May 25, 2012
Eagle Valley Campground - Swift Current
This morning was beautiful. My phone was still dead, and would not charge, so I woke up with no idea what time it was. Yes, I did wake up hugging my phone in hopes that my love would turn it back on. I slowly got out of bed and took my time getting ready. I sat in the sun and dried my tent as i made porridge and hot chocolate and listened to the birds. The trees at this campground created a haven for the birds. Some types I had never seen before, they were all types of colors. They were loud, but a pleasant loud. Then Annie came over. Turns out it was 8 am and I had already been up for what felt like a couple hours! So I had an early morning. I took my time because I wanted to leave at 9 am because the info center 5 km up the road was open at 9. That is where I blogged from this morning. Really nice info center. Then I took off to meet up with Annie. It was a super sunny, blue bird day today, but the winds were quite cold.
20 km up the road I caught up to Annie. She was having bike problems, so after looking at her bike for a bit, we thumbed a ride for her into town. I was quite proud. I knew what was wrong with her bike! I just couldn't fix it, haha but I'm getting closer to knowing a little about bikes.
After that I was on my own. I has no idea where Matt was, and Annie was gone too. I had no music, no communication with anyone, nothing. Shoot me now. It was terrible! To top that off there was a headwind and all I could hear was the wind!
I stopped in Tompkins for lunch. I got a co-op lunch. Turns out there's a restaurant in the same building right around the corner, but I was clueless to this and bought a pre-wrapped pizza sub and baby-bell cheese. But!! I got Ice-cream! There was a cute pink and white ice cream place right beside the co-op. The ice-cream lady and I chatted forever. It was such a relief to talk to someone other than Steve (my bike panda).
Then I carried on. I was really struggling. I can honestly say that the prairies are more difficult than the mountains. This head wind never stopped! And it would randomly blow harder! It was like constantly going uphill. It was so difficult. And the prairies are NOT flat. It's constantly rolling. You would never notice because cars have cruise control on all the time, but it's not flat. I was struggling uphill going 8km/hr, and downhill only 15! The winds take everything from you! It was easier in the mountains because you knew there was a downhill after. I miss the strong back winds!!!
Eagle Valley Campground - Swift Current
This morning was beautiful. My phone was still dead, and would not charge, so I woke up with no idea what time it was. Yes, I did wake up hugging my phone in hopes that my love would turn it back on. I slowly got out of bed and took my time getting ready. I sat in the sun and dried my tent as i made porridge and hot chocolate and listened to the birds. The trees at this campground created a haven for the birds. Some types I had never seen before, they were all types of colors. They were loud, but a pleasant loud. Then Annie came over. Turns out it was 8 am and I had already been up for what felt like a couple hours! So I had an early morning. I took my time because I wanted to leave at 9 am because the info center 5 km up the road was open at 9. That is where I blogged from this morning. Really nice info center. Then I took off to meet up with Annie. It was a super sunny, blue bird day today, but the winds were quite cold.
20 km up the road I caught up to Annie. She was having bike problems, so after looking at her bike for a bit, we thumbed a ride for her into town. I was quite proud. I knew what was wrong with her bike! I just couldn't fix it, haha but I'm getting closer to knowing a little about bikes.
After that I was on my own. I has no idea where Matt was, and Annie was gone too. I had no music, no communication with anyone, nothing. Shoot me now. It was terrible! To top that off there was a headwind and all I could hear was the wind!
I stopped in Tompkins for lunch. I got a co-op lunch. Turns out there's a restaurant in the same building right around the corner, but I was clueless to this and bought a pre-wrapped pizza sub and baby-bell cheese. But!! I got Ice-cream! There was a cute pink and white ice cream place right beside the co-op. The ice-cream lady and I chatted forever. It was such a relief to talk to someone other than Steve (my bike panda).
Then I carried on. I was really struggling. I can honestly say that the prairies are more difficult than the mountains. This head wind never stopped! And it would randomly blow harder! It was like constantly going uphill. It was so difficult. And the prairies are NOT flat. It's constantly rolling. You would never notice because cars have cruise control on all the time, but it's not flat. I was struggling uphill going 8km/hr, and downhill only 15! The winds take everything from you! It was easier in the mountains because you knew there was a downhill after. I miss the strong back winds!!!
I passed this guy biking west. He must have been Doing a cross Canada trip as well, because the vehicle following him had stickers all over it. It looked like it was his wife or some lady following him. How nice is that! What a trip! I was so jealous seeing no weight on his bike, with a vehicle and a loved one right there with him every step of the way! And to top that all off, the wind was favoring him too! That would be so nice to have no weight on a bike!
As I was struggling to move today, I saw a badger. Not the animal I ever wanted to run into. Especially going 10km/hr. I was so freaked out! I would honestly so much rather run into a bear! The badger sat there and stared at me like it was daring me to come closer. Such scary little animals. Cocky, mean, and crazy determined animals. I couldn't have biked fast enough away.
At around 80km my knees really started to hurt. Like I've said a few times now, it was like biking uphill for a straight 80km and my knees really hurt under that pressure. But I knew my campground at the beginning of Swift Current was 35-40 km away, so I promised myself at 100 km I would judge how my knees felt and if I needed to I would hitch hike into swift and bike an extra 15-20 km in the am. So I wouldn't be cheating kilometers wise, but there would be a 10 km section of the highway I would miss because I'd bike west 10 km and back into swift 10km to make it up. At around 90 km I knew that I would have to hitch in. My knees were really hurting. But I had to go a little further so tomorrow wouldn't be too big of a day with the catch-up. At 96 km I could see that this suv had pulled into the shoulder. This girl was on the side of the road. My first thought was that I was going to have to watch this girl pee because there was NOTHING to block it. Not a good pee area. But then she was kind of just standing there. Then I really hoped that she wouldn't leave before I got there because I wanted to know the time. I knew it was kind of late but I didn't know what time it was all day! When I got close I asked what time it was. Then I could actually see who it was. It was Melina! My cousin! (Well really my cousins cousin but she's my cousin to me) I was so excited! It was hilarious! She didn't know if it was me or not so she just stood there! It was so perfect! I was hurting so she drove me into the campground. If she wouldn't have I probably wouldn't have made it in before dark! At least it felt like that anyway! I was so happy! We crammed my bike and me in, and drive to the campground. I really felt like it was cheating but it couldn't have worked out more perfect. Because she drove me in, I ran into Thomas, who was biking with Matt, so now I am back with Matt! If she wouldn't have dropped me off I would have probably missed them! And if I wouldn't have been with Matt, or people in general, I wouldn't have lit a fire to roast marshmallows.
And if I wouldn't have lit the fire, I wouldn't have randomly wanted to roast my broken phone, so then my phone wouldn't have miraculously been fixed!!!!!! The fire must have dried out any water in it! So at the moment, cheated or not, I'm a happy camper enjoying a fire with friends back in the world of cellular communication. It ended up being an amazing day! Even with no phone, music, time, a badger run in, and a head wind.
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