Sunday, July 11, 2010

As usual, the first day of my tour had a very late start. The plan for the day was simple enough: get to Airdrie, Alberta as quickly as I could where I would stay with my brother Sean who had just moved there a few months ago.

I spent the weekend in Saskatoon and managed to leave there shortly after 5:00. My GPS told me that my ETA in Airdrie was 11pm…but I am a frequent stopper so I should have known I would never make it by then. Whenever I ride it always takes longer to get anywhere than it would in a car, simply because I have to stop for fuel more often, and I like to stop and check out the scenery and stretch the legs every hour or so.

Although the sun was shining it was a bit cool out, and I discovered not long after my departure that bugs would be a problem. By the time I got to Kindersley my windshield was caked and my face was a bit bruised from a few big ones. However, I was in luck because it was about to get washed off. As the sun was setting at around 10:00 I began to ride through a thunderstorm.

Riding through rain is uncomfortable. Riding through lightning is freaky. Doing both in the dark is just plain exciting! What a great way to start the tour! Hopefully now the rain is out of ‘the system’ and I won’t see any more of it while on tour. Rain can be a real drag.

I rolled into Airdrie at about 12:15 and felt very worn out. This was by far the longest ride I had taken all season and long rides to require a considerable amount of conditioning…both mentally and physically…and I was definitely not conditioned. I felt rather bad about getting there so late because it didn’t leave much time to visit with Sean. We enjoyed a drink together and chatted for a bit before we fell asleep at about 1:30.

Tomorrow would be an early start…a wake up call before 7:00 then the real adventure starts…mountains!