CCR - "Have You Ever Seen the Rain"

Someone told me long ago there’s a calm before the storm,
I know; it’s been comin’ for some time.
When its over, so they say, it’ll rain a sunny day,
I know; shinin’ down like water.

Chorus:
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain
Comin’ down on a sunny day?

-CCR - "Have You Ever Seen the Rain"

Regina - REST DAY

1882 kms / 1162 miles biked to date

I woke up to the feeling of sun shining down on my tent which was a nice change to the previous evening when we ran from the laundry facilities at the campground to our tents in a valiant escape from the rain. Unfortunately however the sun shining down on my tent lasted all of 5 minutes (from about 7:05 – 7:10) and by the time I poked my head out and emerged from my tent the raindrops had started to fall and the wind had begun to pick up. The campground was actually quite a nice one with a great ‘communal area’ with a tv – so strange to see television again and catch up with world news..!

Brendan soon emerged as well and we decided to walk into Regina to (1) hit a Tim Hortons and (2) run some errands. A group of people headed to the casino (taking advantage of the free shuttle service) however, BC and I, being hard-core walking Londoners, decided to brave the “light shower” and walk down to Tim Hortons. It was only a 2 kilometer walk and we figured we would only get a ‘damp soaking’. About 3 minutes into the walk the wind picked up and the heavens opened to release the water which came down horizontally and in sheets. We were drenched in about 4 minutes… I started to panic as the water started to seep through my socks and into my running shoes. Yick.

We decided to take a short cut through a Winnebago sales lot and discovered that Regina is underlain by a thick, thick, later of sticky glue-like heavy grey clay. The surface area covered by my Nikes went from ‘human footprint size’ to ‘overgrown saskwatch-sized’ footprint as the clay stuck to our soles. After about 3 steps my feet were so heavy I could hardly walk. As you can imagine, we looked pretty rough plodding into Tim Hortons soaking wet and with gigantic, clay covered feet. Lucky Regina is not the fashion capital of Canada and we seemed to fit right in... Plus, the biggest country festival in Canada (??) called, "The Craven Festival" (the country version of Woodstock / Glastonbury) was in full swing so there were a lot of muddy coffee drinkers that morning.

Staring into our coffee cups, Brendan and I devoured our bagels and donuts and contemplated how on earth we were going to check out and make the most of Regina in such dire weather. There was a girl sitting next to our table and she overheard our conversation and offered to give us a lift to the mall about 5 kms away – a total life-saver..!! We gratefully piled into the car headed to a mall and ran some errands (post, haircut, food) and then hopped on a bus into downtown Regina – hee haw..!

I regret to say that we did not experience Regina in all of its potential glory as the rain did not let up for the rest of the day. Brendan and I managed to dodge some of the rain by hiding out in local coffee shops reading the Globe, exploring more malls, libraries, bookstores and several bus shelters. It was a very, VERY wet and windy afternoon and by the time my feet did dry out it was nearly time to have dinner.

We took a bus to ‘Rock Creek’, a restaurant about 2kms from our campsite and in the middle of the ‘metropolis of WalMart / strip-mall city’ which had been recommended to us by one of the locals. There we found a perfect place at the bar and indulged in a fantastic burger and a very, very much needed glass of delicious meaty red wine. It was a perfect way to end the blustery, cold day. There had been an air of ‘the inevitable’ about the day as we knew that we had over 900kms to cover over the coming 6 days – including days of 172 and 169 kms… Given that we were already tired we did the best we could to relish and soak up our final few hours of being ‘saddle free’. I have never appreciated ‘free time’ so much and felt that in spite of the crappy weather we’d definitely made the most of the way.

A slow and relaxing walk back to the campground was in order and the second we arrived at ‘tent city’ the heavens opened once again to let loose yet another prairie storm – this one I managed to avoid by diving into my tent and into the warm reaches of my sleeping bag. Fingers crossed that the rain would let up for the following day 131km journey to Neudorf..!

We had a long, long 6 days ahead... over 900kms from Regina to our next rest day in Kenora...!!

The Madness - "The Sun and The Rain"

I feel the rain falling on my face
I can say there is no better place
Than standing up in the falling down
In so much rain I could almost drown.

It's raining again
A crack in the clouds reveals blue skies
I've been feeling so low(low)
But now everything is on my side
The sun and the rain.
Walk with me fill my heart again

- The Madness - "The Sun and the Rain"

Craik to Regina - 124 kms / 77 miles

I woke up that morning trying to figure out if I’d slept through the storm or if, in fact, Tent City had managed to completely avoid the storm which had sounded inevitable the evening before. Whilst it wasn’t a sunny morning, it wasn’t raining either which was somewhat of a blessing and my tent was only damp from the dew. I’d hoped that my good weather luck would continue. A great breakfast was served by Brendan and Andew’s galley Crew and everyone headed out by about 7:30 for an early start in an attempt to avoid the rain carrying clouds which were quickly rolling in. I’ve learned to ‘read’ clouds and these definitely read ‘RAIN’ and lots of it. Oh dear.

