I may have been born in Saskatchewan, but right now the only privilege I feel granted is to have a justified opinion on how AWFUL the highways are! I’d take some time to knock the highways further, but I hear Manitoba is worse! Oh goody…

So let me recap what’s happened since I left Calgary…

Days 19-20: Still in Calgary: These two days were vital to our relaxation and even though we were ready to go, we felt it was more important to take advantage of our own beds, our own showers and our own local Dairy Queen. We also got a chance to catch up with Thomas and Emily (the couple from Ontario we met outside Hope) as they rolled in to Calgary and decided it was time to cancel their own trip. We had some good conversation and good laughs and caught up on bike stuff and they even offered to meet us in Ontario when we get there.

Day 21: Calgary To Strathmore: Woke up early. Looked outside and saw clouds. Enjoyed one last long hot shower with music to sing to. Wore pants. No skin-tight shorts to show off today. Broke land speed record descending hill into bow river valley pathway. Rode pathway past downtown and zoo. Crossed the Deerfoot by way of pedestrian bridge rather than risking our lives on 16th ave. Made it to east edge of town and pumped up tires at gas station. Weaved our way through construction all the way past Chestermere and finally escaped Calgary without incident. Then incident happens. Jordan gets flat tire. Jordan replaces flat tire. Jordan jumps on flat tire (OK, I didn’t jump on the tire, but I secretly cursed it in my head and felt like a rebel). Made it to Strthmore and a campground that had some kind folks that let us set up our tent beside them for free. Watched some girls practice softball. Ate soup. Slept well.

Day 22: An Eventful Day In Strathmore: Woke up early. Ate Oatmeal. Got packed up, slathered on sunscreen and streched. Rode away from campsite. Made it about 1 km and Braden has flat tire. But Braden has more than flat tire. Braden has life altering decision hanging in the balance and flat tire is a foreshadowing of said decision about to be made. Braden replaces tire. Jordan stands nearby and avoids army of ants but doesn’t tell Braden because Braden thinks Jordan is a little too concerned about stupid ants. Braden is probably right. We make it another kilometre to a gas station to pump tires. Braden starts to play out what-if scenarios. Jordan sits down because he knows where this is going. Jordan was prepared for this. The two brothers sit and discuss Braden’s departure. The conversation is long and good and they end on a good note. Braden decides to pay for a hotel for the night and relax for the day and let the decision sink in. After a day of DQ, pool and hot-tub and dinner at Boston Pizza, the brothers feel they have had adequate time to mull things over. Jordan takes four-man tent for himself and adds some weight to his gear. Jordan also takes on the burden of a solo journey.

Let it be known that I am proud of my brother and strongly feel that if Braden had anything to prove to anyone, he accomplished that by making it from Vancouver to Calgary. I often wonder if I myself would have made it to Calgary without his dedication and constant striving for a challenge. Alas, he will be sorely missed and I must face this great country alone.

Day 23: Strathmore to Brooks: Woke up late and soaked in one last morning in an actual bed. Got packed up and gave my brother a hug. Said goodbye. Weather was not good. Had to wear full rain gear. Spent the day in the rain, riding mostly uphill and with a strong crosswind. Finally made it to Brooks. Brooks does not smell good. Never has. Jordan finds place to sleep and sleep he does.

Day 24: Brooks to Medicine Hat: Woke up early and in the sun. Ate breakfast, slathered on sunscreen and streched. After a day of the most kilometres I have ever biked in one day, I manage to do another long stretch. Mostly uneventful day. Baked in the sun. Arrived with good time in Medicine Hat. Misunderstood directions to campground. Ride right by campground and climb some hills to get to the other side of town. Realize that after looking at a local map, that I had to go all the way back to where I entered town and shook my head. Arrived at campground. Set up tent in area with the least amount of ants. Walked to small restaurant and ordered a bowl of soup and wrote in my journal. Slept well.

Day 25: Medicine Hat to Piapot: Woke up early and got out of city in good time. Made it to small town just outside and met an interesting lady at a gas station. She begins to ask questions about Jordan’s journey and then tells him of her own bike journeys. Apparently she had once been on the road for six straight years. Situation becomes clearer as she shows Jordan that she keeps her sleeping bag and pillow in her purse. She pulls out a roll of garbage bags and proceeds to explain that she can fill them with grass or hay to sleep on. Jordan pays his respects to the interesting lady and she bids him a safe journey. Jordan makes it about 200 meters from the gas station and realizes he has a flat tire. Flat tire gets cursed and replaced. Jordan makes it to the Saskatchewan border and takes some pictures. Jordan realizes that pictures of ones self are more difficult to take without another person to help. Jordan briefly ponders the departure of his brother. Jordan continues on the road. Jordan is faced with the reality that the roads in SK are more terrible than the roads in Alberta.

Even though Alberta’s roads consisted of many cracks, rocks and what looked to be shrapnel bombs randomly exploded in certain areas, containing bolts, screws, nails, wires, pipes and the occasional spike strip, Saskatchewan’s roads not only contain the same shrapnel bombs, but every time there is a crack in the road, it feels like going over train tracks. Awesome. Oh, and for the record, anyone that tells you Saskatchewan is flat, you can send them to me and I’ll set them straight. Saskatchewan may be mostly flat, but on this highway, it is nothing but hill after hill and none of them work in my favour. I climb a few kilometers uphill only to find a small little downhill followed by another long and gradual uphill. Awesome. Well, I make it to an info center just outside of Maple Creek and a lady there tells me of a campground where I can stay for free near a small town called Piapot. I make my way there and meet two kind older gentlemen, one of which works at the local hotdog stand, and we talk for an hour or so. Then Jordan sets up his tent in the area least occupied by ants and enjoys a relatively good sleep through wind and rain.

