{"id":474,"date":"1988-07-22T04:39:00","date_gmt":"1988-07-22T04:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/?p=474"},"modified":"2026-08-08T23:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:52:10","slug":"rawlins-wy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/rawlins-wy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rawlins, WY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

The next day, I just barely made it into Rawlins. About 5 miles before town, I ran out of water. Up until then, I had always had water to spare. That was when I suddenly experienced the desert. It was terrible! My tongue kept sticking to my gums. My whole mouth felt like it had been patted dry with a dish towel.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sometimes, this was the only way I could get pictures of wildlife up close.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
This was either a dry lake, or a mirage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

On top of that, I got a flat running over some construction debris. There was no good place to stop, so I had to pull off into the prickly brush to fix it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Changing a flat is worse when you’ve run out of water, and it’s triple-digit temperatures.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

At long last I crawled into Rawlins, with a supermarket or convenience store as my first destination. It took quite a while to locate a place, actually. Rawlins seemed to be crowded with bars, drive-up liquor stores, and transient motels.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This iconic rock when entering Rawlins. My only thought was to get some gatorade. I didn’t want to go to a bar. It seemed to take a long time to locate a convenience store. I don’t know why I didn’t just stop at this gas station. Probably confused from dehydration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Even the police station had a neon sign.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

After picking up some money from Cirrus and a General Delivery letter from Merrianne, I started to look for accommodations. The phone book said that most of the motels were on Spruce Street. Rather than take down addresses, I decided to simply cruise the boulevard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, I came upon a place that went for $16.95 single. I mentally made a note, since I wanted to find the cheapest place, not the nicest. A few buildings down, there was $14.95. And two blocks further, I found the champion – $12.95 a night. Now, even in 1988, a single in my home town of Sunnyvale would run about $35 – if you scrimped.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The motel I almost stayed at.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

As I began to take off my helmet, gloves, and other paraphernalia, I saw a kid come screaming down the hill on a skateboard. “Wait! Wait!” he cried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Did you plan to stay in Rawlins?” he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Obviously) “Yes\u2026”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Would you like to stay at my house?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His name was Matt Thornton, and it turned out that he had chased me for several blocks. His folks regularly took in cyclists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right at the door, Sara, his mother, offered me some iced tea, which I gladly accepted. Iced tea seemed to be the thing to drink in the desert. We talked for a while in the basement, which was surprisingly cool.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

After seeing the town, I went over to the local museum with Matt. It was so fascinating, that I missed my check-in call with Merrianne. I called about an hour late, and couldn’t locate Merrianne. Finally, I left a message on the machine, saying that I would try to call later.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A real pioneer wagon. It was the RV of the time, complete with a stove.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

I spent the night in my tent, under the Thornton’s clothesline.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next day, I just barely made it into Rawlins. About 5 miles before town, I ran out of water. Up until then, I had always had water to spare. That was when I suddenly experienced the desert. It was terrible! My tongue kept sticking to my gums. My whole mouth felt like it had … Continue reading Rawlins, WY<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}