Teacher Amelia has been replaced by happy go lucky Chantel. Gone are the words posted here that dance in your head. Now the words written by her dad will fall to the pit of your stomach that make it hard to digest.

Chantel was a good sport and got up shortly after 6. Chantel is not a morning person. She fell in love with the early morning riding very quickly. That put a smile on her Dads face.

Battling a south east wind as we headed east proved to be a test of endurance. Did 70 km’s before stopping for lunch in Oxbow where Amelia joined us.

Pulled into Peirson, Manitoba just before night fall. We felt every km of 132 we completed as we lay down for night.

Now I lay down to sleep…….

Gerald and Chantel (2nd daughter riding)

We didn’t take time to play on the slide. The alarm went off and so did we, all 23 kms to Weyburn for breakfast.

The Main Track Cafe can be credited for filling the energy stores that sustained us through most of the day.

The scenery was mostly the same. Trains tumbled over tracks, birds bustled in the breeze and the sun beat down relentlessly.

During snack breaks, chocolate, peanuts, pepperoni sticks and flavoured milk assisted in fuelling our movement. Sunscreen was reapplied and we still got funny tan lines.

With our loads lightened, thanks to Chantel and Amelia’s car, we moved much faster for our last few kms to Estevan. 120 kms were completed today.

Estevan marks the end of Amelia’s participation in this trip. 900 kms done,over half of the total distance for this Buffalo: Jump to the Point expedition and she is passing the helmet.

On Tuesday Chantel will adjust the bike seat on the lapierre to join Gerald for two days of cycling.

A celebratory supper was consumed at the Black Grasshopper, where the pun filled menu catered to all our desires.

Lost in feather pillows on Queen sized beds,

Gerald, and Amelia (and Chantel)

In the light of dawn we packed up our tent and then learned that A&W has surprisingly good breakfasts!

Our stomachs satisfied, we made a quick detour before departing to photograph the talk of the small town, the Red Apple building where the roof had spontaneously (and mysteriously) collapsed.

The windmills waved, cows curiously creeped and the wind whistled past our ears—in the wrong direction…

We had to fight the wind again today. Thankfully, it wasn’t blowing too strong.

Our morning meal (and some snacks) sustained us until we reached Ogema 80kms later. There we discovered the town offers tours on a train and Gerald got an idea about how to celebrate his upcoming wedding anniversary.

After 138 km’s, we arrived in the very small town of Trossachs. Here we prepared hot water for a low-prep packaged meal and set up our tent behind a play structure.

We spent 9 hours and 22 minutes on our bikes today. Making for our longest day of riding yet.

Sore and snoring,

Gerald and Amelia

We woke with the sun and shivered over our portable stove cooked breakfast. Just before 7:30am we set off, into the sun, still shivering from the cold.

About an hour later we came to the small town of Ponteix. We detoured 2km into the town to find hot beverages and some more snacks.

Amelia contently caffeinated and Gerald stocked up on oranges, we continued on our way.

Grasshoppers danced on our legs while little bugs kissed our arms and faces. We observed more vast fields, a variety of road kill, and had two different dogs try to befriend us. One even licked Amelia’s leggings!

At one point, while attempting to cross a railway track, Amelia got her angles wrong and took a spill. There were a number of vehicles on the road at this point and many stopped to ensure she was alright. (She was.) One gentlemen even sacrificed the cleanliness of his hands to replace the bike chain that had come off.

The experience was very humbling for Amelia and invoked a deep sense of gratitude, especially for those kind-hearted souls that stopped and kept asking if she was alright.

With nothing but a small scrape on her knee, Amelia pedalled to catch up with Gerald, who was about 2kms ahead of her at that time.

Supper was consumed (also with much gratitude) at Nash’s Restaurant and Lounge in Assiniboia. 135kms were completed today. Considering it was all against wind, and our average speed was 15km/hour, we feel we didn’t do too bad!

On our way to the nearby campground, Gerald lost his balance and both he and his bike went down. Thus, we both managed to fall off our bikes today, and are (thankfully) still doing quite fine.

Now we will sleep with a view of the stars, since the ground here is much too hard to stake the pegs required to secure the tent’s fly.

With gratitude and a lack of balance,

Gerald and Amelia

Last night Gerald had booked a taxi and called a bike store owner to ensure he had the correct tire size. This morning, after sleeping in, Gerald travelled to Swift Current with his bike tire while Amelia braided her hair and finished packing up the tent.

After a meal at Empire Restaurant (the same place we had eaten the night before-yes, we develop favourites) we left Gull Lake. It was almost 1pm, but Gerald had two full tires.

We had a blissful day with comfortable temperatures, decent cloud cover and beautiful views. Our eyes swept over the rolling fields as we masterfully geared up and down to accommodate the terrain.

93.5kms later we reached Cadillac. We had our dinner at a tavern where we had to order takeout just to eat outside and then speedily set up our tent in the campground nearby.

With gratitude for an uneventful day,

Gerald and Amelia

The rest stop where we stayed the night was more populated with campers and vehicles in the morning. This was proof that we aren’t the only ones that appreciate free camping!

Fueled by oatmeal, we set off to chase the rays that appeared to descend from heaven through the clouds.

