Day 25 - 66km

Moose Jaw -> Regina

Had a great sleep for the first night in a while, not to cold, pretty far from the highway and not a train whistle to be heard. Woke up feeling refreshed and ready to ride. Just a short day ahead of us and the last one for a while since we have a week break in Regina.

No wind and a sunny day was a nice change, the km just seemed to fly by! We stopped a few times to pick up recyclables along the way. Malkolm found a bag of cans and bottles in a blue recycling bag on the side of the highway. It must have fallen out of a vehicle because why would you bother separating and bagging them correctly only to throw them out the window? A few km later we came across another load of bottles strewn in the ditch and those were picked up as well.

We stopped for lunch on the side of the road in sight of Regina. Apparently picnicking in a ditch draws attention as we were honked at more then ever before. We fertilized a nearby wheat field before hopping back on the bikes for the last 14km into town. We were in Regina at Nikita's aunts place by 1:30pm. Now were on a "rest week" until we head out for Winnipeg on the 8th. Stayed tuned for hopefully more exciting blogs about Showdown in Regina - New Energy vs. The Tar Sands!

Day 24: 87 Km You-Turn the Earth

Chaplin-->MooseJaw

No comment, not even a photo. It was cold out, first time wearing longsleeves.

I'll take this opportunity to write about something else that is far more important than headwinds, cold hands, and stinky livestock trucks. Greenpeace International is now calling for zero carbon. This is what we need, this is what the earth needs.

From their new campaign, You-turn The Earth ...

Our best chance to take action against global warming is coming up in December, when the nations of the world gather for a UN Climate summit in Copenhagen.

We want world leaders to be there personally.

We want them to make the right deal for the climate.

And we have a checklist by which their success can be measured:

• Make sure emissions peak in 2015 and decrease as rapidly as possible towards zero after that
• Developed countries must make cuts of 40 percent on their 1990 carbon emisisons by 2020
• Developing countries must slow the growth of emissions by 15-30 percent by 2020, with support from industrialised nations
• Protect tropical forests with a special funding mechanism - forests for climate
• Replace dirty fossil fuel energy with renewable energy and energy efficiency
• Reject false solutions like nuclear energy

Want to be part of a global community ready to take action to demand action? Sign up today.

"It's important that political leaders hear from and recognize from their constituents that this is an issue that matters, and that people convey their level of concern and make it clear that failure is not an option here, and that dillydallying and procrastinating is not going to work. "--Todd Stern, US Special Envoy for Climate Change

"I can't understand why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers, and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants."-Al Gore

Get up stand up, stand up for your rights. Write a letter, or one everyday until Copenhagen, that demands we reach zero carbon. It is the least you can do.

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!

Day 22: 62 Km Dear Brad Wall, looking forward to meeting you in Regina

Gull Lake, SK-->Swift Current, SK

Okay, in all honesty, I haven't really got a clue what happened while on the road from Gull Lake to Swift Current. I am writing this 4 days later so whatever happened, it must not have been too exciting.

I do remember what we did upon arrival in Swift Current, though. First things first, we ate an oversized lunch. We then went to Brad Wall, the Premier of Saskatchewan's, office. Of course he was not there, but his ever so cheerful secretary told us she would "make sure he gets your letter". We told her we would look forward to meeting up with him in Regina for the Council of the Federation Meetings. It has been said that Brad Wall wants to do for Saskatchewan what Ed Stelmach has done for Alberta---condemn millions of the worlds children to death by climate change. What a legacy that is.

After that, we went to David Anderson, Conservative MP for Cypress Hills-Grassland's, office. Yet again, he was not there and we left our letter with his cheerful secretary who told us "i'll make sure he gets your letter". I think that must be part of their training.

That about sums it up.