24 June 2007After such a smooth ride into Kindersley, we figured getting to Outlook would be a breeze. Were we ever wrong! Again, we got up at 4:30 and left by around 6, but this time the conditions weren't so favourable. We had a bit of a headwind, and Saskatchewan hadn't quite flattened out yet. The riding was slow and hard, and it felt like there was always a slight upward slope. Everyone kept telling us how flat Saskatchewan is, saying that it's like a table top, you could watch your dog run away for two weeks, etc. But it's all a lie. Saskatchewan has been fairly flat, but there's always some kind of upward or downward slope, which makes it very challenging if you don't have the wind at your back.
Getting to our rest stop was painful; but the ride afterwards was even worse. The road was really quiet, and the landscape, monotonous. The lack of sleep was really catching up to me, and I was almost falling asleep at the handlebars! It was cloudy, and the gloom made the ride almost unbearable.
Often, when we're 10 to 20 km away from a destination, I start the "finish" of my ride--another rowing parallel--and go as fast as I possibly can, pretending I'm in a race. This time, though, I really needed to force that finish out of myself. The only thing I had left for motivation was finishing the long, miserable ride.
I was absolutely exhausted by the time we reached Outlook, a nice town with a long, red walking bridge overlooking the South Saskatchewan River. Having no propane (still! It's so hard to find the right container), we ate at the town's restaurant and called it a night.
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