wyoming plate #2, (this plate is still available)

BearTrap Festival --> Laramie, WY

You know you are in Wyoming when you pass mail boxes like this one. If you can't read it, it says Cheney. I thought about what a great and realistic opportunity it was to maybe give ol' Dick a piece of my mind, but I opted against.

We arrived at the BearTrap Festival but only after the toughest hill yet. From Casper proper to the festival grounds, it was about 5 miles and 3000 ft. That wasn't so much the problem, the problem was that some of the grade must have been 10% or more. We made it, but our faces were turning blue. We even had one German couple stop and give us some juice and tell us they felt so sorry for us. We we elated to finally arrive at the top though and see the festival stage and grounds. Now we just had to follow my friend Steve's map and find his family's cabin, where we'd be staying for the next 3 nights (big coincidence I know). As we were searching for the cabin and about 5 minutes before we were going to officially declare ourselves lost, there comes Steve and Melissa in their car to guide us in the last 1/4 mile. We were expecting them this weekend, but the timing couldn't have been better. Their cabin was built in 1952 by Steve's grandfather. It's a log cabin tucked in bunch of pine trees. A peaceful place to be. We felt really pampered to have such accommodations.

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The festival is only a 2-day affair, so we had all of Friday off which called for a trip (in the car) to Casper. I coerced everyone to stop by the Dairy Queen as we passed it. Mostly because I began hyperventilating once I figured out that Steve, the driver, was actually going to pass it up. I was like, "NNNNOOOOOOOO, PLEASE GOD NNNOOOOOO!". So, they took pity and we all enjoyed some sort of ice cream treat (though I'm pretty sure I enjoyed mine more).

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We tracked down the festival host, Jana and let her know of our arrival. They were super stoked that we'd arrived. Turns out that the Casper newspaper had done an article about the BBT recently. Plus, during the 2 days of the festival, they announced our tour's info and statistics four times! We felt pretty special to say the least. But man, after bicycling up Casper Mountain, I was like, "Hey, do you think you can throw a coupon for a double bacon cheeseburger with curly-q fries in with those props?"

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Our homies, Spring Creek, is playing BearTrap. We love them and have since they were the house band at the Princess Wine Bar in my hometown of Crested Butte, Colorado. Below is a picture of them during their first set Sunday morning. They even played my request, "You Don't Have to Move That Mountain". They put on two incredible sets and the crowd responded well too.

One funny thing that happened during the festival was during Asleep at the Wheel's set, there was lots of rain and wind and lots of people called it quits and headed out. Then their headman, Ray Benson, starts talking about all the people who have left and says "All those folks that left were from Colorado", and the crowd went crazy! I sorta hunkered down, proud at least that I had stuck it out. But then again it served me (us) right since in Colorado we tend to joke a bit (a lot?) about Texas skiers (Asleep at the Wheel is from Austin, TX).

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BearTrap is a nice festival, still very small scale, which I like. There was camping galore all around the festival for those that wanted to camp and Casper was only a 15 minute drive down the mountain for supplies and what not.

We headed out of BearTrap after one last night in the Cabin. That was some good sleeping let me tell you. Still, we must be in biker mode because the haystacks immediately reminded us of muffins and made us hungry. Here's another thing I've noticed about Wyoming. I've determined that the towns here support one liquor store per 100 people. So for example, if you roll into a town of 340 folks, you can expect to find 3 liquor stores.
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We are taking some long and windy roads. Wait, that's confusing. I want to say the wind blows on these roads not that they are curvy. We are in sight of lots of wind farms each day now. Seems like Wyoming has it all when it comes to energy resources, oil, gas and wind and lots of sun too.

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We stayed last night in Medicine Bow, WY. Pop. 274, liquor stores 2. It was blazing hot out. Someone said 96F. We sought shelter in the gas station convenience store. Things were looking good when I spied a fountain station and even some chili and crackers. Now I have to admit, a pot of chili in a convenience store would almost never catch my attention but at this moment, it looked so good. I served myself a bowl and ate it standing up. Plus they had a bucket full of saltines, of which I must have put about 30 packets into my chili. In fact, when I threw away all the wrappers for my saltines, I was a bit embarrassed because they became all un-crumpled and the shear quantity of them looked sorta ridiculous as they cascaded into the wastebasket. But man, was that chili good! Oh, and did I mentioned that they had a soft-serve ice cream self-serve machine too! Goodbye 96F, Hello extreme nausea! We both hurt ourselves.

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We're staying tonite in Medicine Bow. This is the town made famous in Owen Wister's novel "The Virginian". One qoute from the book is particularlly famous "When you call me that, Smile," and is written many spots throughout the town. They are pretty proud of this connection to this famous book. There is the Virginian hotel, Trampas Hotel, and the Miss Molly Laundromat. We hung out in the free town museum and learned all about Medicine Bow and life in the early 1900s. That evening we camped in town park which invites campers with tents to overnite there. We felt very welcomed in MB.

