Day 39 (Tues. June 20/06)

Rawlins, WY to Ogallala, NB

About 8 miles east of Rawlins was a Sinclair refinery which resembles an oasis in the desert with trees, houses and all the little things that make up a community. Our neighbour in the fleabag motel we stayed at in Rawlins was talking to me while I was cleaning up the bike. Apparently Sinclair owns a lot of the wells in Wyoming and is building a pipeline to Denver so Rawlins and nearby cities are populated with oil workers for the next few months.

This fellow said they were earning $40.00 per hour plus $80.00 per day living expenses and the motel was charging them $300.00 a week. He worked locally at $8.00 per hour and knew the owner so he only paid $160.00 per week. We paid $40.00 for the night and no internet or morning coffee.


At our first gas stop we decided to try Arby's for lunch and see if they had wireless internet. They didn't but we were close enough to 2 motels to get good access. While there, we could see a big, black rain cloud approaching. The girl who waited on us said there was a storm warning and it was supposed to be heading south. We decided to wait it out. Good thing because there was rain, lightning and thunder. As the rain was stopping, it was hot enough to start drying up so we decided to see if we could beat it as we were going east.

Just as we were starting to leave, it started up again. We went to plan B and headed for Wally Mart next door.


Maybe escaping the rain at Wally Mart wasn't such a good idea. Guess who found a few bargains that didn't fit in the trailer? US prices are certainly much cheaper than just the difference in the dollar!!


We were having good luck out running the storm so we decided to zip down to Denver, CO since this is the only state that Pat hasn't been in now. Well, the pictures don't really show how black the sky was and the rain that was falling, but we decided Denver wasn't as important as avoiding the storm. We turned around at the first exit, leaving the storm behind us.


Daily Stats
548 Kms Ridden
5 Hrs 45 Mins Riding Time
4 Hrs 41 Mins Stopped Time
51.8 Km/Hr Avg Riding Speed

Fuel Used: 36.26 L
Fuel Cost: $26.75 US
Avg Km/L: 15.08