A posse ad esse - "From possibility to actuality"

Getting close...

The day we came into Alberta we started experiencing these Rolling farmlands! Very pretty.

Cows break up the monotony of a long ride sometimes. They usually are quite interested in us when we pass and often break into a run and follow us along the length of their fence. Part of the reason they are so curious probably has something to do with Keith's quite realistic mooing. We taunt most of the animals we pass plainly for some amusement to liven the day of continuous pedaling. You should hear Keith's hawk screech.

This is a little town we stopped in to make our lunch. The whole town is "viking" themed--not, as we found out, because the townspeople have viking heritage (they don't), but merely because their town is called Viking.

We camped in "Bruce" that night--a town with a rodeo heritage and theme. We put our tent up in an empty grassy lot in town, right across from a fancy, widely-popular "dinner event" at a motel from which savory aromas were wafting across the lawn... ahhhh well... rice packets again!

Okay, I know, we have posted a ton of pictures of frogs... they are all just neat! All the different kinds! I had to post this... he's so cute! These little ones are wood frogs, we guess, that we have found in the grass of a few campsites now.

If you know who Hiyo Miasaki is this might remind you of his movies... we have seen a few of these and are not quite sure what they are.

Okay, well, there is more behind this picture that needs telling, but first let me say that this Chicken Tandoori pictured is maybe my favorite meal I have ever eaten. Yes, quite possibly. It is making my mouth water now... the tangy, rich, savory, how do you even say it??!! It was amazing. We were brought to this Indian food cafe by Hafiz, a good friend we made in Edmonton.

We visited the Edmonton Mall-- formerly the largest mall in the world. We are at the 24th of who knows how many entrances! I like how, though he was just stretching, Keith looks like he is saying, "The Mall is THIIIIIIIIS big!" We don't even like malls, but we had to check this place out. We got pretty turned around in there.

We did get to watch the Sea Lion show that takes place in the mall everyday... that was one talented sea lion, but what may have been more amusing was that we were watching him in a huge lagoon inside a mall.

Yeah, there is also a floating pirate ship. We also found the ropes course, mini golf and water park inside the mall, which is no small water park. We couldn't find the roller coaster. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to find in a mall...

So, this is Joanne and Hafiz, who we spent a wonderful weekend with in Edmonton. We met them at the park and they invited us to stay with them. They fed us, let us clean up, and put us in a nice, comfortable bed, showed us some of the great things to see in the city, and on top of that were just a seriously awesome couple of people.

They took us to the "Fringe" -- a festival that takes place in Edmonton each year. The booths of good food, street performers, and tons of shows and plays put on make it a pretty cool event. The rides brought in were actually run on vegetable oil-- they called it the world's first "Sustainival."

Thanks Hafiz and Joanne-- it was awesome :)

We biked that next day to a small town called Entwistle. We were scouring the area for a good place to set up camp (we were going to set up on the grass behind a church) when we went to a nearby house to ask if we could fill up some water. While getting our water, the neighbors came across the street and told us they had an old camper we could sleep in. It was a lovely evening--they brought us into the camper the rest of the meal they had had for dinner and later pulled a bunch of vegetables from their garden to send on the way with us. Gilda and her son, Dave, were great, warm-hearted people that we enjoyed getting to know very much.

5,000 miles!! It was easy. :)

Our camp in Edson--in a patch of trees between the rails and the main part of town. We made friends with a nice guy working at the gas station across the street, Al, who gave us a flat of bottled water! There are such nice people in this world. Probably felt bad for us living like hobos.

Our first look at the Canadian Rockies! Here we come Rockies!

What a beautiful sight contrasted with the prairies we have been in for quite some time.

Don't worry--it's not real. Just thought this would be a good place to enjoy our lunch of Cinnamon rolls and whole milk.

Ahh, Jasper National Park.

Do you see the face?

I won't explain what we're doing here, as we might be prosecuted.

Wanting to be hidden from the road, we found this secluded space and stashed our bike and gear behind the cover of these bushes... I look up (doing a cougar check) to see this bride and photographer walking down this secret, random, wilderness path we have found to do a bridal shoot!! How perfect.

Keith takes an evening dip in the frigid lake.

I had the shot set up so well, but... I didn't quite capture it the first time.

So he did it again-- better!

And again :)

Our view from camp.

A favorite "snack" we have developed, reserved only for those times of caloric desperation: a Pop Tart, Peanut butter sandwich. Delicious with the fudge pop tarts; cream cheese would go between the raspberry ones. Do not try this at home.

Early morning on the road towards the town of Jasper.

Ah, Saskatchewan. Let's see what you have in store for us.

We thought this looked pretty cool--an old old grain elevator conglomeration...

There were a Ton of dragonflies in this province! So many kinds... little yellow ones, red ones, the delicate little black one, big black and blue ones and others. Keith decided this was basically his new favorite insect. He kept admiring "the engine" they have on their back to move those wings so fast, and how they would cruise through the dusky sky in gangs like raiders chomping down those little mosquitoes. They are hard to photograph, he found, but I really like this one.

