Russell to Saskatoon

Day 22

Good night kip got up and it was a bit overcast but still warm slowly broke down my campsite and packed the bike no one around so quite peaceful. Headed to get some breakfast the usual at Tim’s was a bit hot and sweaty as there was no showers at the free camping so looked a bit worse for wear hit the road was interesting for a short while saw some dear nearly squashed a snake that was crossing the road yuk and the road turned into a straight flat with very little traffic big yawn hard to focus and sticky hot to add to me woes. So instead of looking at the scenery start looking at the sky which is excellent and pretty however it is getting darker and darker and then before I know it I am watching a great electrical storm in the distance and the wind is picking me up blowing me all over the road mmmm should I be out in this chap did mention tornado warnings around Saskatoon this morning mmm so what did I do I nailed it trying to stay ahead of the rain its was at the fine line if I was going fast enough then I would not get wet as the speed will dry the rain if it not raining to hard eventually decided to pull over and get the wet weather kit out and continue at a more reasonable rate to Saskatoon no point in taking any unnecessary risk and it was raining that roads had turned greasy and a lot of debris on the road so doodled into town for the last hour. Least the weather made the dull route a bit livelier. Headed straight to the tourist info to find some cheap digs was debating on pushing through as weather was crap and I was wet already but they told me of place which was reasonable and as I had a free night last night was feeling a bit more generous with the budget. So headed there booked and had a shower as I was a bit pongy and headed into town as there was yet another festival this time it was a Jazz festival Tuesday so a bit quite. Was there 5 minutes when they shut the place down due to lightning threats in the area so head to the mall to see if I could find a food court for some cheap nosh but this shut at 5.30 so found a small Vietnamese restaurant and had the days special fried beef and prawn with noodles which was good as I had not eaten since breakfast. It was now pissing down outside so not ideal for sightseeing so I headed back to the lodge and got soaked to the skin. Had to get across the river on a bridge that had a footpath on it but as the cars went past you got sprayed and there was no escape as the was no shelter and only way home so was well pissed of but not a lot I could do but laugh like an idiot much to the surprise and amusement of a passer by who was also getting soaked by every passing car. Am now dry and the plan is to go to Edmonton check out a couple of Suzuki dealers to see if they can service my bike and put a couple new tyres on for me not sure if they will need some lead time but I want to check them out before letting them do any work and just looking on the internet does not always give confidence. If they need some lead for the booking the plan is to go and play between Jasper, Banff and Calgary until they are ready for me so plenty of nice countryside to rediscover as I have been here before and liked it.