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From MB we've decide to beeline to Rockygrass because we don't want to risk missing any of the awesome music (you should just check out the lineup!). So that has us on Hwy 287 all the way to Fort Collins where we are looking forward to hooking up with our good friend Andy. He and his wife just got back from bike touring New Zealand and the trial and tribulations of bike touring are sure to be fresh in memory. It will be nice to reconnect with him again (his wife is, unfortunately, out of town).

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The ride into Laramie has been somewhat uneventful. The winds have not been hurtful which is better than nothing. All our systems are greased and running smoothly. We've got this bike touring down to a science really. I know where everything is in my panniers (finally) and I don't get such a sore rump anymore. We can put our tent up in no time flat and I really look forward to bedding down for the evening in our familiar abode even if it is in an unfamiliar place. 50 miles doesn't seem very difficult. I am sick of the clothes I bicycle in and look forward to ceremoniously burning them when we return to Crested Butte.
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I had to throw this pic in. It is as you arrive into Casper, WY. We were hungry too, but I have to say, their "reverse psychology" didn't work on me. We just pedaled on to a different diner.

Thermopolis --> Casper, Riding with the Tiger

So as mentioned, Aaron, above, has dropped out for a bit to give his hurting knee a rest. He's been applying ice and Tylenol, but needs to just not bike for a bit. We'll meet up again in Casper at the BearTrap Festival. We're sorry to see him go as it was fun to have a official Posse on the BBT, but that's cycle touring for you.
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The road from Thermopolis to Casper begins with 25 miles though the Wind River Canyon with was some stunning scenery. We get to Shoshoni after that and this appears to be more ghost town than real town. Most store fronts are boarded up and aside from the gas station, there is not much going on. Fine with us though as what is going on involves a counter to sit at and a fountain drink machine to refill our sodas with. I'm a little concerned with how much soda I can consume while I'm bike touring. Speaking of concerns, did I mention that I had ice cream 3 times yesterday? Oh yea, and speaking of yesterday, I met this 86-year old WWII vet that was just as nice as can be. He gave us a good run down of the history of Worland (where we were eating breakfast ice cream #1). But he did say one thing that was sorta odd. He was talking about Ten Sleep, the town, says, "Well once there's these hippies came to town and the locals just sheared 'em (guffaw!)." Now I'm not sure if he was refering to a physical shearing or a metaphorical shearing, but all the same I wasn't sure that it was a P.C. thing to say, then again, I'm not sure that he gave a damn. Still, a super nice old guy who I would have loved to chat with for weeks on end.
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OK, back to the travels. We're now heading from Shoshoni to Casper on a road, Hwy 20/26, that one local describes, I'm not making this up, as "100 miles but it feels like 300". Now if that doesn't get you amped up to ride, I don't know what will. Below is a sample of that "300" miles. Nice shoulder though and we did have a wicked tailwind so we weren't complaining.

About 1/3 way to Casper, with no shade in sight, we get to the hamlet of Moneta (2 buildings). OK, time to do a little begging. We ask some guys drilling for water if we can take refuge in an old abandoned barn near them. They say "Sure, just watch out for rattlers". Hey, man, anywhere would have been better then in the sun and wind. So after kicking some dead rabbits from the barn that was giving the area a rather foul odor, we hunkered down for a couple hours in the shade. The drilling men came in after a while (and woke us) and we chatted about drilling. Actually, we bombarded them with all the questions one gets while cycling past all the oil and gas works in Wyoming. They we really nice. One called his Dad "his old man". Smoked Camels. And drank 2 Bud Lights each for break. Now this was "real Wyoming". Below is a pic of us in our pitiful break spot, you can't see all the rat turds, but they are there believe me.

At 1/2 way to Casper, we arrive to Hiland. This place was CLASSIC. Let me tell you, I did not say the O-word here (Obama). In fact I'm pretty sure I did everything I could to appear like a local oil-rigging roughneck who just happened to be on bicycle tour to 6 bluegrass festivals between assignments (I put my gum inside my lip to make it appear like I was chewing). Hiland is in the absolute center Wyoming on the map. We were elated to find out that they served Hamburgers and Fries. And tried not to pay too much attention to some of the wall decorations, like the one picture below or the photo of Hitler that said something to the effect of "Hitler registered firearms in 1935 for the betterment of the population", or something like that.

This gas station was sooo cool though and even had two lazy boys for us to relax in after our burgers and fries, which, by the way, only cost $5 each!

Today was really panning out to be the classic bike touring day, that is you never knew what was going to happen, it just kept happening. And that's when Aaron stolled in. We're like, "What! How did you get here?" He had hitched a ride with a couple Shoshoni Indians who were heading to Casper. His bike was thrown on the back of a big pile of luggage so that it was higher than the cab of the truck. All three of them squished into the cab of the small mini truck. We wished him well and will see him again in a couple days and can't wait to see what stories he'll have to tell.

So the wind is just howling and it's going in our favor. This makes for great biking, both because you can fly (15 mph vs. normally going 11mph) and you can speak normally because you don't have the wind in your ears. It really gives you a "rider's high" to cycle with the wind. We call it "Riding with the Tiger" as in Tiger Woods, as in TW, as in Tail Wind. We go thru all this code because we don't want to jinx the wind. Sorta like when someone is pitching a no hitter. Just ignore it and hope things don't change.

