Day 73 – Minnedosa to Virden

We left nice and full after a great breakfast courtesy of Dorothy and Don. As we were pumping up our tires this morning, we noticed that the yellow wear strip was showing around both back tires.

We cycled out of Minnedosa and onto Highway 10 to cut over to Rapids City, despite my aunt and uncle having advised against it as the other rout would have added another 10 to 15k ms to an already long day. This stretch was busy and we had to keep popping on and off the pavement. The shoulder was very nice and flat, so we decided to ride the shoulder to the turn off.

In Rapids City, we made a quick bathroom and snack stop and texted google to find bike shops in Regina. Adam made some calls and we found one that could order them in 2 to 3 business days. Unfortunately it was friday, so that means Tuesday or Wednesday next week. At the gas station in Rapids City, the owner wanted to know if we were lost, ending up there on our bikes. I assured her that we weren’t, just trying to avoid Highway 1. The gas station was new and had super clean washrooms, so if you’re in Rapids City in the future…

The day was once again hot and into a headwind so we made another stop for lunch in Rivers. The folks in town there also thought we were lost, being there on our bikes! Anyway, we had lunch, courtesy of Dorothy’s packing! We headed over to the air conditioned library to chill out and recover a bit from the heat. They had leather couches and we definitely enjoyed them!

We headed down towards Virden, with a quick rest in Kenton. There we met a young man who kept having troubles with his car overheating…we joked that we had actually made more miles on our bikes than he had in his car that day. I was quite tired by this point and was losing motivation but Adam was keen and he pulled us into Virden.

We saw our first oil rigs pumping near Virden and crossed the Assinaboine River for the last time. You could definitely see that the oil industry was having an impact in Virden, as we passed all the offices and suppliers on the way in. We stopped at a smal grocer (the only one still open at 7pm) and got supplies and directions to the campground. The campground was on the south end of town and quite nice, with hot showers. The cost was reasonable as it was run by the Lions Club. We made rice and lentils for dinner and called it a night. We decided to have a slow start in the morning as the weather called for rain early in the day.

Click here for today’s photos

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