We Don't Know What We Are Doing: Part III

"If you can't build a robot, be a robot."

First, happy July!
Happy Canada Day!
Happy 4th of July's Eve'sEve'sEve! Headache.

It is very difficult to find the energy to find a computer or, once we've found a computer, to find more energy to update a blog, so let us apologize to our regular readers out there...It is our goal to get better at this.

With that said, we move into update mode!

Where did we leave off....Aha. We were resting in Banff, basking in the glamour of the mountain village lifestyle, living it up, hanging out in a hot spring, shocking the other tourists with the spectacular intensity of our tan lines. Good times. Time, it seems, has a very loose grip on the now, and tends to let it slip away.

Now is not the now we knew. That was then. This is now. Wonder how? I do too.

We left Banff for Calgary, which was a lovely and scenic 85 or so mile ride, mostly downhill, that took us officially out of the rockies; a transition that was both abrupt and emotional. The steep walls of the western american highlands gave way to the great plains, and the straightest roads on earth...which was exciting...at the time. Once in Calgary, we met up with our hosts, some couch-surfer students from the local university, and had some Vietamese cuisine at their recommendation. It is a beautiful city, especially from the saddle of your bicycle as you weave in and out of the large amount of pedestrian traffic. All of the houses there had such personality. Go visit sometime.

Then we left Calgary in a general east-northeast direction, en route to Hanna...The birthplace of the pseudo-band Nickelback...And how. We got 3/4 of the way there to our checkpoint in Drumheller, a thrilling dinosaur-themed town in the Canadian Badlands, where we had planned to visit the RoyalTyrell Dinosaur museum. The cheesy dino statues all over town had us very concerned for the legitimacy of the museum itself, but alas, it was fantastic. Ornithomimids, a pterosaur, plenty of ceratopsians, and a spectular re-creation of Dr. Jack Horner's T. Rex skeleton that had Eric captivated. Impressive stuff.
We left the museum and rode out straight into a beast of a wind storm...One so strong that when we made an attempt at the road out of town, we were virtually pushed backwards. We found a hotel that would put us up and decided to make up the distance the next day.

Which meant that the ride from Drumheller to Mantario would be 158 miles, and so it was.
We worked all day at pulling it off, surrounded by the most spectcularly mind-numbing scenery that you can possibly imagine, into a fairly harsh crosswind, only to discover that Mantario, despite being recognized on a national map, was one street and half-abandoned. We set up camp with heavy hearts and went to bed.

Mantario to Swift Current offered another long day at 137 miles, 30 or 40 of which were on gravel roads....For all you scholars out there, that is indeed 295 miles in two days. It was long, perhaps harder than the day before as a consequence of the day before, and hot. We did our best to stay positive and kept working until we finally arrived at dusk, which was too late to go door to door. With heavier hearts, we found the cheapest room we could, but at least that meant a shower.

Swift Current to Moose Jaw was a bit of a break at around 108 miles. Moose Jaw was the biggest city we've seen since Calgary, and quite a relief at that....It really is stressful being surrounded by nothing. Moose Jaw saw us feast like kings thanks to a generous sponsorship from the local Boston Pizza restaurant where, on top of his already stellar record of helping us out, the shift manager pulled some strings and got us into the local mineral spa for free. Fantastic. Best pizza ever. Great mineral spa. Camping in a stranger's backyard. Does it get any better? No need to answer that.

And now that brings us to today, when we rode from Moose Jaw to Indian Head, where we are set up at a camp ground and looking forward to heading on to Moosomin tomorrow, where we will celebrate our own version of Canada Day, likely by sleeping, although I am reminded of a tip from one of our friends in Calgary:
"What do you do on Canada Day?"
"Camp. Whatever. Go out into the woods. You can do whatever you want...And drink."
Sore bottoms up.

Notes:
Animal sightings - Two foxes, hundreds of ground squirrels (some dead), antelope, and deer.....Not to mention the many species of waterfowl, the occasional bird of prey, and this orange-winged black bird that intrigues me so deeply.
Total mileage - 1473 miles
Casualties - Eric (nearly...see below), Eric's butt, Eric's mind.

p.s. Eric almost got hit by a truck. The guy was a moron. More later.

Goodnight everyone! We miss you all!

Love,

Jason