The best ride so far

THU 7/15 -- Jeffrey City to Lander (59)
The first 50 miles of today's ride were fantastic -- the best riding
we've had on the tour so far, IMHO. The winds were calm, temperatures
were cool, the sky was blue blue blue, the scenery spectacular, and
the route almost 100% downhill -- including a couple of major, 30+mph
coasters that went on for miles -- with very little traffic. Perfect-
o. Hugh took this shot of me fairly early in the day, when we had a
beautiful backdrop (which you can't see very well) of snow-capped
mountains. The real scenic treats came later, however, when we dropped
down through rocky canyons, including one stretch that reminded me of
the red rocks of Sedona.

For the last 9 miles we rode into the bustling little town of Lander
on a standard-issue state highway, so that was just travelling-where-
we-needed-to-go. Home for the day was the completely shadeless tent-
camping area of a local RV park, which provided lots of trees and
shade for its heavily A/C'd RV customers -- what's THAT all about? At
sunset, though, our barren little site was transformed into a quite
spectacular viewpoint -- high above the town, and with mountains all
around.

Jerry and Clive were on cooking duty, so naturally we had dinner at a
local brew pub. J and C generously covered the "overage" (the excess
cost of the meal over our daily budget) AND the bar tab. Sweet.