Day 13 – Brooks, AB (May 14, 2015)
After tidying up my camp site and eating my breakfast I was on my bike by about 7:30am. I stopped by Pete’s Cafe to get rid of my garbage and was checking the pressure of my tires when the Mayor lady came out with a cup of coffee. She reminded me that Pete’s doesn’t open ’til 9am. There you go – Cluny an isolated little place with some friendly people living a life.
After that I set on my way heading into the wind all bundled up for the 4 degrees C morning.
Beside the obvious open space the prairies may appear at first uninteresting. However I have found a few interesting things:
- When you are on flat land a pessimistic cyclist like myself looks around and sees the horizon as hills in every direction.
- In order to draw attention to the mundane the department of highways occasionally puts up “Important Intersection” signs. I could not for the life of me figure out was important about them.
- Cattle, like gas molecules, take all the available space. In one expansive area there appeared to be one cow/steer (whatever) per 10,000 square meter. There were hundreds of cattle as far as the eye could see.
- In low lying areas the ground looked white from some salt or calcium deposits. I imagine that this was from irrigation runoff and had very little vegetation.
- Cattle are about as dumb as fish. A few times one started running for no good reason that I could tell and they all started running for miles around.
- Most of the land doesn’t appear to be used for anything. They should roll up east and west together until they need it. This would make the distance shorter for bicyclists.
- There is nowhere to pee without being seen.
I made it to Bassano by about 10 something and knowing that I may not stop until supper I had a second breakfast. More french toast.
The wind had by know put me about 2 1/2 hours. I planned to stop for the night at Brooks effectively making what would have been a two day ride in three days.
I completed the ride to Brooks by about 3:15. I was happy that Brooks resembled a real city. I had supper at Boston Pizza and met a cyclist in his 50s who reminded me of cousin Ken. He too had issues with the roads in Ontario and suggest a route involving a ferry across Lake Michigon. I think it’s out of the way but I will take a look. I ended up staying at the Lakeshore Hotel. I was in good time to relax and purchase a few things including a pair of replacement ear buds. I am now depending on music to get me through the daily ride.
