July 1: Brandon to Portage la Prairie (126.35km)
The roads were in general better today except for 20km outside of Brandon and upon arriving in Portage (more on that later).

A big concern on today's journey however was finding services. Between Brandon and Portage, there are just a few restaurants and service stations. It being Canada Day, some of these businesses were closed. And since it was a very hot day, I was a bit concerned about having enough water. I carry about 3.5 liters of water/Gatorade with me, but in a hot day, this goes pretty fast. About 70km into my trip I only had 1 liter left and I was hoping that Austin - a small town up ahead - would have something. If they didn't, I would have to make that liter last until Portage. I could have done it, but it would have been pushing it. As luck would have it, Austin came through! It had a restaurant and a corner store. I ate and filled up my water bottles and was off.

That hour break saw a change in the weather however. The winds had now picked up considerably and it was hitting me at an angle - about the angle of 10 o'clock (actually more like 10:23). This slowed my progress considerably. All along the road up to and including these new conditions, I was planning on camping on the other side of Portage. Even the wind didn't waver my conviction to camp. It was a sunny day and even though they were calling for thunder storms, I thought that it would still be fine to camp. What broke my conviction was when I arrived at Portage. 10km outside of town, the shoulders disappeared. I can almost understand not having shoulders in the middle of nowhere where there is little traffic, but not having a shoulder so close to a mid size city is down right stupid. I rode on the road for about half a kilometer, but I saw that the traffic was way too heavy for this. So I rode on the gravel. This slowed my progress even more. What irked me the most was when I was riding on these shoulders and in a couple of places, the ground was bare of any gravel and there was pavement underneath. What!!! They covered up the pavement with loose stones. Are they sadistic? I could only come to one conclusion. They had done this to tick me off. And they were successful. I think most would back me up when I say that I rarely get mad. But when I saw that pavement, I was livid and I was cursing the Portage city council morons for the remainder of the ride.

At that point, I didn't want to deal with any more riding that day and decided to stop at the first accommodation and since camping was on the other side of town, I picked a motel.


July 2: Portage la Prairie to Winnipeg (114.47km)
What should have been a short easy ride into Winnipeg was circuitous and difficult.

I left Portage at 6AM because I wanted to avoid any traffic going out of the city because I didn't know what the state of the shoulders were going to be. At first they were pretty good and I was hopeful that the province deemed it wise to have good roads into Winnipeg. Well I obviously give to much credit to Manitoba legislators. Clearly the province is evil and wishes to torture cyclists. After about 30km the shoulders disappeared. I continued riding, but I quickly felt that I should get off the highway ASAP. This opportunity occurred in Elie where I stopped for breakfast. In talking to a local, he recommended that I go north to route 26 and he assured me there would be little to no traffic.

So I set off north for a 10km detour to get to the route 26. This was the first time that I felt the full force of the prairie wind which I was hitting almost directly. The 10km detour which should have taken me about 25 minutes probably took about an hour. It was painfully slow, but it was better than dealing with traffic. Once I reached route 26, it got much easier and, lo and behold, there were shoulders!!!

I met a German couple that were going the opposite direction and who are traveling from Quebec City to Vancouver. We exchanged advice about roads to take and they told me that the roads don't get much better for the remainder of Manitoba, but they reassured me that Ontario offers much better shoulders.

After having to take another detour to reach downtown Winnipeg, I checked into the hostel where I will stay for at least two nights so that I can get some stuff done (laundry, repairs to the bike, shopping, etc) and, if time and energy permits, I'll visit the city.

July 3: Winnipeg to Winnipeg (2km)
Today is errand and rest day. I brought my bike to a shop to get a tune up before I leave and I tried to visit the city. I say I tried because I went to a place called the Forks (where the Red River and the Assiniboine branch out), sat on a bench and promptly fell asleep. Clearly rest was in order. So I'm taking it easy today and doing as little as possible.

I'm meeting a number of cool people. I'm staying at the hostel and one of my roommates yesterday was from Guatemala and he has been traveling from his native land to Winnipeg in the hopes of finding work and immigrating here. For the past week he walked from the US border to Winnipeg. I think he slept 16 hours last night. Sort of puts my life and my journey into perspective. I'm putting myself through challenges for the fun of it and he's doing it for his very survival.

Saw a couple of bands as well. Winnipeg seems to have a thriving music scene.

Well I'm off tomorrow in the hopes of reaching northern Ontario the following day. Throughout northern Ontario, my postings may be sporadic as there may be long stretches without internet service.

Only a couple of pictures this time around. One that is a typical view on the road of the Manitoba landscape and the other that tries to convey the wind that I was going up against in my ride into Winnipeg. I thought of taking a picture of my rear view mirror as this is what I've been looking mostly at during these past few days:)