Sure enough, by the time the camp clean up started the heavens opened and the rain started pouring down. The Galley Crew and some of us who’d stayed behind to help with the clean up quickly grabbed the bags, threw them into the truck and tried to get things organised as quickly as possible. This was my first proper encounter with rain on the trip and I wasn’t looking forward to starting the day off cold and wet…! When everything was cleaned up we noticed that some blue sky had begun to peek through the cloud and realised that the storm was only a passing one… in a way, we’d been lucky to have had the truck and the campground facilities to keep us dry (well, me anyway as I hid from the rain in the washroom…).

We headed out of the campground at around 9am and encountered the first of the headwind… Headwind was also new to me as up until today, Day 20, we’ve had nothing but glorious, wonderful tail winds (more or less). So, headwind was a new challenge and Andrew and Brendan quickly enlightened me on the art of spinning in the small cog in an easy gear into the wind (as opposed to the big cog and hard gear which I cranked in for the first 20 kms..!!). It was tough going but I can definitely feel myself getting stronger and began to appreciate the ‘mental’ aspect of biking against the wind. If you don’t think about the fact that you’re working super hard but still going painfully slow then you’re ok. It takes a certain discipline to ‘not think’ about the amount of energy expended compared to the soul-destroying pace that you’re going. I have found that singing Abba songs at a very high decibel definitely helps… (no one can hear me anyway because of the wind although Andrew did call me ‘old crow’ at one stage). Mamma mia…
We took a break on Highway 11 at a very small rural town called Chamberlain. In the cosy little diner I joined the ranks of ‘Double Breakfast Hungry Man’ club. I had my second breakfast here and realised how much my appetite has grown… I eat like a man!! I had 2 pancakes, 4 eggs, 4 pieces of toast, hash browns, 3 cups of coffee AND a chocolate bar… AND could easily have eaten another few pancakes if given the chance. It was pretty crazy and I am again astounded at how much I am eating. The wind was definitely helping to burn calories at an alarming rate.

The route today is a nice one as we pass through a number of relatively small towns of rural Saskatchewan. They’re all spread relatively far apart and are made up of a few relatively small homes, a grain elevator, a gas pump and a well stocked co-op. We took a side of the road break to indulge in a litre of chocolate milk (each) at Bethune and suddenly realised that the sun had finally decided to appear and that it was now actually quite hot as well as windy..! It was already relatively late and we’d not even cycled 60kms. Ugh..! We still had another 60kms left to go.

In Lumsden Andrew and I realised that we’d lost Brendan and Ian (they’d sped off ahead – perhaps frightened off by my singing and rendition of ‘Voulez vous’…) and we decided to make a pit stop in the friendly town of Lumsden where we indulged in a late lunch, a chat with the locals about the history of the Qu’appelle Valley, tips on Regina night life and then headed out for the final kilometres into Regina.

I was sooooo tremendously happy to see the ‘Welcome to Regina’ sign. It made the following day’s rest day seem even closer and I was happy that the clouds had now completely dissipated to reveal a clear blue sky. Unfortunately the wind had only gotten stronger gusting at times up to 35 kms / hour into our faces but by this stage it was about 5:30 and we knew that the camp was only precious kilometres away and were far too tired to complain. We were nearly there and I was really looking forward to seeing Regina – a city I’d always been curious about and had never visited.

A huge round of applause greeted us when we finally pulled into camp officially marking the start of our ‘1 day weekend’. Brendan and I combined laundry, I showered and was socialising with everyone huddled in the laundry room when Brendan came in and warned me of the black sky which was quickly rolling in... Oh dear… another storm..!! I ran to our campsite and put up my tent in record time just as the first drops began to fall. Looking at the color of the sky and the cold feel of the wind I realised that this was more than a local shower and readjusted my tent pegs. It was time to put the tent to the test.

Andrew quickly rounded up the troops (some even pulled from washrooms and showers) for a field trip to an Irish Pub called 'O'Hanlons' http://www.weareirish.ca/dynpage/142 which had been recommended by the Lonely Planet (apparently they have 60 kinds of beer!!) A group of us headed out in 3 cabs ready to rock in rainy Regina…! The atmosphere at our long table of bikers was great – everyone laughed and joked about the challenging day we’d just survived and everyone was looking forward to the coming rest day. As much as we all complain and curse the weather it does give us hours and hours of conversation and many, many laughs. The laughing generally comes once we’re out of the rain, our stomachs are full and a cold drink is in hand.

As we left the pub we had a run in with a celebrity – the cast from “Corner Gas” (http://www.cornergas.com/) – a popular television programme about small town life in Saskatchewan which is filmed in Regina. They wished us luck on our journey as we ran from the pub into the rain and piled into the cabs which took us back to the campground.

