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Fairly short day today; 68 miles. First stopped at Albertson's Market for Starbucks Coffee before heading to the Golden Corral for breakfast. Ever since leaving Washington State, It's been a real treat to find
espresso on the road. All of the Albertson Markets have had Starbuck in the stores and so I keep my eye out for the market.
I was on the road by 7:25. A couple of turns and a steep uphill at the 10 mile mark. The fun part of the ride was about to start. The Sunday morning traffic was light, the roads were well maintained and we may have even had a slight tail wind. Pretty soon I was in the middle of a gaggle of bike riders. There must of been ten of us just chatting, peddling and enjoying the ride. So different from the Interstate shoulder of yesterday's ride. The road was flat and fast. Wish more of the riding could be like this. The picnic stop was about 1/2
way to Devils Tower at the 35 mile mark in Moorcroft.
After lunch the road turned North. The hills returned and the afternoon temperature returned. Two water stops later we were about to enter the Devils Tower monument when we stopped at a small white building. Inside was an Ice Cream fountain. Just what we needed!!
After cooling off and relaxing a bit, we headed on to the Devil's Tower (
http://www.nps.gov/deto/). If you saw the
movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" you will recognize the huge tree
stump shaped volcanic rock. It's all that remains of a huge extinct volcano that
erosion has exposed the core. We camped at the very base of the monument at KOA
campground.
This was the last day of riding for the week, tomorrow is duff day.
This evening is the annual "Margarita party at the tower".
The movie Close Encounters was also shown at the campground outside in the
evening. It was a bit weird watching the movie with the huge chunk of rock
looming overhead. It's hard to describe the rock, but there was ever something
that had mystic powers, then this rock would have it.
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