Oil Barons and Wheat Kings

Total distance pedaled to date: 1659km

“And all you hear are the rusty breezes. Pushing around the weather vane Jesus”

Goodbye Alberta, hello Saskatchewan!

I’m currently camped about 40km east of the Alberta/Saskatchewan boarder, closing in on Swift Current. About 10min after I took the photo of me in front of the big Saskatchewan sign I was pounded by a hailstorm. The second one of the day. Cycling through a hailstorm is an interesting experience. It stings the legs but it played a cool medley as the ice bounced off the bell on my handlebars.

The sky out here on the prairie is fascinating.

You can literally watch weather systems form and move across the landscape. And when it’s a lightning storm that’s closing in on your tail, it’s frightening! With communities here being 50 to 100km apart, there is absolutely no place to hide when you’re on a bicycle.

Leaving Calgary, once I got east of Strathmore, the landscape and the scenery really started to change.

These pump jacks became a very common sight.

And the arid mountains were replaced with wetlands.

Some of the sights are beautiful, like these two old barns that looked like they laid down and died together.

And some sights are weird, like these six dudes that were wacking away at the transmission lines.

I also got to visit Medicine Hat, where large murals encourage you to smoke old-timey cigarettes.

The residents of Medicine Hat would also like you to know that they are currently in possession of this.

Apparently the city had a budget surplus a few years back. They had a big meeting to decide what to spend the money on and a bunch of people thought a monorail would be a good investment. But at the end of the day, it was decided that a big honking tepee was the way of the future.

I also visited the tiny community of Walsh, where the all special events for the next 12 months fit easily on half a sheet of paper.

Apparently the March 1st bingos are legendary, with last year’s halftime show featuring Buster Poindexter.