Smooth sailing out of Winnipeg

It was nice to finally sleep in this morning after a nice dinner last night. But can we really call an 8am wakeup sleeping in? We'll just have to take it.

We had some errands to run this morning before heading out of town, trying to get as much done in a big city like Winnipeg while we have the opportunity. Jon and I finally got our chains fixed, although it took until late this morning to get them back. Brian went to see a physiotherapist, and I had two radio interviews in town, and a third over the phone in Calgary. We also took the opportunity to meet with the MDC staff in Winnipeg. There are only three of them - Kathy, Angelina, and Michelle - but they were kind enough to take us out to breakfast at Stella's Cafe. They were really glad to have the opportunity to meet us, and we threw out the idea of them coming for the big celebration in Newfoundland. Why not? We had a lot of fun and the food was great. We were able to give Kathy the donations we have picked up in the Prairies, and there is even a chance she will pass us on the road in Ontario.

It was getting to be late morning after breakfast, so we headed out from our apartment at the Mennonite University over to Andrea's place to have some lunch and get our bikes ready to go. We have now replaced all of our tires, as our old ones had been getting worn, and we have had a number of flats recently. Andrea was really helpful in sourcing supplies for us, and was absolutely amazing to us while we were there. We got some pictures with them before taking off, including some really good ones of Jon wearing a Viagra Nascar racing jacket that her husband Steve received for his 50th birthday. It is a gem, and you can credit Andrea's brother for the gift idea.

Heading out fairly late around 2:30pm, we felt that something wasn't quite the same. It happened to be Friday the 13th, and there was something different about the day. Was it the late start? The tornado warnings? The exhaustion from the late night at Earl's?

Maybe it had something to do with the roaring west wind we had pushing us.

We have been waiting for one of those all across the Prairies, and it just happened to come when we were only going to be able to use it for a half-day. The feeling was incredible. We flew at 30+km/hr, barely turning the pedals. Mike even managed to get up to 59km/hr, on completely flat ground. Thankfully we had it, because it allowed us to make a lot of progress towards Kenora despite the late start. Seeing the flags we passed all blowing in the right direction was a fantastic sight, and we made it 105km to a campsite outside of the city in short time. It looks like it's with us to stay for now, as we seem to have it tomorrow.

We can also start to notice the changing landscape. Heading out of the city, there have been far more trees as we move out of the Prairies. Tomorrow we will cross another provincial border and a new time zone as we head to Kenora to take a day off with Brian's sister-in-law's family.
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