Road Lessons/Day 7

FRIDAY THE 13TH & THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS!

After our harrowing day crossing the windy Wyoming plains, we were hoping on an uneventful day heading out of Casper. About an hour out into the middle of no where, we got a flat tire!

The road looked like this in both directions

There really wasn't a flat spot to pull the bike off the road and the wind was threatening to topple it over so we had to hold it up.  We hadn't even really had a chance to get worried about our situation before a couple on a motorcycle stopped and said that they would ride ahead and look for help, which was awfully nice.  And so they took off and we resumed trying to decide whether to unload the bike and where were we going to safely leave it, if we had to go for help.  Within just a few minutes a truck that had passed us, turned around and came back to check on us.  The folks in the borrowed truck, also on a motorcycle trip, were visiting relatives in Casper and on a day trip to Thermopolis for the sulphur springs. Oh, and they were from Winona...out in the middle of remote Wyoming, and we get help from fellow Minnesotans! Amazing!  They insisted on getting us to a repair shop and we loaded the bike and all our stuff into the truck and all 5 of us piled into it to head 30 miles down the road to Shoshoni.  Turns out Shoshoni isn't much

Sally drove the pickup into the ditch for easier loading
more than a blip on the map, so Sally, Keith and Allen insisted on taking us another 35 miles further on to Thermopolis, which is a bigger community.

Sally, Keith, and Allen

At the Shell Service Station, they called around and found Boelen's Shop and Ken the proprietor, said come on over.  He didn't have the kind of tire we needed, of course, so called his sources and found one about 80 miles away in Cody.  Keith again insisted that he would drive David up to get it and it was arranged that the Cody shop would send someone with the tire and meet them half way in Meeteetse. They dropped Sally, Allen, and I off at the Springs, and they went to pick up the tire.  The springs weren't exactly what we were expecting, just sort of a pool /water slide commercial venture called Star Plunge.  Later, we found that the natural springs, part of the State Park, were across the street.  Oops. Oh, well. We enjoyed a soak in the sulphur water anyway, and a relaxing afternoon by the pool.

There was a 500 foot water slide and Sally tried it, I had already gone in to change so missed that excitement.  Dave and Keith had success connecting with the delivery guy and got the tire back to Ken to change out, came back to pick us up and we headed back to the shop and it was ready by the time we got back.  We couldn't believe our good fortune and how incredibly generous our 3 new friends were.  We were able to fill up their gas tank and buy them some snacks, but they refused dinner because their relatives had dinner planned for them back in Casper.  We got their address, etc., and promised to drive down to Winona when we get home and take them out to dinner there.  They didn't want any other payment, so unbelievably generous! So they took off and we chatted with Ken the shop owner, another bike enthusiast, about the over crowding at Sturgis (he doesn't go anymore..too many people and bad riders on the road), and bad and good luck on the road.  People want to be helpful and generous, was the consensus.  He felt awfully bad about what he had

Ken and David, outside Ken's shop: the cleanest shop
I've ever seen!

to charge us, but the Cody shop was charging him a lot and regretfully, he had to pass that on to us.  we asked him for a business card, which he didn't have, so he gave us two T shirts instead!  All the info's on the shirts!  And so, with a sense of amazing good fortune, we loaded up the bike to head back down to Shoshoni, and to try and make up for some lost time.  All in all, the day had gone relatively smoothly, we didn't want to think about how long we might have sat on that desolate highway, wondering how to fix that tire, which had a huge puncture, in it by the way.  So off we went to brave that horrendous wind again, and for a while at least, we got blasted pretty well.  By Riverton, we changed direction slightly and so it wasn't hitting us sideways anymore.  Sundown was coming on and it was a gorgeous ride up through gorges and valleys with the sun casting shadows and gilding the hills and rock faces.  It didn't take long to reach our destination of Dubois (Du Boyz), but we soon found that every hotel room was booked and ended up at the KOA, which was also full, but they gave us an RV spot for the price of a tent, (more generosity!) Glad we have the camping gear!  We pitched our tent and took a stroll down the street to the Rustic Pine for a well deserved drink and toasted the days events!

Lori, at the Rustic Pine In Dubois





Lesson # 20: per Blanche Dubois (!): "Trust in the Kindness of Strangers"