RIDE C2C L2 DAY 9 Transport from Buffalo to Gillette, WY = Tourista Time!

RIDE C2C DAY 9 Transport from Buffalo to Gillette

Miles = 0 on bike, 70 in a car

Word of the Day:  Tourista Time!

We had choices: #1) ride I-90 for 70 miles, #2) Take the country road for over 100 miles without any services or water, or #3) Get a lift to Gillette and have a rest day.  Hmmm, let me see.  What do think: suffer on I-90, or take 2 days and big risk on country road, or relax and have fun?

For sure we chose #3!  We were really tired from the ride yesterday, so taking the day off seemed like a good idea. One of Doug’s former students, Emma, lived in Cody and kindly offered to give us a ride.    Before loading up her Jeep, we took her to breakfast at the Main Street Diner in the cute old part of Buffalo (Buffalo is the town that inspired the TV Show “Longmire”) and had a good old fashioned diner breakfast (omelettes, pancakes, hash browns).

Pictures above:  Breakfast with Emma, The Main Street Diner, cute part of Buffalo

Will it all fit?  Yeessss...We managed to cram everything into Emma’s Jeep - and that meant Doug and I shared the front seat for the hour drive to Gillette.  Emma was a great sport and she and Doug carried on about world affairs, politics, and Emmas future studies.  We are very thankful for the lift to Gillette!

Pictures above: Emma’s car full of bikes, getting comfy in the front seat, what we didn’t ride on I-90

She left us at the Green Tree Crazy Woman campground that was somewhat rundown, plenty of live-a boards, kind of a dive...where we picked out a semi-shaded tent spot and decided what to do with our free day.  Tourista!  We’d tour the town.

1 - Went to the “Rockpile Museum” - yes, there was a pile of big rocks out front.  Lots of good stories about settlers and war veterans.  We loved the video about coal mining setting explosives - to either remove the top layers of “overburden” so they can get to the coal; the other to break up the coal so that it is easier to remove.

2 - Had the BEST chicken tacos ever at “The Coop - Rotisserie chicken house”

And then walked through the old part of Gillette - cute couple of blocks!

3 - Saw a matinee (can’t think of the last time we did this!) - but it was a terrible movie: Once upon a time in Hollywood.  We do not recommend it.  

Then we stopped at the grocery store as we walked back to the campground and made a simple salad for dinner (since we had such a big lunch).  We took advantage of the indoor campsite “lounge” and it’s electricity to recharge phones and iPad while we wrote our journals.  We emerged from the lounge in the dark to find our tent had plenty of light from the 6 story parking garage next door...I slept with my jersey over my eyes to block the light.