Did I tell you this place, Hiland gas stop, was the real deal? 50 miles from the next town? With a rifle sitting by the cashier (loaded I'm sure). I'm serious, right there, leaning on the counter, just begging some to drive off without paying for their gas. There were so many things I could have snapped picures of.

So the wind is just howling and it's going in our favor. This makes for great biking, both because you can fly (15 mph vs. normally going 11mph) and you can speak normally because you don't have the wind in your ears. It really gives you a riders high to cycle with the wind. We call it "Riding with the Tiger" as in Tiger Woods, as in TW, as in Tail Wind. We go thru all this code because we don't want to jinx the wind. Sorta like when someone is pitching a no hitter. Just ignore it. That's what we do too, just ignore the wind, don't mention it, and maybe it'll just stay the way it is. As we pulled into camp this evening, I realize we have just eclipsed 2000 miles. Yee-haw. A great ending to a wonderful day.

Buffalo to Ten Sleep to Thermopolis

So Kiki and I have traded in our bicycles. That was just too hard and too slow. Plus when we saw this Trike for sale that has the back end of a Ford Fiero, well we just traded in our bicycles and off we rode. We have now ditched the BBT and are on our way to Sturgis. OK, not really, but we did run into this lovely lady from Buffalo who was in her senior years who was a great ambassador to the small hamlet. She rides with her full-size black poodle in the back seat. Quite a site. I'm sure she gets stopped by everyone to as questions about her ride.

The festival at Buffalo, the Big Horn Mountain Festival, was out of this world. I was trying to think about how to sum it up, and here's what I came up with. "I had a flush toilet all weekend and did not once have to wait in line." Anyone who's ever been to a festival can relate to this I'm sure. It was so awesomely small scale, I just loved it. Above is Kiki demonstrating our patented "Chair Jacking" maneuver. Our motto is, "If you're gonna chair jack, go big".

Probably my favorite "discovery act", (an act I'm seeing for the first time), was Jalan Crossland Band (pictured above). They were very unexpected and hail just 60 miles from Buffalo in Ten Sleep. Let's see, how to describe them? How 'bout with some lyrics:

1) "Don't Taz me bro, Don't Taz me Bro, I'm an American don't you know, Read me my rights or let me go........."

2) "Oh my smells like tires, someone save the baby it's a trailer park fire....."

They were just high energy, great, irreverent lyrics, appealing to the trailer trash crowd and the non-trailer trash crowd alike.

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The next band that really stood out was the Wiyos. They are a very unique band doing real old time music, circa 1920, 1930, but also some Bob Wills inspired stuff as well as Django Reinhardt

gypsy jazz stuff. Lots of chord changes on the guitar, a great pedal steel player and a lead singer who plays the harmonica really well. I was not expected this type of act at a Bluegrass Festival but was very happily surprised.

While I'm summing things up in very simple terms, the above picture sums up Wyoming for me. This gentleman, Lynn Young, was the quintessential Wyomingan. Probably raises cattle, has some sheep, loves his horses, and in some way is or was connected to the production of oil or gas. Very nice folk these Wyomingans. We've had nothing but great encounters with them.

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The festival wrapped up Sunday afternoon. We were very happy to have an new addition to the BBT, Aaron, who drove all the way from Austin to begin riding with us. By my calculations, that increases the size of the BBT by 50%! We immediately hit it off with Aaron and learn that he is gonna carry a guitar too! That could turn out to be very entertaining.

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Our trail leads again over the Big Horn Mountains and 5000ft of elevation gain as we head to Thermopolis. We head out of Buffalo on Sunday evening at 6pm with the intent of getting 10-20 miles up the road and up the hill before dark. The weather was really throwing us a curve ball with clouds and lightening and one big F350 truck stop to tell us "You all know there is a severe thunderstorm warning for this area?" He seemed somewhat incredulous about us being on bicycle out there and pretty much figured we'd be stuck dead if we continued. We decided to go further but the weather kept giving us warnings that it'd be better to bed down. Which we did after only 10 miles. Still we were 10 miles closer to our destination and a good bit higher. Our new companion is a trooper, but the hill is pretty tough for him and his knee begins to bother him a bit. We camp literally 30 feet from Hwy 16 on some tall grass that made for a super comfy mattress under out tents. Thunderstorms never materialize.

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The next morning, we head up and to the summit of Powder River Pass at 9667 ft. We had a great break at the summit with lots of folks asking us questions and giving us sodas and apples. Then this kid starts riding a unicycle and doing lots of tricks like juggling and riding the unicycle down a small hill, 4-wheel drive style. It was all very bizarre and entertaining.

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The other side of the pass leads to, I think it's called, Leigh Canyon. This is the best 50 miles of the BBT so far and it's the only road we get to do twice so that is great. It's mostly downhill to Ten Sleep from the pass with lots of good cliff scenery to take in. At times that can be very dangerous if you stop paying attention to the road.

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After the beautiful descent, you make it (back) to Ten Sleep. I think the bottom two pics best describe the town. Small and quirky, that are the words that come to mind. These two establishments are right across the street from one another!

