Wednesday was also my first real acquaintance with a 25 mph wind, both good and bad. Climbing up from Lander it was either head-on or from the side, making cycling a real pain in the neck. Ret and Neil, who I met yesterday, started out at the same time, and although I waited at the top, I don't know if they made it. Ret apparently only learned to ride a bike in her 30s, and even for me it was difficult to control the bike at times, trying not to get blown into the path of the passing cars. They might have had to walk some of the time. Anyway, the road then turned more easterly and therefore tail wind, and now it was an average speed of 20mph. Great, but I dread to think what it would be like if I have headwind all the way across Kansas.
The interesting thing about camping is that every night you have to make a new home somewhere else. Sometimes, it's easy like in Dubois, at other times it's a bit more of a challenge. On Wednesday I got to the service station in Muddy Gap and camped behind an abandoned RV. First I had to clear away some rubbish and, before putting up the tent, get some flattened cardboard boxes from Ron in the service station. I had heard from a cyclist who had camped here previously, that the prickly vegetation punched through his tent floor and sleeping mat. Very deflating when you cycle a whole day then have to sleep on the hard ground until you somehow find to buy a new one. It's always good Idea to listen attentively and learn from other people's misfortune. Ron was very helpful and relaxed about it all. It might, although cannabis is not legal in Wyoming, have had to do with the overpowering smell of pot and the splif smoldering in the ashtray. After all this, it is dinner on the stove and it does really feel like home, even if, looking at the pictures it's difficult to imagine. At least the view across the prairie is great.
On Tuesday I set up camp in the City Park in Lander. On the way back into town to do my ice-cream, coke and dinner shopping, I got talking to Ret (Henrietta) and Neil. She was late thirties and he late forties, both early retirees and had been on the road for over 2 years. They sold all their belongings and choose a nomadic life style. Anyway, so far so interesting. However, when I mentioned that I was from Scotland, the conversation turned to Outlander. It turned out that Ret was a fan, not just an ordinary one, but one going the whole hog. Their bikes were called Claire and Jamie, and were color coded. She had read the books and seen the films more times than I The Lord of the Rings. She was really jealous, when she heard that some of the sites where the filming happened were rather close to where we live. Ret definitely has the Outlander bug.
Although Lander is still 88% white, it does have a sizable native American community and that is obvious around the town. Since leaving Portland, it's the first town I am traveling through which looks obviously mixed. There also seems a lot of poverty, with dilapidated or empty house and ramshackle properties. However, I can't bring myself to take photos of them. It doesn't seem right. Apart from that, the town as a whole seems to be doing OK with shops very well stocked.
On the way to Lander I stopped at a service station in Crowheart for an ice-cream and the loo. I asked the guy where the restrooms were. I have been trying to use the correct American term for loo. However, he replied in a strong Wyoming accent: There is an outhouse just round the corner. Also, in the store, people actually use 'Howdy' as a greeting, and it doesn't even sound corny. Don't worry, I won't start talking like that when I get home.
