Fort Collins (Wellington KOA)
There was one fly in the ointment however, the last 100 miles or so was on Interstate 80 with a 75 mph speed limit and cross winds so bad that they have permanent signs erected in case they have to close the Interstate. The winds were hitting my Saturn and bicycle pretty good, but I went ahead and drove the speed limit anyway. With about 25 miles to go to Laramie I noticed the bike rack looked a little cockeyed. It was hard to tell if anything was wrong, but the more I looked at it the more I realized something was amiss. I slowed to 65 mph and had to wait 3 miles for the next exit. I gingerly pulled off to the side of the road to find the two main nylon support straps that hold the bike to the front of the trunk were completely disconnected from the trunk and wrapped around the bike.
My firrst thought was that it was a well-designed rack to stay on after such a mishap. I had never been too worried about my bike falling off because I always thought it was secured to the rack sufficiently, but if the rack should go I was in trouble. I untied and retied all the straps and was on my way at 65 mph.
I had decided to try Curt Gowdy State Park just north east of Laramie. I stopped in Laramie for suppliees first. After getting gas and food at Albertsons I looked for a Taco John's restaraunt. They had been advertising on the radio all day and I had not eaten at one since I lived in SC 14 years ago. I especially liked the Taco Broavo which is a regular hard shell taco wrapped in a soft shell tortilla with bean paste in between. I found one a few blocks down the street. The dining room was up to Taco John's usual sanitary standards so I got it to go.
As I walked to my car I noticed a Kinko's with a Internet Access sign across the parking lot. I put my bravo in the car then went to inquire about their services. It was 20 cents a minute and they had AOL software. "Just what I needed," I thought. After spending 5 minutes copying my files to a floppy I tried AOL only to find the version they used had a lot of features disabled, including the one I needed to upload my files. Ten minutes later I was back in the car eating a cold but delicious Taco Bravo.
I drove to Curt Gowdy State Park which was on a Lake in the middle of a vast wasteland. I could see as I approached I would not be satisfied with the accomadations and when they asked for $3 just to enter to look around I quiretly headed for Cheyenne. I revisited my maps and guides and found a KOA north of Fort Collins, Colorado that may fit my needs. The most attractive thing about it was that it had modem access. I have been avoiding KOA's because I have always felt it was kind of a sterile way to camp with swimming pools, playgrounds, showers and flush toilets, but I thought I should give it a try.
I arrived around 5:30pm to a hot and muggy campground with only 2 of the 15 available tent sites taken on this saturday night. It was camping on top of each other but they had the hookup I needed for my computer and I could not think of anywhere else to go so I stayed. Within an hour I was showered, shaved and had uploaded journal entry 9. As I headed back to my site two SUV's one with a trailer of tents pulled up and you got it parked in the site right next to mine. Out jumped ten twelve-year old boys and two adult males. "We are only going to set up four tents," one of the adults commanded. "Great I thought, I barely fit one in mine." As it turned out they took two sites and were polite enough to park their SUV as a barrier between mine and theirs. The kids rana around like a bunch of wild indians all night, but they were not around the campsite too much so it turned out fine.
I took my bike out for a spin down the country road lined with barns and ranch houses. There was quite a few cattle and horses in the area. I got some great sunset pictures. As I had approached the site from the north I could see most of the sky was covered with the smoke of forest fires. I could see blackened hills in the distance. As it turned out that smoke made the sunset look pretty cool. Sometimes I wonder when I go to check in to a place like this if someone should not be asking me why I am not out fighting the fires. I am young, healthy, strong, with no obligations. Why aren't I out there?