Yes, Keith allowed and watched this mosquito suck his blood so he could take a picture of it. Seeing it that close freaks me out, but this is one of the daily realities we face on the trip.

This was an awesome spot we found to camp--we were in Yorkton, quite a big city, and looking for a park to hunker down in. Keith turned into a grassy field area behind a high school and this perfect little nook of mowed grass was just tucked away down it own corridor of trees behind the ball field. We had a nice wildlife experience here--Keith spending an hour or two feeding things to spiders and taking pictures of dragonflies, and catching the Cute wood frogs that were all around this site. In our tent that night we heard the weirdest sound and still have no idea what made it. It was like a loud woof/snort/wheeze and it kept happening in the trees behind our tent. I would have thought it was a bear anywhere else--but not here in basically the middle of this city on the prairies. If you have any ideas let us know. We thought raccoon maybe??

We have seen so many of these very old places looking quite lonely now... whole towns were like this in Saskatchewan with some people still holding on there, but all the businesses a thing of a bygone, more prosperous day. The sign above the door says "Hart's Hi-Way Inn 1956."

Then we would see homes from an even further bygone day... Keith and I got quite nostalgic feeling and emotions actually looking at and talking about these ones here--imagining the way they used to look and the families that used to light them up.

We did something very spontaneous :) While standing on the side of the road taking a break and looking at those homesteads (above) we heard what sounded like really bad rap music floating over the prairie... we listened closer and could tell that it was an auction going on, then noticed a sign just behind us on the road with a small gravel road leading off toward a large beautiful Ukrainian Orthodox church we had been admiring. I really wanted to take a detour and go have a look at this cultural event. Keith agreed to it and we biked about two miles on loose gravel out of our way to get to this auction! I was glad we did--talked to some really nice people who told us about the event and the area, and witness this part of Saskatchewan farming culture played out. Some good characters there!

The auction was put on by an older woman whose husband had recently died. She was leaving the farm and moving to the city (Yorkton) so they were auctioning off all of their equipment and nicknacks, then the house and land even. There were tons of farmers there--mostly for the prized tractor and land we were told. This happens regularly in the area--"this is how every farm breaks up." Most of the land, now, gets bought by farmers who own obscene amounts of land and hire tons of people to help farm it all over Saskatchewan... they wouldn't pick up and move into this farmhouse and live on it like the family before. I found that sad.

"Sold, to the man in the back."

They really had some awesome antique things on their farm. One lady talking to me said, "I don't know why anyone would want all this junk!" Ah, there were such treasures among it!! If I could have, I would have taken a few things home... They were selling it off in piles like this very cheap.

Another nice camping spot in a park in this tiny, but lively and nice town with an Icelandic name, Elfros. They had a sculpture and paintings in this park honoring their Icelandic ancestors who settled here. (Keith tried suspending a space blanket above our tent to keep some of the dew off.)

At this point, we had biked 4,444.4 miles!

We bought a special treat, something I had been craving, but denying myself the whole trip because of the bulkiness and weight--a jar of raspberry jam to put on some bread we had bought. Good thing we were not in bear country, eh? Bouncing around in our little grocery basket the lid had come loose and spilled its entire contents, leaving a gory scene for us to find all over the back of our trailer (all around the rim of the wheel too :( Keith spent a good chunk of time cleaning it all off with a hose at the campground we stayed at that night. We didn't make it to church in Saskatoon this time. We needed a day and a half more to get to town, even with the 100 miles we had done that day.

Saskatooooooon!!!! From the start, I had told Keith I really wanted to go through Saskatoon. I loved Farley Mowat as an author when I was younger and because he grew up in Saskatoon, a few of his books that I had read take place around there and I thought it sounded pretty cool. It was a little out of our way, but we are so glad we came North in Saskatchewan instead of cutting across South. It has been really pretty up here.

In Saskatoon we took a half-day off--did our laundry at a laundry mat, updated the blog, were given a new tent pole at an outdoor store because ours had snapped that week, and explored town a bit (including going to the "Cheese Outlet" where we bought Extra Old Gouda and smoked, seasoned beef!! (Did you know you could smoke beef in a big chunk just like smoking salmon?!) And discovered those two were an amazing combination. We then camped out hidden in the trees alongside a running path by the river and were glad for the extra protection when a lightning storm/torrential rain came an hour later.

This is not in Saskatoon--this is a tiny town about 25 miles from Saskatoon where we found a library to use for a bit while we waited to see if the winds would die down at all. The winds this day were the worst headwinds we have had the whole trip and it was mentally painful to fight against it. We ended up going 55 miles, but this was a nice little resting point for us. Foster's store (sad it wasn't open) is a local treasure, we were told. It has been running there, just the same way since the early 1900s and still has things on the shelves from the 20s on up!

Found a nice spot to camp that night off the highway by these big graineries.

A typical "good-night" view.

Always seeing interesting cloud patterns across the prairies with the big skies... different everyday.

Keith cooking a lunch of perogis (we have grown quite fond of the Ukranian perogis--a cheese and potato mash inside a dumpling of sorts--you can buy frozen very cheap). We usually put a can of baked beans on them for protein and it is so good! This was in North Battleford.