Day 11

While we really enjoyed our rest day in the Tetons, we were ready to hit the road again.  Today's ride was from the Tetons to Riverton -  a climb to the continental divide, and an elevation decline over 100 plus miles to Riverton.  WYDOT gave us a pass on a good part of the climb due to a big road project.
The day started with a 40 degree chilling ride to the start of the road project.  We said goodbye to my son Steve and we loaded the bikes into Pearl to get through the first highway project.  Climbing for awhile, we arrived at another construction area.  Then we and our bikes bounced around in the back of two caravan pickups, crossing the continental divide.  Most of the rest of the day was downhill.  Sometimes we'd coast for miles.  We picked up Steve Greenman mid-morning and cruised down to Dubois for lunch.  The valley along the Wind River widened as we rode.  The sandstone canyon walls near Dubois were shades of tan, pink, and red, reminding us of the Grand Canyon.  We enjoyed wide shoulders most all of the day with nice strong tailwind a good part of the afternoon.  With sunny skies, afternoon temps were in the 90's.  We stopped in a one-store town for ice cream and ice water.  One interesting event was an encounter with a young gal who was biking without support from California to Washington DC.  We met her and her huge load just after Dubois.  Then two hours later, she pulled up to us as we were having refreshments.  We visited again and could hardly believe she was keeping up to us.  We shared our water and sandwiches and wished her the best on her journey.  Our biggest problem for us today was flats - five of them.  The last two were in Riverton and with more road construction between town and our KOA, Julie picked us up in town and gave us a ride to our campsite.  Tonight we enjoyed the company of the Greenmans for a spaghetti dinner.
Roe