Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Wow, finding a computer lately has been nearly impossible. We have ridden through a lot of small towns and beach resort areas where they just do not have internet for the public. We are in the process of getting a laptop though, so hopefully we will be able to post more often very soon!

Anyways, the last two weeks have been very exciting and fun. I guess we will start from the beginning and go from there. When we left Regina, we biked as far as White City to the Comfort Plus Campground for the night. If we did not mention it before, we stayed there for a week prior, and it was a great little place with very nice people. It had a pool, and I have never been to a camp ground with a pool. It was pretty cool. We also met a very nice guy named Jim from Winnipeg. He told us that he works in Regina while his family lives in Winnipeg. We could tell that he misses his family a lot when he is away. Hey Jim, hope everything is going well! And thanks for the beers! Also while we were at that campground, for no apparent reason, a family left their name and number so we would have a place to pitch our tent when we are in Winnipeg. That was a pretty amazing gesture. I must say I had a lot of disdain for humanity, but ever since we started this trip, I am seeing it in a whole new light and I am glad for it.

After we left the Comfort Plus campground we headed for Fort Qu'Appelle, which was about 60km away. That place is very beautiful and is right in the middle of the Qu'Appelle valley. The Qu'Appelle valley is very long and very beautiful; we couldn't believe what we rode into. We basically followed it for about two weeks. When we were in Fort Qu'Appelle we met a couple of people that we would call really good people. One guy was about 70 or 80 years old and when he came up to us he just started talking to us like he knew us, which was pretty cool. He eventually started telling us joke after joke...he was a library of jokes and we had never heard of any of the ones he told us. I can't remember jokes so I won't be able to share them with you, and no dad it's not because of my smoking. Actually, Tara remembers one; Why is Dolly Parton's chest so big but her waist is so tiny? Because nothing is able to grow in the shade! Ha ha...good one. The other people that made an impact on us were two guys about 20 years old that were hanging out on a patio bar. They came out and talked with us for about ten minutes. We had a good talk and it felt like we were friends from start to finish. I love meeting people like this and once again I hope it continues.

After the one night stay in Fort Qu'Appelle when headed for Katepwa beach, which was of course beautiful as well. So many hills on either side of the valley. We stayed at a campsite on the south end of the lake which was nice, but it had just opened and needs a little work; still very new. When we were at the campsite we walked up the side of the hill to see what was on the other side, and we were of course awestruck by the scene that opened up before us. It felt like we were suddenly in another country, or like we were looking at old battle ground. We meditated when we were there because it was so peaceful. We went to the beach on one of the days and discovered a little hotel right on the beach. We decided to stay there one night before we left so we could hangout at the beach all day and get good and drunk.

After Katepwa we went to Lemberg, which is a small town. We stayed there for one night. The hotel there was like nothing I have ever seen. It was almost like a hostel and a hotel at the same time. It had kind of a common TV room and a common bathroom, but it was all newly renovated and very inviting. Also, everyone that we met there was very nice and the town itself was very well taken care of. Since Lemberg was just a half-way point, we left the next day to go to another beach, Sunset Beach. On the ride there we met some very friendly, cool ladies. We had stopped on the side of the highway so I could regain some feeling in my nut sack, and two ladies pulled over in their car to talk with us. They are bicyclists, and were very interested in hearing about what we were doing. It was nice talking to them because they did not see what we are doing as something hard or impossible, but rather as something they would love to do. They also gave us some fruit to eat which was appreciated.

Once at Sunset beach and Melville beach, which are only 4 km apart, we found an awesome campsite right between both places called Crooked Lake Provincial Park. Our campsite was in the part that would normally be used as day sites, but we got to use them. We basically had 5 sites all to ourselves and they were all right on the lake; so nice. We spent 3 nights there because my knee was hurting and still does. It was August long weekend during our stay so we got to see a lot of fireworks, and some of them were pretty impressive. One of the nights we wanted to have a couple of beers but there were no liquor stores that were less than an hour bike ride away, so we went to a golf course that was about 4km away. It was called The Last Oak Golf Course. Cool place with the best fries we have had in a long long time. (Oh, and we've been having our share of fries!). We met some more cool people there. The first guy was namedRyan and he just seemed like an all around nice guy. He seemed to talk to everyone and when he did they seemed a bit happier because of it. He also bought us 2 beer each. Thanks Ryan! There were about six people that we met there and all of them were very nice and very excited for us concerning our trip. I believe there names were Nathan, Kim, Ken, Briana and sorry to the others, but remembering names is not one of my strong suits. The other nights we just watched the sunsets, road around the campgrounds, and climbed some trees. There have been very big trees all through our Qu'Appelle valley experience. When we left the campground we continued to follow the Qu'Apelle valley until highway 9, which goes north. I just want to say that the Qu'Appelle valley is a must see. I never expected to find such a place in Saskatchewan...well I had never expected that Saskatchewan as a whole would be so nice. Check out Saskatchewan, you will not be disappointed...actually you will probably be amazed.

Sorry that we have not been keeping the blog up to date. But as I said before, the laptop is coming so we well be writing a lot more and with more detail very soon. Remember, this is a 2 year trip so there is a lot of time for us to get this right. Talk to you soon.

P.S. While we were in Crooked Lake we saw a septic truck with the best, most appropriate company slogan we have ever seen; "Yesterday's Meals on Wheels". HA!

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