Goodbye Rich

Even though we were in Saskatoon for two short days it was nice to get back on the road again (that is not to say Saskatoon wasn't a nice place as it's a pretty city for the most part.) The first night back in the tent was spent in Humbolt, SK which, as Aiden is so keen to point out, is home to Glen “Mr. Goalie” Hall who similarly to Gordie “Mr. Hockey” Howe also grew up in rural Saskatchewan. Apart from its famous hockey playing progeny, Humbolt was typical of the larger prairie towns we have come across in our travels. That is to say one major road which also happens to be the highway and a couple of side streets where the people live, and not really much else. Humbolt also happened to be the place where Rich decided it was for the best to throw in the towel. I certainly can't fault him for it, he rode from Calgary to a days ride past Saskatoon without any training. As such, he did a great job keeping up and he certainly carried more than his share of food. The Last we saw of him he was riding west to grab a Saskatoon bound bus where he would then presumably be heading to Edmonton to give Jared a surprise visit. Aiden and I both had a lot of fun cycling with him for that week and a bit and hope his knee and ankle begin to feel normal again soon (but not too soon, so he remembers us for a little longer.)

Today's ride was record setting; we smashed our daily speed average record by a full 2 km/h to bring our new daily speed average record to a whopping 25.8 km/h! Well not quite whopping, but I still think that it is somewhat impressive. To put things into perspective, we traveled 146.97 kms today, meaning we were cycling at around 26 km/h on fully loaded touring bikes for just under six hours. That sounds a little more like it. Aiden and I were wondering when the ride through Sasquatchewan was going to live up to our expectations of the quickest cruise of the trip, and now that we are within half a day's ride from Manitoba it seems to be shaping up that way.