Tour Day 18 No English Here July 12 2010

I woke up this morning with a pep in my step because I thought we would have a tail wind the whole way through wnnipeg. Well I was mistaken. When we got on the bike and got the first few pedal strokes in I remarked to charles, “the wind. It has changed”. To which he said nothing. We were left grinding out the first 60k into Winnipeg each pedal stroke getting harder and harder. Usually I save my ipod for after lunch but for today I needed that extra little pick me up. Well that did not really work. I was left laughing on the bike because as I was grinding through the k’s what comes on but carol of the meows. Which for those of you who do not know is a song that has no lyrics just meows. Needles to say not the best work out song in the world.

While not paying attention grooving out on the road my rear wheel slipped in a crack in the road immediately I knew that I hit the sidewall of my tire, but thankfully I kept riding and nothing so I though all was good. While when we got to our pit stop before Winnipeg I found out all was not good. I indeed had a slow leak in my tube and had to change it. Thankfully though it was a slow leak so I pumped it up and we were off. I knew Charles needed a bike shop for his axle anyways so I did not want to hold up our slow progress.

When we got to Winnipeg we were greeted by a row of seemingly endless stop lights, and again nice busted up roads. I never thought that one city would have more lights then Vancouver but I was wrong. When we made it to the bike shop they were super cool about helping us out. They let me use a repair stand to carry out the needed work on my bike, and they gave charles priority servicing with not labor charge. As well they let us store all of our junk there while we went for lunch. As a shop geek the only thing that I did not like about the shop was the shop itself I really don’t like having bikes hanging from the ceiling and the way the floor was merchanadized made me cringe a little. But my recommendation still stands if ever you are in Winnipeg and need bike servicing visit Olympia cycles.

Lunch was Chinese food, which was a first for the trip. I think it is safe to say it will be the last as well. When we got back to pedaling again we were all struck by pretty wicked cramps. So what is the best cure for cramps? A slurpee! From reading a sing that said slurpee capital of the world 9 years running I could not say no to a delicious cold treat. Here is where true and blue goofy Evan came out. These older women were eyeing me up as I stand next to my bike enjoying my drink and putting on my sunscreen. I see them looking at me so I gave them a little show. Unzipped the jersey and rubbed the sun tan lotion on as if I was a 1980’s tanning model. Needless to say we were all left laughing. I took that as my cue to leave and we were out of there in a jiffy.

My one comment on Winnipeg as a whole is the fact that dental care seems to be severely lacking. I think in the whole of Winnipeg they have 2 maybe three sets of teeth.

Our destination for the night is st. Anne. A little town about 30k outside of Winnipeg. Getting here was just has hard as the first half of the day and was made only more interesting by the fact that half of the highway was shut down because they are taking it all out and re-doing it all. It almost makes me want to come back and do the trip again in a couple years once everything has been completed.
St. Anne is a cool little town. When we got here we strolled down the main drag and noticed all the usual things. The one thing that was out of the ordinary was the cop shop. For this small town of 1500 people they have a private police department that has at least 5 people working at all times. This is interesting because the town only has two streets. When we stopped in after grocery shopping to ask where to camp they responded (in French) go to the park we will not bother you tonight it is all right. We collectively let out a sigh thinking “not another park”. We decided to eat dinner first at the local restaurant where our server a young lady was very helpful and also spoke French.

After dinner we left for our park for the night. It is beautiful. It has power outlets, a toilet, a river running beside it, fewer mosquitoes then normal, and even a theatre. It is also located behind one of the nicest churches I have ever seen. Here is also where we meet another bike tourist. Take a guess where he is from. Quebec. This trip has really opened my eyes to the language and I almost find it frustrating because I can not share in these same laughs that are happening just behind me right now simply because I do not speak the language. Like I say it is pushing me towards furthering my education into the language. I live in a country that speaks two languages so I should be able to communicate in both. Remember if life is worth living it is worth recording.
Trip Distance: 131km
Ride Time: 6:42hr
Avg. Speed: 19.54km/h
Total Distance: 2611km
Total Ride Time: 122hr
Destination: St. Anne, Manitoba