Up, Over, and Through

I was ready to be bored and alienated in Laramie. I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. Like bracing yourself for Mos Eisley and getting picked up in a T-16 to go blast womp rats. I met my host, Evan, downtown and we biked together up the hill to his house. Evan is employed by the university there and lives with his wife and three bassett hounds* in a beautiful home on the edge of town. He's very involved with the bike community and personally organized a public cycling event in the city park on the 4th of July. He drives an Outback with a bumper sticker proclaiming the local bike shop's slogan: "We still hang bike thieves in Wyoming". He also seems to really love hosting bike tourists. I'm one of many, many guests in his home as evidenced by the well used guestbook on the nightstand.
I doubt I will meet a more generous host on any trip ever. He fed me tons of tasty food, insisting I take the biggest portions. One of the dogs got into a bag with some of my snack food AFTER HE WARNED ME not to leave food where the dogs could get it and he still replaced it. He took me climbing with his coworkers on my rest day and set me up with a place to stay in Lander. His house has a generous basement and I had a guest room and bathroom to myself. It was freakin' sweet. Also, the food co-op there is amazing. I've never seen such a concentration of tasty food.
I spent the next day summiting Snowy Mountain (still snowy, probably from last year because God knows it snowed enough then and not nearly enough this past winter) and relishing the descent into Saratoga. I met a group of six cyclists from a small town between Boulder and Fort Collins on a four day, 350 mile loop around northern Colorado and southern Wyoming. The group included the mayor of Longmont and a woman driving a SAG wagon (Support And Gear (come on people, it's Tour d' France season- get with it!)). They passed me just as they were pulling over for lunch and I got invited to join their picnic: a red and white checkered affair alongside a babbling stream. Delightful. I stopped in Saratoga after 60 miles of riding and took a nap in the town square. When I came to, I noticed a strong tailwind and decided to continue on. I pedaled another 30 miles and made camp at a rest stop beside highway 80. I bathed in a nearby river and passed out on the southern boarder of Nowhere, WY.

_{*So the Basset hounds were pretty ridiculous. I guess I haven't spent much time around that breed, but they look super weird- like awkward oversized dachshunds. That there were three of them at once was especially odd; my brain couldn't handle the repeated image the way it can with common things like pens or chairs.}