The prairies continue: Close Vivian, very close

May 30, 2016

We left our kind hosts in Swift Current, with me resolving to buy my own kids a trampoline someday, and headed off to continue our long ride across the prairies. At least we had a bike path for a few kilometers through Swift Current before the monotony would resume. Through one park this took us past a sprinkler that had been set up to soak any cyclist that wasn’t able to time their sprint through the gauntlet well. Cyclists, such as, for example, Vivian.

"Erm, Vivian, I think you should wait for the sprinkler to..."

This wasn’t the only time Vivian got wet, however. After a morning of tailwind the weather turned against us for the first time, with dark skies, a little rain, and a frustrating headwind. This less pleasant weather continued on and off for the next day, somewhat seeping morale. I tried to keep Vivian’s spirits up by riding next to her and playing Twenty Questions. It’s a pretty basic game, I’d think of a celebrity and she’d have twenty yes/no questions to work out who it could be. For example I thought of George W. Bush, and she asked a load of questions, and then guessed that I was thinking of the skateboarder Tony Hawk. “Close Vivian, very close.”

And another, a Swede named Per, cycling the opposite way

Vivian organized another warmshowers host for us in the ridiculously named town of Moose Jaw, a lovely woman named Glenda. Vivian was a big fan of warmshowers. She liked it much more than wild camping. Fewer bugs I think. Glenda was great, and told us some of the history of the prairies. Like how the land was sold real cheap to encourage people to move out here, in a big long band across the country to unite western Canada with the east, and to create a border of farms to deter American expansion from the south. A great idea, as long as you don’t mind being in the middle of nowhere forever.

This is what we had to look at 95% of the time

Three days and 300 kilometres later we stayed with some friends of Glenda. Well, they were practically neighbours actually. Pauline and Robert made for another pleasant stop. An older couple, they used to farm, and Robert built houses. In fact he’d built most of the houses in the village from the sounds of it. They were also involved in running projects abroad, in Mexico, Bolivia and Haiti, building churches and medical centers and things. They were really very good people.

Another cyclist near Regina. He was on the highway, we had turned off on a small road to take a bypass around the city. We waved at him, thinking he might want to chat, and because he looked lost. He half-nodded, then just went back to staring at his I-phone

In the intervening days we just cycled. Our grey highway continued stretching like a ribbon across an endless sea of green fields. I continued to listen to my TV series, and when I’d listened to them all I began again from the first one. Vivian and I were getting on surprisingly well, although not really well enough to spend the whole day chatting. She’d downloaded herself some music and was happy enough with that, especially as the weather improved again. In the evenings we camped together, in occasional patches of trees or fields of dandelions. And each morning Vivian would return to the road, look left, look right, look confused, and then about 50% of the time, start cycling in the wrong direction.

Guess where we saw this? I'll give you a clue. Indian Head

Monday 30th May – 111km

Tuesday 31st May – 72km

Wednesday 1st June – 107km

Thursday 2nd June – 94km

Friday 3rd June – 122km

Today's ride: 506 km (314 miles)
Total: 51,166 km (31,774 miles)

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