Day 13- The Lord Giveth...

Some of you know the story in the Bible about Job. He was a man who was favoured by God and various hardships were permitted to "invade" his life. His friends offered all sorts of wisdom to him which, they opined, would cause God to stop sending these "bad" things his way and send some of the good stuff. To one bit of advice Job replied "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." Well, that sort of sums up how things felt to us the last couple of days.
On Day 12, we had amazing following winds and we did the epic 227 k day. So, we start out Day 13, with those lovely winds in our minds and expecting another wonderful day, only to be "blessed" with headwinds!! Not fun at all! We trudged on for about 2 1/2 hours and made about 50 k's of progress. talk about discouragement! The Lord taketh away!
We stopped in the little "town" (that would be a generous word for what it was- more on that in a sec which will allow you a bit of context) of Rouleau, Sask. for a breather. Or maybe to commiserate, or whine, or complain- or maybe support each other. Lets pretend it was the latter. We were outside a little variety store and while we were there refuelling and resting a car pulled up and we said hi. He spent the night at the same stop in Moose Jaw as we did and said he saw us pull out in the morning. We got talking and it seems that he is the head security guy for "Corner Gas" and they're filming the Corner Gas movie in Rouleau. It seems that that's where they filmed the show. So, now we've got to go see the movie when it comes out! and now you know how big Rouleau is.
Anyway, we headed out, a bit rested but ready for more of the same. Much to our surprise during our break the winds shifted a bit so that they were more across us. Then as we went a short distance they shifted again so that they were more behind us. The Lord giveth!
Now, I don't want to attribute the wind conditions on favour with God (even though I think Murray prayed for more favourable winds- way to go Murray!). But we sure are fickle! One minute we were discouraged and the next overjoyed. And it only took a slight change in wind direction to change everything for us. How sad are we!?
One thing I left out from Job's story was the line that followed "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.". The line is "Blessed be the name of the Lord". Even though Job was going through all of this horrible stuff (yes, a lot worse than opposing winds) he was still able to say that God is still good, at all times and in all circumstances. And he is.
We carried on, and, as you read in Murray's post from yesterday, we set a new record by doing more than 260 k's. Amazing! We had planned on going around 210 k's since we had made such progress in the morning and it was so effortless, but when we couldn't find a campsite we liked at around 210 k's we decided to go on to Carlyle which was only another 54 k's. And we did! And it was easy.
So, we had a wonderful day, made huge progress and are about a day and 2/3 ahead of schedule!

Day 14- Back to Reality

What with yesterday being fresh in our minds we decided we'd be sensible (we're old, remember, so that means we're supposed to be wise) and do a "normal" day. Which meant around 150 k's- the distance that we've sort of set as a goal but haven't done even one day of that actual distance. By picking our destination (Souris, Manitoba) and making sure we were camping there that night we figured we'd be forced to stop when we should. These old bodies need to recover and one of us, I'm not sure who, was sensible enough to suggest that we should take some time to recover after the ride (we're old, remember!). So, we headed out with Souris in sight.
We started off on the lovely roads but about 20 k's from the Saskatchewan border the shoulder turned ugly and then when we entered friendly Manitoba (they really are) there were no paved shoulders at all. The cycling became a bit more difficult but the drivers (all but one- you know who you are, you in the red pick up truck!) were amazing. Very courteous and respectful of us. Thank you all of you who showed us such consideration and respect today!
The ride was lovely in parts (wind at our backs) and not so lovely at others (wind in our faces). So, the ride today, even though it was only 153 k's seemed harder than the prior day's ride that was 110 k's longer. But we arrived at our site for the night and have had a relaxing afternoon- ready for new adventures tomorrow!
Oh- and we've now done about half of the total k's of the whole trip, we've cpmpleted week 2 and we're into our 4th province! time sure flies when youre having fun!

Warren