Day 22: Kindersley to almost Tyner

Today was ....interesting. After slogging, yet again, with a northerly crosswind we decided to use the wind rather than fight it. We revised our route and headed south, aiming eventually to get to Swift Current, but to stop somewhere before that for tonight since Swift Current was about 218 km from Kindersley.

Anyhoo, we first came upon a field with about 6 or 7 horses in it. Unlike the bison and cattle that run away from us, the horses seemed to revel in our presence and ran to meet us as we rode by, then run with us for a short bit. Given that I'm a wee bit of a horse lover, this was absolutely awesome. We also saw antelope today!! Quite a few, actually. Jen and Pat had just mentioned to us the night before that these small deer-like animals were out and about in the area unbeknownst to us, so it was really cool to see them!

Oh, and the 20-25km/h (with higher gusts) tailwind was ok too :) Definitely beat fighting it.

We continued along came upon our next turn. It was a gravel road. Sadness. Fortunately, the RV had passed us and were awaiting instructions on the side of the road just ahead. We continued to the next crossroad and fortunately it was paved, so we turned down it. Hooray.

We ended our day at the most unlikely of places: a crossroad in the middle of nowhere. A teeny, tiny little town called Tyner was about 1 km to our left, but otherwise, all we could see was field upon field, upon field.

We loaded into the motorhome and headed off. Mom and Dad had read the campground pamplet and decided that an RV park in a town called Elrose appeared to be the most promising destination. Off we went.

We started on a paved road, but shortly there was a sign that trucks over a certain weight were to take the gravel road at the next turn, so being good tourists, we, or rather driver Dad, turned. Here's where the fun really began. The RV started swerving in the front and fishtailing in the back. Apparently it was like driving on marbles. And we weren't going fast. At all. Dad's bigger worry, he mentioned to us later, was that he was afraid the RV might get stuck. This unnerving dancing of a 34' vehicle continued for 10km. It was insane. Fortunately, I was absolutely exhausted from the ride and managed to fall asleep for some of it. Dad did an excellent handling job. Eventually, we did reach the end and turned up the highway towards Elrose.

We finally arrived, and found said "RV campground" which was located behind this smalltown sportsplex. We followed the road around back, as directed by the signs, where we quickly found out the "RV park" was a looser term here than in Alsask, and more to the point, it was very muddy back there. Once again, Dad did a phenomenal job of not getting the RV stuck in it (Oh but did we leave some massive impressions :P ), we turned around and headed back to the FRONT of the building.

Now the task was to find someone to see if we could stay there for the night. Dad wandered into the nearest building that looked occupied. Turned out it was the hospital (The public school was on the otherside of the parking lot too. Busy place.). The nurse at the hospital ok'd us to stay in the parking lot where ever (Dad mentioned the mud in the RV designated places and apparently she said "Oh yeah, it might be a touch muddy out there, it did rain". Ha. So we settled in. During dinner, we had a knock on the door and this wonderfully friendly woman stopped in (who apparently worked in the rec department) to see if there was anything we needed. She even let us into the pool showers, which was really kind. (We found out shortly thereafter that they were darned near ice cold which was rather sad, but a few of us set our jaws and sucked it up anyways) The lady also mentioned that tonight was the big heart and stroke fundraiser with the 30-seater bike...and you guessed it, it was all to take place in our homey little parking lot as well. Heh. Nice of her to mention it though as not long after, people started arriving. The event didn't last very long though, and we were soon left with peace and quiet to dream of what tomorrow would bring.