| 'twas a beautiful day in this neighborhood....sunny, blue skies, bright sunshine, light breezes, & the best part----not having to awake to an alarm at an inhumane hour. |
| we 3 roommates these 2 nights--sari, judy, & i--weren't up 'til 6:45 or so; the morning before it was 4:45. at around 8 we joined several others to bike or walk downtown to the cowboy cafe for breakfast. what great food! at rose's suggestion, many of us ordered the veggie skillet & boy were we glad we did! it was a bed of cowboy potatoes & other veggies (chopped onions, peppers, fresh tomatoes) & real cheddar cheese (melted) topped with 2 eggs your way (mine were over easy). it came with 2 slices of good wheat toast, & on the table they had tasty blackberry & boysenberry jams. it's always so nice on layover days to enjoy a slow, relaxing breakfast, & it's even nicer when it's tasty, as today's was. |
| it wasn't long 'til other groups of bikers wandered in. they all took a few minutes to come out front in the sunshine so i could take this picture to show you how cheery we look on R&R days. |
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from left, in front it's darleene & dorothy; middle row: gerrie, jackie, judy, joan, phyllis, & patty fainer; back row: barb, mary, lee, lin, rose, & judith peaking out from behind phyllis. |
| the day's activities were pretty diverse. some common elements were eating & doing laundry. otherwise some cleaned & lubed bikes, bought & wrote postcards, shopped for local mementos, & napped. a few of us made our way down to the big horn sheep interpretive center at the other end of town. near dubois is the biggest wintering herd of bighorn sheep in the west. the bighorn sheep theme is common around here; in fact, the door handles at the interpretive center are bighorn sheep horns. i doubt we'll see any as we ride, but it was fascinating to learn more about them & other wildlife in the area. |
| midafternoon sari & i walked back downtown to sample the pie we'd heard about at the cowboy cafe. their homemade raspberry-rhubarb has zoomed right up to near the top of our cross-country pie parade. |
| here's a photo of marion serving sari's piece of pie with a giant slab of ice cream on top. i always have plain; you can get a little better look at the pie itself by checking out my piece, which is sitting on the table. |  |
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i couldn't resist throwing in this picture of a teensy dog that sari & i encountered on our way to the cafe this afternoon. |
| i have other dog photos i've taken along the way---being the dog lover that i am. you may end up seeing some of those on this web site, too.....if we have other slow-news days. |
| at tonight's map meeting the first order of business was singing happy birthday to judy. we enjoyed angel food cake with strawberries & blueberries on top. |
| then gloria went over tomorrow's route. it'll be 75-80 miles altogether. we'll ride about 31 miles to the top of togwotee pass. (it's pronounced TOE-gah-dee.) that'll put us at 9,658 feet. the ascent is reputedly gradual (as mountain passes go), & the descent the same. marcia tells us that we don't have any shoulders the 20 miles on both sides of the top. that's disconcerting. wyoming has been so good about providing us shoulders....tho' many of them yesterday were quite rough. still it's a nice feeling to have the buffer zone there. |
| gloria says the traffic won't be too bad since the tourist season isn't yet in full swing. we saw lots of RV's yesterday....at least it seemed like a lot to us. i imagine they're more like bumper-to-bumper by late june. we'll be in oregon by then. |
| Higher quality versions of the pictures from my trip are available here. If you would like copies of the original, full-size photos, or if you would like text-only versions of these daily reports e-mailed to you, feel free to e-mail my son Mark with your request. Stay tuned.... |
