The ride into Thermopolis was dedicated to Marie’s Aunt Terri. Terri was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was given 6 months to live with that diagnosis. She did not undergo chemo because she was currently pregnant with Marie’s cousin, but she still fought hard and lived 5 years beyond her diagnosis. We rode with her and her family in mind as we descended the mountain and completed our 78 mile day.
We started off our day with the most beautiful sight of the trip yet: a 20 mile descent down the Bighorn mountains. The views were indescribable! Several riders beat their personal speed record when it was safe to do so, and everyone was safe and followed the speed limit. We biked the rest of the way to the stayover past some rolling hills and natural hot springs.
Our stayover last night was at the Community Federated Methodist church in Thermopolis. They allowed us to stay in their community hall which had a ton of room for us to eat and sleep! Before dinner, we were able to go to a natural hot spring mineral bath just outside of town. It was super warm and relaxing and definitely good for our muscles after these past few days climbing mountains. We also got to shower at that facility, so we came back to the stayover clean and relaxed. For dinner we had a variety of different foods: McDonald’s gave us a $50 gift card, Pizza Hut gave us free pizzas, and Taco John’s gave each team member 2 tacos. You could say that it was not the most healthy dinner one could eat. You could also say that we were most definitely feeling that food in our stomachs even when we woke up this morning. However, it was free, and allowed us to not buy any food with Illini 4000’s money, so it was still a win in our books!
The rider shout-out from this day goes to our very own Kirby! Kirby had an absolute blast going down the mountain. He had some previous biking experience and is very comfortable on the bike, and really enjoys when he is able to gain some speed! He is a very consistent rider and we are happy to have him on our team. We also passed through a town called Kirby which was super fun!