Fall Out Boy

[Dubois to Shoshoni, WY and Shoshoni to Casper, WY; 205 miles total]

While Shoshoni initially sounded to me like a character in Mario Kart, I can confirm that it is actually a small town in Wyoming! The ride in was long, but made less monotonous by now regulation road games such as the get-to-know-too-much-about-you “Hotseat” challenge. As my pace line was literally rolling into our lodging, me and my teammate Matt Schmidt not so gracefully wiped out on a patch of loose gravel (this exact same scenario unfolded at a crew stop the next day… we’re apparently cursed riding together). After laughing off our dramatic entrance, it dawned on all of us that we had no yet eaten lunch. Actually, this had been dawning on me for the past 30 miles at least… so I was relieved to scarf down the standard “two meat, one cheese” meal after probing our crew chief Drayton whether or not he was plotting to starve the cyclists. *He was not, he’s great.

Exploring Shoshoni consisted of a local malt/shake shop (standard for the group) and the Silver Sack Saloon. The saloon was admittedly a bit strange (it looked more like someone’s living room than a conventional bar), but its owner, an older woman named Holly, was one of the most charismatic people I’ve met in a long time. She was a no nonsense type, which I’m always drawn to. Looking forward to the next day, we were told by locals that we were going to be cycling “the longest 100 miles in America” and that the most entertainment we could hope for would be a curve in the road...

Their warning didn’t deviate very much from the truth, but eventually we made it into Casper. Upon arrival, I was honored to be a guest star on Isaac Polanco’s “Frat TV” video blog, in which we discussed life on the road. We then had a night off and I had the chance to meet some of my teammates Max’s friends from home, who were in town at a relative’s house. As strange as it sounds, it was really nice to just hang out in a normal family’s backyard and kick back.

The next day was off and consisted of back-to-back friendship visits. The first was at a local Boys and Girls Club. In addition to observing some priceless reactions from kids to the corndog lunch menu, there was fun to be had! We presented our “Kids on the Block” puppet show, where I played the role of Mark Riley – a kid with cerebral palsy who likes to roll through town on his “cruiser” (his alternate term for a wheelchair). Following each skit there was a question-and-answer session which yielded some occasionally challenging inquires from the kids. My favorite had to be: “What’s a chromosome?” Afterwards we went on a bike ride with some of the kids from the center (remaining “clipped in” to the bike with tired, erratic children dodging around was actually pretty difficult). With some colorful artwork from my new friend Destiny in tow, we had to move on. Later in the evening we were unleashed on a local playground, where we joined a number of children with disabilities in playing an epic game of softball. A great day to remind us what the summer is all about!