19/08/10 Indian Head - Regina

I will remember for a long time the day we went to Regina. As told by the trucker, we are going uphill but it is not that bad. For the moment, we don't have a place to stay in Regina but we are not thinking about it. We are just biking. 

At Balgonie, 25 km from Regina, I get a flat. We stop in a neighborhood to repair it and two nice couples that are having a barbecue on the other side of the street invite us to grab something to eat. It is already 18h. I tell the woman that I need to find a place to buy a new tire tonight before leaving Regina. We call a bike shop, make sure they have the tires, plan the itinerary and say good bye to these nice people. Thank you for the diner!  

 

The store closes at 21:00 and it is already 19:30. We are 30 km from the bike shop. We sprint like crazy in the streets of Regina and finally find the store. It is 20:45. Those guys there are giving a very bad service. They do not have touring tires although I called them before to make sure they had some. It is now 21:15, we are somewhere in the middle of Regina, exhausted by the run, without new tires, without a place to stay for the night. We decide to drink some beer to celebrate our entry in Saskatchewan's capital. 

We end up at O'Hanlon's, a nice bar with an eclectic crowd. There, we meet Sara and Adam. Sara is from Regina and Adam is from a small town near Moncton NB and he speaks french. We spend the night there, discussing and drinking beer. Adam invites us to stay at his place and we accept. We were about to sleep in the park in front of the parliament. But before going there, he guides us on his bike around the city. Yes, I will have only seen the Saskatchewan parliament once and it would have been at two o'clock in the morning, almost drunk on my bike, on a guided tour with a stranger from Moncton...Sounds good to me. When we finally crash on his couch, it is three o'clock. Distance: 90 km