tmacphail.ca

The morning started off with rain as was forecast but it stopped before I got on my bike. I wore my rain gear for the next 40km anyways but took it off when I stopped in Elie for lunch as it was getting sunny out.

There isn’t much else to say about the ride today and I was in Winnipeg before long. The first thing I did there was to go to “The Bookshelf” and buy a stack of used books. I got 7 books for $15 which will hopefully last me a while. I already mailed my old books home. Next stop was a bike shop where I bought a new speedometer. I gave up on finding an exact replacement and got a better one at about the same price.

I checked into the hostel and it immediately started to pour. While rushing to get my bags off my bike, the bike tipped over in the bike rack and warped my front tire slightly. I was still able to ride it to MEC where I got the support bar for my handlebar bag replaced under warranty and bought 1L of camping fuel. The people at MEC directed me to Natural Cycle where they trued the tire for only $5 and it was done within 20 minutes.

Before going to bed I went to both the public library and the University of Manitoba to use the internet for a while.

Today was my first day off since Edmonton. That was 12 days of riding ago. I didn’t do much today. I tried going to the library for internet access and it was closed. I tried looking for a bookstore because I had finished all the books I brought, and the only bookstore there specialized in christian literature that I wasn’t interested in. I did manage to get a single book at Walmart as well as some groceries though.

I woke late at 8 yet again. But this time I packed up and ate breakfast really quickly because I had wanted to get an early start to get into Portage la Prairie with some time to spare. Because I was on the road early I also had lunch early in Gladstone and decided to read for a bit while eating lunch slowly.

I stopped at gas station along the way for another snack later in the day. They’re a decent place to stop because there is at least a washroom and somewhere to throw out garbage even if there isn’t somewhere to sit. There are often people to talk to as well.

About 10km before Portage la Prairie I finally connected back with highway #1. Normally I would have simply called this the Trans-Canada highway but I have since learned that the #16 (aka. The Yellowhead) is also called a Trans-Canada highway (there are 2).

In Portage la Prairie I called my Grandparent’s friend Alice Jones at whose apartment I was going to be visiting for two nights. I had called her the night before to ask as well. She fed me a nice large dinner of chinese food which she cooked herself. In the evening, she and her friend went to the fair while I stayed in to watch TV and read. The fair wasn’t of much interest to me and I had already spent plenty of time outside lately. Some time in an air conditioned room would be nice.

I’m still not used to this new time zone and slept in an extra hour. Thomas and Amy packed up and left about 45 minutes before me but I passed them within about only 30 minutes of riding because it was windy again and they take frequent breaks.

I couldn’t find any towns to eat lunch at so I propped my bike up against a stop sign and leaned against it, trying to stay in it’s shadow. People driving by gave me a few weird looks as I sat there reading. Some time later In Minnedosa I stopped to read in a cafe while eating a sundae to escape the combination of heat and very high humidity.

I stayed the night at the Neepawa campground where the manager said she felt like being nice to someone and gave me a nice campspot by the stream for free. There was another cyclist here who was heading west from Winnipeg on a recumbent bike. I talked with him for quite a while though never got his name. He admits that he doesn’t think he is going to make it because he is going so much slower than he expected. It is probably because he was carrying so much gear in his trailer.

Due to losing an hour at the border, I woke up late by about an hour. I looked for a sports shop in town to replace my broken odometer but none of them carried bikes, let alone bike parts. Winnipeg is probably my best bet.

It is very windy today which means it is going to be a long day since it’s a headwind again. I continued to be pleased with the highway in Manitoba for the next 20km which was freshly paved with a full shoulder. Unfortunately, the rest of the day consisted of riding the white line at the edge of the road because there was no shoulder at all (or rather, it was loose gravel).

At some point I came across two cyclists, Thomas and Amy, from Taiwan who are spending 5 months biking around Canada. They flew in to Vancouver but started from Jasper after taking a train there to avoid the rockies. They are riding without a specific destination, just a direction: east (though they have gone north and south a few times across the prairies).

Eventually, the wind got the best of me and I decided to stop for the night in Shoal Lake. My original destination for the day had been another 50 or 60km further at Minnedosa. Thomas and Amy stayed at the same campsite and I talked with Thomas at greater length about their trip while Amy had already went to bed.

It was a nice cool morning and I was packed and on my way before too long. I stopped at superstore again to pick up a few things I had forgot to buy the evening before.

Lunch was in Churchbridge, the site of the world’s largest loonie and the home of the designer of the special loonie for Canada’s 125th anniversary. I’ve been noticing a number of towns along the way lately that have signs up saying they are the home of various NHL players.

I reached the Manitoba border late in the ride today and was glad to see that there were still nice wide sholders on the road, contrary to what I had heard about. Before too long I had to descend into a river valley which resulted in a long, hot, ride back up the other side. The highway seems to just cut straight across the valley instead of climbing the sides.

In Russel I stayed at the Russel Peace Park which is a free RV campgroudn with a couple of sheltered picnic areas. During dinner a gathering of people came to play and/or listen to a fiddle & accordion band that comes to play here each Thursday afternoon in the summer.

Just after writing down my journal for the day I broke yet another speedometer by dropping it. It was the one I bought in Kamloops. At least my old one still has some useful functions, even though it no longer can give me full accuracy. I’ll try to find a replacement eventually.

3 provinces complete!

I tried for an early start this day but it rained during the night and I wanted my tent to try out before I packed it up. Shortly into the ride I noticed that my right knee was hurting so I took a Tylenol (which didn’t kick in for an hour and a half).

I stopped in Theodore for lunch in front of a cafe. The owner didn’t like me using their outside table to eat my own food despite the fact that there was nobody around at all. Had she been nice to me, I might have gone inside after eating to buy some ice cream. I didn’t though.

I got the the Yorkton City Campground pretty early and the staff were impressed with how little time it took. After setting up, I went into town to buy groceries and visit a bike shop to get new tire levers and a new spare tire. I also had them fix the rear wheel that had been wobbling a little. I think they said it was loose bearings. I tried to use the library for internet but it was all booked up so I went to have dinner and came back to use it for 2 hours and finally update my blog for the first time in a while.