to St. Paul, AB

Text messages from me that Josie entered onto the blog:
July 17th: text message: 'Just hope today is uneventful. Didn't get much sleep. I'm on the far edge of the campground and there are maybe four of us here now.
It's 5 am. Can't leave too early as I have to get food and water in town. I'm thinking I should have called Abbey's hail pails 'hail castles' (as in sand castles) instead. luv'
Before I left Bonnie Lake park, Vilna's town campsite, I got a wonderful photo of an island in the lake in the mist on the camera. Then the camera battery died, and later I realize that the cable is not with me. Another minor tragedy. Missed a great one later.

I passed the buffalo farm of Big Mike's but didn't stop for a pic because buffalo are just human food same as cattle. I had asked Big Mike if they were pets, did they all have names? "You can't make a friend out of a buffalo", he replied. I was thinking that I would have tried had I owned them.

I tried the TCT for one mile back to Vilna where I needed water and food b4 starting out, and it was a bit better. Still, you have to cycle with your eyes down all the time. No fun! I could travel 5 km. hour but I sure couldn't look up and around. However, it might be fun someday to do the trail on a quad, as Albertans call the ATV's here. I don't even think a scooter would be a good idea. I will keep checking out the trail at each town to see if it gets better.

It looks like my odometer might be measuring in miles instead of kms as it says it is doing, because I always get from place to place sooner than the road signs say. If it says Ashmount 16 km., the odometer reads 10 when I arrive. I like that! I don't have to travel as far to get there. heehee

'It's better on the highway than on the TransCanada trail which is nearby. The Iron Horse part of the trail, also a former rail line, runs beside the highway(s) for 300 miles. I was on Vilna trail for one mile today but it is really hard to use with this heavily loaded bike. The gravel stones are so big, and the sand so deep that it bogs the bike down and I finally have to walk so why bother. Grueling, but I'm glad I tried it. My legs will 'bearly' go now. cya'

My lip is very painful and starting to get scabby - seems the skin is dying there.
In Vilna, I buy a few groceries, and then an elderly woman stops to chat beside my bike, and ask where I'm going. I tell her it was my dream to cycle the TransCanadaTrail upon retirement at age 65, and she replies, 'I would hardly call that retirement.' We laugh. (* Nov. 2/08, she calls Sears to place an order and I get the call. When I see Vilna as the town address, I say 'I was in your town this summer when I was going through on my bike.' Zinia Rebinski replies, 'Oh, you're the one. I was talking to you.' How extraordinary. Her chances of getting me are about 1 in 3000. We have a lovely chat.)

When I was one km from Spedden, my right gear wouldn't move/change. The left side worked, the main gears of l, 2, and 3 but to use the secondary gears was impossible - no dice.
Speddon is just one variety store (no windows) and a few houses but as I was wondering what to do, along came a fellow who stopped his pickup to put his garbage into the dumpster there across from the store and he helped me. We put bike up on the kickstand and he pulled on the cable wire in a few places and then pedaled as I switched the gears. Voila!!! It righted itself.
I sat on grass for an hour and ate an ice cream bar as I realize now I can treat myself once a day and certainly not have to worry about my weight. I started to write in the journal when the lens fell out of my reading glasses.'
'Things come in 3's or more. Now the kickstand is no longer working so I have to lean the bike up against things. That's the third. In the countryside, I have to be careful not to lean it against the barbed wire fences, of course. They panniers are heavy, and very awkward (almost impossible) to put on with one hand, the other having to hold the bike up.

Checked the Trail here, too, and rode for only 100 feet or so before giving up. Too soft and stoney. Had to walk back.
Checked at Ashmount - same. Headwinds from the south have sure slowed me down when I turned south at Ashmount. It's grueling.


The big hills are all around me on Hwy.36 but I made it up several of them today without having to walk. There's a strong headwind which means it's sapping all my strength early on in the day. Can't stop for a break unless I can find a post without barbed wire, because if I lie the bike down, the panniers fall off, and there aren't any. 'Nice day', though, heehee.

Text to Josie: 'About 25km to St. Paul. Just now found a post [to lean the bike against]. Sitting in long grass with a can of beans - flip top, as I sent the can opener home, too. Will leave half of it for any bears or wolves.'
'I see a church spire - I'm near St. Paul, west-side in a ditch on Mr.T'z little fleecy, and so tired that my muscles are in reef knots as big as yur fist. Thank God the day is nearly done. cya love'

First UFO landing pad: St. Paul, Alberta

St. Paul is the UFO capital, having had the world's ever first siting of a UFO maybe? I'll look for one tonight, if I can stay awake. Amazing how fast one falls asleep early in the evening after a day of slogging up mile long and/or steep hills. As soon as you coast down the last one, there is another one in the distance. They go up and up and up and then they go up and up and up. Every time you crest a hill, there is a flattening out, and they go up and up and up again. It's relentless!

