Hypothermia...Again

I got up and headed on through slight rain. The forecast I found last night from the local radio station as well as the previous ones from the internet said warmer morning followed by occasional rain in the afternoon. I decided to head on. The sky slowly became foggy and was starting to concern me about visibility. I rode on to the rest area and took shelter inside to warm up and let the fog clear. I had many comments about how it wasn't a great day to ride a bike.

Eventually the fog cleared and I continued on. Soon after starting, however, cold rain and cool temperatures moved in. I began getting extremely cold and concerned about how to handle that and the traffic. I eventually made it to Powder River. Many of the towns on this 100 mile stretch of road west of Casper are not there anymore and others are just holding on. Powder River is holding on. They had a post office that I went into to get warm. The lady clerk was very friendly and cranked the heat up to help me dry out. We talked for a bit and shared some stories and she opened up a room to let me put on a dry pair of pants. It took a long time to put these on and after an hour in the heat I was still shaking pretty good. I decided to call a friend and see if they could pick me up somewhere outside of town. After some discussing we decided I would ride towards town and after he finished up some things he would head my way.

While in the post office it had hailed and snowed and the wind shifted to a tail wind. This helped me ride almost 20 miles before he picked me up. The temperature had also dropped about 5 degrees, to 31. After piling in we drove back to town through more snow and rain. I warmed up at there house and also fell asleep for a bit, drained from the cold and exercise.