Slow and Steady

Morning in Cereal found me at 6 am.
Peeking out of the picnic shelter, I saw a very waterlogged earth, but a blue sky with only a handful of wispy clouds.
As I started down the road, my legs felt more stiff and heavy than at any point on this trip. I chalked it up to catching a chill in the downpour the day before and settled in for a long day into Saskatchewan.
To my surprise though, I loosened up quickly and made the 28 km to Oyen in an hour. I stopped into A&W at the roadside for second breakfast (future side story on bicycle tourist mealtimes in the works) and was joined by an older gentleman by the name of Graham, formerly from Abbotsford. Not only did he know a colleague of mine in the Yukon, but he offered to give me a bunch of veggies he had with him. Finally, a random act of awesomeness on the roadside in Alberta! And only 30 km from the border.
With my veggie supplies topped off, I sunscreened up and took off for Saskatchewan.
I caught onto a good pace for a bit and then soon spotted another cyclist off in the distance. I applied my caffeine afterburners and chased him down to see if it was Curtis from Winnipeg. Nope! It was Joel (Joe???) from I assume Quebec.
I carried on the momentum from my chase and made it to the Saskatchewan border (34 km) in under an hour. Great pace!
The rest of the ride into Kindersley was pretty tame. I had driven that stretch of road many times in my old university road trip days and with my early wake up and the humidity, I was almost starting to nod off. I actually sighted Kindersley from about 30 km off, which is terrible, because it means I had to slowly creep closer for an hour before I finally got into town.
The highway and roads in Kindersley were inexplicably covered in dirt and pebbles, and it seemed like the two stores I would have wanted to visit were closed down.
I made do with a donut and coffee break at Time Hortons and a quick trip to a small Coop grocery for a grocery top off.
Decided to go on the advice of a dude I met in Fernie and get some pop tarts as snack food.
It was about 4 pm as I was preparing to leave town and I decided to head another 65 km south to Eston. I caught onto a slight tailwind and got onto some amazing shoulder for the first 30 km and got some easy kilometers in. The last 35 km was on one of the lumpiest, most heaved highways ever but luckily most of the ridges were the right size for bicycles and traffic was light and considerate.
Later realized that I had completed 185 km today, an all time record for best distance in a day, beating out the 175 I did in the Southern Lakes Gran Fondo last summer! Slow and steady is the key if you can't find a strong tailwind I guess!
Torn between going to Riverhurst or Saskatchewan Landing tomorrow but I'll just ride down the highway and see where my heart takes me.
Another early morning as I was woken up by just about every train in Saskatchewan going through town. Turning east onto the highway, I felt a wind tickling my face.
I frowned.
I continued frowing for 55 km and 3 hours until Elrose, when I limped into the grocery store for ice cream. Strange, everyone from Vancouver to here has been going on about the awesome tailwinds I would get on the prairies, but I've been wrestling headwinds for 4 days straight.
After a lunch break, I turned south down Highway 4, and got out of the headwind. Once I worked the stiffness from the morning's hard effort out, I was able to get some decent speed going and just took a nice, restful spin south. The sun was intense today! Not too too hot but just bright. It was a 3 layers of sunscreen kind of day for sure.
I settled into the Provincial Campground at Saskatchewan Landing, after 125 km for the day. A bit of an early stop, but I wanted to take an afternoon off to rest, swim and get to bed early. Between the literal mountain of free firewood and the quiet of the park, it turned out to be a good place to stay for the night. Cooked some dinner over the campfire, read for a bit and then called it an early night.