Day 20

Tuesday, July 13th
Youngstown (Alberta) to Kindersley (Saskatchewan)
154km

We're defimnitely out of the mountains now.  The routes are getting longer and flatter, the days are getting warmer, and the rest-days are getting less frequent.

We passed into Saskatchewan this afternoon.  The beginning of Saskatchewan looks a lot like the end of Alberta.  Since we are riding so far South, Alberta seemed to fly by.

I slept-in this morning and “swept” the route with Rosalyn, Lorne and Janna today.  Sweeping the route means packing up the truck, leaving camp last, and staying behind all of the other riders - in case they have an accident or some kind of mechanical difficulty.

The problem with sweeping is that you have to ride at a very slow pace.  Steve is a 60-something year old man who is last to camp just about every day.  Not only is he slow, but he sleeps in and leaves late.  He also doesn't like to feel rushed, so we all stayed about 250m behind Steve all day.

The problem with a slow pace is a sore butt.  The longer you sit in the saddle, the more butt pain you're going to have.  The short mountain days gave us strong legs.  The repeated long days are giving everyone sore butts.  There are numerous cremes, ointments and balms going around camp, but nothing seems to work perfectly.

After the long ride, I had just enough time to set up my tent before dinner.  After eating, I decided tp shave off the beard.  Today's ride was rally hot, and I found the beard itchy.

I really should have trimmed it woth sissors or our electric trimmer first, because it took ages to shave off with my Mach 3.  Everyone was shocked by my clean shaven look.  They all got to know me with a beard.  The concensus view was that I look much younger and a little chubbier clean shaven.  Not exactly glowing reviews I suppose.  A couple of the older woman on the trip said I looked much nicer.  Women in general don't seem to like facial hair.  I'm starting to think that all of the old male cyclists on the trip have beards just to piss off their wives.

After the shave, I sat down to write this and head to bed early.  Tomorrow is an another long day, and I need to leave early because I am on galley duty.
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Daniel Longo
CIBC Corporate Development
(416) 956-3831