Manitoba

Congratulations Manitoba! You have won the title of "Worst highways in Canada", narrowly edging out the longstanding favourite, Saskatchewan.

If you haven't already guessed, today was my first day in Manitoba. I rode approximately 150 km, from Moosomin to Brandon. Winds were favourable throughout the day, while the roads, not quite so much. Rarely during this trip have I experienced any anger, let alone pure unbridled rage. Today changed all that.

You see, highways in Manitoba rarely have a paved shoulder. I suppose the folks over at the Manitoba ministry of transportation decided to save a few bucks and forego paving even a 2' strip in consideration of non-motorized vehicles. This leaves me with two very alluring options: ride in the right lane along with all the cars, semi's, and RV's, or ride on the "shoulder" with it's 4-6" of loose gravel. Choices Choices.

Well I chose the lane. Luckily, 99% of drivers have been considerate enough to pull to the left lane when passing. Even with the confidence knowing that motorists will almost always pull to the left, I feel compelled to check my mirror every 20 seconds. As you can imagine, this kind of takes the piss out of my normally tranquil cycling experience.

And just to sweeten this already delicious situation, the edge of the right lane is quite often peppered with large cracks and craters, making it feel like I'm riding over an endless field of miniature speed bumps. Fun! I'm considering hunting down Ron Lemieux, Minister of transportation and government services--I know his name only because his ugly mug is slapped on the back of my Manitoba road map--and punching him straight in his teeth for this ungodly ordeal he has put me, and every other bicycle tourist through that dare cross his province.

Other than that I'm cool.

I wussed out and rented a motel for tonight. Had I stumbled across a campsite in Brandon I probably would have gone that route, but I came across a motor lodge first. I would have tried to stealth camp but I was running low on water, rain is in the forecast, and the bugs are out in force. These three in combination made stealth camping a highly unappealing thought. My perpetual layer of filth seems to attract the bugs without fail. So much so that I'm starting to feel a bit like linus, riding around with a cloud of mosquitoes surrounding my head. It's funny to see the reaction I get from people when in this state. The most common expression is usually that of utter confusion, like most have never seen a 6' man dressed in a leotard and smelling like old cheese.
C'mon people, this is the new millenium. People like me exist and we're everywhere.

Really though, every encounter I've had so far with locals has been friendly. Albertans in particular. I'll elaborate on this at a later date but I'm going to go watch the 3rd period of game seven right now.

Saskatchewan - land of the prarie dog

Well this blog has certainly not met expectations, but to be honest, I don't care. Well, that's not true. I care. I care deeply my comrades. But as mentioned previously, public internet connections are a rarity in many of the towns I stay in, making frequent updates difficult if not altogether impossible. So I've resigned myself to updating this thing bi-monthly.

I'm now in Saskatchewan, Maple Creek, I think. For the past 5 days I've been fighting the most vicious headwinds I've ever encountered in my life. Strangely enough, within moments of crossing the BC/Alberta border, I was blasted with an unrelenting east wind blowing at what must have been close to 40kmh. At that point I could laugh it off, knowing, hoping, that it would soon swing to the west and things would continue according to plan. WRONG. Pain. So much pain followed. The mountains were childs play in comparison to this nonsense. Every morning I'd wake up only to have my hopes crushed the moment I stuck my head out the tent. So off to the coal mines I went, hammering away, head down, tears streaming from my eyes, wondering what in gods name did I do to deserve this beating. Regardless of the adversity I carried on. Why? Because I am a soldier. Nay, a warrior. For 7 hours of the day, I'd make approximately 65-80km progress depending on wind speed. Finally today, I awoke to a vicious south west wind blowing at a whopping 45kmh. Bliss! Joy! I danced in my long johns outside my tent thanking the weather gods for this glorious, long over-due gift. So here I am, 50km down, another 130 to go until my final destination--swift current. And to sweeten this lovely day, the forecast calls for winds out of the west for the next 7 days! Dues paid in full, yo.

I see approximately 2 prarie dogs every 3 km here. They usually hang out in the middle of the highway--doing what, I don't know. When I see them I scream "PRARIE DOOOOOOGGGGGG"!!!! and they usually scramble into the roadside brush. I did encounter one cavalier fellow that mearly stared as I beared down on him howling my battle cry. At the last moment he jumped aside, barely missing my front wheel and certain death by spoke. I suppose he gets his kicks playing chicken with oncoming traffic. Local bad boy.

I have much to regale you folks with from my days spent in BC, but due to time constraints here at the tourism office it will have to wait until another time.

Until next time. PEACE OUT!!!