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Trip Start May 17, 2010 Previous
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  Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Well, we can't believe we've actually made it here.  As most of you know, Winnipeg was a big deal for us.  Not only did it mean that we'd completed Northern Ontario, but we can FINALLY cross off another province!  Adam realized that we entered ON with approx 2100km on our odometer and finished ON with over 4100km.  It's crazy and it really is awesome that we're out, specifically great that we can finally get off of that Hwy 17...we don't miss that.  FYI:  I have specifically NOT gone into any detail about how horrible this highway actually was.  But it was not exactly pleasant on most days!  None the less, it's really cool to be done it.  It was fun going this way too due to the countdown of the kilometer markers.  We were both quite pumped when we saw the marker 998km :)  Unfortunately, they don't count down after T-Bay but that's ok.  It was neat while it lasted.  We really did enjoy Lake Superior and even thoug we did miss 300km of it, if we really feel like we missed out we'll come back and do the Lake Superior circle trip...I have a funny feeling we won't though.  It was interesting to see the difference of biking vs. riding and, due to the ride, we were truly able to compare the difference, with the memories fresh in our minds, of being on the bike and now in the car.  You really do appreciate everything so much more on the bike.  The views are truly that much more spectacular and rewarding.  So now we are well over 1/2 way through this trip!  It took us a month to do the maritimes, another couple of weeks to do Quebec, another month (incl our week off) for ON, and another month means we'll probably be in BC!

I only did a brief update from Kenora the other day, but there wasn't a whole lot to report on the trip from Vermillion Bay to Kenora.  It was significantly hillier than we thought though!  The ride into Vermillion Bay was nice as it was fairly flat but some rolliness that was enjoyable so it led us into a false sense of security on the rest of ON!  It's not that it was even that hilly, we just weren't expecting it!  But we had a really nice rest in Vermillion and glad we took it.  It was a beautiful day to just hang out by the water and we went out for DELICIOUS ribs at Buster's.  We had considered a motel room to watch the Bombers game but they were charging $75 + tax and the other motel didn't take pets.  And, unfortunately, there were no bars or TVs in town to watch the game.  Oh well.  Another time.  The ribs were so good though - if you're going through it's worth a stop!

Anyway, we arrived in Kenora and got over to Linda's house just at the same time she arrived home.  As I mentioned, she offered us a drink, bed, and shower and then made a delicious dinner followed by coffee & dessert on the screened in verandah.  Really very incredible...especially since Jenn & Barry's was the last time we'd had a proper shower :)  We did rinse off in Vermillion Bay but I doubt other people think we're as clean as we think! 

And then the next day was the ride into MANITOBA!!  Yippee!!  We were both pumped and very excited to get going.  After a wonderful breakfast (mmm...fresh raspberries!) we hit the road eager to finally get to the next place.  Unfortunately, in our excitedment to leave, I actually missed a giant random item:  Huskie the Musky (fish).  I saw it too late and Adam didn't hear me call out and there was no real safe place to pull over.  Oh well...we stopped at the Keewatin grocery store heading out of town and were appalled at how they refused to let us use their bathrooms "No public washrooms".  Even though we were paying customers.  And, to add insult to injury which is the part that REALLY irked me, they told us to use the lumbar store's bathroom down the road.  We couldn't believe it.  You won't let customers use your bathroom but you expect other businesses to open their doors?  NOT impressed.  I normally would have refused to buy what we wanted but we had no options for groceries.  All I can is try to avoid this business!  The first business to be that rude:  any other place has gladly let us use their bathroom, even if it's staff washrooms. 

The ride to MB was simply exciting in our minds.  We were quite disappointed with the lack of wildlife we'd seen though :(  Tons of deer but that's it.  Maybe in western Canada we'll see a bit more?  Oh well, we passed over the border, had lunch at the tourist info centre and then
went to see West Hawk Lake:  MB deepest lake at 111m.  Formed by a meteor!  Exciting!  It was a really nice area and had we realized it was that clost we would have gone and had lunch there.  But the lake?  It looks...like a lake :)  haha, but now we've seen a meteor lake!  As I said, it wasn't off our path too much, less than 1km, as we had firmly decided to take Hwy 44 through Whiteshell Provincial Park.  And what a fun road that was!  It was turny, and quiet, and little ups & downs, and beautiful and just peaceful.  But rough.  Our bums paid for it but we didn't care.  Sooooo nice to be off that Trans Canada.  We are hoping to continue avoiding it.  it's just amazing the difference in terrain from ON into MB!  It was crazy.  The Whiteshell was a bit rolly, etc but after that it was flat.  Really flat!  Typical prairie.  We both loved the big, blue sky and didn't realy how much we missed it until we rolled in.  Maybe we are prairie folk after all?
We made it into Elma that night and knocked on a door looking for water (the country store closed 10mins earlier!) which is when Gladys offered us her yard.  It was great and we were able to set up camp and had a chance to watch our first prairie storm roll in!  WOW!  It was beautiful to watch, too bad we didn't have a closed porch or something to watch it from but just amazing.  Not sure what amount of rain fell but there was a lot.  Not a ton of thunder but the lightning just went all night and rightt in the tent (it seemed).  Incredible.  I'm just glad we had a place and were set up already! 

And then it was time for Winnipeg!  We took Hwy 15 in...I put a picture but I'm not sure how clear you can see the Hwy on the map.  It is a straight line for 75km to the perimeter.  No curves.  Turns out there was one unmarked, barely there curve.  But just straight.  No hills.  Not sure if I like zero hills though...it means there is absolutely no coasting!  After navigating our way into Winnipeg (which we had decided not to take the Perimeter Hwy to avoid the major hwy and didn't like the idea of going downtown, we basically did a huge detour all through the city which didn't turn out to be very smart!), we were exhausted.  I think I understand all this talk about prevailing winds...it was a hard, hard day.  But, the great thing about being out of N. ON is that we now do not have to do those huge kilometer days like we were forced to in order to get to the next town.  If it's that windy and we're that tired, we can stop after however many, whenever we're ready basically.  Just a nice little thing to remember - there's no requirement to do 130km anymore, day after day.  Our goal had always been to aver 100km so if we only do 90, it's no big deal! 
We showed up on Dominc & Andrea's doorstep around 7pm and here we are still!  We had some stuff to take care of but are taking 2 days here so will leave Wpg on Friday.  Today we got to throw the football around actually on the Bomber's field!!! And tomorrow we hope to go see them practice and *knock on wood* I'll get to meet Doug Brown!  Thanks again Greg!  It's super cool.
 
If people are interested, we are considering going into Brandon if anyone wants to come down for the weekend.  But we'll only head to Brandon if people want to see us, otherwise we'll stay south on Hwy 2!

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*ahhh* no hills!   Comments!	Bomber Stadium	At Centre Field	Doug Brown's locker!
Thanks Greg!	TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!

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