There are tough days on the road when riding. This day was one of them.
The day started out from Virden, MB early. We planned to get ahead of the heat we knew we would encounter the rest of the day.
It was a short ride to the next province of Saskatchewan which, of course, had to include a picture of the sign welcoming us.
We stopped in Indian Head, SK for lunch. This is a favorite stop for us along the way. On our first stop here back in 2016, there was a small motel with a restaurant…no Tim’s or other “box” retailers. On that first stop we were curious about what a Saskatoon berry was, which was the homemade pie being offered on the menu. The lovely man described the berry to us then offered us a piece to try, free of charge. It was a lovely. Now days, it is a stop for many folks, mostly to have their pictures taken with the large carved statue.
The rest of the ride for the day was, uncomfortable….it also included many stops to soak our shirts (motorcycle air conditioning is what we call this), and to satisfy our hydration. The temperatures rose to 36C most of the afternoon and with winds steady at 30 km/hr and gusts of 50 km/hr, it felt quite like I would imagine being inside an air fryer.
Just when you thought it was hot enough we encountered many kilometres of new pavement, otherwise know as black top. So let’s use an additional metaphor. We now felt like we were inside an air fryer being BBQ’d on a blacktop grill!
New black top holds the heat so in theory we were being cooked from above, below and side on. Despite all, we persevered and continued on our journey to Swift Current, SK…looking at this pictured stop to take photos of a canola field and grain operation, you would never guess that the day was anything other than lovely, and despite the heat, it was a good day…the kind of day that make you appreciate all the others. We get asked all the time if we mind riding in the rain. The short answer is we prefer it to the heat and that is not a lie. That being said, when travelling, weather (other than extreme weather) does not hinder our journey. If at home and having a choice with what to do with your day, we probably wouldn’t choose to ride in either.
We arrived safely in Swift Current, checked in to our hotel and drug all our gear up to our room. Once we pulled off the boots and riding pants, I filled the tub with some cold water and invited Larry to sit with me on the side of the tub with our feet in cold water. Let me tell you, it is unbelievably refreshing (highly recommend it). So refreshing in fact, I turned to Larry and said “We don’t need a big pool, we just need a kiddy pool with cold water”…..but I was only kidding…..
As for the evening, we only had enough energy to walk to the nearest food establishment, eat and head to bed…we didn’t have great coverage, hence the late post. The day had used up all of our daily energy and would not take a loan from tomorrow. So by 9 p.m. it was lights out, but I am sure we were all asleep before the switch had finished it’s journey from on to off!
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