CCCT 2012 - June 27/12 - Day 39

Cross Canada Cycling Tour - Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - Day 39
White City to Grenfell, SK. Trip 120.90 kms Time 5 hrs 27 mins Max 41.8 kph

One of the Temple cats

Bev, Lucas & Roly ready to ride

I woke up with a start at 5:45 AM when one of the house cats decided to join us in bed by jumping on my head! We got up at 6:30 AM and went up to the kitchen. Bev made a cup of tea. The Home Care nurse arrived at 7:00 AM and proceeded to get Irene out of bed, etc. Rick got up and made breakfast for us. Bev had cereal with milk (something we haven't had since leaving home) I had juice and fried eggs and toast. I checked my e-mail and the weather forecast on Rick's PC. Lucas and his Mom arrived at 8:00 AM. Bev made PBJs while I finished packing and got our water bottles.

Before leaving for INDIAN HEAD I checked over Lucas's bike. His tires needed to be pumped up. Rick had a compressor so that made pumping up the tires quite easy. We then took some photos before setting off at 8:45 AM. Lucas's Mom informed us she had $200 for MS which Lucas had raised. We asked her to use the link on my blog to make a donation in Lucas's name.

Once we were on the highway we set off for MCLEAN, Lucas's home town. We had a terrific tail wind with winds gusting to 80 kph at times. We were able to coast at 30 + kph without pedaling. Lucas was thrilled to be riding out on the highway for the first time with us. We made a pit stop at the Post Office/Convenience store in McLean. All of Lucas's friends were out on the side of the highway picking up trash. They were quite envious of Lucas cycling with us. We continued on to INDIAN HEAD stopping for a snack on the way. The wind was so strong Lucas had trouble staying on his feet!!! We arrived in Indian Head at 11:30 AM. Lucas, who is 13 years old, had cycled 52 kms with us and was quite proud of himself. He called his Mom and asked her to come and pick him up then treated himself to an ice cream cone. We had our lunch while waiting for his Mom to pick him up in her truck. I had 2 PBJs. Bev doesn't like peanut butter and jam together - seperate OK - but not together! She ordered a hot dog from the chip stand. Lucas's Mom arrived at 12:15 PM. He was beaming when he told his Mom about his adventure on the highway with a terrific tail wind. He had cycled 52 kms in 2.5 hours at an average speed of 22 kph.

The skies began to darken so I convinced Bev we should get going if we were to continue on to WOLSELEY another 24 kms down the road. With such a terrific tail wind we were in Wolseley at 1:30 PM. We decided, after a short stop and a chat with a local cyclist, to continue on to GRENFELL. A young solo Asian cyclist passed us with MS signs on his back panniers. He didn't stop to chat! We arrived in Grenfell at 3:00 PM and by now had cycled 110 kms. We decided to find a place to stay for the night. Another cyclist, from Calgary going to Winnipeg, approached us and wanted to chat. He had already cycled 200 kms from Moose Jaw and was prepared to keep on going. We wished him a safe journey. There was only one motel in Grenfell and they wanted $80 plus taxes so we chose to go camping instead. There was a power failure in town so 1/2  the town (East side of Main St.) was without power. The CO-OP was closed due to the power failure. We cycled to the West side of town and checked in to the campsite at $17/night/tent.

We found a reasonably sheltered spot and after setting up our tent we put our gear in it to weigh it down to keep it from blowing away. We cycled back to the Esso station at the highway for dinner in the restaurant which still had power. Afterwards we cycled back to our campsite and settled in for the night. Bev was off to sleep at 8:00 PM. I stayed up 'til 8:30 PM filling in my journal. No wi-fi. No TV.
Bev and Roly