Saturday, sometime in August

At least I know it's Saturday...
Haven't had chance to get on a computer this week because I've either been cycling endlessly or we were out and about yesterday. We're now in West Yellowstone, Montana, on day 2 of my 3 days off, and boy did I need it. I cycled just short of 500 miles in 4 days and my knees were complaining. Mum and dad did carry my bags for the majority of those days but I was still battered at the end of it.
So from Walden I went to Rawlings, Rawlings to Lander, Lander to Togwotee Pass and Togwotee Pass to here. There was a bit of self inflicted pressure to get into Yellowstone before the weekend as we discovered that (a) it's a free weekend in the national parks so they'll be packed and (b) Obama is in town today so there's added chaos. Talk about timing.
It's been fun and games with mum and dad of course. Between Rawlings and Lander are miles of nothing and the only town (well, an ex-uranium mining town with a population of 50) is Jeffrey City, which has 1 cafe. Mum and dad got there before me and warned me the woman running the place was a bit hard work. I managed to get in, sit down, order (eventually) and get my food before she had said a word to me. I decided to have an extra sandwhich once my food had arrived as the next stop wasn't for 50 miles to which the reply was 'hmph' and she stropped off. Anyway, mum went to the restroom and a few minutes later I heard the cry of 'help, I'm locked in', so I went to investigate. The handle was spinning round and mum said the light had broken too. Rather than barge the door open I found miserable woman and informed her of the situation which illicited little response. She did go into the gents to do something then wandered off again muttering. I asked her to repeat herself but she didn't. Dad was well pissed off by this point so barged the door at which point Misery turned up...he explained the door was now open, to which she said she'd heard that. He he he. Mum decided to have a couple of words with her when she went to pay. It started off something like 'I was a bit unhappy about the way you handled me being locked in....' and degenerated in mum walking out going 'She is such a miserable cow....' to anyone who was listening, which was about 8 people. It materialised that she has a reputation far and wide for being particularly hard work and another cyclist had walked out that morning before we got there before she'd even ordered.
I've decided that there must be a loyalty card type thing in operation for 'senoir' people (pensioners). They must get points on a special reward card when they pick up their pension when they pull old-people stunts on their children. I set off from Lander at a typical 845am and within 5 minutes dad had pulled up infront of me, flagged me down. 'Do you need these?' he said, clutching a pair of sunglasses...'Er, no' says I, as I had mine on. 'Oh shit', says dad, 'These are mine....' Mmm...that must be an extra 20 points on the reward card.
So, Wyoming did get more interesing. The scenery was good, hills and mountains but the effing wind was tedious. It took me about 6 hours to do 70 miles, with no bags. I had to cycle hard downhill, which wasn't a satisfactory state of affairs. There was a clue in the names of things though...Wind River, Wind Ridge, Wind River Indian reservation...ok, ok, I get the picture!
Got to go...only get 20 minutes a session at this library.