August 7, Wednesday

Again we got up at 5 and were out by 7, avoiding the heat of the day later. Even though it was a little cool, we warmed up quickly with a few short climbs. It was back to sand and washboard, but only for about 13 miles before pavement. Jamie said she had missed Sandy Washboard so much! It is funny how all washboard is compared to the downhill from Union Pass now.
There was a headwind or crosswind the whole way to Rawlins; for the most part we took advantage of our group status and drafted off each other.
The first paved road was like something out of Mad Max; it looked like they paved it, then forgot about it. There were cracks with weeds growing out of them. Before oil was being drilled here, the road probably saw little traffic and even now, in about 3 hours we saw only about 5 vehicles. The road over the divide was under serious  construction, but for most of it we were able to travel in a closed lane.
Initially neither Jamie nor I could remember Rawlins from the Trans Am, but eventually I remembered the old downtown.  Unfortunately, urban renewal probably ruined the old downtown and what remains struggles to compete against the spirally.
We went to the Huckleberry Cafe, which I remembered visiting with Bill during our Trans Am trip. Roger and John chose to stay in a hotel on the outskirts of town, while Jamie and I went in search of the KOA. In typical KOA style, the sites were very open, with few, if any trees, but Jamie and I thought we would splurge on a cabin. As we rode up to the office building, a guy in a golf cart drove up and told us we could not lean our bikes up against the building,  but must leave them at the curb. When I explained that they had no kickstands, he told us "that's what the curb is for ". I immediately turned to Jamie and asked her if there weren't two more campgrounds and we left. He must have been more concerned with his tiny strip of perfectly manicured golf course lawn, weedless and all of a uniform height than he was about his business. We wouldn't have even had to cross his lawn.
Jamie used her phone to find a $60 hotel and off we went to the Econolodge.
Not exactly the Ritz, but clean and roomy. The clerk was friendly and seemed amenable to cyclists. They gave us rags to clean our chains and gave us 1.5 rolls of TP- he said no charge, but I gave him $2, for you couldn't buy single rolls in the grocery.
Next was the grocery shopping, then ice cream at Huckleberry Cafe. A big rodeo was going on at the fair grounds, but we were too lazy to go and cleaned our chains and did laundry instead.
Stats:
Start odometer 1693
End 1760
Total 65.49
Avg 12.9
Max 31.7
Time 5:03