Day 30 - Portage La Prairie to Winnipeg (T.D.: 87.8km; S.T.: 4h46min)

Oh day of days! After what may have been the low-point of the trip coming into Portage yesterday, we were ready for something to lift our spirits. Cue entrance for Colleen, Melba’s sister, who offered to drive some of our belongings to Winnipeg for us. Yes please. With 60% of our usual load in the trunk of a car, we sailed into Manitoba’s capital city, the heart of the continent, that jewel of central Canada, the symbolic halfway point of our journey across the country, with nary a sweat broken (well, not really – it was ridiculously hot out)! We felt like those Velo-Quebec guys, just zooming along (and we still had 40lbs or so on our bikes), leaving other self-supported cross-country cyclists in our dust (again, not really – we didn’t see any today).

To add to our mirth, who should we run into but our good friends Edward and Juanita in their camper van (remember them? From Elkhorn?)! They gave us a honk and pulled over for a chat. They’d been in Brandon for a couple of nights at an agricultural fair of some sort, and had been keeping an eye out for us as they made their way to Winnipeg. It was awesome to see them again.

In fact, everybody on the road seemed to be encouraging us along today, as we had our most friendly honks ever (at least we think they were friendly – this is Manitoba, after all). Moreover, we had our greatest diversity of honk sources today, including our first ever transport truck honk, our first ever RV honk, and our first ever classic car honk (I believe it was a 1963 Studebaker).

We stopped in Headingly, on the recommendation of Melba and Doug, for some ice cream at Ko’s Groceries. Ko is a stern Chinese woman who takes her ice cream doling duties on with the seriousness of a Catholic school headmistress. As she wordlessly handed us our heaping cones, we wondered if we had perhaps done something wrong by ordering the cookies ‘n cream variety.

Not even Ko could suck the fun out of our ride to Winnipeg today, though, and her generous serving of ice cream fuelled our trip most effectively. Upon entering the city limits, we took our time on bike routes and trails, ambling through the holiday crowds in Assiniboine park, and along the river to the home of one Craig Batty, father of one Adam Batty, our dearly beloved friend and former roommate in Vancouver. Craig had knee surgery this weekend, and is suffering from a pinched nerve in his back as a result of a poorly-aimed spinal anaesthetic. In other words, he’s not much of a host. Here we are, biking across the country, and the man can barely get out of his chair to fix us a drink. Next time, we’ll check in at the Royal Albert Hotel.

(Luckily, Adam's mom, Dorothy, was around to fix us a beautiful meal!)

Stats:

Av. Spd.: 21.3km/h (it was 23 on the highway – our highest average speed yet! Thanks Colleen!)

Mx. Spd.: 28.6km/h

Cumulative distance: 2691km (roughly 7/16ths of the way through) – for those who care, the longest country in Europe is 1752 km (Norway, end to end), and a trip from Vancouver along the West Coast to Tijuana would be about 2500km.

Days on the road: 30 (I guess that’s obvious if you’re reading the titles)

Days in a month: 30 (or thereabouts)

Average distance covered in a day to this point (not including rest days): 103.5km

Rest days taken so far: 4 (1 in Kelowna, 1 in Calgary, 2 in Medicine Hat)

Ice creams eaten: something like 12 each. Maybe more, maybe a little less.

Best name of a Canadian town not yet mentioned in this blog: Ituna, SK (tired of opening those little cans of tuna every time you want to make a sandwich? Download iTuna, the new App for your Blackberry or whatever – from your phone to your sandwich, tastes great every time!)

Runner-up for best name of a Canadian town not yet mentioned in this blog: Uren (no explanation necessary)

Worst host: Craig Batty (we’re joking, of course; he’s a fantastic guy - with an equally fantastic sense of humor, I hasten to add)