Day 51: Memorial Day on the side of a highway

Miles Hiked: 13

Total: 790

Location: Rawlins, Wyoming

This morning I woke up early and got a breakfast burrito from Taco John’s right next to our hotel. Once everyone else was awake 12 pack and I made some cardboard signs for our road walk on the side of the highway. We needed one for hitching and the rest were just for fun. I emptied my pack as much as I could and only carried things I might need on the walk and left the rest behind. It was really nice to carry a light pack today especially on a highway road walk. 12 pack and I left around 10am and started walking north on highway 287. It was memorial day and there was lots of traffic. I don’t really like walking on the side of a highway but strangely I’m getting used to it. I’ve always wanted to bike tour but I thought I would hate being by cars so much. Now that I’ve walked on the side of the highway for long stretches I think I could do it, I just don’t like how you are supposed to ride your bike with traffic and you can’t see anyone coming from behind you. I guess that’s why people wear helmet mirrors!

While we were on the highway we had two people pull over and ask us if we were okay and needed a ride. I thought it was super nice of them to check on us without any prompting but they must have thought that we are absolutely crazy. Over the course of the walk 12 pack got 7 cars and one bicycle to think their horns. He was sad it wasn’t more! I enjoyed drinking some strawberry banana body armour drinks I got in town. They were very hydrating and really nice to have during the sucky walk. Eventually we reached our spot where we got picked up before. We ate a slice of pizza and stuck out our thumbs. It was about 20 minutes before a Tesla car pulled over and picked us up. Two guys at the beginning of a six month road trip picked us up. They were super cool and wanted to know all about our hike.

They dropped us off at the ace hardware in town where we got gas canisters to cook dinner with. We then walked to a tai restaurant that I had been thinking about all week. They were closed! We met up with Jenga and Hummingbird and walked all over down town looking for a place to eat. I think a lot of places were closed for memorial day. We eventually found a sports bar called Buck’s. It was delicious and I was very full. After lunch/dinner we walked back to the hotel and stopped at an interesting gas station to take some goofy pictures along the way. At the hotel I relaxed for the rest of the night and picked up a resupply from the grocery store next door. It should take us about 4 days to hike to Encampment Wyoming.