We hang out at the gas station and get fountain drinks and watch it rain. It so nice to watch it rain when you are near a roof! And for 15 minutes, it really must have rained an inch. As we sat there, we met Dave Egger a local school teacher and all-round nice guy. He was sharing our table with his wonderful kids, Bryley and Canyon, and we started discussing our bike tour and the pros of living in Ten Sleep. Before long, Dave has offered us his backyard to camp in, which is great because Aaron's knee continues to bother him and going further is not an option. Below is a pic of the Trail Magicians themselves during a break in the rain. Later, it turns out that Dave has some free rooms in his house and he "twists our arms" to just stay in them instead of our tents. We get a great shower and have some great conversations with Dave before calling it an early evening (since we were all bushed from the big climb).

From Ten Sleep, we head out early to beat the heat. Our goal is to make it to Thermopolis, the home of the world's largest mineral hot spring. You know you are getting close to hot water when you pass signs like this along the way.

Mostly uneventful, we arrive at Thermopolis, or Thermop as the locals call it. Our first stop is the State Mineral Bath. A free place for the public to soak. I guess it was party of the treaty with the Indians when we purchased this place in the 1890's that they would not charge to use it. Well that was pretty cool and the hot baths themselves were see-ack. So refreshing after the 62 mile ride from Ten Sleep.

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Our next stop is the "Dairyland" malt shoppe for good ol'fashioned ice cream. We meet a local named Harold who was cruising around Thermop on his bicycle and he personally guided us to the Dairyland. We as Harold what his favorite pickup lines were, as he professed his "love for the ladies". He ponders the question for a bit then blurts out "Take it or leave it". We blew milkshake out of our noses.

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After the malt shoppe we hit up the library and then try to figure out camping. I find a baseball diamond that looks great for camping and I report this to the troops. As we head there at 8:30pm though, we see the parking lot is jammed packed and there are games raging under the lights. Opps! Off to plan B. We had no plan B actually, but Kiki takes charge and leads us around and eventually we end up in a small plot of desert on the outskirts of an apartment complex. We all agree it looks like it'll do especially since it's getting dark.

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Camping turned out fine in our small plot of desert and we set out after drinking some coffee. Aaron informs us that we're gonna have to split up for a bit because his knee is not feeling well. He decides to make Casper in 4-5 days versus the 2 days it will take us. Saddened, we bid Aaron farewell until the next festival.

Big Horn Mountain Festival

We have arrived in Buffalo, WY after 18 days taking the long way from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Buffalo is a typical Wyoming town. The sign says only 3500 inhabitants, but really it feels and looks like it should be 20,000. Maybe that's just a Wyoming thing with all the wide open space and all. The town itself is right on Interstate 90 just 30 miles south of Sheridan, so it has that Interstate feel (lots of hotels and lots of fast food), but looking past that it's got a lot more. The first thing I noticed when coming into town are all the sculptures of the by D. Michael Thomas. They are amazing and depict the Johnson Cattle cattle wars of 1892. I'll have to read up on that one. Below is the sculpture that greets you as you come into Buffalo on Hwy 16.


The festival is only in its 5th year and is still pretty small. It is at the fairgrounds. It reminds me a lot of the festival in Hotchkiss, CO but maybe only 1/3 of the size. Still, even with it's small size, I'm super excited about he line up, especially the SteelDrivers and Anne & Pete Sibley. Here's the line-up below:

• The SteelDrivers
• The Greencards
  
• The Wiyos
• Pete Wernick & Flexigrass
• The Special Consensus
• Long Road Home
• The Jalan Crossland Band
• Anne & Pete Sibley
• Jeff Troxel
• Steve Smith & Hard Road
  
• Bill Evans & Megan Lynch
• The Teka Brock Band
  
• D. Michael Thomas
• Too Wet to Plow
• Ralph Reed, Jr.

Basin to Buffalo, WY, arriving at the festival

The newspaper in Basin is called the "Republican Rustler". Moments after learning this, I cycled passed a large granite "Ten Commandments" that was proudly displayed on Basin's main street. Just observations, but all the same, was pretty sure that I'd have trouble living here. And so we headed out of Basin at exactly 7pm for a early-evening 10 miles. It was just too hot today to cycle between to 1pm and 5pm hours. So instead, we just hung out around the Basin County Courthouse, which happens to have HUGE trees and lots of shade. It's a nice way to break of the day though as we did 50 before noon and then another 10 after it cools down. We are getting close to Buffalo and the festival, so we do not really have to do big days. 60's will get us there right on time. Riding at 7pm our shadows were growing really long, so I snapped the below pic.


We have been cycling with the thought of the Big Horn Mountains in the back of our minds for some days now. We know the climb starts at 4600 ft and goes to 9666 ft, for a 5000 ft gain over about 35 miles. This could turn out to be our toughest climb yet even though it's not the highest. We've already decided to break it up into two days. Climb most one day, then finish the climb the next day. In this way, we make it seem more doable.

We have been passing some gorgeous ranches in Wyoming and I can't help but think about the days in the 1860's when being here in Wyoming was not such an easy thing to make happen. I wonder what those pioneers would have thought if they knew that 140 years later, folks would be bicycling thru this same country just to go to a music festival!! We have passed some wonderfully old barns in various stages of decay. Above is one example.

