Thursday July 9 Chaplin Sask...

More people showed up last night - and there are more sites out of view. The fifth wheel people have all the hookups so they never come out but us tenters are a social bunch. I had dinner at the gas station/ restaurant/ motel at the highway (think Corner Gas) because i was feeling too lazy to cook. Friendly small-town people. I didn't find the main street of town until this morning when I was leaving. A few showers overnight and pretty cool temps. Luckily strong winds from the west with gusts up to 50 km/hr according to the radio. Sailed down the highway with little effort except I think my bike may have developed a speed wobble. I slowed down for Gull Lake but didn't go off the highway to see it. The provincial slogan here is something about the "Living Sky" I sure know what they mean. I was trying to read the sky like it was a white water river. The wind on the ground is not the same as the clouds until the first drop of a rain shower hits the ground then the wind switches. I was trying to out run some showers, out flank others, even stopping to let some cross my path. One I mis read completely so I dove under a bridge over a creek. Rain poured down hard for about 15 minutes. Some starlings (?) didn't like me there and I found out why - they had their nests under the road. Their nests are made of mud and shaped liked jugs.. They probably had babies inside them. Went into Swift Current for coffee and baked goods. Nice, functional downtown but I could not find a cafe. Feeling yet another rain shower coming I went into Tim Hortons (I'm sorry everyone) I was too late for a breakfast sandwich so I just had coffee. A couple sips into it, it started pouring outside so I figured I was staying for lunch. I ordered a sandwich and halfway through the sun was back out. Temporarily. Rode on to Chaplin where the map showed a campground. I went to the municipal campground - it had no showers, pit toilets and no protection from the wind. I was eyeing the adjacent dilapidated baseball dugouts. Rode away and over to the ice cream shack for some local info. Found out the downtown was hidden away and that it had "all services" even if some like the library are only open 6 hours per week (Seriously, M-W-F am). I went to the hotel which was a two storey building with a beer parlour on the main floor. Hand written signs on the door said when opened, not closed. The place looked like it would have fit right in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside but I didn't feel like staying in the campground with 50 km/hr winds and heavy rain showers every hour. I thought the bar owner could read my desperation when he said rooms were $82.50. I asked if the bar was noisy assuming the rooms were upstairs. He said no worries - the rooms were 4 blocks away. It's a series of 1 bedroom bungalows with the living room made into the main bedroom - full kitchen, bathroom, furnace room, storage room - Made for people staying for a month or so I guess.

OD 1885.0 km, 6:47:17, 175.97 km, ave 25.9 km/hr, 54.4 max