lørdag 5. juli 2014

Day 24: Mini's Café

124.6 km

After speaking with the other cyclists at the park, I headed out for a pancake & egg breakfast in town. Joanna had made a late entrance to the park last night and wanted to stay in Walden a bit more to do some laundry, so I headed out in pursuit of the young couple that had left while I was at breakfast. 

I cruised on to find out that I had the option of taking a slightly shorter route to Kremmling, but decided to go with the map. The road was in bad shape but the almost no traffic on this road was worth it. The first part of the day was easy riding over a huge open range in the sunny morning. The intense silence to be heard here was just wonderful. Apart from the occasional bird chirping, there was not a sound to be heard. 






I knew I had some climbing to do and after a while the road started to wind itself up along the hillsides. On the top of Willow Creek Pass at 2950 m, I met Chris and Anna - two cyclists that were camping in the park in Walden - having a rest after a tough climb. The descent towards Hot Sulphur Springs passed through some nice scenery in the rain and when I got to there, I tried to find a sports bar that might have the world cup game on, since I was right on time. The best thing I could find was Mini's Café, so I headed in to find a small dining area with a nice waitress/cook. I ordered Chicken tenders without really knowing what it was, and after asking (I'm guessing Mini) I was educationally explained that it was "chicken tenders". After finding a spanish speaking channel showing the game on the small café TV, a guy called Randy and his young son Simon entered the café and started asking me about the bike he had seen outside. Turns out he was a triathlete and was very fascinated by a hardcore race called Norseman that is arranged in Norway. He asked about the route and told me he had some friends in east Kansas and gave me his contact information so that I can contact him if I get into trouble in the area! He offered me to stay in his familys's cabin too, in Granby which was east of here but the route was going west for a little while now so I kindly declined. Before leaving he told the waitress that he would like to pick up my tab too, and paid for my meal! Just incredible! Out of nowhere I get showed this incredible kindness from a complete stranger!






Just shocked by the whole deal with Randy, I got back to watching the game. My final destination for the day was Kremmilng just down the road so I sat back and enjoyed my first full game since the start of the trip. After a while, a group of three cyclists entered to grab a bite to eat. One of the two guys had a wife from Norway so he had been there on several occasions and was familiar with the places I mentioned. After a pleasant conversation and the game heading into penalty kick, they set off and so did I, only after the game was done. I headed with a crosswind/tailwind, and plowed through the last kilometers as if it was nothing. I went straight to the grocery store, on the other end of Kremmling compared to the campground, where I ran into Chris and Anna again.



Later, I got to the campground along with another group of 3 young cyclists heading up to Calgary, Canada. After setting up the tent among the other cyclists, a shower and a snack I was feeling pretty satisfied with what the day had to offer and headed off to sleep. 


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