They are proud of their connection to the cow here in Wyoming and this wasn't the first of these types of signs that we saw on the highway. I was getting a hankering for some jerky passing all this prime cattle grazing land.
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We did a little shortcut that got us to the small town of Ten Sleep which is the last of the flatness for us. We arrived right at breakfast #2 time and lucky for us Ten Sleep is home of the Crazy Woman Cafe that served us up some piping hot coffee and pancakes and french toast. We chatted up some dirt bike riders from Canada who were following the Continental Divide Trail back to their homes. I just love Cafes in the morning when I'm bike touring. Something about the bottomless cup of joe and the soft chair to sit in thatis near a clean restroom with flush toilet that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Across the street from the Crazy Women Cafe is the Dirty Women Soda Fountain Shop. You gotta love Ten Sleep. The town was super quaint, one of my favorites yet. And contrary to Basin, Wy, it definitely had me saying, "I could live here". Of note this evening was the fact that while cycling, Kiki got a bug in her ear that left us scratching our heads as to what to do. Kiki'd be like, "OH MY GOD, I can hear it moving", then she'd be jumping up and down with her head tilted like a 10 year old who just hopped out of the swimming pull. Not sure what the passing cars thought, but none thought enough to pull over and inquire. They're probably just like, "Well good, there's 'nuther a them demmicrats with a bug in her ear. Serves her right." Who knows, but Kiki persevered and the bug at least stopped moving and we cycled on. We later had the idea of pouring water in her ear, which we did 4 or 5 times. Didn't find the bug, so it may still be in there, but at least she seems fine now.
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From Ten Sleep, it's into the beautiful Big Horn Mountains. . Right away the scenery became jaw dropping. This may be my favorite road so far in Wyoming and that includes our jaunt into Yellowstone. Lots of color in the cliffs, lots of beautiful trees. A loud, raging river at the bottom. Everything you need for a super scenic bicycle ride.

We were pulled over for one break when a car stopped to ask us if we needed anything. We didn't really need anything, but extra water is always appreciated. Tim, from Sheridan, was a cyclist himself and we chatted for some time. Then he dug deep in his cooler and gave us some organic yogurt which considering our overheated states, was greatly appreciated. We informed Tim about the festival in Buffalo and invited him to join us, so we may see him there. It's fun when you're on bicycles, this type of stuff can happen to you. When you're in a car, or even just walking for that matter, it's just not the same as being on a bicycle. People seem to relate to bicycles in some way, either they do it themselves, or they just appreciate the effort and want to know more about it. Whatever the dynamic at work here, when bicycle touring you're sure to have wonderful meetings with your fellow humans.

The above two pictures are taken from Highway 16 between Ten Sleep and Buffalo. A wonderful road for all travellers but especially for bicyclist and motorcyclist; lots of curves. About 3/4 of the the way to the top, we decided to call it a day. There was an old defunct lodge "Deer Haven", that had lots of cabins and what not, but was closed. We found a nice flat spot by an ever precious picnic table and had a wonderful wilderness experience by a raging river; totally alone. Camping is so easy out west. I really can't even imagine paying for camping (though I have a couple times). When you are on a bicycle or hiking in the west, you can really just get 3 miles out of any town and boom, you can camp anywhere you want. You have to use some judgment and show respect for landowners, but that done, it's still really easy to find spots to pitch a tent, which is gratifying. Of course, if we were traveling in a car, that'd make it more difficult, not impossible by any stretch, just more difficult to be stealth and discreet.

So we made it thru the Big Horns, but it was no free ride let me tell you. It's kinda like you get to the top in 20 miles, but then for 20 miles you just have to go up then down thru the mountains and valleys, then it's 20 miles of down. I don't know, I could be a bit jaded, because it seemed like we were going up (and 4 mph), way more than we should have. I still loved the road though. Highway 16 has my vote for best road in Wyoming. Upon arriving in Buffalo, we hit up the "Main Street Diner", which was pretty much Buffalo's answer to the "Durango Diner", one of our favorites in Colorado. Later, I just had to put my new drink holder to the test with a 64 oz. fountain drink from the Kum and Go. It held up. Now, after 18 days and about 1000 miles of riding, we're ready to begin festivating once again. And we are both ready to kick our feet up and do some serious relaxing and listening.

Cody to Big Horn Mountains

We found a campsite 3 miles outside of Cody last night. We employed the classic camping practice of cycling out of town at about 7pm and riding till we find the perfect spot to throw down for the evening. But that, of course, was after getting a much needed shower at the Cody Aquatic Center. When we employ this camping technique we just keep a lookout for flat pieces of land that look like they don't really belong to anyone (Nat'l Forest, BLM, or otherwise). By setting out tent up near dusk and leaving shortly after sunrise, we're out of there before anyone really has time to notice us.
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This morning the only ones to notice us were the cows (and one bull). They were very curious of us and came within spitting distance of our tent. It wasn't scarey, but they really got a lot closer than I thought prudent cows should get. Then there was the issue of the bull, who by his mere size deserved at least a bit of respect. It just so happens this morning we woke to another flat tire, but his time it was on my bike not Kiki's.


