Rolling Thunder

I have arrived in beautiful Thunder Bay, Ontario. We have indoor accomadations so for two nights I get to sleep in a bed! With sheets! I could even take a hot bath if I wanted to - luxury!!!

So Ontario is hard riding. Much harder than the rockies or the prairies. You are always going uphill or downhill and, so far, always into a stiff wind. Often in rain. The towns are far apart and in between, services are non-existant. At least the pavement is better than expected and the campgrounds are nice. The stiff headwinds are helping keep the flies down except when we are in camp and sheltered among the trees.

And now for some more up to date pics:

Some general scenery:







Some landmarks:

Manitoba























Winnipeg







Riel House: the 40 Km side trip that almost kilt my legs.





Ontario





Arctic-Atlantic divide






For the boys:

194.73!

I have now completed my two longest cycling days ever - back to back! I tried to call Robert in the 'Peg but the number I had was out of service so I decided to create my own tour. The end result was 194.73 KM biked in one day - 8 hours, 40 minutes. Mostly into a stiff headwind and too much into driving rain. I was knackered. And then got up the next morning to do 175 more to get to Kenora. I slept well that night and was very glad to have a rest day.

In Winnipeg I saw Riel House, the Forks, MEC and Fat Burger and biked all of Portage.

These are some old pics brought to you courtesy of the Super 8 Motel in fort Francis Ontario:

Golden



Lake Louise




Canola fields



Inspiration :)

It just keeps getting flatter

Saskatchewan is done and I am now in Manitoba and Central Time. Should be passing through the 'peg tomorrow. So far "Friendly Manitoba" is a lot less friendly and a lot flatter than Saskatchewan. Although in all fairness it would be tough to be as friendly as Saskatchewan.

Things are still going well and it's hard to complain about the weather although the praries are tough. Every day is windy and you hope it's at yor back but mostly its an exhausting crosswind and a sometimes brutal headwind. And almost always with big black clouds to the left, or right, or overhead. I've been very lucky with the rain so far, slow on the right days and fast on the right days.

Tried out a set of slicks for rolling across the flat lands but I got a flat every day so I'm back to my old tyres now.

I've given up on the comments thing so if you have questions or comments just e-mail me and I can respond by reply or put it in the blog manually.

Regina, Regina

Rest day in Regina - thank goodness. The wind in howling and the rain is pouring. Fought a brutal headwind into town yesterday after fixing a flat four times. My first flat of the trip was a doozy. My spare tubes were wrng valve and broken leaky value. The flat wa sa rusted nail part of which broke off in the tube. After patching it three times my riding partner gave me her spare tube.

Regina is nice, not really big but a pretty city.

Saskatchewan Rocks!

I'm currently in Kenaston, the Blizzard capital of Saskatchewan and will finish the day in Craik. Alberta blew by so fast I forgot to buy a patch. No big loss, after biking through "Beautiful British Columbia" and "Saskatchewan, Naturally" Wild Rose Country seems like a place firmly in the grip of Mammon. Although the Dinosaur stuff was pretty cool.

The riding is going well and I'm slimming down to a more reasonable weight. One thing about Saskatchewan is that it is so flat that if you have a 154 km day you are pedaling for 153 of them :)

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Pics to follow in a couple of days. (I forgot my card full of pics in the truck).