We made our way out of Jackson Hole today and racked up a whole 175 miles � the greater portion of that in the wind. Wyoming is beautiful country. You can see for miles as you travel the 2-lane highway, surrounded by mountains on both sides. The road was rather flat and straight until we reached the part that�s under construction. 5 miles of gravel. I guess when they fix a road here they go all the way back to the beginning. On we rolled into Hoback Canyon and there we had an opportunity to take a few pictures. We continued on into the Great Divide Basin and that�s where the wind began. The wind blew so hard we were literally riding sideways. We stopped after 50 miles to give our muscles a rest. Not much traffic out here. It seemed that most people were traveling in the other direction with the wind at their backs. Go figure. On we went for another 40 miles and stopped again for some water. Interestingly enough at this stop (in the middle of nowhere) we encountered all kinds of people. It was 5:00 PM local time and there were at least 8 trucks that pulled into the gas station. There were license tags from all over; Texas, Mississippi, Ohio, Virginia, etc. We wondered what was going on. We left the gas station and made it to Rock Springs, WY � a big town in this part of the country � population 18,357 (as compared to a lot of the other signs we saw where the population ranged from 100 to 375). We stopped at the Flaming Gorge Harley shop, did a little shopping and chatted with the nice people there. We discovered that the reason we encountered so many people from all over the place at the gas station down the road was because there�s an oil boom here. Interesting � very interesting. We also learned that there was a biker party going on down the road as there had been a Poker Run earlier. So, we found a hotel room, unloaded our many bags and headed for the party. I gotta tell you guys, it just wasn�t the same. The music, played by an R&B band was good, but the people were a little stand offish. I guess they knew we were �outsiders.� We didn�t stay long. We headed to Applebee�s for dinner and had quite a conversation with a botanist from Idaho. He was an interesting fellow and one that appreciated the fact that we had visited so many national forests and parks. That ended our day and our rockin� Saturday night.
