Today I woke at the normal time (4:00 a.m.) and checked the weather. Rain was forecast for early and late in day so planned only a 30 mile day and ended up at 81 miles. The temperature, 47F, when I departed at 7:40 maxed out at 54F in Macklin, SK this afternoon. It is interesting that the day I left Pierre it was 47F degrees at 6:00 a.m. and 12 days later my day started at the same temp.

Macklin is the last town in Saskatchewan before biking mostly west across Alberta in the next few days. Winds from the east would be nice.

Today I passed through the most oil rigs I’ve ever seen. I counted as high as 19 in one square mile and up to 14 in a half section. I decided oil wells are drilled for convenience; otherwise it is an unusual quirk of nature. I am not a geologist, but 2500+ foot deep oil bearing layers follow roads—usually wells are a couple hundred feet from roads. That seems unusual. As you will notice in today’s photo, they are still drilling more wells. Look closely and you will see two drilling rigs.

For my fellow agronomists, note the spring wheat in today’s photo. That is about the tallest field. Some fields are not planted yet—likely canola planned for them.

About 7 hours into my cool ride, my wonderful wife flagged me down to present a hot carmel roll from a local bakery. Small towns with local bakeries offer a service under appreciated by locals and missed by most of us. When I arrived 81 miles later in Macklin, Patricia had hot rice and thick beef soup waiting. What a treat!!! Great way to end a cold day....zzzz