Day 26: Piapot to Swift Current: Easily my worst day. Only 100 kms to do, but with a lot of uphill and against the wind, it took a long time to to make it to Swift Current. I noticed as I woke up that morning that I neglected to put on bug spray again and noticed my legs looked like giant dill pickles. (not green, just full of bumps) Let’s just say I won’t be doing commercials for Nair anytime soon. One nice little suprise were the signs indicating road impovement projects. One in particular started 30 kms outside of Swift. Great! I thought. Then soon realized that it was also a shoulder demolishment project. Take a look at the picture above. Basically for all of that 30 kms, I had to take my chances on the small little piece of pavement beside the white line or go extremely slow through the gravel and the messed up tar sprayed railroad track-like “pavement” amidst the gravel. Unbelievable. But I made it to Swift Current and made sure I took some time to relax. I stayed in a cheap hotel for the night where I bargained for a good rate and I shopped at the local Safeway for my breakfast for the next morning.

Day 27: Swift Current to Caronport: Woke up early in hotel room. I forgot to mention that for breakfast I bought a litre of juice and a frozen “Hungry Man” microwave dinner. Figured out my microwave didn’t work. Had to use one in another room. Finally got my meal cooked and man was it satisfying. I have to tell you, I usually hate microwave dinners and I always prefer fresh food, but this was a Hungry Man meal, and you know what they say, when the tanks empty, you gotta fill er’ up! Left in good time from Swift Current and soon found out I actually had a swift current behind me. It carried me to the base of a giant hill where there was a bridge (no troll though, and a good thing too because I relieved myself under there:) and then I noticed my tire was flat. This time I yanked out some metal wiring out of my tire, probably from one of those make-believe shrapnel bombs I described earlier. Anyways, I replaced the tube and got underway and made it quite far. I made it to a some salt flats and found a nice little icecream shop with the most beautiful girl I’ve seen on this trip thus far. (If you look closely in the window you can see her smiling and waving) (if you check out the gallery below, you can click on a picture and see it bigger)

Then after a long lunch there I still had the wind at my back and the temperature was perfect. I made it to a place called Mortlach where I stopped at a small rustic cookhouse and had a bowl of French Onion soup. When I first arrived here, it seemed like a ghost town because nobody was around and that seemed fitting to me because the place was called Mortlach and Mort means dead in french. But the cookhouse was really good.

After Mortlach I headed for the campsite I was supposed to stay at for the night, only to realize that there was a festival going on there and the only way they would let me in was to pay $100 for a ticket and even then they said I’d be listening to techno music until 8:00 in the morning. Although the mention of Techno caused me to pause and think, I said no thanks and had to travel to the next town and hope for the best. It tuned out that Caronport was my destiny. Oddly enough, in the town that my parents met at school, it was this place where the managment at the Husky allowed me to set up my tent behind the station for free.

I got the chance to watch some football on the big projector screen at the coffee shop and pondered at what an amazing day for riding it was. I accomplished about 180 kms and I felt pretty good. The night was a little interesting as an enormous wind swept through and I thought I was going to fly away, but my tent held up good and I survived.

Day 28: Caronport to Regina: I woke up after a crazy night of weather and therefore didn’t get a lot of sleep. I made some breakfast with my trusty camp stove and got packed up. It turned out that I was just in time for the church service down the street in the school my parents met. I put some pants on (of course) and went to church. After the service I left for Regina and made decent time, considering the wind factor. Once arriving in Regina I called my Aunt whose house I was to stay at for the night and she sent my cousing Greg out to pick me up. (Don’t worry, that ground I lost by riding in a van, will be made up by the fact that I’m back in Regina further back than where I was picked up I spent that evening with my Uncle Jeff, Aunt Connie, and my cousins Greg (who stayed an extra day to see me before moving) Justin (who just got back from tree planting) and Matthew (who is home for the summer from school). After great food, multiple slices of Saskatoon pie and good conversations by the firepit outside, it was a welcome relief to the daily grind. I slept in my cousin Natasha’s bed (she is off at camp) and the next morning I got to talk to her on the phone and get her verbal approval for my having stayed in her room.

Days 29 and 30: In Regina: After waking up to breakfast and another feast for lunch, I said goodbye to family and they drove me to my friends Jesse and Jordan’s place in Regina which is where I currently am. They took me in and we shared good conversations about nerdy things like Star Trek and what episode the Blue-skinned barber named Mott was in and whether he was Andorian. He is not. I haven’t seen Jesse and Jordan in about five years and so there was a lot to catch up on. They invited some friends over for dinner (which I had known from my time at school here) and we all enjoyed good food and company together. I went to sleep in a nice cozy bed and woke up this morning and started writing this! My plan is to be here until tomorrow where I will venture out past Regina on to a road I’ve never driven. As I rest up today and continue some planning, I reflect on the fact that I won’t be able to enjoy the company of friends and family for a long time to come.

I just want to say thanks agin you guys for your support during this trip. You know who you are.

My next big destination is Winnipeg which is where I’ll probably be able to update again… Keep me in your thoughts and prayers! And know that I’m enjoying myself;)