WRIGHT NOT WRONG

DAY  3:  WRIGHT (not RIGHT, RITE, or WRONG), WYOMING

The road that leads from Spotted Horse to Wright, Wyoming is arrow straight.  A few undulations of height occurs along this straight road as it gradually rises to maybe a ten feet incline but that will take a full half a mile of  pedaling to reach those ten feet.  Then just as gradually the road begins to ease back down to its original height.  

The scenery in this part of Wyoming is deceiving.  And so it would be convenient to brush past this seemingly desolate ecosystem at 70 mph and think that the landscape is "boring."  Au contraire!  This land bustles and vibrates with life unique to the high plains and the land bears unmistakable evidence of ancient times past.  As far as the wildlife goes, Wyoming is by far the largest habitat for the Prong-Horned Antelope.  About 500,000 of them dot the Wyoming plains to eat grass, mate, bear young, and forage.  This morning a mother antelope and her three fawns were on the patch of ground that lies between the fence line and the highway.  She understandably was concerned that I was so close to her young as I pedaled  on the shoulder.  So she paralleled my bike staying just a tad in front and to the right of me.  In a single bound she'd clear a ten-foot sage brush plant while her little ones would dart around it.  Just to observe these magnificent creatures is an amazing thing!

Once in Wright, I was planning to tent at the Sagebrush RV court, but they wouldn't allow tents.  So in the meantime I happened by the Community Center of Wright, not Wrong.  I'm hardly in the doorway when Dana pops into view: "Welcome to our Senior's Center.  You're just in time for our daily luncheon!"  And soon a small brigade of Wright's zaniest senior citizens filed in--Bruce, Joe, Janice Leena, Sarah, Dana's husband, Rich, and Dale.  All were retired and most of them for decades.  But on this day they were at the top of their game and acting zany as if they were on elementary school summer vacation.  Joe was the first one in and the most talkative.  "You own that bike out there?  That one of those new battery bikes?  I have a 1980 Ford truck; 117,000 miles on it.  Purrs like a kitten."  I asked, "So, Joe, are you a rancher in Wright?"  I had noticed his weathered face.  I pride myself on pinpointing people with their careers.  Hence, he's a rancher.  "Hell no.  I'm no rancher, I'm a banker  from New York.  Came here maybe twenty years ago.  Decided to stay."  Okay then, good.  

Leena and Joe

Dana (center) and her husband and Sarah

"Yeah, I've been in banking all my life; in fact I even started a couple of banks in Wyoming.  And I'm a preacher and started up a couple of churches too.   I  can do just about anything."  Well, okay then.  Still, I couldn't imagine Joe being a pastor, but if he could start banks, why not churches?  

Sarah was casting eyes at the newbie to the Wright Community Center.  A couple of off-color, double entendres got thrown my direction, but when I didn't pick up the ground balls, she launched into her work as a city council member and the golf fundraiser they had held last month.  A big success, apparently.  Janice wouldn't let me take her picture and Leena wanted to know what we were doing when JFK was shot.  

These wonderful folks accepted me as their Wright Community Center Senior Citizen  roving member and thought the bike was quite cool.  But I still needed to find where I'd be laying my head that night, so I blessed my friends and was off in Wright, not Wrong, Wyoming.  All Wrighty, then.