Saskatchewan’s Small Towns

Saskatchewan’s pretty good looking when there’s no snow covering it

As of May 28 we are in the heart of Canada’s breadbasket. I can’t say for sure but I’d guess we’re taking a route across the country that no cyclist has done before, so that we can maximize seeing people we know along the way. So far our route has meandered from Vancouver to Banff, through Sylvan Lake to Edmonton, across to Waldheim, and down to Gray. Next significant stop: Winkler, Manitoba!

I spent a lot of time wondering how much this barn would sell for in Vancouver

Cycling is an inherently more social mode of transport than driving. In a few small towns it feels like we’ve become local celebrities, with people randomly coming up to us at gas stations or grocery stores to ask us what we’re up to. One day, for example, as we were riding to see our uncle and cousin in Waldheim, a friendly couple we didn’t know from the town rolled up to us and asked if we were the people pedalling across Canada. They had clearly been patrolling the perimeter of the town to see us. It was all very sweet, except they pulled up just as Karen was peeing in a ditch, and there aren’t too many bushes or trees for privacy in this part of Saskatchewan! All was well because Karen is immune from embarrassment, and we made it to town where our uncle fed us a supper of ribs and Dairy Queen blizzards.

The legendary (among our friends) Carpenter-Boesch farm. Based on what we know of the three sisters that grew up here, we have high hopes that drinking the water will give us unlimited energy and athleticism.

The wind continues to be a problem. It’s been consistently changing direction so that whatever direction we’re heading that day we’ve been facing a headwind. It’s a bit annoying because supposedly most wind in the prairies comes from the west, but that has not been our experience. Wind has generally been around 20 km/h the past week, which slows us down by about 40%. We’ve had to reroute and take an extra day off as a result, in hopes that the wind dies down and changes direction. Having said that, it’s important to note that if headwinds are our biggest problem right now, we are doing very well overall. So far we’re having a great time with each other exploring Western Canada and are looking forward to seeing more—which is good, because we’re not even halfway across the country.

The city is called “Battleford” but Karen said it should have been named “Battlewind”

It’s also been interesting how, in many ways, small towns live up to their stereotypes. In BC we passed through many lumber, resort towns, and mining towns; as soon as we hit Alberta most towns we passed had decorative oil wells or commemorative “petroleum parks;” and in Saskatchewan there’s been lots of farming towns with some sort of “world’s largest” thing or an enthusiastic sign to check out their tourist attraction of a “crooked tree” or “red barn with two trees.”

Last week’s Alberta audiobook of the week from Karen (I forgot to include it in the previous post): Into the Abyss

This week’s Saskatchewan audiobook of the week: Cheated: the Laurier Liberals and the Theft of First Nations Reserve Land