Day 29 – Brandon to Portage La Prairie (T.D.:135.4km; S.T.: 7h36min)

Knowing we had a long ride ahead of us, we set our alarms for another early start today. As we came out of Brandon, the rain let loose on us – though not for long – for the first time since Rosedale, Alberta. It was over by the time we got on the highway. No wind meant we made reasonable progress to Carberry, where we stopped at the Robin’s Nest Café for second breakfast and breakfast dessert (it takes a lot to keep these motors running).

Coming out of Carberry, we hit gravel shoulders for the first time. A stretch of road that the construction crews forgot, I suppose. It lasted for roughly (no pun intended) 15 kilometres, during which time we white-lined/white-knuckled it with our eyes glued to our sideview mirrors. If it appeared that an object was too close (keeping in mind that objects in these mirrors are always closer than they appear), we would yell “watch out!” or “bail!” to one another, and hit the gravel while the perpetrator sped by – ignorant to the stress they were causing us. Needless to say, we were relieved when the paved shoulders returned.

Today was the first day when the prairie scenery started to feel a bit old. Perhaps it had been too long since our last rest day, or perhaps this part of Manitoba is particularly dull, but both of us were getting a little farmland-weary. Fortunately, Winnipeg was on the horizon – a bustling metropolis (and more importantly, a couple of rest days) to add a bit of colour to an otherwise monochromatic stretch.

The gravel shoulder monster reared its ugly head for a second time as we entered Portage La Prairie, but this time the traffic was too thick and we were too tired to pull our tightrope-walking act on the white line, so we slogged it through the dirt and rock instead. These final kilometers, a sour note to cap off a relatively flavourless day, made our arrival at Melba and Doug’s (our hosts for the night) taste all the sweeter (and not just because they fed us angel food cake and blueberries drizzled with maple syrup yogourt). The icing on the cake (am I mixing my metaphors yet?) was the arrival of a raging thunderstorm that blew in with gale-force winds, which we watched happily from inside their kitchen, warm and dry.

Stats:

Av. Spd.: 17.7km/h
Mx. Spd.: 33.1km/h
Days without rain: 12
Kilometres without rain: 1100
Days without shaving (this one doesn’t really apply to Caroline): 30
Kilometres without shaving: 2594.7
Most cringe-inducing roadkill incident: Caroline running over one of those fat green caterpillars. I heard it *POP* from about 20 metres ahead.
Strangest time warp: Having the classic cars drive by you in packs as they left a convention in Brandon. It’s as if we travel so slowly on these bikes, that we’ve actually gone back in time!
Best way to develop an ulcer: White-line it on the TCH for 15kms.
Best way to give Mom an ulcer: White-line it on the TCH for 15km