I found myself at 12:30am in the laundry room at the campground eating McDonalds fries with the rest of the gang and trying to finish laundry...! We'd accidentally put our dryer on the 'cool' setting so our wet lycra was now cold, damp lycra. Niiiice... thank goodness a few loonies and quarters sorted that out.

The Tragically Hip - "Wheat Kings"

Sundown in the Paris of the prairies
Wheat Kings have all their treasures barried
All you hear are the rusty breezes....

- The Tragically Hip - "Wheat Kings"

Outlook to Craik - 119 kms / 73 miles

I am laying curled up in my sleeping bag, precariously balanced on my thermarest and listening to the rumbling of thunder from inside my tent. Brendan had checked the forecast this morning and it looks like the 60 percent chance of showers has now materialised. The rain sounds quite relaxing from inside of my tent but if the thunder and lightening that I see flash by is any indication of what lies in store then it might be a very long night. To make matters worse, the washrooms are about 500 metres away and there are skunks running around the campground so the combination of all of these factors – rain, lightening, a weak bladder, wild stinkey rodents - may make for an adventurous night. Plus I put my pjama pants in my laundry bag which is in the truck which is now locked. There is a family who have a tent (a palace) that is larger than a Bedouin tent just two sites down from ours… Brendan commented that he saw a camel go into it earlier this evening. If worst comes to worst I’m sure that I can sneak into their tent unnoticed and hide in one of their ensuites. I will have to find some pants first though.

The camp site is pretty quiet even though it is only about 9:30pm. Everyone is bunked down in their tents praying for tailwinds, eating (again) or reading and relaxing to the sound of the rain. Tomorrow we get to Regina – civilisation – and then we have a much needed rest day. Everyone is in good spirits and we all spend a lot of time laughing and joking but a break from the saddle – a collective break – is in order so that we can do laundry, tend to our sore butts, personal hygene (I need to do my nails!!) clean our bikes, restock on bike gear, energy bars etc. and just catch up on things. It will also be great to see Regina, the Capital of Saskatchewan, a city which I have never visited..! I must admit, I’m really looking forward to it.

The day was an enjoyable one – we left Outlook that morning bright and early as Brendan and Andrew were on Galley Duty that evening so we were keen to get into camp in Craik as soon as possible to have time to shower and prepare the meal.

Again, we were incredibly lucky with the wind which was blowing in our favour and breezed into Kenaston, the snow blizzard capital of Saskatchewan at around 11:30, just in time for brunch. Because it had such a strong ‘claim to fame’, we had initially expected Kenaston to be a thriving metropolis (even though none of us had ever heard of it..!). Upon arrival we discovered that it was basically a grid of 4 streets with one diner, a grain elevator and a giant fibreglass statue of a snowman (which was strategically posed next to the grain elevator). A fibreglass snowman statue... is that not the coolest town mascott or what...?!!!

We devoured a brunch served to us by the Chinese family who owned the one diner in Kenaston and then continued on our way.

I like the Prairies – whilst some people think the landscape is boring and there is little to see, I actually really enjoy the flats and the long, rolling fields of wheat and canola broken up by huge farm houses and farm machinery dealerships. We stop every 20 kms or so for a break which gives me the opportunity to take photos and take a break from the saddle. Sometimes we’re joined by some local wildlife. On one short scenic break by the ‘Smiley Church’ we were chased for a few kilometres by a chocolate brown lab (which BC originally thought was a rottweiler!). I was pretty sure that the dog was after my sheepskin saddle... grrrrrrrr....

After the Kenaston stop we continued on Highway 11 onto Davidston. Highway 11 is a busy road but has a nice shoulder. We were joined by Terry and Dave and soon managed to form a double pace line – a new development for me so had some learning to do once again. I put on my ipod and peddled with the wind trying out the new formation. I must admit, I really enjoy pacelining, particularly through the Prairies. I find that it helps to judge the times and distances especially if everyone in the paceline does about 5 kms each. With 5 people it’s easy to cover 25kms with little to no effort and it feels like a bit of a ‘social migration’ rather than a commute from Point A to Point B. We stopped for an icecream and liquid break at a gas station just outside of Davidston where we met up with John and Mick. Davidston’s claim to fame is a giant coffee pot at the main (only) 4-corners of the town… as well as the usual John Deere and Case dealerships.

About 10 kilometers outside of Craik there was a sudden war-cry and a blast of air nearly sent us flying sideways – arrrgh! It was the French Connection..! Andrew and Dave sped off to catch then and race them into camp leaving Brendan with a flat tire and me gasping for air trying to catch up with Yao who had abandoned Team London to try and catch up with the French Connection. I hit about 42 kms / hour on the flats trying to catch up with Yao with Terry drafting off of me and when we finally were neck and neck, made a wrong turn into the thriving metropolis of Craik (a grain elevator) leaving us to backtrack through to a long winding gravel road which led us down to the Regional Park campground. Our home away from home for the coming 15 hours in Craik.