Oh well, we didn't want to get an early start did we, especially since we're heading into Wyoming's "Basin", which I'm sure is similar to Death Valley. So I change the tube and Kiki, in her new role, finds the culprit piece of glass in my tire. We have definitely learned (the hard, long way) to try really hard to find out why you got a flat before putting in the new tube.
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We have chosen a good way thru Wyoming so far as all morning we had a lovely tailwind and averaged 15 mph (instead of the normal 11) and most days leading to today have been favorable as well. While only 4 mph difference, it makes the world of difference for you mental condition. You feel like you are flying! We even got our "High Noon Five-Oh" today (50 miles by noon). We've landed in Basin, WY at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains. We're at 3600 ft. of elevation and the pass we'll climb, Power River Pass is almost at 10,000 ft. So this may be our biggest pass to climb yet! I'm not looking forward to it, but the saving grace is that we have Wed. and Thurs. to make the climb. So there is no rush.
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We are in Basin, WY and have the rest of the day to relax and goof off. We only need to cover 60 miles and already have 57 done by 1pm. Wyomingans have been super nice to us so far. Very inquisitive of our venture and very accommodating when we need help. Most towns we've traveled thru are tiny and even when you get to a "big" city, it only has 9,000 people (Cody).

Jackson Hole to Tetons to Yellowstone

We left Jackson Hole behind as we looked north for Amerca's great Yellowstone Nat'l Park. You are not long out of Jackson before you get your first view of the Grand Tetons. These mountains are stunning no matter what time of year you see them. Jaggedly majestic. Snow and granite. And on bicycle, you just get to pedal and contemplate them for hours on end. As we entered Teton Nat'l Park, they have a nice new bicycle pathway that is 8 miles long with we gladly took to get of the main road. If only this path extended the length of the two parks we were about to see that would be the bomb, maybe some day.
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We bicycled to two miles shy of Yellowstone and ended at Flagg Ranch Lodge. We immediately found their comfy couches to lounge on and take little naps. The plan was to stealth camp somewhere nearby after sundown but a girl approached us and asked if we were on bicycle. Soon we had 3 new friends, Kaitlyn, Eleanor and Dolly, three super-women cycling across the entire USA to Oregon. We all decided to go in on the rather expensive Nat'l Park Campground ($26.50, "That includes toilets" Natl Park Employee).

------>>> Gary showing off his 4th of July bugwear as Dolly and Eleanor look on

As I'm checking in, 2 more cyclist come in, and I send them to our campsite, so now we have 7 cyclists. Now we're talking economy of scale! It was truly fun to be in a posse again. The cyclist, Albert, even carried a full-sized tire pump! How's that for bragging rights. We chatted much of the evening about our respective trips and the funny things that have happened along the way.

We're lucky, because the 3 girls are heading our way for the next 60 miles, so we all decided to stay together to the next campsite, Madison, in Yellowstone. We start out the morning with me boldly proclaiming that "today we are going to see a bear". And seriously, withing a mile of starting, there was a Grizzly on the side of the road. While I was excited to see one, I admit, I felt a bit vulnerable on my bicycle as we passed it. But ol'Grizzly wasn't into tough and chewy biker legs that morning thank goodness and we passed without incident.
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Yellowstone has no shoulder on the side of the road to speak of which is a bummer. So as it was 4th of July weekend, we jolstled for position with all the RV's and Trailers. The weather was the full gamit today and at one point, all 5 of us were huddled under an boardwalk to escape the rain. We pulled into Madison CG only to see the "Full" sign proudly displayed. Hmmmmm. We definitely had to put our best man on this job. We sent Kiki out to scope out the possiblities. Before long she bagged us a site with a friendly family of 4 who didn't mind sharing their site with 5 sweaty bicyclist. This family was truly an example of kindness, with the Mom offering us lots of food they needed to get rid of (which we gladly accepted!). And even after offering to pay them for our share of the campsite, they refused! Man! I need to take some notes on being nice.

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Oh, yea, prior to arriving at Madison, Kiki's front tire when flat. We repaired it under a hail of enemy fire (mosquitoes) and proceeded onward. It only lasted 12 miles before it went flat again. We repaired it again and that got us to the campground. All seemed well on the high pressure in the tire front. Alas, no. Woke to the same tire being flat. Oh, man, this was getting old. I checked and rechecked the suspect tire (a new tire by-the-way) but could never find any cause for the flats. I put a new tube in and we went on. 10 miles down the road we get another flat (that's 4 if you're counting). I'm like, OK, let's put on the spare tire and see if that doesn't fix things. As I'm doing that, Kiki inspects her suspect tire and finds an embedded piece of glass in a thick part of the tread that comes all the way thru the tire. Bingo! Problem solved (but not before some major frustration!). Lesson learned though, if I ever get flat after recently repairing a flat, I'll inspect the tire CLOSELY!

