Mary Jane’s B+B, Winnipeg Manitoba
20 Aug 2004
110.9 km
5.06 hours
21.7 kph
Total 1442 kms this year
Quite a variety today…
St Claude - good breakfast at Maria’s, then off down the narrow shoulder-cement road, taking our first break at Elm Creek. Hard to tell who was swearing more - Olin about the cement and the rest of us about the dangerous road. Tony needed a photo op with his medical magazine in the sunflowers, which led us to noticing a dirt road going south… map consultations determined we would go S and then E on the secondary roads towards Sanford. We made a wrong turn and put on a few extra kms, but it was worth it - beautiful quiet road through enormous fields (hundreds of acres) blue flax on one side and yellow canola on the other. The road was gravel or smooth dirt and in excellent condition, with the wind at our backs , it was heavenly cycling.
Lunch at Sanford, a few km down a good road with shoulder - then agony. We had about 25 km where we were forced to ride on the gravel shoulder because the road was so treacherous.
The entry to Winnipeg was horrible. Awful traffic, huge trucks and not an inch for cyclists. It was a nightmare. Very hard to find our way as we went into the city.
Finally got to our B+B which is 1912 house in old neighbourhood south of the river. A quiet place.
21 - 22 Aug
A day in Winnipeg, seeing the sights, then back home to Vancouver.