Day 19 (July 21st)

Regina to Candiac, SK

Up fairly early today, and after a lovely breakfast I spent the rest of the morning cleaning and otherwise servicing my bicycle. I had purchased a new pair of tires the night before... and more on these later.

After a splendid lunch with Gloria, and her family, I was on the road.

Within 10km I had two flats, and so began the worst two days of the trip so far. The Continental Gatorskin tires I bought -- assured by sales reps at two different bike shops that they were excellent touring tires -- were complete lemons. If I ran them anywhere near their recommended pressure, they blew. In order to keep them rolling I had to run them so flat that I could feel the rims bottoming out anytime I hit a rock or bump. Rage. Absolute rage. Hard to control, rage. Running on such flat tires also made for a very sluggish speed. I should have gone back to Regina and returned the tires... but I pressed on.

In and around Regina there was a tremendous number of dragonflies, and they all seemed rather apathetic about being alive or not.

I missed highway 33 and took the 48 instead, heading Southeast and off of the TransCanada Highway. Severe flooding had turned this road from somewhat inappropriate for road cyclists to very, very bad for them.

I called it a day just West of Candiac. Still mad about the tires. Should never have left Gloria's house...

Update: It seems the problem may not have been with the tires but with the Ian.

Gloria, Arman, his two boys, and myself. Missing from the photo are Consuelo (holding the camera), Joy and Vincent.