can see from the photo above, we have now truly left the mountains
behind and are in the thick of the prairies. Secondly, Vanessa and I
decided to push it a bit and finished two planned days in one go, for
a total distance of 140 km.
Despite our little accomplishment today there are still challenges to
this stretch of road. The distances between food and settlements are
growing. Erratic winds can either be your best friend, when at your
back, or your worst enemy, when in your face. Also the landscape
gives such long views that a tree on the horizon can take as much as
half an hour to reach once it comes into sight.
Something Vanessa and I are going to try to do in the weeks to come is
add more stories and descriptions of the people we meet to the blog.
Although the day to day details of the ride are fascinating to us we
don't want to bore people too much with the standard format of "today
we biked, it was difficult and here's why." Some of the best parts of
the trip occur thorough chance encounters in campgrounds and quick
conversations on the road. Tonight for example we're camped with
three other bicyclists making the cross country trek, all with stories
of their own to tell.
Our campground this evening is in the small town of Bassano, Alberta.
It's one of those neat towns where everyone knows each others names
and strangers stick out like a sore thumb. We had a great moment in
the grocery store where a man asked us where we were from. When we
said Toronto, he looked at us with genuine confusion and replied "What
on earth are you doing here?" Our campground itself is quirky and
lovely. The town is small enough that the park we're staying in is
nestled right onto the main street. It's a unique experience to walk
out of your tent and be moments from the grocery store, pharmacy, and
a few small restaurants and pubs.
Before I leave this I should give one last shout out to our Calgary
host Mikey. You truly know how to make people feel at home. We also
got to touch base with our good friend Lauren Castle, and new friend
Kelsey who joined us at Mikey's for some wonderful home cooked
enchiladas. Once again, thank you Mikey!
Sent from my iPhone
Two days in one - holy cow. You guys are country-crossing machines.
ReplyDeleteWould love to hear more about the people you're meeting. But keep telling us how you're feeling/what you're facing physically too! Believe me, no one is bored. More like awed.