I always have to chuckle when coming into the RV parks / campgrounds as there are generally between 30 – 40 super sophisticated camper vans, winabagos, etc. and then there are the ‘slums’ or ‘tent city’ where our 35 tents are colorfully erected. It is a funny site to see so many little shelters crammed together in a small grassy field, bordered by the large Ryder truck and a flurry of activity around the showers and laundry facilities. It is amazing how quickly the little ‘town’ is set up.

I went through the usual routine – tent, reconnaissance, shower, journal, eat.

Whilst it hadn’t been an especially long day I was tired getting into camp and was very much looking forward to a good nights sleep. Brendan and Andrew’s Galley Crew were cooking dinner - an unusual combination of corn and pancake mix and some veggies. I can’t say it was my absolute favourite meal so couldn’t resist popping out to the local campground store at 8pm with BC to indulge in a gigantic cheery-cheesecake icecream and watch the clouds roll in. By 9pm everyone had bunkered down in their tents ready for sleep as the heavens opened and the rain came down. I was very much looking forward to Regina, the Capital of Saskatchewan and the rest day for the following day..!

__________________

Guest Journal Entry from Ross
Outlook to Craik

It’s not that the prairies are boring it’s just that there is a lot of repetition, of relatively flat land, and farms growing many of the same crops.

Today was spectacular in that there really was nothing spectacular to write about. The wind was not really a factor today, and the terrain was realively flat, and the farms remarkably similar in appearance (see above). We stopped in some place (Kenaston) with a snowman statue and a small restaurant. Our group missed it. We sat with the French Connection and ate PB sandwiches and drank gatorade. Apparently had to go down a dirt road to find this “find”. The ambiance where we sat was small town SK. It was a recreation bldg (curling or hockey) that looked fairly well abandoned. I cleared away the broken glass before sitting down because I didn’t want to subject Graham (the tours personal emergency room physician…for real!) to picking glass from my ass while he is on holiday. Graham did perform some miracle of modern medicine on Laura who fell in the loose gravel. While Graham was busy tending to the wounded, Eric was busy putting pebbles into the back pockets of Grahams cycling jersey. Eric then decided that his helmet looked boring and picked some feathery plant and put them in his helmet. A variation of plume de guerre; more like a plume du velo. Around the corner from the front door was a small alcove that was used as the washroom area. I know this must be just scintilating reading, and is probably more information than you wanted to know about Kenaston. It is certainly more than I wanted to know.

The next stop was in Davidson. Obviously since these place names mean so much to you I shouldn’t have to relate too much about them. This is good because there isn’t much to relate about Davidson. The Co-Op gas bar convenience store seems to be the hub of this thriving megalopolis. After orange juice and a creamcicle, we (John, Mick & R) headed back to hwy 11. We did stop to take a picture of the large coffee pot that is the enticement for tourists to stop….unfortunately we never saw a coffee shop.

Arrived at Craik and there is nothing much to vouch for its existence. We are in a Regional campground across the highway. Apparently the grocery store has 4 isles so the hope of a laundry was dashed. This is 2nd hand information as we were so tired we didn’t bother scoping out Craik…I’m not devastated.

With 4 changes of cycling gear I needed a laundry tonight…no laundry facilities at the campground or at Craik… So tomorrow as I ride in Regina looking for a bike shop, I will be killing everything down wind of me. Not my problem as long as I can stand myself. After setting up my tent and sitting on my camp stool I heard rustling in the grass behind my tent. I was amazed at how calmly I got up and walked away as the skunk waddled its way through the grass and towards other tents. While I was releived that it didn’t decide that my tent was a good place to hang out, I am nervous about this evening. If there are any strange sounds in the middle of the night I’m going to do my very best impersonation of a dead person. I just hope that I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night for a bladder break.

Well that’s it for Ross’s journal for today. See you tomorrow. By the way there is no MEC in Regina, so will have to try the bike shops for a new rack bag. Think I will try to do this on my way through as we are apparently camping 20 km E of town.

PS Heather just showed me a picture of the Snowman, I’m not feeling the need for a return visit to Kenaston to see it…it’s about 12 ft high (4 metres if you are metricized) and is waving good bye which is what I will now say……

Groove Armada - "Super Stylin'"

Enter in the dance, Plug it in and we begin
Crowd up in the center, they watch (be dibidim)
Watch the way we drop it in a mix timing
Rise and amplifying when we come in with the swing
Just following the back an naturally harmonizing
Climb into position wit synchronized things
Live from out the ghetto, We maximizing
Sound of the Groove Armada, We Super styling
We Super styling...[2x]

- Groove Armada - "Super Stylin'"

Kindersley to Outlook – 154 kilometers

I was on Galley Duty so was up and out of my tent knee-deep in breakfast preparation (watching everyone else working while I tried to wake up) by about 6am. It’s amazing how early people get up – I thought I’d be one of the first at 6am but there were already a few people with their tents down and lathering the peanut butter on their slices of whole wheat bread..! Scottish John was working on his specialty – oatmeal. The perfect ballast for the longest day of biking yet..! We all spend a lot of time reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ when we thought a long day was about 85 kilometers..!

