A long day always starts with a strong breakfast. 30 km after Youngstown, I reached the small town of Cereal which was going to celebrate its 100th anniversary the following week end. Canada as a unified confederation will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2017. The West and the East were unified together in order to prevent the US Americans to go further North and claim lands. The Prairies in between the two coasts had to be populated and the Confederation offered lands to settlers to claim Canadian presence within vast territories thus little town like Cereal.
In the bar of Cereal where I had my breakfast, an old tv show was on : Golden Girls. I used to watch this show when I was a kid during the summer in order to learn english on the FR3 channel. So funny to get along this show in a small town in the middle of Alberta. Yes I was still in Alberta but the bar owner was a fan of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a Canadian Football Team.
Back on the road, the Saskatchewan border is in 36 km : Youhouuu another province !
The border is crossed with my two wheels. I smiled because the nearest town was called Alsask and it made me think of the French region where you can eat delicious flammekueche. Alsask is just the fusion of the names of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Nice concept to name a town :)
I stopped at a gas station for a break. There was a solid cross wind. The gas station grocery was owned by a chinese-canadian couple and you could eat chow mein noodles in the restaurant next door.
Kindersley was my objective of the day. It was about 4pm and I still had 60 km to cover. With an average speed of 16 km/h due to the cross-wind and some granola bars breaks, I reached my destination around 9pm. The weather forecast for the following days was storm (wind and rain). It did start today but hopefully I was always behind the stormy cloud which let me enjoy Saskatchewan the land of the living skies.
For the first time in the Prairies, I witnessed the town in a distance effect. Let me explain, the highways of Saskatchewan are mainly in a flat straight line compared to BC or Alberta. People told me about the fact that you could spot a town with its lights from far far far away and thus drive for a long time and not reach it. Ok I only had 60 km to ride with my bicycle but with my pace and by the end of the day, Kindersley seems like far far far far far far away.
Kindersley is the first biggest town before Saskatoon. It is just like a regular Canadian Prairies town with a 5 km main street with all the motels, big grocery stores and fast food restaurant. The storm was imminent and I did not want to camp so I searched for a motel but everything was booked. All the motels were full as Kindersley is a base camp for all the workers from the nearby oil and gas industry. I did go to the campground but all the spots were taken by big RVs and trucks, once again from oil and gas contractors.
So what should I do ? I remembered that my dear friends C&C had often slept on the parking lot of a Walmart in their Subaru Legacy during the cross Canada road trip. Well, I did not have a Subaru Legacy but I had my tent given my another dear friend Fanny :).
Bicycle locked to a bike rack.
Ready to sleep and hope the Satisfaction is Guaranteed :)
1 - Breakfast in the town bar of Cereal, AB
3 - Saskatchewan Roughriders CFL
4 - Soon in Saskatchewan ALSASK (ALbertaSASKatchewan)
5 - Welcome to Saskatchewan
6 - Riding after the storm - Living Skies
7 - Point of interest - rubbing stone for the Bisons
discoholicmusic
pixelskylines
tangentwithtanner
blakekathryn
turnnoffyourmind
baratheonpilled
andulkaphoto
jacobvanloon
kianamaiart