Day 17: 158.33 km

May 23, 2012

Bassano- Medicine Hat

What a day. I awoke so confused after quite the nightmare. It took me a bit to figure everything out. It was wet outside, but the rain had stopped. Which was nice for us to pack up with. All of my clothes were still hanging in the washroom, so I grabbed it and packed everything up. I was trying so hard to light the stove this morning, but my strike anything matches weren't working because the "anythings" that I could strike on was wet. And my lighter was out. After several failed attempts to get warm oatmeal and hot chocolate into my belly after a cold night, I settled for my half a sub from Calgary. Somehow the sub had been a little rained on, so it was super soggy. Not a good start to the day. I was grumpy from the terrible sleep from the night before, so I sat in the bathroom and pouted and ate. To top that all off, the laundry mat wasn't open yet so we had to pack our tents super wet. All I could think was it would be another night without sleep.

We left Bassano at around 9 and got into Brooks at 10:59. I know this because McDonald's starts serving lunch at 11 and I was SO happy to get fries (which I may be a little addicted to) and a smoothie. I have been craving McDonald's since Vernon!!! I was happy.

After Brooks, it was a 110 km journey to medicine hat. It was super windy! 65km winds! But it was behind us! We were so lucky, until I got a flat. Matt, as always, was LONG gone. I bitterly will always call this flat tire the "flat from hell". 65km winds are fine when they are behind you, but not anywhere else. As soon as I stopped (which was hard because the winds really wanted me to keep going) my bike and I toppled over because of the winds from a semi. I sat on the side of the road and figured out my tire, And every time a semi came by I had to brace myself. 4 times I fell over because I was standing when one drove by. Once I fell flat on my face because I couldn't reach the ground with my hand over top of the tire.

I have not changed a flat tire since grade 8. It's easy to remember it again, but it's not the fastest thing I've ever done. Because it was my back tire, I had to take my bob trailer off. My tools were in my Bob bag, so I opened it and got them out and set off to work. The last little bit of tire to get over the rim was so difficult. My wrists are sore from being in one position all the time, and I couldn't stand up to get more force behind it because I kept toppling over, so I struggled and struggled, having to stop and hold things every time a semi drove by. Then, the winds (just winds, not from a semi or car) pushed over my bob trailer. That thing is friggen' heavy! It stunned me. I put things down, and went to put the trailer back up. One of my gloves flew away! Argh. I sat back down with the wheel and pried the tire back into place. Finally. Then, I tried to get the tire back on. It was awkward. The wind was blowing my bike everywhere. (And me everywhere.) There were moments I would have to put my hands down on the ground and just focus on standing there! I couldn't figure out how to get my tire back on. It was all awkward to me. I flipped my bike upside down on its seat and handle bars to get a better view, and then my bob trailer fell over again, but this time all my things went rolling out all over the ditch! Everything was flying around. The winds were so strong they were picking up everything! I had to run around the ditch and grab everything. When I had got it all, I noticed that my bike had fallen down from the wind. I sat down, started bawling, and called dad for motivation. He was driving at work and said he would call back soon. I just sat there and blubbered while eating an Eatmore bar. When he called me back he talked me through getting my tire on, and putting the bob back on in the wind. When the Bob was on, the bike/bob combo was catching so much wind I had all my body pushing against the side of my bike to keep it standing up. Like when you have to push a car in neutral. That stance. It was incredible. Slowly, I inched my way back around my bike and got back on it. The flat from hell was my 3rd breakdown, and 1.5 hours later I got peddling again. At least it wasn't raining.

When the winds had pushed my bike over it had completely bent my handlebars! But Matt fixed them. By 4:30ish I got into Medicine Hat. Matt had found a lovely campground, I showered, and we went for a delicious well deserved meal.

Tomorrow we will be in Saskatchewan! Homeward bound! I can't wait for the birthday get together my mom has planned. Some of the friends who are coming I haven't seen in years! I just can't wait!

It's days like these that I want to quit and go home. I miss my bed, my shower...my car! I feel like I have had quite a few, and yes maybe too many, mental breakdowns already. But every breakdown is a chance to fix it even better than it was before. Unless it was raining and windy, the flat tire experience couldn't have gotten much worse and I conquered that. Anything that's thrown at me I feel like eventually I will conquer it. It may just take a few breakdowns to have these improvement opportunities.

8:15PM and most definitely bedtime for me.