Brendan, Andrew and Ian, my partners in crime, headed back out to Tim Hortons for an early morning coffee post breakfast leaving me to clean up with my Galley Crew. They were sweethearts and didn’t completely abandon me as came back about 45 minutes later to help with the loading of the bags so I could get out earlier and join them for the day to perfect our pace line technique and travel as a team. Again, everyone was a bit nervous about the weather – post storm jitters still play a large factor in determining our pace. Brendan has now taken on the role of ‘The Weatherman’ thanks to a strategically bookmarked page on his Blackberry (those who know BC know his affinity for the weather forecast) and everyone consults with him prior to packing their gear for the day. The forecast was especially favorable – north west winds (blowing south east) and at about 10 km / hour. I prayed that the Canadian forecasting is more reliable than the BBC forecasting in the UK..! We were on the road again at around 8:30am and fell into our paceline the second we got onto the smooth shoulder of the Number 7 highway out of Kindersley and enroute to Rosetown.

Again, the pace line did not fail to deliver. The pace we were taking is perfect – start slow in the morning at an easy 25 kms / hour and then steadily increasing in speed up to about 30 - 35 kms / hour. We stop every 20 kms or so for a ‘butt break’ / ‘pee break’ / ‘food break’ / ‘photo break’ to get off our saddles, explore some local ditches (or cemeteries in today’s case!) and indulge in peanuts and bread. As this is our second proper day of drafting we are getting used to each others habits and signals and routine. The rotation is also getting smoother from the lead person through to the last person in the draft. We are a stylish, slick and suave bunch of cyclists..!

We drafted through to Rosetown which was 85 kilometers from Kindersley. We had high hopes for Rosetown in terms of diners and restaurants – and instead found a local convenience store / gas station and indulged in some beef jerkey, ‘nuts and bolts’ and the usual 1 litre of chocolate milk which we devoured sat on the curb of the parking lot. Whilst there were no restaurants there were 2 John Deere dealerships and one Case dealership selling a giant herd of combine harvesters. I could not abandon my rural roots and immediately pulled into the dealership and gave Ian a quick lesson in ‘how a combine works’. It’s nice to feel so ‘at home’ in an environment so near yet so far..! I’ve noticed that most prairie towns are built up around a grain elevator or around machinery dealerships. A coffee shop with free refills of coffee and an AM radio station is guaranteed to be nearby full of weathered farmers wearing faded blue jeans, john deere caps and big leather boots scouring the local paper for the weather reports and grain prices.

We pulled onto Highway 11 out of Rosetown and were immediately met with a road bikers dream come true (I know that I’m turning into a ‘hard core’ as I could actually feel heart palipitations over a piece of road…) – smooth, rubble free tarmac, no traffic, a straight long road AND a tail wind!!!! Rather than taking the pace line formation we decided to ‘go nuts’ and took on ‘born free’ personas, racing down the middle of the road whooping with happiness and seeing how fast the wind would carry us with the least amount of effort. It was fantastic and such an exhilarating feeling. The last time I felt this way was on Day 3 when we hit the downhill off of the Coquihalla – but the beauty of this particular road was that it was flat and still could provide the same rush of adrenaline, aided and abetted by a wonderful tail wind. We raced along taking a few breaks to take in the amazingly flat scenery, photograph the fields of canola and wheat, look at old barns, chat about the tailwind and how lucky we were to have this ultimate weather luxury. There were a few puffy clouds in the clear blue sky and the sun shone like a giant golden disc above our heads. It was bliss.

The road stayed smooth and even for the ride into Outlook. Brendan shot off like a rabbit about 15kms from Outlook on an impromptu race with Andrew against "The French Connection" whilst Ian and I continued on at a comfortable 35 kms / hour to meet up with Ross who had pulled into a field for a food break. The final 20 kms into Outlook went smoothly and we pulled into the campsite at around 4pm. It was a lovely campsite with huge showers and was overlooking the South Saskatchewan River Valley. It was strange to have a huge river valley in the middle of the flat prairie landscape but the views were spectacular.

A fabulous dinner was served by the Galley Crew – a rich and creamy pasta dish which I ate far too much of. Andrew dragged me out of my tent at around 8pm to head down to the Golf Course for a drink with the gang. It was a struggle to crawl out of my tent but well worth the effort. We sat outside on a lovely patio overlooking the greens and had a beer and caught up on the day. It was good fun and laughs were had by all. Yeo (who we suspect is a mole from the French Connection) was due to join Brendan, Andrew and I on our journey the following day. It’s nice to have the opportunity to bike with everyone. It had been a long but enjoyable day and I was happy to be safe and sound in my tent an hour or so later after having witnessed a lovely sunset over the South Saskatchewan River.

