Day12 - The Return of the Diesel...

Dawn broke early - or maybe it was the train rumbling through with its whistle blowing.  At any rate, I was up and so were the mosquitos - so I packed up quickly and hit the road.  A new trip record for me, I was rolling by 07:35. 

Not a lot of wind to help push me along this early, so I was moving a little slower than I had been for the past few days.  Relatively unimpressed with what I'd seen of smalltown SK, I opted to stay on Hwy1 rather than my initial plan of heading South on 37 to 13 to avoid traffic.  The shoulders had been great thus far anyway and I wanted to see if Swift Current had anything to offer. 

My ankle was bugging me again and I was really tired.  Nothing in the legs, and my overall energy level was really low.  Oh, so it's going to be one of those days, is it?  I crawled along and made Swift Current (slogan: Where Life Makes Sense) in ~3:20.  Not bad for 80k...  I found a nice coffee shop (hey - this DOES make sense!) and sat down with a snack and a cup of ambrosia.  Chatted with Phil & Julian online for a bit and posted Day9.  I was considering calling it a day right there and then as there really isn't all that much between Swift Current and Moose Jaw - a few small towns spread out over 170km.  On top of the 80km I'd already covered, that would make for a pretty long day.  Finally I decided that I'd better get moving so I packed it up, made 2 quick stops for fuel, and hit it.

By now the winds had picked up, and unlike yesterday there was some cloud cover - so it felt much cooler.  I was making pretty good time and figured I'd just play things by feel.  I was feeling decent so I kept rolling and finally realized that I could make Moose Jaw with just a bit of a push.  Again, I figured I'd just keep rolling until I was done.  Stopped for ice cream and met a family moving to Lethbridge with truck issues, and we chatted for a bit.  Then back on the bike for more.  One thing I've noted about SK is that the road signs are pretty sparse - both in quantity as well as information.  As you leave each town you get a sign telling you how far the next town is - but no information about any other towns along the way, nor anything in between.  That's kind of annoying, but I guess it's less of an issue when you can cross the entire province in a matter of hours by car.  I was doing a time based countdown, assuming that I'd make Moose Jaw by ~20:30, maybe 21:00.  I tried to stop in podunkville for a Coke on a couple of occasions but was stymied by a "town" of nothing but a few solitary houses and gravel roads.  I finally found a gas station in CaronPort and got my Coke.  I was also finally down to the last 21k to Moose Jaw.  The wind died down for my final push, and I had to jack up the effort in order to keep moving at a good clip.  I was done with being on the bike, and just wanted off.  I don't think I could have ever expected to be as happy as I was to finally see the Moose Jaw city limits.  I very briefly consdered heading to the heart of downtown to see what options I had, as I'd heard about some sort of mineral springs here - but instead I opted for one of the first motels I saw.  Laundry, shower, ice bath, pizza (in the tub!) and some checking in on email, etc. 

Tomorrow I might take an "easy day" and just roll into Regina.  We'll see...


Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 13.5hrs
Actual Ride Time: 9:49
Distance Traveled: 260.12km
Avg Speed: 26.4kph
Max Speed: 55.3kph

12 day total: 1808.4km
12 day avg: 150.67km/day


Exactly...

My favourite time of day - the sun is just starting to go down and it's cooling off...

This is the sort of rolling terrain I've seen all throughout SK - but the shoulder hasn't always been this good...