We woke up after having a great sleep. It was so quiet overnight. No Trans-Canada highway or CP railway noises! We had cereal inside with Tony and Sue, and.we said our thank yous and good byes after getting a photo together. Eventually it became time to go. We had such a good time it was very hard to leave, and we would have to say Tony and Sue are one of the nicest people we have ever stayed with!
The day was quite cool and breezy. We got back on the highway and stopped at a rest stop for a quick break. We had a 20-30km/h headwind/crosswind. After a couple of hours getting back on the highway, we spotted a herd of what we think were female elk. Shortly after we spotted a male elk running across the highway as it got spooked by the train. It almost got hit by an RV but managed to get across and join the rest of the herd. It was a really neat sight to see the herd on top of a hill with the sky as the backdrop.
We continued cycling until we arrived at Gull Lake. Just before Gull Lake it started to rain and we got slightly wet as we continued on without our rain gear into town. Just as we arrived in town the sun came out. We went into the local diner anyway to grab a couple hot drinks to warm up. Most things were cooked with soy so we brought our own buns in and Katherine had a chicken breast burger while I had the fries. It felt like the A/C was on and it was very cold inside. The diner left a little to be desired for people who wanted to warm up!
After lunch we got back on the highway. We cycled until we got to the Tompkins gas station where we ate the entire tub of yogurt we had been carrying. The cafe there closed at 3:30PM so we just ate in the hallway standing, sheltered from the wind. A lady came in later and was furious that the cafe was closed, and stormed out just as she stormed in. It was hard to have sympathy for her as she got back into a transport truck, since here we were cycling and exposed to the elements, in windy and not very warm condition. We were just happy that we could stand inside for 5 minutes as we ate our yogurt out of a tub!
The scenery was spectacular on this stretch. There were hardly any trees across the rolling hills, and you could see for miles in every direction.
We pushed ourselves to continue towards the tourist office by the turnoff to Maple Creek, which ended up in a 134km ride by the end of the day against a slight headwind/crosswind. At the tourist office the lady called the campground just to make sure that they would be able to accommodate us (since half the campground had washed away earlier in the summer with the flood). They said it wouldn’t be a problem except that their hot water tank had broke earlier that day and they no longer had any hot water. We were quite disappointed to hear that but there wasn’t much we could do at this point. After a quick stop at the tourist office to warm up and stretch our sore bodies, we continued on for another 4km to the campground. Just before arriving to the campground the highway became only two lanes as we came across the section that had washed out in the flood. The whole area, including the lower section of the campground and this part of the Trans-Canada, was in a large valley. We saw a man-made dam off to the side. We could see how this area could have flooded and how it would wash everything away.
When we arrived at the campground we checked in. The check in shelter said no bicycles no cycling cleats to be worn in office area (they had put in fake hardwood floors). The lady gave us 10% off ($1.80) for the lack of hot showers. We then quickly made supper as we were losing day light and we wanted to at least quickly rinse ourselves with their cold showers before the office and shower area closed at 9PM as per their sign. After a stir-fry dinner with bison sausage, we went to the office area but it had already closed an hour early. We tried to use the free wifi as well but that was also turned off after 8PM!
A little disappointed we made some tea to keep ourselves warm and we headed to the tent for the night. It is about 8 degrees right now, and tomorrow is suppose to rain and be a high of only 12 degrees! Yikes. We are planning on pushing on to Medicine Hat tomorrow.
The campground area is quite nice and if we had come earlier in the season (when it was warmer and when their hot water tank wasn’t broken) we probably would have had a better experience. They even have a hot tub (but closed for the season now). The rest of the campground that is in valley section is still closed and they have a sign saying that it is ‘closed due to dangerous hazards’ and the if you are found to be in the section you would be kicked out of the campground. It would have been terrifying to have been camping in that section during the floods, and we wondered if anyone was hurt when it happened.
Trip Around The World 
Pretty sure that they are Pronghorn deer and not Elk. Great pics though. Keep up the great work.
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