The Beatles - "Get by with a Little Help from my Friends

What would you think if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm going to try with a little help from my friends

- The Beatles - "Get by with a Little Help from my Friends"

Youngstown, Alberta – Kindersley, Saskatchewan - 146 kilometers

Everyone was up bright and early this morning due to some weather related nerves following yesterday’s storm. I am pretty sure that CBC weather noticed a sharp increase in ‘hits’ that day on their Kimberly location as people went from complacency about the weather to complete and total paranoia. A fantastic pancake breakfast was served and everyone was on the road by around 7:30 / 8:00... give or take a few hours on the early side.

The ride out of Youngstown was a nice smooth one – Brendan, Andrew, Ian and I all biked together and we were making absolutely fantastic progress thanks to a wonderful north west tail wind (!!) which had developed during the night following the storm. It was blowing exactly in our direction – south east..!! We were averaging about 30 kms / hour in a beautifully formed pace line (yes, I am learning!) and the first hour breezed by so quickly that we decided to treat ourselves to a chocolate milk and a ‘pit stop’ at a very rural gas station just before the border to Saskatchewan..! Our 3rd province out of 10..!! It was nice to have a break and indulge in some ‘fast food’ – chocolate milk (about 1 liter of it) is the beverage of choice at the moment and goes down soooo nice. Apparently it is a great recovery drink.

The sun was shining and everyone was in an excellent mood. It’s funny how 1 day of really, really crappy weather can quickly jerk everyone back to ‘reality’ and remind you how little control you have over the weather and how much you depend on it to be your ‘friend’. It also helps you to appreciate how great good weather is and how it can ‘make or break’ a ride. I am realizing that a lot of this trip is due to luck – the luck part being the weather. If the day had been ‘against the wind’ the 146 kilometers would have been an absolute nightmare. It is incredibly soul destroying to be peddling as fast as you can against the wind and not going any faster than about 10kms / hour as opposed to the 30kms / hour that we did today..

I was on Galley Duty today so there was some pressure to finish the 146kms before about 4pm. At the rate we were going there would be absolutely no problem in finishing by about 2:30ish. We made several stops along the way including the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan..!! Hoooray..!

My legs were feeling very strong and I had to exert very little energy to propel myself along the wonderfully flat Prairie road. Part of this can also be accounted to the pace line which seemed to get tighter and faster as the day wore on and as we got used to each others riding habits. The road was pretty smooth with a great shoulder and as we were going pretty quickly I had enough momentum to go up and down the rolling hills without too much effort. The scenery was breathtaking and so peaceful – I didn’t think I’d be so keen on the Prairies (the wind certainly helps my spirits) but they are beautiful – acres and acres of pasture land, canola and wheat that looks like long green grass blowing in the wind. The harvest for the wheat must come in the late summer or early autumn. I expected the Prairies to be ‘flatter’ – the hills are actually rolling and the road doesn’t always go 100% straight – it does curve and wind its way through the hills making for a very scenic ride.

The people that we meet along the way (mostly at gas stations when we’re buying food..!) are all super nice and so friendly. Everyone is curious about where we are from, where we are going and why we’re doing what we’re doing. It’s really amazing how many people comment, “Wow – I’ve always wanted to do that”. I feel so lucky to be having this opportunity and sharing it with such a great group of people.

We cycled through a town called ‘Cereal’ – I thought that this was a wonderful bit of farmer irony given we were surrounded by cereals..!

I really, really enjoyed the pace line today. Whilst I liked the Rockies, it was hard to have a pace line that had everyone at the same level of ability and strength. Now that we’re on the flats it’s much easier and much more ‘social’. We always shout up and down the pace line to warn the person behind about ‘Rumble Strips’, ‘cars back’ etc. etc. It’s now at the point where we have special hand signals to identify gravel on the road, rubbish on the road, potholes, loose rubber, railroad tracks, taking a drink, pee break etc. We even have a ‘Rumble Strip Countdown’. I feel like I’ve joined the cyclists subculture..! The order is usually Andrew, Ian, Brendan and me and then we go in a rotation, rotating about every 5 – 7 kms or whenever the lead person gets tired. Its easy to get so captivated by the scenery and the vastness of the land around you that you get lost in your thoughts and forget to pass down the ‘road conditions’ signals. A good solid rumble strip can quickly jerk you back to reality.

We had a great lunch off to the side of the road. We got to the top of a hill just outside of Marango and pulled off to relax, indulge in some peanut butter and rehydrate. It felt great to lie in the long grasses and the warm sun to chill out for about 15 minutes. The French Connection came and joined us for a few minutes before competitively jetting off. Apparently Brendan, Andrew and I have been nicknamed “Team London” (with the addition of Ian of course..!) so I am starting to think that a French vs. English rivalry is forming… Hopefully we won’t break out into full fledged war in the Plains of Abraham when we hit Quebec..! Everyone was looking forward to the final 40kms with an earlier than expected cruise into camp.

