Let me tell you that saskcachewan is a weird place. I thought bc’s weather was off the charts here it is about 25 time worse. Last night for example I was sitting in my tent rearranging all my stuff and getting all the stuff I have not used packed up to give to my mom to take home. It was warm. Scratch that it was hot. I had all of my gear charging outside, and all of the vents on my tent open. As I sat in the tent I hear a slight pitter-patter and thing nothing of it. 10 seconds later it is the torrential rain the likes of which I have never seen or heard before. I panicked because everything was outside. So here I go running outside in sandals and shorts getting eaten alive by mosquitoes trying to save all the gear. I get all of it inside the vestibule and snuggle up inside when the sun comes out and heats up again. Ignoring it I tucked myself in and tried to fall asleep to the sound of thunder. The thunder was amazing. One bang rung on for I kid you not more then a minute.
The morning was the morning I woke up at 5am as I usually do, and got everything ready for a nice long ride. The mosquitoes let me tell you are something else. I do not understand what they think because while we were riding at around 30k an hour they managed to land on our bodies and do what they do best. So we looked a little crazy riding down the road because we were smack ourselves all over. It seems to be for not though because I have roughly 15-25 bug bites all over my body that only seem to itch when I have some down time.
I do not know who started the rumours that the prairies are easy but they are not. The first 90k were constant up and down terrain that was paved with what seemed to be dead animals and shattered pavement. I felt like calling myself Grave Digger (the monster truck with the amount of dead animals I was running over. I know it is gross but when you are zoned you don’t really focus on those such things. All I can say is thank heavens for quality tires.
We stopped for lunch in a small salt farming town called Chaplin. It was very similar to bassonao is the sense that we looked very alien when we stroll in with loaded bike. When I asked where the restaurant is to a couple guys they looked at me as if I wad drunk. When we got to the restaurant we ate like kings but still felt a little out of place because everyone else knew each other and were sharing some weird stories (from what I over heard).
Anyways the road goes on and we pushed on to moose jaw where we made the choice to skip our rest point there and push onto Regina so that tomorrow can be spent relaxing and not doing any riding. As well I had a little extra motivation because my mom was waiting for me in Regina. Seeing the sign saying 62k to go was a little disheartening but I really wanted that rest day so I took my pull and pushed the tempo up. I felt a little tightness in my left knee but thought nothing of it and continued on. Then Olivier had the same thing but with his whole leg. We were forced to stop and tiger balm ourselves which seemed to do nothing. That was with 40k to go and we were starting to hurt. At that point we look back and see rain. We look forward and see lighting and even worse rain. And here we were in the middle in the one lone patch of sun within eyesight. We were racing these clouds that seemed to be moving at 100km/h. Then it hit. Luckily we were within eyesight of the only house between there and Regina. We decided to hold up in there for the 15mins while the storm passed. When we got back on the bike our muscled had cooled down which was not a good thing. My muscles or ligament that I pulled hurt worse then I can imagine (I wish my friend jj was here to tell me what I pulled). The pain was excruciating. I cannot tell you how hard it is to pedal with one leg because any pressure on the left leg caused me t cringe in pain. Olivier was even worse off.
The only bright spot of those last k’s were the beautiful rainbow that was on the horizon. When we got to Regina I went to the holiday inn and phoned mom to tell her to come down. This is when I realize I am at the wrong one and the correct one is 5k up town, which sucked. The pain was so great that I was laughing going down the main street.
Luckily I had a mom to help me out once I got to the hotel. I hope that ice, rest, and nutrition will help within the next 48hrs. It is really nice seeing family again as well. I have to say it is a little weird not having to simplify my English, and being able to catch up with not only family but with what is going on in social media. Remember if life is worth living its worth recording.
Trip Distance: 251.99km
Ride Time: 9:51hr
Avg. Speed: 25.56km/h
Total Distance: 1937km
Total Ride Time: 93:15hr
Destination: Regina, Saskatchewan
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