Living the Life

We have finally gotten two consecutive great days for riding for the first time since early in the trip, and we took advantage of it. It all started with Dave basically forcing me out of the sleeping bag as I was kicking and screaming due to the cold prairie morning. However, I finally dragged my lazy ass out of bed by 7:10am, ate a hearty breakfast of beans, a Nature Valley bar and a banana, and we were on the road by 9am.

Starting off was great as we had a slight tail wind and were able to make great time. Once we turned southeast though we were met with a slight head wind, but it wasn't enough to really slow us down. We made it as far as Sucliffe (or Kingo's as a I called it) by noon, which was about a 60km ride, and after a short break we continued to Medicine Hat.

We reached Medicine Hat around 2pm and stopped for lunch. We then had to beat around the city looking for a grocery store in order to get some grub for the next few days, since we are entering a stretch where there is almost nothing. We finally got back on the highway around 5pm, and of course we were greeted an IGA right on the outskirts of the city!

We proceeded towards the border with plans of reaching a town called Walsh, which almost lies directly on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. However, we were starting to feel the effects of a long day and decided to cut the day short and stop in a little town called Irvine... that was when the day got interesting!

We were first greeted by a sign saying that the campground in Irvine was closed, leaving us without a guaranteed place to stay. So, Dave marched into the general store and presented our case. He returned saying that we could set up our tent in the playground across the street, or there was a small park outside the town where bikers sometimes hung out. Dave thanked the shopkeeper and we chose to set up in the playground.

So here we are, basically in the middle of nowhere, with our tent set up in the town playground where we are on display for the rest of the town to see us! I would certainly prefer to be in a more secluded campground (with possibly some facilities!), but this will definitely be an interesting experience! After all, it is stuff like this that makes the trip more memorable. At least we are not paying tons of money to stay in some dingy motel room like we did through British Columbia.

Tomorrow we will be leaving the province of Alberta and entering "lovely" Saskatchewan. Although our time here in Alberta has been brief (less than a week), we have many memories from that time... biking in the snow, staying in Banff, saying goodbye to the Rockies, gorging ourselves in Calgary (thanks again Mary and Wynn!), seeing the dinosaurs, biking at the speed of walking in prairie head winds, and now sleeping in a playground! Hopefully Saskatchewan will provide as many memories in the week to come!