Leaving at 5:45am was tough today. Not for waking up early, but for saying goodbyes to Sean and Michelle. It was like saying goodbye to old friends. This was compounded by today's ride: 112 miles to Lusk, WY. Would I have the same misfortune with the wind that I had two days before? The first 28 miles to Glenrock had a few rolling hills, but nothing that was out of the ordinary. A short bite to eat here was due before heading south on I-25. Riding on the interstate is definitely not my preference, but there was no other viable route to US-20 at Orin (about 40 miles south of Glenrock. About 12 miles before Orin, another break at Douglas was necessary. Riding through a construction zone on the interstate was a little mentally fatiguing, as the four lane highway was reduced to one lane in each direction. A few narrow spots were tougher to navigate, but riding through these narrower portions when there were gaps in traffic seemed to be the safest way to ride through. At Orin, US-20 finally parted ways with I-25. Back to riding on a quiet, almost forgotten US highway: peace at last. There were 42 more miles left to go. While the wind had helped out a bit into the ride at this point, a strong tailwind pushed me 42 eastward to Lusk in about 90 minutes. A late lunch at Lost Springs was necessary. Even with the wind pushing me eastward, bonking out (or hitting the wall) is something to avoid. In short, it's sudden fatigue and loss of energy which is caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles. Symptoms usually include feeling weak and lightheaded, both of which, as you can imagine, do not jive with riding a bicycle. Lost Springs has a population of four, I kid you not. These four souls must have been indoors, because I was bitten no fewer than 15 times by mosquitoes while attempting to eat. While Lost Springs had a population of five for 15 minutes, another minute of being around these apparently deprived mosquitoes was pushing insanity. 112 miles at after starting today's ride, I rolled downhill into Lusk. A local campground had really good reviews, but soon I discovered the mosquitoes were as, if not more, persistent here than in Lost Springs! Never have I ever in one day been bitten by so many mosquitoes. Retreating to a restaurant downtown was an easy choice. After devouring a burger, exhaustion from the day settled in. I putted around Lusk on the bicycle on the way back to the campground. I turned in early and planned on sleeping in until 6:30am tomorrow. The ride into Nebraska would be a relatively short one.
