Regina

That is where we are.

From our last update, we've been through a couple of days of riding:

Stop location: Beasent Campground lat 50.46177N lon 105.96590W alt 590m 139km 5:56 23.4km/h

Stop location: Regina lat 50.44907N lon 104.50904W alt 599m 120km 6:12 19.3km/h

So the total now is 2280km in 100 hours and 11 minutes, 22.8km/h.

The day out of Swift Current was our longest yet, but overall it was one of our better rides. Though perhaps it goes without saying that most of our longer rides are ones that we're feeling good about in some way, shape or form. With the gale force winds that had been dogging us for several days now gone, our complaints now turned to the temperature, which has been hardly spring like for the past week or two. Given that we were hardly chilled to the bone, it was more a case of wanting to ride in shorts and a light jersey. Alas, one day.

So anyhow, we had decent, though cold, weather and the winds were not unkind to us. We also ran into our first long distance cycling compatriot on the road. Mr. Vic Lindal who was travelling from Victoria.

The stop for the night was a campsite in the middle of nowhere that was treed and had creeks and ponds. Considering the serious lack of foliage that the prairies tend to have, this was a welcome change. Shortly before we actually arrived at the place, I was longingly gazing at a suspiciously ordered grove of trees pretending that it was a wild forest.

We are still in flooding season out here and several of the lower sites at the place were actually under a small creek which was flowing happily over roads and picnic areas.

The easterlies were back with a vengance the next day though. Well, perhaps not that serious. A stiff east breeze blew in our faces all day, not enough to be totally demoralizing, but enough to make this our longest day in the saddle.

Much thanks must go to Tim de la Horton and the chili for providing sustenance for the ride. After nearly two hours on the road and covering a pitiful 38km, I decided that it would be a good idea to fuel up. I knew that the ride into Regina was not going to be a quick 80km. We had planned to stop at the Shack of Tim to get the Saskatchewan picture for Tanya (and it happened to be next to a 10 ton concrete moose, so double points for tourist trap as well) so it fell into place.

And for the jokes about seeing prairie cities from hours away? True, on a bike at least. Hillary made the first call, but we definitely were able to see Regina with close to two hours of riding left. Figure somewhere between 30 and 40km out. When facing into a headwind, watching your mythical destination for two hours is... tough.

That about brings us up to date. We took today off in Regina and are heading back onto the Trans Canada tomorrow morning. May the westerlies find us.