Day 49

Our original plan of waking up at 5 turned into 6 so we could sleep in a little. We got all packed up, and got our bikes from the storage. While Michael did some bike maintenance, I made breakfast (I found a microwave and made the rest of the oatmeal we had). Michael finished fixing his broken spoke and we hit the road at 9am. It was such a hot day! We were flying! We changed our route around though. At first we were going to go north, through Fort Qu'appelle, then Melville, and then Russell and down into Winnipeg. We decided to, instead, take the Trans Canada straight to Winnipeg. It was about 100km shorter, and although Agnes recommended the Fort Qu'appelle route, we figured we already saw the Qu'appelle valley coming into Moose Jaw, and we could save ourselves a day if we went via highway 1. And we would rather spend that extra day in northern Ontario, or on the east coast. So we gunned it! We decided we would have second breakfast in Indian Head. The kilometers seemed to pass by pretty quickly, which was good! It was a nice day, and the wind wasn't too bad (not quite a tail wind, but it didn't hinder us!). When we got into Indian Head, we asked someone working at the gas station where to find the grocery store. He told us, and also said there were two girls that passed through two days ago cycling from Trail B.C. (which we've never heard of) to St. John's. We headed into town, and bought some lunch. This lunch included some fresh fruit, and chocolate Lucky Charms. We couldn't say no! We also had some peanut butter and honey sandwiches (and we also bought supplies for the next few days as well. Enough to last us into Winnipeg). While in the grocery store, we heard someone in a different isle wish his friend a happy father's day. We then realized it was Sunday already! We made a note to call home later today! We also asked the cashier what time the Rough Riders were playing. Being in Saskatchewan, we felt it was necessary to see at least part of a game! She said 1pm, so we decided to head to the nearest next town and find a pub and watch the game. The next town, Wolseley, was 33km away, so we gunned it for there. Along the way, we passed a very slow moving older man cycling across Canada. We saw him for kilometers before we caught up, and talked smack behind his back about how slow he's going. Maybe we have an ego problem, but whenever Michael and I see another cyclist (specifically another touring cyclist) ahead, we assume we can not only catch up, but pass that person! We were right (at least in this case). We easily caught up (while obviously talking smack the whole way up) and soon saw he was older (like grandparent's age). He was cycling on his own, and a little odd. We talked for a bit, then Michael and I shot off to go catch the game. The old man then drafted off us for the LONGEST time. It was super awkward because he was just THERE, and he never once took the lead, until at one point, he was getting cocky, and took the lead, but instead of taking the lead so we can draft, he took the lead and shot off. He didn't go fast for long though, and we soon caught up, passed him, and then he fell back fast. I think we wore him out (keep in mind he probably had no idea of our smack talk, or our competition to take the lead and leave him far back either. But we won in the end, and that's all that matters!). When we made it into Wolseley we went to the gas station to ask where the best place would be to see the game. Apparently they don't televise pre-season games. We were gutted so decided to instead buy an ice cream (it was BOILING hot outside and we saw someone walk out with one, which made us really want one too!) and listen to some of the game on the radio in the store (when in Rome, right?). We took a longer than expected break there just because of the heat! Then we hit the road again. We made one more little stop in Grenfell to buy a Manitoba map, then another stop in Whitewood to call Dad for father's day. We were just under 20km shy of doing 200km that day, so we thought we would at least do that before calling it a night. We started looking for a site after cycling 200km and found a nice spot between the road and the railroad tracks. It was a nice spot with tons of room between the road and tracks so we were safe in both directions. It was also flat, and there wasn't any visible water around (all along the highway, there were pools of water in the ditches at the side of the road from the rain from the past few days). So although we were strategic in minimizing our mosquito exposure, we were still surrounded! We QUICKLY set up our tent and went to bed, with the intention of waking up at 4am (Manitoba time) to do a 300+km day tomorrow! Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll be able to get all the way into Winnipeg! But for now, early bed!