Back to Calgary

My heel seems much better, although I won't really know if I'm fully recovered till I do another long day of riding. Susan's still not 100% either, so we've decided to rest for a while and let these ailments fully heal. Continuing to ride will likley just aggravate them more and slow us down further. This means we've fallen behind schedule and will continue to fall further and further behind if we sit it out here in The Hat. But it's still a vacation and so after discovering all the nooks and crannies of Medicine Hat (a sunny patio serving cold beer, the world's biggest teepee, the wave pool with hot tub and steam room, Starbucks etc) we've come up with Plan B. We're renting a car, driving back to Calgary and flying across the prairies. It seems like cheating, but the only other option we have is to rest here for a week and then go as far as we can. Given north of Lake Superior is supposed to be the prettiest part, and our return flights are out of Ontario, we're skipping the prairies and heading to Thunder Bay. We'll rest there for a few more days before resuming our riding. It will be inspiratinal to start again in Thunder Bay - it's where Terry Fox had to stop on his epic cross country journey.

It would have been nice to drive across the prairies and drop the car off when we felt good again, but no car rental agencies would allow an out of province drop off. The train wasn't an option - we needed to get to Edmonton to take the train, and it was going to be slower and more expensive than flying, and Susan is a bit averse to the Greyhound after already having taken a bus ride once so far on this trip.

I've logged only just over 600km so far and am keen to ride again. Bring on Thunder Bay - not sure what's there but I'll let you know in a couple days.