Or as Chuck would say, good ROP (Return On Pedaling.) The Wyoming roads have been the most friendly by far. Thanks to courteous drivers, wide shoulders and most importantly, rolling hills that let you gently glide down after a climb. Wyoming also has good ROI if you bought land before the oil and gas boom. We stopped at one dive motel who wanted $144 for a tiny room; there was only one room left thanks to all the oil workers in town. Another time we stopped at an RV park that was getting $600 a month for RV spots. Good time to own land in Wyoming.

Our first impression was not so favorable since we started in the Great Basin. If you’ve never been to the Great Basin, it’s tough to describe. Not because I can’t think of the proper adjectives, but because their aren’t enough adjectives to describe nothing. It’s basically a large flat area with a few cows roaming around. If you’ve ever been curious what the edge of the universe looks like, I think it would look a lot like the Great Basin, including the cows. There always seems to be a few cows wherever we go. I’ll tell you what, you really feel stupid when cows stare at you with expressions of bewilderment as you ride by.

The only thing the Great Basin has going for it are the Pronghorns, which are quite numerous and appeared to be as bored as we were. They would detect us way before we saw them and would run along side from a distance, even criss-crossing the road in front of us. Every once in awhile they would stop and look back at us dejectedly, as if to say, “why aren’t you chasing us?” The cocky little bastards seemed to know they are the fastest land mammal in North America.

Believe it or not we met several other people in the GB also doing the Great Divide (since that’s about the only reason to be there) including Eran from Israel. The first thing he said was, “this is so boring, I’m taking the first road out of here.” You know it’s bad when you travel thousands of miles to do the GD and decide to leave the route. We also met a lovely couple who did the ride nine years ago. We don’t have a picture since the gentleman was only wearing bikini briefs and neither Chuck or I had the gumption to request a photograph.

There are a lot of great things to say about Wyoming, but the highlight was definitely spending three nights in the Grand Teton National Park. Can anyone tell me what a Teton is?

Our friend Ivy met us there and took us for a demo ride in her company plane. We also went on an 11-hour hike where we saw marmots hanging around (at least we think it’s a marmot), a black bear and stalked a moose like moose-a-razzi.

We even found a little time to visit with some of Mr. Softie’s wilder relatives.

Another great thing about Wyoming is Jo-An and Dave Martin. The Martins operate the Aspen Meadows Bike Hostel, which is just a fancy name for their home. Several years ago they realized they lived in one of the few places where two major cross-country cycling routes intersect, the Great Divide and the Trans American. Also know as the Border-to-Border and Coast-to-Coast. Out of the goodness of their hearts they decided to open up their home to cyclists. Well I should say more than just open it up, because they invited us in like life-long friends, making us dinner and breakfast, and entertained us for the evening. They asked absolutely nothing in return.

Jo-An is from southern Illinois and Dave grew up on the south side of Chicago and oddly became a huge Cubs fan, so we hit it off when I noticed they were watching a baseball game and asked how the Cubs were doing in the playoff race. In an ironic it’s-a-small-world twist of fate they spend some of their summer in Chicago within a couple blocks of my house. We hope to return their kindness with a few outings at Wrigley Field and bike rides on the lake front. Cheers Dave and Jo-An!

Our time in Wyoming was also pleasant since we did not encounter any mechanicals or health issues. This good fortune also held true for Idaho. Of course we were only in Idaho for one night, so I don’t have a lot to say about it other than Ivy’s friend Mark has a tee-shirt that says reads, “Idaho? No, Udaho.”

Stay tuned for the next update from the Great Smokey Mountains of Montana … yes the Great Smokey Mountains.