Brendan led the pace line for the final 20 kms into Kindersley and he floored it. It was fab – we averaged about 38kms / hour and hit up to about 48 on some of the downhills even though the shoulder was gravely and uneven. At times it felt as though the wind was literally pushing our bikes and up down the rolling hills – the feeling of ultimate freedom..! It was awesome. Everyone agreed that it was a sweet 20kms and we totally deserved the Tim Hortons which welcomed us to Kindersley. Once again, a coffee and a honey cruller donut were high on the agenda. We on the TdC are a loyal following of the Timmy’s chain.

It was hard to imagine that we biked 146kms that day as we have biked 100km days which have been more tiring..! Having said that I was pretty stiff and could certainly feel my muscles seizing up from the moment I hopped off my bicycle.

Dave, John, Ross, Lani and Terry were already hard at work by the time I reached camp – the water was boiling and it was not long before the campsite smelled of a delicious chicken stir fry – compliments to Chef Dave who is a true Master of the kitchen. He had us all slicing and dicing within about 5 minutes. For dessert we had strawberry shortcake with fresh strawberries. Mmmm…! As this is our second time on Galley Duty we’re starting to get the hang of things and know where ‘stuff’ is. It was fun to prepare the stir fry and I was impressed by the way things all came together and the way that we worked as a team.

Post dinner we did a quick clean up and I was asleep and in my tent within about 2 minutes flat. Another fabulous day on the Tour du Canada..!

The Doors - "Riders on the Storm"

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house were born
Into this world were thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan
Riders on the storm

- The Doors - "Riders on the Storm"

Drumheller – Youngstown – 140 kms / 87 miles

(NOTE: felt like over 14000 kms... uphill)

I felt relatively organized this morning to the point that it was I who waited for BC and Andrew to be ready…! This is a bit of a first as I usually forget some fundamental thing like sunscreen, water... sometimes even my helmet (I have been known to be a bit of a liability some mornings...)

I decided to ‘change it up’ a bit this morning and experiment with my saddle by taking off the sheepskin cover which has been protecting my butt since Salmon Arm. I’m not sure if I mentioned my little secret but everyone and I mean EVERYONE is envious – whilst I was at my Aunt and Uncles’ place in Salmon Arm my Aunt, who is an avid horseback rider, recommended a sheepskin cover for my saddle. She had used one in Ireland on a bike trip and also horseback riding and swore by it. As luck would have it, she had it handy and passed it through to me. At first I was a bit skeptical – sheepskin? How could sheepskin replace my lovely thick gel saddle which up to that point had been relatively good (no need for the butt-cream yet..!!). How could a thin rather ‘wooly’ brown saddle cover (complete with long stretchy elastic to ensure a snug fit!) save my bottom from carnage? Well, let me tell you, it may look a bit funny and have acquired the name of Polly, but the sheepskin TOTALLY works. We have now done about 1250kms and my bottom is in perfect condition (sorry about the detail but everyone keeps asking!). I can’t help but smile to myself when I see my fellow bikers pull off to the side of the road, limping in pain with the ‘butt cream’ in hand… I am the last one laughing and I may start charging people ‘rental fees’ for use of dear Polly.

Anyway, the ‘changing it up’ idea was definitely not one of my more brilliant ideas..! Polly was back on my saddle within about 20 minutes. The ride out of Drumheller was a fairly smooth and easy one as it was a lovely morning and there was a light breeze. We’d checked the weather forecast that morning and it was due to be a hot day so everyone was keen to get out as early as possible. By about km 20 we started to get some headwind. This was a bit of a first for us as up until now we’d had nearly perfect conditions with the wind at our backs. There were some initial nerves about the wind and we managed to beat it until we hit the rolling hills… Well, even on the best of days the hills are not my forte but when trying to draft behind Brendan ‘Speedy Gonzalez’ Clarke it is incredibly, incredibly stressful as I peddle as hard as I can to keep up but the combination of the wind and the hills makes it nearly impossible to maintain the pace so I fall behind… which means that Andrew who is behind me falls behind… and the entire pace line gets blown out of the window – literally..!! BC shot off ahead leaving Andrew to deal with my temper tantrum at the wind. I huffed and I puffed and I swore and the wind kept going and the hills kept on rolling. Ugh..! I thought the Prairies were supposed to be flat..!!

We made a few ‘pit stops’ along the side of the road as Andrew has come to the conclusion that as long as I am fed and watered I am manageable… but when I get hungry or thirsty then I become an absolute diva.

We pulled into a diner in Hanna (the home of the band, Nickelback!) where I devoured a HUGE grill cheese sandwich, 1 litre of chocolate milk, ½ litre of ice tea, fries with gravy, a giant bowl of butterscotch pudding with whipped cream… and then had to hold myself back from eating the Coffee Crisp that I bought on the way out..! It was a bit excessive and the butterscotch pudding did seem to sit quite heavily in my stomach but I felt pretty good to get back on the bike. Unfortunately however, during our 45 minute break for lunch the wind decided to pick up and blow completely against us… for the remaining 60 kms. It was hell. I was already tired, the pudding sat like a giant buttery weight in my stomach and every time I felt like I’d been biking at least 20 kms then I’d look down at my odometer and see it was only 5kms. Ugh.

