Day17 - waitasecond... THAT's a reward?

I awoke early, as is the norm when camping.  Too early.  Still dark.  Back to sleep.  Repeat.  Finally it looked sort of light, so I turned on the BB to see what time it was.  05:45  Nope - not gonna do it.  Back to sleep.  Finally I just got up and started to break camp.  The mosquitos were back out, so I didn't exactly take my time and hit the road by 07:55. 

Pop tarts on the road for breakfast, though I had my reservations as to how long they'd last (I was right - they didn't last long).  The glorious tailwind from the day before had swung 'round to a vicious sidewind coming from the South - meaning that all the little jogs South that Hwy2 takes as it meanders towards Winnipeg put me into a brutal headwind.  Oh well - can't have a tailwind everyday...   I plugged away and pounded out the kilometers, slowly passing mile after mile.  I wasn't getting anywhere in a hurry, and knew that Winnipeg would be ~11hrs away.  There's a reward for busting ass for 11hrs...  Freakin' Winnipeg. 

I pulled into a little lunch stop hoping for a good meal to fuel the rest of my ride, and ordered peirogies as well as a small order of fries & gravy.  Let's just say that like most of the province, it left a lot to be desired.

One interesting thing about MB is that there are virtually no shoulders on the roads.  On areas where they've recently redone the road there is sometimes a shoulder - but most of the time it goes 2 lane highway (1 lane in each direction), rough edge of ashphalt dropping ~4" to sand and gravel.  The flip side to this is that nearly ALL of the drivers are absolutely amazing when it comes to sharing the road.  Well over 90% of the cars and trucks that passed me today put ALL FOUR WHEELS in the other lane as they went by.  I'm just blown away by this. 

At some point I looked up and my blue skies were only blue in front of me.  From all other directions the sky was black and foreboding.  Hmmmm...  I wonder if I can outrace the storm to the 'Peg?  With ~4+hrs on my clock I figured not, but I might as well give it a shot.  The road itself was utter crap, with huge expansion cracks perpendicular to the roadway - sometimes as close as every 2" and at other times as far apart as ~12".  This jackhammer effect on my butt was most assuredly not appreciated nor was the fact that it lasted for well over 30km during the worst section.

I got a brief reprieve from the sidewind that I'd been battling all day, and got a bit of a tailwind - so I cranked it up and tried to outrun the storm.  That worked for maybe 30-40min and then the storm hit.  BIG TIME.  I pulled over and got my rain kit on just in time to greet a monsoon.  I turned on all my lights, and rode standing so as to present the largest possible outline.  In my bright orange rain jacket with reflective stripes, 4LED flasher on my helmet, yellow burrito bag, red panniers with reflective strips and the brightest rear flasher known to mankind, I didn't think anyone would miss me - but I was having difficulty seeing, so it's best to be as big as possible.  The monsoon lasted less than an hour and oddly, it improved my spirits.  I had been quite ornery for most of the day, slogging away into a nasty side/head wind and generally displeased with the province of Manitoba.  For some reason the rain made me feel better.  I can't explain why. 

Less than an hour after the rain stopped the skies were once again blue and it was warm out, so I took off my rain kit and fought my way to Winnipeg into the sidewind that had returned.  My ankle hurt something fierce, my low back was bothering me, that knot in my right calf had returned, and my neck and shoulders were starting to ache.  Well, I made it, anyway. If I wasn't in Winnipeg, I'd consider taking another day off...


Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 11:20
Actual Ride Time: 10:10
Total Distance: 248.53km
Avg Speed: 24.7kph
Max Speed: 57.5kph


This is pretty much MB:

A lone tree in the middle of a Canola field...

My sad lunch