Regina

It's been a while, lots to update. We're set to leave shortly in the direction of Moose Jaw, but first to share what we've done since Kenora.

Kenora to Winnipeg took two days, stopping in McMunn, Manitoba and camping on a man's sprawling front lawn just off the highway.

In Winnipeg we stayed with the Sanders family, two fantastic parents proud at the fact their son Ben just finished a trip like ours going West to East. He gave talks about engineering at various schools and campuses along the way with his riding partner.

Ben's parents Keran and Jim were so hospitable to us, driving us downtown two nights in a row so we could check out what people our age should be doing in the summer, meaning social activities requiring only meager amounts of leg movement. The first night we chilled at The Toad in the Hole, a cool bar with a server who brought us Jager and the Trouble board game. The second night we were fortunate enough to be in town for the Jazz festival, where Girl Talk, the amazing Pittsburgh DJ, happened to be playing. The show was a full-on crazy dance party, with people flooding the stage just a few songs in. We all had a great time, I think having attractive women throughout the crowd might have had something to do with that. Too bad for our ghastly facial hair.

The same day as the concert Keran took us around CBC, showing us her office, the radio and tv studios. We met some familiar CBC personalities and even got to talk a little live on the radio to the afternoon host. Very fortunate experience for Mike and I in particular given our Communication education...

From Winnipeg we decided that rather than four days to Regina as previously planned, we would try to do it in three to make it to the city for Canada Day. Seeing as how there are only 30 days in June and not 31, our initial plan needed some tweaking. So there it was ahead of us, 600kms in 3 days, seemingly impossible based on the fact that we'd yet to do 200kms in one day.

But long story short, and perhaps when I have more time I'll provide the details of this 3 day exhaustive trek, we made it as planned. First day, 169kms. Second day, 226! Third day, 216! We had the right mix of luck, determination, wind, and most importantly, will to refuse celebrating our nation's birthday in a town of less than a 1000.

So in Regina we're staying with Ben and Katie, sister of my old roommy Jess, who hooked us up with the connection. Ben has been awesome to us, providing beer, accomodation, laundry, his bbq, kitchen, weights, great tv and soundsystem and a day spent at the cabin about an hour's drive from downtown. At the cabin we all tried wakeboarding, and all got up with little trouble. I got up on my second try, crossed the wake, crossed back, then decided that was as good a time as ever to try a jump. I'm sure it looked funny, and I did get some air (apparently), but the landing was disrupted by my cheek hitting the edge of my board. A butterfly bandage later and another beer and I'm ready to see another day, hopefully I get a sweet scar out of it, haha.

Off for now, we'll be in Calgary in 5 days for the Stampede!!!!