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Thursday 29th July 2004

near desert near LanderFrom Jeffrey City (J C Motel) to Lander, Wyoming, City Park - a grand total of 58 miles on route. Before leaving Jeffrey City, I discovered a puncture in my kevlar reinforced back tyre. It was a metal staple - so leaving was delayed somewhat. Left motel a tiny bit before check out time. We headed to the local cafe for a heap of pancakes and omlettes. That gave us the carbs we needed to leave. We headed out onto the road and immediately noted a strong headwind. The headwind got steadily stronger until it was a gusty force 5 - 6. We had to pedal so as not to stop even on the downhills - and even then getting into double figure mphs was a rarity! Guy was particularly exhausted - being on antibiotics at the moment for his tooth. There was nowhere to buy food for about 30 miles, to start off with, and then water started to get a bit low! Anyhow, we crawled on. The landscape was the usual interesting but bleak arid semi-desert of southern Wyoming. The photo shows the entrance to a big ranch - "I got a whole lot of nothing"! We arrived exhausted at Lander, where we noted that a Jacuzzi was available at the local swimming baths. We headed straight there after a brief glance at the local city park and having noted a brew pub on Main Street. We arrived in time for a swim and jacuzzi! Lane swimming - but the water made us feel like doing laps (well - Steve felt like doing laps). Eventually it closed so we moved to the brew pub - and sampled a variety of beers, chatting to two locals (Chris and Andy - both keen cyclists) who gave us the low down on Wyoming, life, music, etc. Many thanks! We discovered that Lance Armstrong had won the Tour de France - so improving the image of cycling in the USA. A little worse for wear we headed to the park to pitch the tent. Which we did by torchlight. We both slept very soundly. Lander City Park is excellent - we didn't get any mosquito bites! Perhaps this was due to the lateness of the hour when we set up camp? Anyway, Lander is brilliant, and especially the Brew Pub on Main Street.

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