Bicycle Trip Part 2.....Talk About Pain

    When I look at the many mistakes I made with this learning experience the two that really seem to have effected me the most were the weight in my 4 saddle bags and the date I started the trip. I filled the bags with items that I did not even use the whole trip (perhaps once or twice), most often the bicycle with the loaded saddle bags weighed about 90 pounds (over 40 kilo's). I left on July 1st which was the hot time of year for the west and middle of Canada and too late in the year for the far east (cold). If I would have repeated the trip (which came to mind) I would leave in early May and carry about 20 kilo's of supplies.
   In part 1 of this story I was crossing the plains, I have driven this territory in a car and it seemed very flat when in actuality there are gentle rolls of hills on the east side of Alberta and the west side of Saskatchewan. Just east of Swift Current I could see a haze...when it is very hot you can actually see mirages often.......while you hold out for a tree or some cows to moo at. This haze was different and I soon found out that this vision was millions of locusts (grasshoppers) crossing the plains and undoubtedly eating the farmers crops. A  few started to land on me and I swatted them off, then as I got deeper inside the swarm more than 20 of them were on me, I just kept trying to get them off while I pedaled; and kept my mouth closed, it was a bit creepy. Although I was not afraid I felt an urgency to get them off my arms, legs and the side of my face.
   My mileage started to pick up and in the next couple of days I was averaging 200 kms. per day, with about 12 hours of riding. I made sure that I did not stay in campgrounds because so many people, some who had seen me 3 times that day, wanted to ask questions and feed me when I was just so tired I wanted to pass out. About 90% of the time I just stayed somewhere close to the road so I could get an early start.
    I met two guys (Darren and Pierre) just outside of Moose Jaw who were going to Montreal and it was great to have some company on the lonely road. We rode single file and had the wind at our back so we were traveling at about 50 kms per hour. Trucks are in great numbers on the Trans-Canada highway, when they pass you the draft can push the bike or suck the bike under the wheels. A transport truck (a cyclists worst enemy) came up from behind and was so close that the wind drove my front wheel into the back wheel of Pierre's bike tangling up our saddle bags. The handle bars were hard to control and over them I went; I slid on my back for a distance and then rolled at least 5 times in the long grass before coming to a stop. I laid on the ground in both shock and agony. On first assessing the damage I took skin off my back and buttocks, had a swollen right knee with a 2 stitch cut, a 4 stitch cut on my right forearm and my shoulder was killing me (I landed on that first). Darren and Pierre flagged down a camper who took me and my beat up bike about 5kms down the road to the hospital at Grenfell.
  This small prairie town had a doctor (and his wife) whom they called from his house when a patient arrived at the small clinic. The pain was severe in my shoulder and after I was stitched up the doctor told me that I better take a few weeks off to let the swelling go down and the bruised bone heal up a bit. Darren fixed up my bike (wiring the bags to the racks), as I discovered I had left my sunglasses and a glove in the camper. I was so frustrated, in pain,angry at myself, and angry at the truck driver.....they often just laid on their horns (the signal to get off the road). What was I going to do in this predicament?...go home ?