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Of the three superwomen, Dolly has an interesting story. Her mom bicycled across the USA in 1976 with the Bike-cenntenial thing that went on that year. Dolly is following her mom's exact route and even has the same cookpot that her mom used. How cool is that. (Her blog here),

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We say goodbye to our short-lived peloton of bicycle tourists as we head east and they head west. We've seen a number of animals in Yellowstone; moose, bear, elk, bison. It is so great to be on the bicycle when these sitings take place because the traffic jams can really back up for miles. On the bike, we can just cycle up, take a gander and cycle on, never once having to slow down our progress. (Some people actually honk!) Even though it's 4th of July weekend in Yellowstone, really, a recipe for a major head gasket conniption, we remain chronically unstressed. All of course thanks to our simple mode of travel.

-------------------->> That's a baby moose and mama moose

We exit Yellowstone thru the east entrance and into Buffalo Bill country. On our way to Cody, WY (where there is a rodeo every night all summer long!). We make it about 4 miles out of the park before we start looking for camping. The available campgrounds don't allow soft-sided camping (tents and pop-ups) because of the grizzlies. Low on options, we have to stealth camp in a picnic area by a river that, lucky for us, has bear boxes. We have a very peaceful night literally 10 feet from the raging river (music to my ears as I sleep). I love having these "to-die-for" views from my tent window while the rest of the world is slaving away their whole lives so that they can create the same view on their own 35-acre fenced-in plot. I much prefer enjoying the view and then giving it back. Life is so ephemeral anyway, why worry so much about owning part of the earth?

We make it to Wapiti (Pronunciation: Hippity, hoppity there goes the wapiti), WY and the restaurant by the Post Office is shut down. Damn! Where to get coffee? We were just about to resign to the fact that there'd be no coffee this morning when appears a hotel/restaurant in the distance. And get this, we're talking breakfast buffet for $6.99. Oh, man, there is no better time for a breakfast buffet as after bicycling 30 miles and hoping for coffee the last 20 of them! Sometime the road really treats us well. I hurt myself after a completely uncalled for 2nd helping at the buffet (you should have seen my first helping!). I believe tomorrow I might be able to coin the term "Buffalo Dump" in honor of our location but we'll have to see.

We now rest in Cody which happens to have the biggest library that I've ever seen for a town of only 9,000 cowpokes. We're already saying stuff like "4 more days and we'll be in Buffalo enjoying music!" Yep it's time for the BBT to hit another bluegrass festival!! We've had a great 18 days cycling the "long way" to Buffalo, WY, but I'm now ready for some good ol' bluegrass festivating.

Yellowstone Nat'l Park Soapbox

This is my soapbox of the day, "Nat'l Park fees for bicycle tourist" here is the crux of my argument:
-------------------------1 Mondo RV'er------ 6 Bicycle Tourists
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Number in group: ---------------6 (2 adults, 4 kids) ----------6
Days in park ----------------------4---------------------------- 4
Gallons of gas used* ------------80 ( @ 1o mpg)---------------0
Pound of charcoal burned ------6 -----------------------------0
Noise pollution----------------- Lots------------------------None
Contibution to traffic-------Significant--------------Inconsequential
Animals killed-------------------1-4------------------------None
Campsite footprint------------2,500 sq ft-------------------625 sq ft
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Amount paid to enter park-----$25-------------------------$75

* Assume an average of 800 miles of travel to and from park.

So there you have it, the same amount of people, who damage to the environment way more would actually pay 1/3 of what a group of 6 bicycle tourist would pay. Just not right. What the park should do is to encourage people to bicycle to them by admiting them for free and in Yellowstone's case, have a wide shoulder for them to ride on. I mean how great would the Nat'l Park be if a number of people took to their bicycles instead of their RV's. It's time for me to write Salazar I think.

Zero Day in Jackson, Halfway Summary

So we are taking a zero day in Jackson Hole, WY visiting our old roommate Amy. It's great to see her again and she looks as spry and chipper as when she left Crested Butte back in 2003. We have checked out of our luxury hotel (Thanks Ron!) and moved in with Amy and Bryan for the night. The live about five miles from the center of town in a green valley with lots of room for dogs to roam.
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We have nixed all of Amy's plans to go do things, saying we really just need to rest with our feet up. She has been much accommodating. And we are doing just that.
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We head out tomorrow, July 3rd, for Teton Nat'l Park and Yellowstone. The only bad thing about this is the time of year it happens to be (4th of July), but we'll make do. Even when it's super crowded for cars, it's still relatively doable on a bicycle. At least that's what I'm hoping.
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So the BBT is officially 1/2 over. Three festivals seen and 1300 miles pedaled. Here's my halfway summary: I am loving being on my bike again and traveling. You reach such a good place in your psyche by bicycle touring (I believe), because you've got so little to burden you. You are really just worried about the weather, your food, and where you'll sleep. That taken care of, life is just a breeze. In fact, once you do land back into reality, say, by trying to navigate the streets of busy downtown Jackson Hole, you can snap out of your euphoric stupor pretty quickly. You yearn to be on the road, moving towards something, making progress. Living and experiencing life, without the baggage that normal, stationary life can present.
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I've really enjoyed that we have these festivals to head to on this tour. That is different from other tours I have done. I have really dug getting to the festival and then being "forced" to camp for 3-4 days with lots of fun people. The pressure is then, "officially", off to move forward with the bike tour and you can really relax and enjoy your stay even more than someone who just drove there. At least that's my perception.
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So in summary, at halfway, I'm very stoked with how the idea is panning out and I'd recommend it to anyone out there considering planning a bike tour. Think outside the box a bit. Throw some events into the mix. Doesn't have to be bluegrass festivals, it could be Arts Festivals, NASCAR, sporting events, county fairs, Burning Man, Film Festivals, whatever. It will just add some spice and anticipation to your bicycle tour.