It wasn’t long before we were stopped again. A nail had gone right through Gerald’s back tire.

The tire repaired, we pedalled on.

The sky was overcast most of the day, but it wasn’t until fat rain drops started to fall that we thought of getting out our rain gear.

We scrambled to cover our bags and don our jackets. Of course, it seemed that as soon as we were fully prepared, the rain blew over. The rest of the day the rain came and went, but our rain protection remained on.

About 6km from Gull Lake, the pressure in Gerald’s back tire went down. He cycled slow to a restaurant in the town, avoiding a complete flat, but walked his bike from the restaurant to the campsite. Much of the evening meal was spent figuring out how to get a new tire. With plans in place, we’re going to bed in a campground in the community of Gull Lake. All I will say about that for now, is that Amelia is looking forward to sleeping in a bit more tomorrow.

Damp and (slightly) discouraged,

Gerald and Amelia

We left our campsite in Bow Island just before 8am Tuesday morning and paid our respects to the town mascot as we departed. The morning was uneventful expect for some uprooted flowers.

Just 5km from Dunmore Gerald got another flat. While Amelia learned how to patch a tube, Gerald discovered his tire was still too tight to put on the rim without puncturing the tube. Thus, Amelia set off ahead and Gerald continued the journey on foot.

We were reunited at a Co-op in Dunmore. From there, Gerald took a taxi to a bike store in Medicine Hat to get a new tire and some more spare tubes. The tire repaired, we continued on our way.

Having lost at least two hours of potential riding time due to the tire escapade, we only arrived at the Alberta/Saskatchewan border around 7:30pm. Hungry and tired, after riding over 100kms, we decided this rest stop would act as both our supper site and our sleeping quarters for the night.

The only concern we had with our night lodging decision, was that the rest stop had no water access. We had two partially filled water bottles between the two of us, but we would need water to make our food and that didn’t leave a lot left over for drinking, or cleaning. As we sat at a picnic table considering our dwindling water supply, a man walked up and asked if we wanted all the water bottles his family no longer needed, since they were heading home. We gratefully said yes. God sees our every need!

The sprinkling of water was inconsistent as the sun rose over our polyester dwelling. The rain that had put us to bed was now waking us up. Although now it was coming in waves, and from the ground?! No, it was the sprinkler system that we thought we’d avoided by pitching our tent on the gravel patch as instructed.

With a wet tent in tow, we backtracked 4km to get a decent breakfast at Tim’s. We left Coaldale with the wind at our backs and an optimistic outlook about our end destination.

Around 35kms from Taber Gerald’s front tire got a puncture. We parked ourselves at an intersection and Gerald pulled out his supply of spare tubes. His new tire was very tight and the sensitive tubes didn’t seem to appreciate being prodded by the tire lever. Three tubes later, we were calling CAA. While Gerald was on the phone, a kind woman named Lena pulled up in her truck and asked if we needed help. Just minutes later another truck also stopped. The driver, a gentleman named Joe, offered to help Gerald with the tire. The kindness of these strangers helped us on our way and made our day. It also saved us from paying $300 to CAA to tow us to the nearest bike shop in Medicine Hat, because after the first 5km you have to pay.

Oranges and water breaks helped us make it to Bow Island over the next 2.5 hours. We ended the day with Chinese food and after 99.4km, we found a camp ground with a reasonable rate for a tenting site and FREE showers!

The Buffalo, Jump to the Point ride has begun! No cliffs were plummeted, nor buffalo seen, but we successfully pushed off on our loaded bikes from Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump before 11am on August 4th.

A bike trip involves a lot of packing and organization. For some reason a lot of the packing and organizing for this trip was still taking place on this first day.

Gerald seemed to have everything he needed, and yet no idea where anything was. There was a missing toothbrush, lost plastic bags, and then hidden soap.

The former was found only after the acquisition of a flimsy handled toothbrush from the hotel. The discovery of the latter was exclaimed to half the campground because Amelia was already half way to the showers, “Amelia, I found the soap!”

After cycling a total of 91kms, we are staying the night at the edge of Coaldale. This campground has no tent only sites, so we were made to pay $43 for a site with a power hook up that we can’t even use. Additionally, the underground sprinkler system for the grass is apparently more important than our sanity, because we were requested to pitch our tent (and put our pegs!) in the gravel. Gerald was able to borrow a hammer so our tent won’t be flying away. At least we have access to clean washrooms and can shower at a cost of only $1 for 5 minutes.

Now that Gerald has found his comb (the latest victim of the “I have it, but I don’t know where it is” statement), we can sleep with clean, well groomed hair on our very expensive patch of gravel.

Gerald and Daughter #1 (Amelia)

This will be the final post for the Vancouver Island bicycle trip.

First, have some fun with the before and after of the trip. See how many differences you can see from when we left Winnipeg and when we left BC.

This has been the 4th year I have done a fundraiser bike ride for MCC. If you wish to donate go to: https://donate.mcccanada.ca/registry/vancouver-Island-tip-tip

I will keep dreaming of future rides as long as my body allows me. Next year the dream is to cycle from head smashed in Buffalo jump in Alberta to Buffalo Point in Manitoba. It could be called, “Jump to the Point.”.