Illini 4000

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How we made Wyoming exciting. Gillette, WY 6/30/2010

I heard some rumors that Wyoming could get pretty boring.  Today, I took it upon myself to make good ol' Wyoming exciting.  It all started off with a fantastic breakfast at the Old Mill Inn in Newcastle.  The chef was extremely generous and provided the whole team with a knockout breakfast.  I had way too much bacon for my own good. Kyle, Tracy Conor and I set out.  We managed to find a lake about a half mile off the road at mile 15.  Here we enjoyed a refreshing swim and two very cute dogs of which I named Frisky and Stupid.  In the picture is Frisky. At around mile 30, our group found a long freight train parallel to us.  Naturally, Conor and I made a game out of it and raced the train. I think we won.  We found ourselves pacing at 30mph up a hill with a tailwind to beat it.  Turns out that the train couldn;t go thirty miles an hour.Along the rest of our route, we found a traffic light and some abandoned houses.  Good job Wyoming.  Today's route allowed for alot of conversation, so it was nice to get to know each other even better.  Despite living together with the team for a month straight, you still don't know everything about them.  The stayover was AWESOME.  This church was extremeliy accomodating and interested in our ride.  All of the host sat down with us for dinner and stay for a long time telling us about Wyoming.  One of the women said that parts of Wyoming only had to dial four numbers for phone numbers because their town was so small.  The smallest town in Wyoming is three people.  Apparently, all you need is a post office to make a town. We swam at a nearby recreation center for showers.  I felt like a little kid again.  In fact, I did make a young friend named Anna who gave me a tour of the lazy river and taught me how to jump the lilly pads.  The stayover was so fun that I didn't even worry about the snakes that parked outside the doors of the church.