It felt good just to lay around in bed this morning knowing that we had a day off. The last leg was 4 days of riding; the next is 5 days.

By now my morning routine on a riding day is pretty much set. Usually I get up about 5:30. The first order of business is getting my cycling gear on. When I do laundry I put each set of riding clothes in a separate plastic bag. That way I can just grab a set when I go to bed and know I will have dry clothes for the morning even if it is raining. Once dressed the next order of business is rolling up all my camping gear that is inside the tent. Then, emerging from my little cocoon I stuff my gear into my large bag. Next the tent comes down and packed away. Finally I haul everything to the truck. Two stuff sacs that hold clothing for the evening, towel, etc. are stored on my shelf in the truck while the large bag with camping gear gets left beside the truck to get loaded later. Next is breakfast which consists of porridge and usually something else hot (pancakes, French Toast, or eggs depending upon the morning) along with fruit. Either before or after breakfast I make my lunch – peanut butter sandwiches, banana, usually an apple, and Trail mix to eat along the way. Once breakfast is done I wash my dishes and get my bike ready to leave.

Our tent city in Drumheller

The next morning is the same routine as our little tent city slowly makes its way across the country.

But today was a rest day so I didn’t have to rush to get up. I had updated my blog last night but it took too long to load pictures so I gave up. This morning while laying in bed I tried again and photos uploaded quickly so I finished off and published my updates.

Some of our group relaxing in the morning

Eventually I could hear sounds around camp as others got up so I crawled out of bed. My first task was to hang some laundry up that didn’t completely dry yesterday. Craig was opening up the truck so I helped him get some coffee on. I sat around for a while drinking coffee before having some cereal and fruit. On rest days you are on your own for breakfast so it’s usually a cold breakfast with whatever you want off the truck, or you find a restaurant, or both.

After breakfast I did a little light maintenance on my bike. Since it was only a few days since I did a more thorough cleaning I didn’t do a lot. I’ll do a more thorough chain cleaning, etc. on our next day off in Regina. I also patched the tube that had gone flat coming out of Cochrane.

Mike cleaning his bike

By the time I was finished quite a few had headed off to the Tyrell Museum which is about 5 km away.

Susan arrived just before 2:00. I was pretty happy to see her and Risa. We drove into Drumheller to grab a quick lunch and to buy a couple of items. I wanted to buy a couple more spare tubes. Surprisingly it doesn’t appear that Drumheller has a bike shop but I did find tubes at Source for Sports. While in town we also checked into the hotel. A real bed to sleep on tonight – although I have to say I have been quite comfortable on my Thermarest and sleeping bag.

Susan had brought a big container of her cookies which were a HUGE hit when we got back to camp. I introduced her to many of my fellow riders and we just spent a couple of hours sitting around and visiting. Our visit was interrupted when Joyce came around to advise there was a tornado warning for the area. I decided it would be a good time to take my tent down, load it in the car and head to the hotel.

We made it to the hotel before the storm hit – lots of wind and torrential downpour. At one point we looked out and it looked like a river flowing down the street behind he hotel and a fellow going to his car was wading through ankle-deep water in the parking lot.

Eventually the rain let up and we went to a restaurant next door. And now to bed – on a real bed. Ahhh such luxury.

So here are the critical stats to date:
Peanut butter sandwiches consumed – 22
Total distance according to odometer – 1198 km