Days 10 & 11... starting to melt together...

Day10

Up at ~08:30 but moving slowly, on the road by ~10:00 in search of breakfast.  2 forgettable sausage rolls and a decent cup of coffee and I was ready to go.  Decent winds blowing more or less Westerly, so the first hour rolled by pretty well.  Then the knee started to hurt again.  Dammit.  The ankle was bugging me as well, but one can ride through most types of ankle pain without too much difficulty.  Knee pain makes riding extremely difficult.  I had moved the cleat on my right shoe a bit last night in the hope that that might fix it, and it did feel better - but it wasn't quite right.  I can't see what it looks like from the side.  I limped into Lethbridge and stopped at the visitor's center to ask about bike shops.  There are three in town, and the lady kindly mapped them out for me.

 The first was one of those all-in-one sports stores that also sells bikes.  I rolled by.  The second had a whitewater kayak in the window and something about skis on their sign.  I kept going in the hope that the third would be a real bike shop.  Bingo!  Ascent Cycles - an actual honest-to-goodness bike shop that sells bikes and only bikes.  Road, mountain, bmx, cruisers... a little bit of everything - but all of them bikes.  I talked to one of the guys behind the counter for a while and then another guy came over to give me a hand.  He took a quick look at how I was set up and then rotated my right cleat a little bit.  Back on the road and it felt weird, but that's to be expected when a change like that is made.  I stopped for a quick lunch and was rolling again. 

Incredible blue skies out in central AB.  Again, the scenery is vastly different from Western AB.  The mountains and foothills are gone, as is most of the "roll" (at least that's what today's been like thus far).  I saw a combine deploying its arms which was pretty awesome (just like a Transformer - Ronco would have lost his mind :p) and I swear to Vishnu, a dead prairie dog with a fresh white road line painted over its head.  I didn't get a picture as I was moving pretty well when I saw it, and it took me a few seconds to process what I'd seen.  By the time traffic cleared enough for me to turn around it was a good ways back. 

It's hot out here, and there are precious few trees - and even fewer opportunites to find shade.  Beautiful country.  Unforgiving, but beautiful.

Stopped short of Medicine Hat in Bow Island - again, I needed ice.  No decent camping options, either.  I don't know what it's normally like but that flood sure hasn't helped things.  Flooded fields and standing water everywhere. I don't need any help attracting mosquitos...



STATS:

Total Elapsed Time: 8:45
Actual Ride Time: 6:20
Total Distance: 164.2km
Avg Speed: 25.8kph
Max Speed: 67.1kph


Day 11

I had a plan.  Up early (for me), roll out HARD to take advantage of the tailwinds and then stop at a nice cafe for a few hours to kill the hottest part of the day.  Then back on the bike and roll 'till evening as the day cooled off.  This plan would have worked in BC.  Probably in ON and QC.  Not so in Eastern AB / Western SK.  The small towns that dot the highway are few and far between, and there's no such thing as a nice cafe in any of them.  I was lucky to find a general store that sold cold drinks and snacks (Irvine, AB).  These towns are barely scratching survival and the floods that hit recently have done a lot of damage.  Farmers can't plant this year, loads of property damage, even the highway was fully washed out for several days.  I overheard two locals talking about the impact and one was saying that everyone around him (including him) was selling and getting out.  My (unasked) question was, who's buying?  In light of all this, I guess my plight of not being able to find a nice coffee shop to spend a few hours midday isn't all that bad.  :p

The knee was feeling better but the ankle was on and off, cycling from "perfectly normal" to "I should get off my bike and get on a plane - NOW".  Mostly it was annoying background noise - not terribly bad, but ever present. 

Western SK is like a green moonscape.  Nothing but barren rolling hills of green, with no signs of civilization as far as the eye can see (road and fences notwithstanding).  It was HOT, humid, and the sun beat down on me mercilessly from its throne up high in the sky.  The winds were decent - not awesome, but providing at least some assistance a good portion of the day.  SK is hillier than I would have expected too - it really isn't flat the way we all think it is.  Sure there are no "major" climbs, but it rolls endlessly. 

I crossed over the area where the highway had been washed out and the entire Westbound section was missing.  They had rerouted traffic to share the Eastbound lanes and were working on rebuilding the Westbound side.  Rolled along forever and ever and ever, looking for a decent option to pull the plug on a long and hot day.  Finally I settled for a campsite in Tompkins - more out of exhaustion than any other reason.  At least they had taps with potable water...  I was treated to a wicked lightning show and huge winds, but not that much rain. Oh, and lots of mosquitos...




STATS:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:20
Actual Ride Time: 8:50
Total Distance: 203.31km
Avg Speed: 23kph
Max Speed: 52.7kph


Day10 breakfast:

 This must be what the locals do in the evenings...

A tanker train being loaded with grain

 That's supposed to be a pasture, not a pond...

 It should have said "Welcome to Green Hell"

Proof that SK has both hills and trees (no thermometer to prove that it was 36 + humidex)