Day 23 - 86km More Prairies...

A fairly uneventful day so I will keep this pretty short. We left the trailer park of Swift Current behind glad to escape all the trucks and be back on the road. I immediately plugged my ipod into my ears and was swept away into the world of Harry Potter. Audiobooks are a girl's best friend in these parts. It's easy to pass the hours away in a magical world parallel to our own. I just need to figure out some way of powering my ipod with my pedaling so I'm not always on the lookout for somewhere to plug in. My Spanish has also been improving as I mutter along to the podcasts, practicing my pronunciation. Luckily there is no one around to hear me mutilate the language!

We stopped somewhere for lunch, clearly not a town of any significance since I have already forgotten the name and then continued on into the afternoon. We stopped just outside of Chaplin (our destination for the night) to take pictures of the salt lakes. They looked just like snow and the built up salt on the lake made it look frozen. The smell on the other hand was exactly like a beach when the tide has just gone out and there were lots of seagulls and other bird life flying around. The ocean of the prairies I guess you could call it.

In Chaplin we stopped for ice creams before heading to the campground. While there we discovered so many recyclables in their garbage, we pulled them all out and put them into bags to take them with us. Before leaving however we went inside to show them what we had found and to suggest that they put recycling bins next to the garbages outside. They were receptive to our suggestions, so let us know if you are driving through Chaplin and notice some recycling bins! We showered at the local pool since there weren't any at our campsite and cooked dinner early to avoid getting caught in the approaching storm. Our dreams that night were punctuated with train whistles and semis' roaring past as we were sandwiched between the trans Canada and the tracks. These days I think we can sleep through anything!

Oh I actually just remembered, just before lunch that day I got my first flat and then my second and then my third! I now know how to change a flat thanks to all the practice and all the help from Malkolm and Nadia! One staple, one broken valve and one exploded tube later I was back in action!