Day 164 Grenfell to Indian Head, Saskatchewan.

Day 164, farewell to Moosomin. The one thing I noticed about this town is there is a building boom. Due to the oil industry and the recent opening of a potash mine, the town is growing and they are having trouble finding workers. One of the locals told me 2 years ago you could of bought a house for 60 thousand. Now the same house is 200 thousand.

Where is the prairie winter I have heard so much about? Clear for the most part today and a forcasted high of  2 degrees.

Although we did hit some foggy patches along the way as we (Kyle and I) headed to our medal bearer meeting point in Sintaluta, Sask.

Passing a cattle truck, those cows look cold. Frozen beef?

Passing by our meeting point from day 163, Whitewood

Certainly have a choice, just need a scarecrow to point me in the right direction.

Sintaluta in it's heyday had a population of 350, today, the locals tell me there are only around 80 people there.

 Downtown Sintaluta. Like many prairie farm towns, people just aren't staying there anymore.

A monument for their 100th anniversary. Sintaluta is a Lakota Sioux term referring to the tail of a fox.

The only hotel is shut down.

Many buildings are boarded up.

The hub of the town, the gas, and grocery station, as well as the post office, liquor store, and greyhound depot.

There were only two medal bearers today in Sintaluta, there is the sticker for the start of MB-13 on Main st.

Kyle and I had about 30 minutes to kill before the start of our meeting, so I stopped on the outskirts of town to have a bit of a look around.

The frost in the trees made for good picture taking.

An overgrown thicket close to an abandoned farm.

One of the long forgotten outbuildings.

It made you think as you stood there alone, what it might have been like back when this was an operating farm.

Looking back towards the farmhouse

There were deer and rabbit tracks all around the trees.

A bit of a fixer-upper

It was kind of surreal.

Way across the farmland I spotted another home.

As I zoomed in I soon realized it too was abandoned.

Time to move on.

Kyle missed the whole thing, he was sleeping in the bus.

Kyle makes himself at home at the Sintaluta community centre

and our two medal bearers Joan and Candace and their friends and family made us feel right at home.

The community centre used to be a united church. I was told there used to be 4 churches in town, but they have all closed their doors.

A lot of homes are for sale, I bet you could get this one fairly cheap.

Another church sits idle.

The two medal bearers Candace and Joan walk down the main street together with our endurance athlete Lonnie, and Scott, who is one of the escorts today. Candace came from nearby Buchanan, a small town of about 350. She raised over $1,000 to donate to the Rick Hansen Foundation!

Farewell to Sintaluta.

 The end of day celebration was in Indian Head,  Kyle and I headed west to our home for the next 6 days, the Delta hotel in Regina.

In less than one hour we went to the quiet farmland of Sintaluta to the big city atmosphere of Regina.

And traffic again!

It can get as cold as it wants, we have indoor parking! at the Brandt centre in Regina.

That's an OK view from my room on the 21st floor.