May
17/06, Wednesday. Day 13 1158 Kms
Prairie
Bell's B&B, Oyen, Alberta ~130 Kms ~ 6:20 Hrs.
- Met
Gord & Ruth on the highway
- Good
tailwinds in the afternoon
- Spent
the night at Prairie Bell's. Cheryl & Manfred were the hosts, she
talkative and he mostly silent but witty when he spoke.
Did a
laundry and bought food and beer. Also went for fries & gravy and
a beer at the local Chinese restaurant. It cost $8 each.
A little
more reasonable than the $20 each we had spent for a burger and a
beer in Calgary but still a highly inflated price.
Prairie
Bell's has collections of cookie tins and bells. The bells are
scattered around the house and concentrated in the dining room. I
didn't even notice them until they were mentioned by someone. What I
did notice was the cookie tins everywhere. In the halls, bathrooms,
bedrooms, stairway, kitchen.
It was a
great old house built in 1917 by 3 brothers and their father to
attract a suitor for their sister. It worked. The house has been
moved twice since it was built. Manfred was building an addition.
It was a
hot day today, the hottest of the year so far. It might have been the
hottest of the whole trip with temperatures in the low 30's. The
wind, heat, exercise and lack of shade made for a very dry ride. I
didn't keep track of the water I was drinking but I know it was a
lot. Doug was drinking bottled water and his bill for the day was
around $15 or $20.
Oyen is
about 4 Km's off the highway and I was wilting at the end of a long
day of riding. We could have camped at the gas station at the cross
roads but it was just a field. I didn't want to lie in a tent in the
sun. It would too hot.
I think
this was also the day that I started to notice that the riding was
getting easier. I didn't feel the urge to go straight to sleep when I
got off the bike. After a couple of hours of rest, cooling down and
watering up I felt pretty good. We even sat in the parlour at Prairie
Bell's and watched a bit of hockey.
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