All In A Days Ride

I don't know where to start with this one, but here we go.

Before leaving Medicine Hat, AB I stopped to take a picture of the World's Largest Tee Pee, before I could get my camera out, a vehicle stopped in front of me and it was Lise & Kevin from school, who live 5 doors down from me, it was a great way to start the day.

I was more than a little concerned about carrying enough food and water to get to Brooks, there is absolutely nothing between the two, and the wind can be so fickle it could easily take 2 days to get there, however the winds were kind to me and I got to Brooks, late afternoon (111 km). I decided to ride those same winds on to Bassano (50 km) and that's when everything fell apart.

There was some bad weather off to the south, very dark skies, and I thought I could get to Bassano just ahead of it. I went from going 35 kph to being almost blown off the road and into the ditch in seconds, that followed by thunder/lightning and hail. You couldn't see 10 meters ahead of you, all you could hear was rain pounding the highway, thunder, and the cracks of lightning. I wasn't too worried only extremely wet. I pulled off the highway, into the ditch and set up behind my rear pack on my bike and sat it out, well that was the plan, 20 - 30 minutes had passed and the storm had moved east, however there were a few lightning strikes in the area so I stayed put, until a RCMP officer pulled over and told me to get off the highway. He insisted that I ride to the next town, and stop there.

I got to say I think I was far safer where I was than riding on the highway in those conditions, however he did follow me all the way into town with his lights going. I must say I made quite the entrance when I showed up in downtown Bassano at Harry's Chinese/American Restaurant.

A short but gruelling 90 km ride today, into a west wind, I guess about 15-25 kph, but the pay off is in sight. The mountains are now on my horizon and now I will start picking my head up and enjoying the view.

I should be in Calgary tomorrow, I'll get some work done on the bike (spoke problems), take a day off with no riding, rest my legs before taking on the mountains.