May 11 to May 19

May 11, 2025 …We took another day off to visit devils Tower. What an awesome site. Larry considered staying to wait for his alien relatives to return to earth to pick him up but decided to come back to SD with us and get a beer.  We stayed in Deadwood at the 1899 Inn in a beautiful 2 BR cottage Susan arranged for us. We picked this because its right by the start of the Mickelson Trail.  Had buffalo burger for dinner and walked around the little honky tonk town of deadwood.

May 12, 2025 …Deadwood to Hill City. The Mickelson Trail is a magnificent ride.  All up for 15 miles.  Then up and down.  5.5 hours to go 49 miles.  Larry’s back tire failing, bead is ripping out of the tire.  Dropped it at Rabbit Cycles to replace it.  Challenge is dealing with the electrical connections to the hub motor when taking rear wheel off.  Stayed at the Golden valley cabins in Custer the VFW covered the cost to support us. Super nice folks.  Larry has been suffering with an abscessed molar for the last few days and it’s really getting to him.   I offered to yank it out because we have a lot of bike tools but he’s not ready for that level of mayhem.

May 13, 2025 …Hill City to Edgemont then drive to Lusk.  Breakfast at Calamity Janes in Custer.  Best coffee of the trip so far. Got Larry’s bike then back on the trail.  Today was mostly downhill so did the 45 miles in about 3:20, which is good for me lately.  Drove from there to Lusk, WY and stayed at the Covered Wagon Motel.  The owners gave us the room for half price as a contribution to the effort.  Super nice people. Dinner was calzone at a local pizza joint.

May 14, 2025 …Lusk to Douglas.  Larry and I jumped on our bikes and headed out and after about 100 yards I completely ran out of gas.  I thought I could make it but after laboring for 40 minutes to ride 4 miles I turned back to motel where jim had the car.  Larry blasted away and rode to the end. I reached out to our wrm shower host in casper and got the name of her dentist. Larry arranged an appointment for tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully he’ll get all fixed up with clean instruments by someone who knows what they’re doing.  I have a touch of a bug and took a nap in the afternoon.  We checked into the LaBonte Hotel in downtown Douglas which the local Catholic church covered for us as a donation to the effort. We met Father lucas and Jenny the church secretary to thank them.  Such great people.

May 15, 2025 …Douglas to Casper.  Larry had tooth fixed by dr. Wells in Casper.  Loraine and Charlie Powell were our WS host. We stored our bikes in their garage. Don could not find his sleeping bag so went out to local camping store and bought a replacement.  Loraine made us Beef stew, bread and coookies.  We talked about camping, their home made trailer made with Poor Mans Fiberglass and funny warm showers stories.

May 16, 2025 …Casper to Jeffrey City.  In the morning they sent us on our way with eggs and toast.  We drove to Walmart for supplies because there would be no place to buy food for about 80 miles and certainly nothing in Jeffrey City.  I rode for about 70 minutes and covered about 7 miles.  The wind is powerful, in your face and unrelenting in this part of WY. And cold, don’t forget cold.   Jim picked me up and then we drove forward about 10 miles and got Larry.  We all rode in the van about 30 miles down the road and then rode our bicycles WITH the wind for about 25 miles.  Then loaded into the van and drove to our WS bike hostel at the old Baptist Church in Jeffrey City. 

May 17, 2025 …Jeffrey City to Lander.  Another cold (45*) windy uphill day for us.  We set off for Lander and our WS host Mike Lowham told me he would ride in our direction and we could meet on the route and ride back to his houd=se together.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I would almost certainly be in the van because I knew I would not be able to finish a 74 mile uphill ride in the cold wind. Anyway I again was able to crank out 80 minutes of riding and managed to make it about 8 miles.  In this part of WY there is a ton of climbing and the wind is powerful, against me and cold. And we are at between 5500 and 7000 feet so that’s a bit disabling as well for Florida Man. We saw a biker coming toward us as we got near Lander and sure enough it was our host, Mike. We visited the Sink State Park which was right outside of town and took Mike and his wife Dannine to dinner at the Lander Bar  We had a great time soaking up the Lander vibe.  Lander is very much a western ranch town with a lot of mountain biking and rock climbing devotees.

May 18, 2025 …Lander to Dubois.  We took off from the Lowham’s after breakfast and drove to a starting point about 25 miles away.  This was our most challenging riding day so far.    The temperature was in the low 40s, the wind was fierce and directly in our faces, the climb was significant because Dubois was 1500 feet higher than Lander BUT the rain was over there to the Southwest. The Trifecta.  Well the rain decided it needed to be over our route after about 30 minutes so the trifecta turned into the “4-fecta.”  I was able to grunt out 6.1 miles in 82 minutes.  Jim rescued both of us, me after my piddling ride and Larry after about 30 miles. We drove the rest of the way to Dubois and visited the Miltary vehicle museum and then went to our WS host home.  Jennifer and Mike Batting have a magnificent home in the painted hills south of Dubois and the set us up in their basement apartment.  We went to dinner at the Cowboy Café and then back to the Battings and we talked for a few hours.  They are both originally from the Boston area so we had a lot of common things to chat about, including Grizzly bears.  They are retired from their careers in the building trades and live in one of the most striking settings we’ve ever seen.

May 19, 2025 …Dubois to Jackson.  It was snowing at 6:30 this am. We took off in the morning and grabbed breakfast at the Cowboy Café again.  Then we bought bear spray and hit the road to Jackson, at the base of the Grand Tetons and home of the Jackson Hole Ski Resort. We did not ride at all today but drove over the togwotee pass at 9500 feet.  It was 31 and snowing there when we went through and we were informed by our last nights’ hosts that the grizzlies are out of hibernation and on the move.  And they hang near the roadways so never ride with bear spray. Anyways, this was a zero miles day for us bicyclists. We checked into our motel and soaked in the hot tub then had dinner.

Freezing

I'm not that small, Larry's not that big