On April 1, 2005 I set off across Canada on my bicycle. Or at least I'd planned to cross Canada. These pages are an account of that trip, as told through travelogs I sent to friends. I hope you enjoy the ride!


Pure Prairie

Hi Kids,
Well, I escaped the windy tumult of Maple Creek and found myself on an easy 80 K breeze into the quaint town, with the ugliest downtown I ever saw, of Gull Lake.

Ah, yes, Gull Lake, where my first Susan and I got stuck hitchhiking way back in 1971. It was a hot July night, just like now, and we snuck into the local campground, where we made love under a leaning cottonwood tree, stole showers, and got away in the morning before anyone noticed we were there.

This time there was no sex, I paid, and forwent the shower, preferring the soaking of a cold well water tap in the heat.

The next day was a wind fighter, when, after abandoning my previous assertion that I would change direction and go north, I woke up and went south in a headwind, 50 K to the sleepy berg of Shaunavon. Well, its sleepy in the day but at night the youth tear around in fast cars and pick-up trucks. Nice town. Beautiful little library and lots of old war-era buildings, wide dusty streets and tree-lined sidewalks. I think the early stock here might have been Norweigen, lots of sandy blonde hair and green eyes.

Didn't sleep so well there, and when I woke up I looked at the sky and said: "Yesterday you gave me head, today I want tail!"

Well, the sky obliged and gave me a good southwest breeze to sail as I headed east on Highway 13. I was so grateful my request had been met, for tail over head, I decided to ask for more, confident it would be provided. I looked at the sky and said: "Send me a woman and a bag full of money!"

Neither have turned up yet, although I did get checked out by a female police officer with an emergency Mohawk. That's a Mohawk you create with a little gel in the mirror before going to check out the hippie type camped in the park. She should have remembered to take off her gun clip.

Anyway, it was a lovely ride, first over high prairie, where I came within meters of an antelope and a fox. The antelope was sleek and had horns with the same curvature of the back of a lovely Swedish lass I once knew. It looked at me and didn't move, until I went for my camera. The fox was another story. It took off as soon as it saw me, racing along a fence line and looking back to see if I was in pursuit. Fat little devil. Been into the chickens I think.

Then the road, which was at times choppy and gravelly, dipped into a low coulee where I came upon a herd of bison. Poor guys, they used to rule the prairie, now their coats fray, the ribs stick through their hides, and they seldom get to run at all, farmed away behind barbed wire, fed from a giant trough, and treated like cows. I did get a photo of them, but they too up and moved on when I stopped.

Slept last night in a place called Cadillac. Free campground out on the bald prairie, with only a few young cottonwoods to mark the difference between the campground and the surrounding grass. It was here I got checked out by the girl cop. She was cute, but not at all good at going undercover.

Sky, that's not what I meant when I said "woman!"

Anyway, woke up to the news out of England, that was after it took hours to go to sleep, for two reasons. One, yesterday was so muggy hot it thundered and lightninged all around, but did not so much as drizzle. That in turn drove the mosquitos nuts, and they terrorised me through my sleeping bag and my mosquito net for hours. When I finally escaped their bites, I had to put up with thier drone. It was gruesome.

About the news from England. Why yet another insane act against the working people? Why not the politicians or the munitions factories? It’s nuts.

Anyway, the sky was a little clouded but basically blue, so off I went, on a rather dusty pitch that has led me to the sleepy, friendly, and a little odd, town of Pontiex. Its set up on the prairie about a mile off the road. Has all the services I could want, including the library in which I now sit.

Not sure what I'll do with the rest of my day. Probably push on to the next town or the one after. We'll see when I step down on the pedal. In the meantime, I've been invited to work the Regina Folk Fest at the end of the month, so that's one option I have. But with the weather finally working for me, and me enjoying the prairie, I may be well beyond Regina by then. Right now, I'm just about 60K Southwest of Moose Jaw, named after our former prime minister Brian Mulroney (not really).

I'll let you know what I did when I've done it. In the meantime, especially to my friends in England, take care, take a day off, go ride a bike. Don't let the bastards win!

For the rest of you, just have fun, I finally am.
Will



 

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