75.5Kms
On our ride from Indian Head to the Regina airport, we reached 5,000Kms across Canada since leaving St. John's, Newfoundland. This year's ride was just 10Kms shy of 3,000Kms. As with the St. John's to Ottawa ride leg, with the Ottawa to Regina ride leg we feel we could just keep on going - the finish is bittersweet! We are happy that we have accomplished the ride we set out to do this year, including the camping in Ontario, however we wish that the weeks on the road together could continue. At the Regina airport we packed up the bikes, sorted panniers and checked in. Waiting for the flight home, we completed this last log entry and B worked on the layout for the next leg of the bicycle trip, the one that will take us from Regina home to Victoria.

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/11110400

119.3Kms
Another great day bicycling on the Prairies with favourable wind conditions! We feel so fortunate about this outcome! We've also enjoyed the recent three days of fantastic Saskatchewan shoulders, as we've been able to ride close enough to chat - its been such a great trip and we are going to miss each other when we are back to our work weeks. B had us up again at 5:30am this morning and we were bicycling before 7:00am to be on our way before the winds changed. Today was a particularly fun day, as we visited three little towns en route from Whitewood and we saw more murals, spoke with locals and visited the Wolseley Swinging Bridge. We had to cycle down to see the bridge, as several people we met told us we must. The bridge was built in 1902 to connect the town to a residential area. Currently, the facility that looks out to the river and bridge is a care home - such a great outlook for the folks there! Also in Wolseley, we visited a quilt shop and made purchases, and Y had a nice latte at Tilli-Beans. Only one more sleep and one more ride day, 75Kms to the Regina airport. B found a very cute 2BR Sunshine cabin (really, a small house) in Indian Head  for our last night. Two of the people with whom we spoke in Grenfell late this morning told us the China Garden food in Indian Head is very good. We were set on going there for dinner, as most of the motel and diner owners we have encountered in Manitoba and Saskatchewan have been of Chinese descent (China Garden buffet included the v.best ever SGB) They offered a special dessert, which we dubbed "schmelows", a toothpick skewered marshmallow, tuxedo dipped in chocolate and rolled in graham cracker crumbs!

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/11090147

114.0Kms
What a great day of bicycling! We also had some more of what B has labelled "common ownership" experiences. The day of bicycling was great due to having the wind with us for most of the day. We were up at 5:30 and en route by 7:30 and were over 20Kms per hour much of the day. We spoke with a farm couple at our morning coffee stop. They had "brought in and done the cows" and "done the equipment chores" and were headed with their motor home to "listen to some cowboy poetry, well, you know, music and verse". They emerged from the gas station store with their road snacks and beverages and, having put some thought into their day, commented on how they had helped a cyclist from Montreal once and how great pedal bike people are and suggested we throw our bikes into their rig and they would drop us in Regina. In jest, Y said, "deal". They honked and waved happily as they drove away. At our break at the Saskatchewan border, Brenda and Gordon walked up saying we were someone to talk with. They had just finished a bicycle tour from Ottawa to the St. Lawrence via Kingston and were excited to share stories. After our lunch break at Red Barn in Moosomin, a white pick-up pulled over on the highway shoulder in front of us and Borden waved his arms to let us know he wanted us to stop. He had just finished a bicycle tour from Jasper to Banff and was about to head off to a tour on the Rhone and was wanting to talk about his trips and find out about our gear. This was just about when we were going to stop to photograph the wind turbines, which had just started to show up on the landscape. Our stop for the night, Whitewood, is known for its murals and we did a bit if a walk into town to see them before going for some dinner.

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/11074789

81.1Kms
Oh, how great it feels to be flying along on the Prairies with the wind at our aid. That is how we whizzed into Virden, Manitoba! We were concerned that the wind might be gusting at us for the final six days of our journey, our Prairie welcome! The day began windy at us and 2C, so we bundled in layers (including long underwear and neoprene over booties for Y and under-helmet liners for both). By 11:00am, we were peeled to our usual ride outfits. The wind situation improved greatly before lunch (pic-nic in Oak Lake, MB, augmented with our first ever deep fried pickles from Dandy Drive In) and was fantastic in the afternoon. Virden is where B's mom was born and lived until age 12. It is a very pretty town - much larger than expected and host to an award-winning indoor rodeo! We don't have the time or the means on this trip to get out and about and to visit the local farms and archives. We plan to research more before the return road trip we have been talking about together (with our canoe). We saw our first oil derrick just before arriving in Virden!

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/11059368