Day 18-Casper

Today was incredible and by far my favorite day on the Journey so far. We had a 100 mile day from Shoshoni to Casper of which the first 45 were uphill to a little town Highland, population 10. The ride was far from scenic, but my pace line had great conversation that made the miles fly bye. Today was the first day that we didn't have to add layers to endure the cold weather, which reduced down time at crew stops.

Highland

The locals called the ride the "longest 100 miles in America" and said that you could "put your head down for 50 miles, look up and have not missed anything." One gentleman went as far as to say that "there were more trees inside the senior center than on the ride" and that wasn't too far from the truth.

During our ride we rode past the Texas 4k group that bikes from Austin, Texas to Alaska for cancer research; the team is associated with Lance Armstrong.

Texas 4k

One exciting part of today's ride was that we rode past Hell's Half-acre, which is really 320 acres and is more of a mini grand canyon; it was the canyon for the battle in the blockbuster hit "Starship Troopers.

Hells Half-Acre

After arriving in Casper we cleaned up and prepared for dinner provided by the Kiwanis club which was a delicious buffet. We all ate to our hearts were content and stomachs were miserably full.

Casper Population 49644

We returned to lodging at a local high school for a team meeting to recap the past few days of riding and debrief. The team ventured out to the local theatre to catch Tranformers 2, Revenge of the Fallen.

It was another great day on the Journey of Hope!