Day 19: Devils Tower to Newcastle WY

Last night was our first night camping out and I'm not sure I want to do that again. We brought blow-up rafts to sleep on and mine kept deflating during the night. The valve kept opening and letting all the air out. So needless to say, I got about 3 hours of sleep . To top it off, I had the pleasure of being woken up to the sound of cow's bellowing at the early hour of 5:15 am. I had an instant flashback to sleepovers at Julie's house - when Mr. Homan would crank up the volume on the stereo and play his cow's mooing soundtrack to wake us up in the morning. (At least he usually waited until 8:30 or so - not 5:15 like these cows!)
Our goal was to get an early start on the day as it was supposed to be windy (and not in our favor.) I was up at 5:15, thanks to the cows. Marc didn't rouse until about 6:30 or so. We got our gear all packed up and we were ready to roll by 7:45. Unfortunately, Marc had a flat - before we could leave the campground. It must have been an overnight slow leak. That delayed our start by 30 minutes, but it was still one of our earliest starts.
Upon leaving Devil's Tower, we ran into a fellow cyclist. She was from Lead,SD (pronounced Leed - I'm not sure why?) And biking a loop around Devil's Tower. We've seen so few cyclists that its exciting to talk to others and see where they are biking to/from.
We stopped for lunch in Sundance. I was expecting a cool "Old West" looking town but was disappointed. Sundance was no different that any other small town. We settled for Subway as it was the only lunch place in town. (What's happening to our small town diners - couldn't find anything even close to a mom & pop type joint in this town.)
After an early lunch, we had a 45 mile ride to Newcastle. This was the killer part of the day. The route to Newcastle consisted of a 20 mile climb with 20+ mph headwinds. As I mentioned in a previous post, tailwinds are the cat's meow - but headwinds - " They are just mean", as Marc puts it.
Initially I will always tell myself - "What's a little wind?" and try to keep my spirits up by thinking about something else. However, this wind was ugly and mean. We struggled up the hills at a 4 mph pace ( I think you can walk faster!) and pedaled hard on the downhill to get up to 14 mph.
As we climbed out of Newcastle, I lost Marc. I literally thought I lost him. I stopped once halfway up the climb and waited, and waited and ate a banana and waited some more. With the killer headwinds, I was not going to ride back down and look for him. That was the last resort. After waiting 1/2 hour or so, I decided that I could get a better view (to see where he was) from the top of the hill. So I pedaled on to what I thought was the top of the hill, where I waited, and waited and waited some more. I tried calling him but he either did not have service or had his phone turned off.
A local Sheriff zoomed past me heading down the hill. My mind flashed to a accident scene and I shuttered. Then I saw the Sheriff turning around. Oh no, he's coming to tell me something, I thought to myself. But, he was just checking to see if I was alright. Phew! I told him that I was waiting for my husband and not sure what was taking him so long. He said he'd keep an eye out for him on his way down the hill.
About 15 minutes later, I caught a glimpse of what could be Marc way down the hill. I got out the camera with its zoom lens to use as a telescope but I couldn't get a steady enough hand to see. Finally about 15 minutes later, I could see the orange in Marc's jersey climbing up the hill. I was so relieved!
Turned out that he had another flat tire. He had all the tools he needed to fix it, but had to disassemble his trailer and contents to get to them. I was mad as I thought he should have at least called to let me know. On the other hand, Marc was mad as he thought I should have ridden back to find out what was wrong.
We finally made it into Newcastle around 5:30 PM. We had a nice long downhill as a reward for all that climbing. Too bad again for the headwind! They had just paved the road down to Newcastle and it was as smooth as glass with a wide shoulder. The perfect road for fast downhills- just not when you have the winds like we did. I think 10 bugs smashed into my face while riding down. (Can't those things control where they are flying?)
We raced a storm brewing to the South and made it to Newcastle just in time. We found the seediest motel in town (always the cheapest) and got to our room just before the rains started. The storms in Wyoming have been intense but luckily short in duration.
After showering and arguing a bit more about who was at fault with the flat tire situation, we headed out to check out the restaurant selection. We had a Subway and Pizza Hut right out our door, but went in search of something a bit more 'local'. After walking a couple miles, we found the historic downtown area but no restaurants. We went into the Antler Bar & Cafe where' Horses are Allowed' (according to the sign out front.) It was a gorgeous old bar dating back to the 1880's, but had no food. We asked the bartender for a dinner suggestion and she suggested Pizza Hut - ugh!
We ended up at a Tavern across the street. We both ordered burgers and a beer and were finally able to relax a bit. You have to worry a bit about the quality of the food when your bartender is also your cook, and the kitchen is the size of a small coat closet. But the burgers were good - the best $3.50 burger I've ever had.
After dinner, we were off in search of pie. We asked the bartender for a restaurant suggestion and she gave us two local diner options just over the tracks in town. (Great, why couldn't the first bartender have suggested those!) I was in luck, we found a quaint diner with a selection of pies. I had a delicious homemade cherry pie. I could tell that even the filling was homemade with what looked to be handpicked cherries. Ahhh - finally the pie experience that I had been looking for!