I quickly settled into a new rhythm of of biking long distances. My time spent in the saddle roughly stays the same but the lack of elevation change makes for easy travel, that is when the wind isn’t in my face. When I rode into Edmonton I met a woman commuting via bicycle and she took me through the town, I am really thankful for her help in navigating because I would have been lost otherwise. It was also really nice to have the company! I quickly made it to Battletoad, I mean the Battlefords, it looked like Battletoad on my map. Anyway I took a rest day there after doing my longest ride to date, 186km! I saw on Facebook that my friend Janie was in Saskatoon which was just south of Battletoad! I messaged her that I would be there the following day. She asked the guy whose house she was staying at if I could crash there and he said I could!
When I got into Saskatoon in a residential area nearing his house, I was going like 10 k/h looking at the map on my handlebar bag and out of the top of my vision I saw a car right in front of me. I tried to hit my brakes but could not stop in time. I hit a parked car. Wow. nearly 6000km ridden in mountains, staying safe from bears, weather, and other hazards and its a fucking parked car that gets me. On initial inspection my bike looked fine but it turns our with all the weight my fork was compresses back towards the rest of the frame. I was able to ride to Tim’s house and when I got there he was working on his bikes! How fortuitous! We were able to bend the fork back to proper position using a 2×4. Hooray! We went and got a case of beer and had a fire in his back yard. It was really nice to hang out with Janie again before she heads back to France.
After leaving Saskatoon I made quick work of the road on my way to Winnipeg and my friend Aimee. When I left Yorkton with a strong tailwind I was in such a good mood that day; I spent at least 30 minutes at 40k/h just loving life. At one point a single train engine was going the same speed as me and the engineer honked it’s horn quietly and waved to me. We rode alongside each other for a few kilometers before he sped off. On my final day of riding into Winnipeg, I think I tore a muscle in my right ass cheek early in the morning. That made the next seven hours of riding not quite as fun as the previous ones.
