Day 46 - Hello, Rockies - Charlie

Maddie and I slept soundly on the church’s couch and armchair, respectively. This morning, Pastor Cody took us out for breakfast at Clear Creek Stop, the only place you can get any food at all in Clearmont. We each got a delicious, and cheap, breakfast burrito. As we ate, Cody told us his story. How he got arrested at the age of 17, how he was thrown through the windshield of a car and escaped with only a few bruises, how he was a full-fledged atheist, until he opened his heart to God. After playing one year of football at Purdue an injury forced him to reevaluate his life, and he decided to go to a seminary. Afterwards he worked as a missionary in China, where he met his wife. His wife and his kids are everything to him. As we left he prayed for us and let us know that if we needed anything to just give him a ring; it was clear to us that he is a good man with a big heart.

We left for Sheridan at 10, hoping to cover the 42 miles in 4 hours. We fought some headwinds and hills along the way, but we had some hills in our favor as well. Cody had alerted us that we’d be entering bald eagle territory; within 15 miles of riding we saw 2 of them floating in the midday sky. I was just waiting to hear The Star Spangled Banner start playing.

Everything we passed today oozed pulchritude. We saw plenty of cattle and horses grazing, and some pronghorns as well. The grass was green and the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day. The real show-stoppers were the Big Horns, though. We saw them in the distance yesterday, but today we really got a good look at them. They are part of the Rockies, and they look like it. Snow-capped peaks that rise well above any of these so-called mountains we’ve been riding on lately. They were breathtaking - and I mean that literally, because the highest peak is over 13,000 feet which means oxygen is scarce up there. Our only real stop was a 10 minute break to admire the mountains as we raced into Sheridan, hoping to arrive at our hosts’ house by 2.

We pulled into Isaac and Jacee’s, friends of Jeremy and Jamie from our Hill City stop, a little after 2, just as Jacee was about to head out on her run. Isaac is a cross country coach at Sheridan HS, and Jacee is a big runner herself; they’re planning to do a trail run this summer, which is an 18 mile race along a trail. Not for the faint of heart.

We got to meet their kids Austyn (4), and Baylor (1) when they returned home from daycare. No, there is no Texas connection, it’s just a coincidence. The girls were shy at first but they warmed up to us after a while! We chatted about what it was like growing up in small towns in Montana, our families, and how our ride has been, while we sat for a delicious meal of white chicken chili and salad. Afterwards we paid a visit to the local park, which just so happened to have an ice cream stand. Maddie opted to order black licorice and cotton candy, which is almost vomit-inducing if you ask me. Maddie and I watched The Handmaiden (7/10, cool plot but dragged a bit, though I was dozing so I can’t condemn it too harshly) to cap off the night, and now we’re ready for bed.

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be mostly thunderstorms all day, so our plan is to take a day off here. We’d try and make some progress, but we’ll be passing through the Crow Reservation, and there’s really nowhere to stop. If we wake up and the weather forecast has cleared we could go for it, but it doesn’t look good. It’s sort of frustrating to have to rest again just 2 days after a rest day, but the other options just don’t feel safe. There are worse places to be stranded though!

-Charlie