Day 19 – Stoughton

Day 19 – Stoughton, SK (Wednesday, May 20, 2015)

Although I didn’t see downtown Regina it seemed from the ourskirts that Regina was a busy town like any other busy town. Perhaps it was trying to be like some other city in Ontario.

I stayed at Days Inn. It was like any other Days Inn with a pool, cookies and a hot breakfast. But I really miss sleeping in a tent.

I took advantage of the “hot” breakfast which made me later than usual and set my new course south of Superior.

I had a good day bicycling, again not a cloud in the sky and the wind was finally in my favour. I hit 38km/hr in the flat but other than that the day was generally unmemorable.

I can guess why people from the prairies are so serious. There is nothing funny about living here. The winter is brutal, the spring is filled with bugs, the land and the sky are all you see without variation, and up until recently everyone was dependent on the rain for their livelihood.

The new route – highway 33 – runs right beside the railroad tracks. The grain elevators were built at regular intervals about 20km apart. One of the guys I met in Stoughton said there has been a lot on consolidation but they are still the most distinguishing land feature.

And then there are oil wells. Lots of them. They are marked by machinery moving slowly up and down resembling a nod of some prehistoric animal.

It seems like much of Saskatchewan is in some sort of disrepair.  Despite this people are still eking out a living. Beats me how! This may be the slow route to prosperity. Or maybe not.

When I arrived in Stoughton I found a nice campground and left to look for a place to eat. Someone pointed out a corner where there was a restaurant. It’s called “Sista’s” they said. “The have pretty good food there.” So I went to the corner where there was a typical prairie building with aluminum siding and minimal windows. There was no restaurant sign. There was no “Sista’s” sign. They were (or I was) lucky I was on my bike or I would have kept going. The food was ok but no-one really knew how to wait on tables. The waiters were nice enough but were much more interested in chatting with the locals. Somehow this seems typical.

I pitched my tent which was still wet from the snow at Eagle Valley. I looked forward to finally sleep in the fresh air again.

An old building in a small hamlet on the way to Stoughton. 2:02 pm 2015/05/20

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