Day 21 - Swift Current to Chaplin

Hello Again,

We had a slow morning and left fairly late - just after 10am. We ate as much as we could at the continental breakfast, packed up, and were on the road again. We were hoping the headwind would go away but it was still there. Thankfully, it was a lot better than two days ago but it was still there and prevented any impressive speeds. The weather all day was overcast with the occasional glimpse of blue skies - we managed to escape any rain.

Its a cows heaven.(Dedicated to Jess who wanted more cow pictures)

We were starting to notice the bike was pretty sluggish. After some quick investigating we discovered the culprit - the rear tire! The tire we replaced in Calgary had already worn through, we were not impressed at all. The first rear tire lasted from Vancouver to Calgary this one only lasted a couple hundred kilometers. We bought an extra tire in Calgary since we assumed the front tire would soon wear through so we put that one on the rear tire.

The rear tire!

We got the tire changed and we were soon on our way. Our most exciting stop of the day was at Reed Lake. It had a lookout tower (which really comes in handy in the prairies) and a bunch of plaques with information about the lake and surrounding wildlife. We had some snacks, read a few of the signs, and talked to a family that stopped in.

Patricia in the lookout tower

We spotted a tandem in the lookout tower.

Right outside of Chaplin we saw lots of white dirt which we created several theories as to what it was.

Pile of white stuff near a lake.

More white stuff and a factory across the road.

The town sign for Chaplin gave away what the white stuff was - salt! The lake here is very high in saline so the plant in town somehow processes the water to extract the salt. When we got to town our first task was to find food! None of the towns roads were paved and we dodged potholes on our way to the grocery store - we're getting pretty good at sniffing out where the stores are in small towns without a map. The grocery store was pretty sparse and expensive so we only bought snacks(read: doritos) and stuff for sandwiches for tomorrow. We then had dinner at the towns hotel. Dinner was yummy and well priced  - I got the soup and sandwich special and Patricia got sausage on a bun.

Chaplin!

After we ate we headed to the towns campsite. It was completely deserted and pretty run down but it worked and we were soon in the tent and sound asleep.

-Chris and Patricia