Strange But True

Hello from Regina, SK and apologies again for the lack of posting activity (due to the lack of wi-fi at our campsites). Just in case that happens again, here are our remaining rest day dates: while I may be able to post prior to them,  checking in at those times should guarantee there will be something new to read.
July 23, July 28, August 2, August 10 (possibly August 7 as well), August 15 (in Ottawa), August 20, August 27, September 4.
And posting photos here is even slower than in Drumheller, so I have abandoned that for the moment. I`ll see if I can do better tomorrow. But with all due respect to people from the prairies, most of the images are redundant anyways: lots of flat land, some of it yellow with canola blossoms, leaning with the wind.
Now back to our saga....


Day 16
The day dawned shrouded in fog.

 Giant lizard in the mist (and a dinosaur too)

Although that cleared as we climbed out of the valley, as the day progressed a wicked crosswind developed.

Even when we made a 90 degree turn to earn a tailwind, a hill materialized to try and defeat our spirits.

 Requisite prairie scene

Undeterred, I later stopped in Hanna to watch the World Cup final, which went into extra time just to make my life interesting. Leaving town, not only did the crosswind intensify but road conditions deteriorated (rumble strips ate into our meagre shoulder) as traffic volume increased.

Collapsed after having fought the wind

It was thus welcome indeed to finally arrive in Youngstown where once again the townsfolk hosted a great pot-luck dinner for us; I even thought I recognized one gentleman from 16 years ago!

Many of us took advantage of the opportunity to camp on the community centre floor, which proved the wise choice as rain fell overnight. For a change.

Day 17
You're never alone on the prairies - the wind is your constant companion. In the morning the sun burns straight into your eyes, and when the wet weather hits there's no place to hide. But today the rumble strips appeared only in sections e.g. on curves, and the road, which tilted us distressingly into the fierce wind on occasion, eventually settled down to delivering a crosswind that although stiff, was not as severe as yesterday's.
It was flat

It was rolling

Then it was Saskatchewan

 And as we entered SK the road angle changed again - in our favour at last! And the sun shone and we were warm. The scenery didn`t change much, though

There is actually a huge climb at the edge of the province that I had forgotten about - you'll have to take my word for it, as I have no photo record:  the hill levelled out at the top and did not afford a decent vantage point to capture it's gradient. Likewise there are no photos of me racing the developing storm front (I mean, what's a day without rain? I don't know either) to get to our campsite, as I was more concerned with getting in before the storm hit than with capturing the moment. Alas, I got caught (something that wouldn't have happened had I not earlier gone on a 10km detour in order to buy a 6/49 ticket in Alberta before we left it - my plan is to buy one in every province), and the wind was so severe that only one side of my body got wet (albeit that side was quite drenched, thank you). Luckily I came upon a truck inspection station and was able to seek refuge in its lee before the hail came.

 Fallen hail (that`s my foot to give you an indication of the size of it)

But later that night things cleared out nicely, and we thought our rain ordeal was over. We were, of course, sadly mistaken.

Day 18

After a ridiculously windy and rainy night (ridiculous even by our now high standards) there was talk of renting a school bus to transport us to our next destination - things were indeed that severe as we struggled to make breakfast. I chose to depart nevertheless, and quickly ground to a literal halt before I even reached the road: the rain-soaked mud caked up my wheels almost instantly,  preventing them from turning at all. With much mucking about (so to speak) in the rain, and with the help of some handy puddles (it was, after all, still pissing), I managed to get them free but in so doing lost the use of my cycle computer, which was too bad since I would have liked to know how fast I subsequently flew once the wind was at my back. It was miserably cold and wet, though - so I took very few photos to document the ordeal: it was quite hard merely to get the camera out of my pocket and my rain-soaked gloves off so I could manipulate the controls. To give you an idea how bad things were, I even wore my thermal cycling jersey and a headband.

Roadside grass being flattened by the wind

At one point we had to turn 90 degrees and fight the crosswind for 4-5 km. That was 'interesting' indeed: leaning hard into it, hoping my tires wouldn't slide out from under me as I struggled to achieve 12 km/hour. At one point it did actually stop raining, and I might even have arrived at the campsite dry had I not stopped to lend moral support to another cyclist as he fixed a flat. As it was, I got caught in a downpour a mere 2 km from the campsite.

Trying to warm up in the campground bathroom

Day 19

 Enjoying the clearing skies and gathering wind

Finally our weather luck seemed to have changed: the day began cool but rain free and with mostly tailwinds, especially after we turned onto highway 11 and cruised down it at 40-45km/hour in sunshine.

 Refuting the myth that Saskatchewan is treeless

There was ample time for flower appreciation

In fact it felt like a rest day - we all got in early and sat around drinking beer.

It was a real surprise, then, when we got an evening shower (you could see in the broad sky that we were just on the edge of a larger system that looked like it would have bypassed us) and more surprising still when a huge thunderstorm hit in the middle of the night. The rumble was incredible, giving a great Surround Sound performance as it rolled through the valley.

BTW, here's what the truck looked like this morning - somewhat messier  than when we started.

Day 20
Amazingly (for in 1994 we had headwinds all across the prairies) we had another day of sun and tailwinds today, giving us what I call `free miles' (although far too many of them went through Regina's industrial section, once we reached town).

 Enjoying the tailwinds on highway 11 (look at the grass)

In fact we could easily have reached Regina in time for breakfast, had we not decided to throttle back and enjoy the day.

Taking the time to enjoy a roadside banana

Sadly, we are camped on the far eastern edge of the city, adjacent to the Trans Canada Highway. There are big box stores galore not far from us (it's actually hard to distinguish the parking lots from the city streets in places) but strangely, none has postcards for sale. But the sun is still shining and we have a rest day tomorrow - perhaps we`ll even get to see a Riders Practice before Saturday`s game against the Eskimos.