Camping in town park. All Alberta towns seem to have them. I've already had a refreshing shower and so will look at St. Paul tomorrow.
The police station is right in front of the park .
There were so many long hills after Ashmount today, but I only had to walk up half of one. I'm getting stronger day by day. bye4now'

Last night I woke at 5 am with great pain in my legs. I massaged them for a while and went back to sleep for 12 hours. The good part was that it was the first night in the 6 I've camped out that it was 'warm' and not frosty. However, the last 17 miles to get here when I turned east of highway 36 took me a long time because these legs just did not want to cycle any more, even tho' the hills got smaller. The town is on flats.
That hot shower was such a Godsend, for me and for all those who have to be near me.
I have the shakes quite badly today. Luckily, it's raining and there's an east wind, so I'm staying put.

July 18th: 'Heavy condensation here. Normally, I can't dry the tarp/tent before I leave so I shake them as best I can. Since I want to leave early, it means the bike is even heavier, and the tent a bit wet when I stop at night. If it isn't raining during the day, I can dry them out in the sun on my breaks. Fun, Josie? Yeh, I guess, if I don't count the mishaps.
The superintendent of this park is a woman, Joyce. She came over to chat. I also discover that the special TransCanadaTrail map that Ron procured for me has melted - one of the gatorades leaked in the one pannier. Some of the journal pages are also wet, but were in a plastic folder so it's only the edges. When I go over to Joyce's trailer to pay, her husband gives me an Alberta map.
'Did u get pic of UFO landing pad? Not good picture because it was taken with cell phone but cute idea.
St. Paul is near the Cold Lake airbase so maybe some of the military stuff going on back in the 60's gave the townfolk the idea. It's l0 pm nt.nt. w luv.'
The rain is relentless. There were east winds today. Glad I stayed here the extra day.
'Library says my time is up. (Some moments on the road I have felt the same way - that my time is up. Cya.')
I got to do a blog-update at the St. Paul library but they only allow you 30 minutes on a computer here per day although I think she gave me closer to one hour. It rained on and off all day so I stayed at the St. Paul park an extra day.
It seems that I have lost my camera cord. I tried to buy another in town but couldn't. I remember back at Bonnie Lake, during that big hail storm, of throwing a few things into a grocery bag in the rush to get everything into the tent before it hit me. I also remember putting said 'garbage bag' in their dumpster just before I left, presumably with garbage on top of the cord, but I will not ride back to Bonnie L. I hate going back on the same road when I start cycling - forward march!
The elderly gentleman at the camera store has a plastic eye that almost perfectly looks like his good one. He suggests I go next door to the electronics store. They think they can get one for me in a week but I have to decline that offer, and go back to the camera store to get my CD of the pictures from the memory card.
This town is bigger than I had expected, bigger than Picton. The optometrist was closed so I will have to try to pop the lens back in by myself. The glasses are a bit twisted now, though, and badly scratched so it's like looking through a fog.
Hope u have great wkend. The trail is still very bad, even at St. Pauls, except for the part that actually goes through the town, which is fine.
The campground is beside an animal shelter, and just like a forest - barkbarkbark.
The rain stops for a bit so I tour the town. It's also cold out but cosy in the little tent. A turtle was I in a former life, I guess, as I'm perfectly content.
Went to a big grocery store and got hummus and crackers and cherries - the better to feed the bears with, my deer.'


Viewer writes: "Hi Karen, Serge and I here, want to let you know we got married July 4th finally, your blog pages are awesome, Serge was just fiddling around and came across it, actually he was looking in google to see if Des had something and here you are, take care of yourself, serge says keep the wind at your back, Ann."
Well, Ann, because Edmonton is 2200 ft. above sea level, and Prince Edward County is only 300 feet, I had thought that this trip would be all downhill, not mostly uphill as it seems to be. Likewise, with the winds usually being westerlies, it seemed only 'logical' that I would just sit on my bike and coast downhill all the way home with the winds at my back, pushing me even faster. What happened to that logic? Well, of course, it WASN'T logical.
Those winds at my back seem to be confused, Ann. They're in front, instead. Help!