Monday, September 13, 2010

Fire Alarms in Loveland







Saturday September 11. Day got off to a rude start with a fire alarm at 4:00 am, buzzer going, lights strobing and I had no idea what was going on. Stood outside for a half hour before they sorted it out. Back to sleep, thankfully. Woke up and turned on CNN and watched the rebroadcast of the Sept 11 attacks. Interesting to watch it again and listen to the broadcasters trying to figure out what was going on.

Finally left and on the road by 10. I'm just east of the Rockies and rode straight north to the Wyoming border to get a map. Decided to head to Yellowstone the quickest way possible, so I took interstate 80 west. Rode all the way to Rawling. It is wide open country and WINDY!! At hwy 387 headed northwest on a two way highway. As I was riding a really strong gust of wind actually blew my helmet off my head! Almost took my head and neck with it. Later on a transport truck heading the other way, blew my feet right off the foot boards. I'm telling you it was WINDY!!

Then, when I was in the middle of nowhere, I almost ran out of gas! I had to turn it to the reserve tank. A man following me saw the bike slow down and when we both stopped to take a photo at a scenic overlook, he asked me if I was short of gas. He said he would follow me in to the next town (wherever that was) to make sure I made it. Luckily I arrived safely about 10 miles later in Lander.

From there I rode through some beautiful dry scenery until Dubois. Then I ran into about 10 miles of dirt road construction. Luckily the crews weren't working, but it wasn't much fun riding.

Arrived in Grand Teton National Park and immediately saw a few buffalo and the beautiful mountains. Rode south to Jackson Hole to get a room and discovered the whole town was booked solid! It didn't help that there was a huge bicycle race going on that ended in Jackson. So, I had nowhere to go. Decided to ride south to the next town. Well it was 13 miles away and wasn't a town, just an fork in the road. Asked at a gas station which route might be better, and the lady told me to head towards Alpine and look for the Best Western. Alpine was another 23 miles! It was getting very cold and dark. When I got there I saw a motel and went to see if they had a room.

The next post is dedicated to what happened next!

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