Day 22 Craik to Regina, Saskatchewan

87.5 miles, 1,130 ft ascent

Departed Craik heading for Regina and another long day in the saddle.  When I awoke, the moon greeted me through the porthole in my tent.  So thankful to see the moon rather than more rain!

 

We are still in farming country, and Canada has a large number of family owned farms.  We passed this lentil field.  Lentils grow to about 16 inches tall.  Canada is the world's leading producer of lentils with 33% of the world's production.

 

 

Farms in Saskatchewan are huge.  According to our resident Canadian agrarian, a small farm is a section in size. 1 mile by 1 mile, or 1 square mile in size.  Large farms can be as large as a township.  6 miles by 6 miles, total 36 square miles, or even bigger.  These remain "family" farms for the most part, are  operated by an extended family unit. There is no inheritance tax in Canada, so farms are passed down to children without an onerous inheritance tax.

We saw some hay farming.  Below you see mowing of hay in the right-of-way by the individual farmer rather than the highway department.  Such an operation is a win/win for the farmer as well as the transportation department.  The farmer keeps the baled hay. (The bale in the photo was at least 5 ft in diameter.)  The highway department has no expense in maintenance of the right-of-way.  Of course, this arrangement is only effective where there is a sizeable right-of-way, which is the case along Highway 11 where we rode today.

 

There are rarely services along the highway, and one often has to go out of the way for them.  Here is a sign offering gas, dining, hotels, picnic grounds, play grounds, museums, shopping, farmer's market, library, ice skating, and curling off the highway 1 km in Bethune.

 

 

Moose Jaw in southern Saskatchewan is home to exclusive spa services for women, according to my Canadian companions, although there is no sign touting such services on the highway.

Rural Saskatchewan is charming!  It is extremely clean with no litter along the roadsides, and very little in the small towns.  Cooperative hardware stores, grocers, and gas stations in small towns thrive.  The cooperative business structure allows for high volume purchasing at lower cost, and service in the stores is great.  After asking for advice at Home Hardware in Outlook, I was given good advice from a knowledgeable staff member.  It felt like I had gone back in time 50 years in the US before the rise of big box stores.

A mistake in routing by the tour director had cyclists scurrying around Regina today.  The campground had been changed for this year's tour, but the cue sheet for the ride was never changed, so riders were headed to the old campsite.  The error was discovered and the word put our on What's App.  Fortunately I saw the problem on What's App and programmed Google Maps on my iPhone to show and verbally direct me to the new location.  The iPhone slips into the bag shown on the  photo below, and I can see the maps through the vinyl window.  This is the first time I have used an iPhone with Google Maps to dictate the course as I rode my bike.  It worked well.  I could hear all the instructions  for the turns and made it to the new campground without difficulty.  A good friend, Dan G., had given me the iPhone bag several years ago, but I had never had  to use it. In this situation, it worked like a charm!  I thank him again for pulling me out of a jam.

 

 

That's all the excitement for today.  We spend tomorrow sightseeing in Regina.  I hope to have some good photos from local museums.  Some of them have the designation "Royal"  which means they are of good quality and should be interesting.  Revisit to see what I find in Regina tomorrow!