Sunday, August 02, 2009
48: Expresso and a Rodeo
| Stoker's Log |
| Day Forty Eight |
 |
| 8/2/09 |
| Rest Day |
| Rawlins, WY |
We've been trying to push across this part of the country as quickly as possible, partly because we have to cover great distances in order to reach a town each night, and partly because, due to Kyle's work schedule, our time is running out. But eventually all of the long days, night rides, and late bedtimes were bound to catch up with us. We desperately needed a day off, and Rawlins -- a cute town located in the midst of a string of 100+ mile days -- seemed like a great place to take a break. Our depressing hotel, however, did not, especially after we ate stale bread products out of tupperware containers for breakfast. We decided to switch accomodations, and my parents were nice enough to get us another Hampton room with their rewards points. I do love those cloud pillows.
We spent the morning at one of our favorite places: a coffee shop with free internet and cheerful decor.
Initially we had to sit outside and wait for it to open, but that meant we got to meet another fellow adventurer, in this case a hiker traveling the Continental Divide Trail. We talked for a while about our respective journeys, lives, and stumbling blocks: turns out he was currently dealing with torn shoes. Lo and behold, when he asked a local about where he could get them fixed, she offered to take them back to the super sewing machine at her house and fix them up for him right then for free. I really love meeting so many good samaritans across the country (and I'm glad that this time we didn't have to be stranded to do it!).
After spending some time in the coffee shop and finally handing the computer over to Kyle, I decided to go wandering and check out the art downtown.
I also checked out the train station.
And they are either are not fans of birds on their windowsills, or they have some very strange decorating ideas.
When we were ready to leave the coffee shop for good, I dragged Kyle back to the train depot to pose with the most amusing and interactive mural art:
We have especially stunning hats in both of them, if I do say so myself.
Speaking of being Wanted, next we visited the historic prison.
Unfortunately we didn't see the inside because we weren't willing to wait almost an hour for the next tour to start. Plus we had a more exciting tourist plan in store: a rodeo. I've really wanted to see one ever since we got out West, and tonight we finally got our chance.
It was both a large and intimate affair; near the arena there was row after row of trucks and small RVs -- clearly a crowd had traveled to stay for rodeo week -- but the rodeo audience tonight was fairly small and everyone seemed to know each other. We sat just above a delightful crowd of cowboys who certainly knew the competitors well and did an excellent job of heckling them.
In the part of the rodeo we watched, teams of four competed to laso a calf, drag it out of the pen, and pretend to brand it, then chase down two cows running free in the arena and lead them into a trailer.
I love a good cattle chase and laso display, but I also felt really bad for the young, terrified calves that were dragged around by their back legs. It became hard to watch for an animal-loving suburb/city girl; I appreciate the rancher culture out here, but I'm clearly not ready to be part of it. Eventually we were ready to leave for dinner -- one that did not involve red meat -- so we headed down the road to Penny's Diner.
The diner was charming, though it did lose some of its appeal when we realized it was a chain. After dinner (spaghetti and a salad for me, french toast for Kyle) we headed back to our cloud bed to watch home buying shows and plummet into sleep. Our days off always go by too quickly, especially since tomorrow we plan to ride over 120 miles. I'm groaning already...
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| posted at: 04:02 |
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