Day 33, June 13th

Somehow I arrived at the Wycolo Grill. The sign at Walden said 32 miles to the state line. I'm into Wyoming a little after noon and most of the way was push. I don't see how I could have covered that distance but here I am. The wind helped me up the hills today. They were very strong and in my favor. It's about 8 miles to the summit then we have about 8 miles of 7-8% down grade I'm told. A problem I guess will be solved tomorrow. I'll leave the grill in a couple hours. It is very hot out. Climbing today I saw 3 deer and a little ground squirrel came out of his hole about 6 feet away and looked me over. At one point I was looking down at an eagle soaring above a valley just like Jennifer Castle saw in my book. She is as real to me as my own Jennifer. I'd encourage everyone to make new friends by writing stories.
The wind is whistling outside and the trees are leaning. Laura's out of the wind next to the restaurant.
The pine trees smell good up here. I passed a road repair crew today and gave the flagman my rat tail chair. I showed him how it attaches around his waist so that he can just sit down whenever he likes His rules say he can't use it on the job, but he wanted it for fishing.
Hoppy is feeling better today. I think he has decided to dig a little deeper and let the miles ahead come as they will. We will see.
I thought about Grant Norman's daughter today. It would have been fun to have her along. I could have given her a bull whip and whenever I slowed down she could have let me have a good one. We'd probably be across the plains by now.
The truth be known the sign at the beginning of the downgrade reads 6 miles of 7% grade. So I built a drag. A few miles before the downgrade a fellow provided a car tire. I worked my knife through this tire. I found some barbed wire, a stick, and a Kipper snack can. I padded the stick with the can and ran the wire through the tire and around the padded stick. On the outside of the tire I made a loop to which I attached my rope which is attached to Laura. I ran a stick through the tire and wired it in place. The stick will probably wear out, but not for a while. It will save the back side of the tire for a while hopefully and force wear on the front of the tire until the stick wears out. So goes the plans of mice and men. Tomorrow will tell the tale.

It's hard to love mosquitos. There are a billion of them.