THEN, just when I didn’t think it could get any worse I started to use my ‘rest stops’ to take pictures of the clouds which seemed to get darker and darker and loom overhead… suddenly I realized that we were biking directly into the eye of a giant storm – against the wind. Andrew and I started to place bets on how long it would take for the storm to hit us…. Soon we noticed that it was more than just one storm – there were actually 3 huge storms all heading in our direction and also into each other. It has been a long, long time since I’ve seen such a dark sky with so much lightning. I wondered if the others ahead of us were all biking into it as well… Some people had left so early that it was quite likely that they were caught in it already.

Andrew and I stopped every 5kms for a gigantic whining and ‘bitching’ session – we complained about the wind, the prairies, the cold, the rain, the overindulgence at lunch, the wet tents we’d have to set up at camp, the distance left to travel, the road conditions etc. etc. It got to the stage when we were about 10kms from Youngstown that we pulled over and just had to laugh about the situation. I checked my blackberry and noticed a message from Brendan,

“Are you guys ok..?!? Did you get caught in the crazy storm?!?”

As soon as I read that I realized that we’d been a bit lucky by pacing ourselves that afternoon.! The storm that we’d seen earlier had apparently been quite a viscous one and I was curious to see what a lucky escape we’d had. The answer came about 3 minutes later when we were cycling into Youngstown – snowdrifts of hail piled up alongside the road and huge lakes in the rolling pastures. Whilst the sun was trying to break through the clouds it was pretty clear that it had been very, very nasty weather there about an hour before… And, off in the distance, more giant dark clouds were forming and the sky was turning dark as night.

As soon as we got into Youngstown Brendan ran out to check if we were ok. He told us what had happened about an hour earlier when a giant hailstorm / thunderstorm had ripped through the area. Apparently there was hail the size of golfballs and the rain came down in sheets – so much so that BC and a few of the others took their shampoo bottles and soap out in the rain for their showers…! THEN, Ian emerged and showed us his ‘battle wounds’. Giant welts covered his back and he looked a bit shaken up. Apparently he had been completely caught out in the middle of the hail without any shelter in sight – quite common in the Prairies… Even if he had been able to see any sign of life (eg. grain elevator) it would likely still have been 20 kms off into the distance. Ian ended up flagging down a van about 5kms from town for shelter..! Poor guy..! I would definitely have been scared especially considering all of the lightening, wind, rain and hail – it was totally ‘tornado weather’. I was led to our campsite which looked like an Olympic sized swimming pool with a picnic table bobbing around in it. Fortunately there was a Plan B for the day to remedy the situation thanks to the wonderful hospitality of the residents of Youngstown. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youngstown,_Alberta

Youngstown is a small, friendly and very hospitable town about 60kms from the Saskatchewan border. It has a population of about 200 people with 1 school, a grocery store and 1 bar. For the past 10 years the residents of Youngstown have a huge annual pot-luck to welcome the Tour du Canada into the town. They also let us use their community centre as our ‘crash pad’ given our campsite was totally immersed in water..! AND they opened their school for us to use the showers to get cleaned up…! The hospitality shown by the people was phenomenal and it was so interesting to ‘meet the locals’ and find out about their lives. Over dinner I sat with a local farmer who has about 6000 acres of land..! This makes my Dad’s 400 acres seem tiny! But, as the farmer pointed out, most of the land is non-arable and used for pasture so essentially whilst there is more land, it’s very well possible that the 400 acres is much more work.

The potluck was amazing – there was so much home cooking – chili with meatballs, about 5 deliciously different salads, sausages with white sauce, pasta dishes, cinnamon buns, marshmallow squares, chocolate squares, chocolate pudding, pies and so much more. Everyone was overwhelmed by the generosity of the residents of Youngstown. On the wall in the hall where we had supper there was even a giant article cut out from The National Post in 1999 which described the TdC..! Apparently the residents put on the pot luck as they feel that it is one of the times that ‘the world comes to them’. I really, really enjoyed it and it was a wonderful way to end one of the most challenging days of the journey so far.

Just before dinner I took a few photos of the sky just before the 2nd wave of storms hit the town – again, the clouds were incredible and seemed to visibly ‘roll’ through the sky like giant waves. There were two clouds which looked like they were about to form into funnel clouds but just as they were about to touch down they broke away and dissipated. The wind and the rain came down in sheets and sheets and the sky was a deep, deep blue color which contrasted to the dark grey clouds. Note that in the photo below there is a bar at the end of the rainbow... on some days this is worth more than a pot of gold..!

I slept really well that night on my Thermarest in the comfort of the community centre – I managed to find a quiet little corner away from the snorers and was out like a light in about 3 seconds flat....