Lander to Jeffrey City - July 6

We left Lander at 7 a.m. following coffee at McDonald's. (On our last trip, Lander was the first place we saw a McDonald's, allowing us to use some coupons someone had given us.)

We avoided most of the wind by leaving early and taking few stops. We arrived in Jeffrey City -- about 60 miles away -- by 1 p.m. Even 25 years ago, Jeffrey City was a ghost town. In the late 1970s there were 5,000 people here, brought by nearby uranium mines. But, apparently uranium couldn't be mined here cheap enough and the mines closed. Today maybe 50 people live in town, but there are a lot of abandoned buildings, including the Lions Club pavilion where we camped last time.

We are staying at a Baptist church on the edge of town that was built at the tail end of the uranium hey-day and has somehow managed to stick around.

Tomorrow we plan to ride to Rawlins.