Mosquitoes, Motels and Lotus Cafe

So we're heading north through Wyoming now on our way to Jackson, Yellowstone and then Buffalo Wyoming for the Big Horn Mountain Festival. This ranch's entrance should have prepared us for what was to come. Mosquitoes! We are following the Green River and they say they've gotten lots of rain lately. These two things combined have caused for unbearable mosquito-age. So bad that we even dipped into our foul-weather hotel fund and paid for our first night in a motel in La Barge, WY, just for a respite from the onslaught. This is what I picture Alaska being like. But the worst part is that these mosquitoes, for whatever reason, are able to catch up to us while we are traveling 12 mph and land on us and bite us. This is a first for me, usually you're safe while cycling but not anymore. Seems there is a new strain of super-fast, super-intelligent mosquito out there. This should worry us more than Swine Flu in my book.

I believe this grocery store is in Big Piney, WY (Librarian: "Ya know when I moved to Big Piney, I sorta expected there to be lots of pine trees."). I just loved the stores slogan "Come right in this house". What does that mean? I stared at it scratching my head. Rode away thinking about it. Best I could invent in my head was that the store could be owned by a couple from the former Czechoslovakia and in the former Czechoslovakia it is the most formal and most polite thing to write on your store front "Come right in this house", everyone does it, so when Alexander and Martina came to the USA they brought that tradition with them and translated it literally into English for us.

We stopped in a bar and begged the bartendress if we could seek shelter from the blood bath that was happening outside. This place was the quintessential Wyoming bar. Three rancher types sat at the bar itself having a breakfast toddy. The wonderful bartendress allowed us sit at a table and even to eat our lunch there. There was a very high-tech Bose juke box right in front of us that I notice had one play left on it. I went up and browsed the catalog found, surprisingly, some Ryan Adams, hit play and Kiki and I were treated to the most kickass version of La Cienega Just Smiled on a very quality sound system. The only problem was that it was turned up to 11. Seriously. Our hair was blowing back from the bass. It was just too hilarious and we started laughing as if we'd just ingested something illegal, it was really THAT loud. Good times.

So this is the cover of 8 Jackson Hole phone books. Kiki was particularly appalled. I thought it a bit tacky too. But I'm sure Jackson Hole suffers from my hometown Crested Butte's problem of way too many phone books, so it's not surprising that the competition has resorted to the age-old adage "Sex Sells".

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We stealth camped last night at a trailhead off the side of the road about 36 miles shy of Jackson Hole, where we are planning on taking a zero day and visit with our friends here. As we roll into to Jackson, we spy a McDonalds. (Disclaimer: OK, I admit it and I'm OK with it. We crave McDonald's Sundaes when we bicycle tour. They only cost a buck. I get two of them. They have little chopped nut packages. It not something I can explain to you.) So we're in there ordering our sundaes when we meet a fellow who asks us the questions we always get asked. Turns out he lived in Crested Butte for some time and went to Western State. We strike up a conversation and before long, he tells us that he owns a hotel in Jackson Hole and would like to comp us a room for the night. We have a tradition, Kiki and I, of ALWAYS saying yes when this type of trail magic happens. So about 30 minutes after ingesting our sundae treats, here's a pic of us in our new digs in Jackson. Man I love bicycle touring!!

More Notes on Trash: On the side of the roads I've noticed, since my last bike tour some years ago, that one thing that has changed and that is some new items are showing up as trash. The new additions to the ubiquitous roadside trash are energy drink cans and the energy drink poppers (2 oz bottles of "fuel"). This got me to thinking, "Why is there now such a market a for this stuff?" Why are we as a culture seeking more energy. Could it be the way we are eating as a whole that has created an energy gap (high fructose corn syrup anyone?), or our time at the computer and the video games? Just thoughts I had on the road, but the questions begs asking.

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To make an analogy, say in 60 years, everything that is selling big has the additive that helps your skin not turn blue. Everyone is using it. Turning slightly blue is a big issue in 2069. You are sitting there in your rocking chair saying, "you know, back in '09 no one was turning blue. Seems to me something has changed." Yet no one around is looking at that obvious angle. People don't like turning blue-ish and they are only looking at how "not blue" they get by eating "Blueless Bars-tm", and the companies are reaping the benefits of our not-wanting-to-be-blue addiction.

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So back to the energy drink market (Red Bull, RockStar, etc), the question is why is this generation suddenly in need of more energy. What is fundamentally wrong with our bodies that we can be convinced that more energy is what we need? I don't know the answer, but that is what bicycle touring will bring out of you, deep thoughts. It is interesting, though, to notice this change in roadside trash over the years.