Tag Archives: Rest Day

Saratoga, WY

camping, motel

Matt escorted me for several miles on his bike. He had dreams of riding the TransAmerica Trail as soon as he was minimum age for the group tour.

Matt Thornton escorted me to Sinclair via highway 73. It was a good road, with no cars at all. I wonder if he was ever able to ride the Transamerica? I do hope so.

That morning, I got two flats, the second being from a whisky bottle that completely slashed my tire. The CyclePro folder, which I carried as a spare, turned out to be almost impossible to install. When I did get it on the rim, I pinched the tube on three separate trials. Finally, I just put the old Specialized K4 back on the rim, using a piece of cardboard for a boot. I knew it wouldn’t last long. Fifteen minutes down the road, I found that I had missed a turn about 8 miles back. My dreams of making it to Walden, Colorado were dashed.

Sections of road were dug up for repair. When I got the flat, I was down over 2 hours trying to make the folding tire work, before simply putting the torn tire back on. Lesson: test supplies before the tour.

Actually, there was a silver lining to all the troubles of the morning. If I had not been slowed down, I would have never met Tim, Terice, and Kris, three cyclists from North Carolina. We camped at Saratoga together.

they were headed from yellowstone to estes park. i hooked up with them and rode 20 miles to saratoga. i never did ask the exact spelling of her name, but i now think it was therese. i had never met anyone by that name before, so spelled it phonetically in my original writeup.
Pavement ends AGAIN. Those may be Tim and Therese in the distance.

We all bathed in the local hot springs (which were free, and VERY hot), and had dinner together. I gave them some copies of “Wisdom,” which seemed to fascinate Tim and Terice.

These local girls caught a garter snake.
Hobo Hot Springs was really hot. I soaked for a bit after dinner, but the others just went to the cold pool for showers.
We all camped at an RV park in Saratoga. It was only $5 for the whole group. Left to right: Kris, Tim Dixon, Therese, myself. Tim was a white water canoe man. Therese had done a coast-to-coast tour before.

Sunday, July 24, 1988

On Sunday morning, I stayed in town to rest, but the others continued on their trek. I went to church, then spent the rest of the day just generally lounging around.

The church was First Presbyterian. I also visited the Saratoga Museum, run by Barbara Orde, who was very nice. I decided to check into a motel, since my new friends had left.

The Riviera Motel gave me their special rate of $18. There was no air conditioner, but there was a nice color TV, on which I watched part of the Tour de France. My room also had a desk, so I was able to write some letters and cards, and recalculate the distance and finances. On account of the detour in Yellowstone, I had to do about 67 miles a day from there on out. Not a great concern.