Our time at the Rawlins Mennonite school was a great blessing. I arranged with John, Joann’s husband, to give us a lift from Rawlins to the Walcott exit on I-80. He was more than happy to have his son Jeffrey come by the school at 9 AM and pick us up.
My main concern was avoiding the 13 mile stretch of I-80. So Jeffrey was to drop us off at the Walcott exit and we’d hop on Hwy 130 headed for Saratoga. It would cut a total of 18.5 miles off our trip. But that plan presented a problem. If we stopped at Riverside it would only be a 38 mile ride and we’d pull in at around 2 pm. That’s too early to stop and it’s not enough miles for one day. So it made sense to go on to the next town. The problem is that Walden is the next town and it’s 50 miles from Riverside–with absolutely nothing in between. That would mean biking 88 miles uphill with a 9:30ish departure… Not happening. We could of course stray in Riverside, but then that would hinder our getting close enough to Pueblo by Wednesday night to meet Chantry and the girls. So what to do? I figured the best option was to ask Jeffrey to take us as close to Saratoga as possible. That would cut off a few more miles and make reaching Walden possible. As it turned out, he took us all the way to Saratoga, leaving us 66 miles to cycle to Walden with a 10 AM start from Saratoga. How did the plan work? Well. We pulled into Walden at 6:30.
The ride was really bleak. There was nothing but sagebrush and a few cows to look at the whole way. The foothills and rocks were nice to look at but other than that it was just a matter of putting in the miles. We stopped in Riverside for a quick lunch and a refill on our bottles and then made for the WY/CO border. The closer we got to the state line the more dark thunder clouds formed around us. We seemed to be surrounded by thunder storms on both sides and in front. If we put on the rain gear we wer too hot so we left it off and waited to see what would happen. When we crossed the CO state line, the happening happened: it started pouring–and it continued to pour for the next 2 1/2 hours all the way to town. And on top of that, we found a headwind the whole way…
We rolled into town like three soaked rats. Before reaching town I’d decided that we weren’t going to be setting up any tents in the city park so we were looking for a motel. I didn’t really want to spring for the expense of a motel, but we were soaked and the clouds looked like they could dump all night long and then we’d have wet stuff in the morning to deal with. So a motel/hotel was the best option. As we came into town the first thing we saw was a Baptist church. Forrest suggested we try to find shelter there and save our money. I was up for the idea but there was no number on the sign. So we headed for a local store to see if we couldn’t find how to get ahold of the pastor.
The store clerks were clueless so we asked a customer. She suggested we head to the sheriff’s office and ask them. I thought that was a good idea so we headed over there. The lady behind the glass greeted us with a smile and said, “I think you’d like to sleep in the city park tonight.” We were supposed to check in with the sheriff before setting up our tents in the park but I’d already called last night and got permission. Soaking wet and standing before her with my helmet still on I replied, “Not really…” “Well if there’s no one in the gazebo you can sleep in it.” “Is there a Plan B?” I asked. She looked up thoughtfully and I said, “Can we possibly get shelter at the Baptist church up the road? All we need is floor space. I would’ve called the pastor but I don’t have his number.” “Hold on a minute. I know him. I’ll call him and ask.” Wow! What providence! This may work out after all. It seemed like 15 mins before she returned. “I have good news!” she said as she returned to the window. “You can stay at the Roundup Hotel for free tonight.” “What? How’s that possible?” “I called the hotel and asked them if they had any room for a father and two sons who are biking across the nation and need a warm, dry place to stay the night. And they said to send you right over.” Wow! Praise God! We thanked her, blessed her, and headed down the road to the Roundup Hotel. It turns out the owners of the hotel are members of the Baptist church and the pastor called them asking them if they could put us up. They happily accomotaded us in a Victorian house they’re still renovating to be used as a hotel. They put us up in one of the rooms. It has 3 beds, a stove, a claw foot tub/shower, and plenty of space to hang up all our wet rain gear to dry. And we have wifi! Can you believe it!? The Lord is so good. We’re in Walden. We have a dry place to sleep. And we have a kitchen to prepare our meals. Thank you Lord for taking care of us. Please pray the Lord blesses Casandra and Brandon (the owners of the hotel) and the pastor of the Baptist church and the gospel ministry there.
We’re off to bed now and we hope to get an early start. Tomorrow we’ll be climbing Willow Creek Pass (9621 ft). Thankfully, with all the climbing we did today, we’re already at 8100 ft. So it shouldn’t be too bad. Hopefully the storm passes in the night. Coming down the other side of the pass we’ll either stop in Hot Sulphur Springs or Kremmling. If Hot Sulphur Springs has a good church we can attend on Sunday we’ll stop there; if not then we’ll head on 17 miles more to the larger town of Kremmling.
Thanks for praying. Thanks for following.
Until next time… 🙂
