Towards Spruce Woods Provincial Park

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Towards Spruce Woods Provincial Park

Monday, 16 July 2007

Today I took Silver & rode from our motel most of the way to Spruce Woods Provincial Park. It was another lovely day for cycling, and I got my money’s worth out of it. Except for a few minor hills on the way heading south from Neepawa, on highway 5, it was pretty flat, and the wind was not interfering too much with my progress (although as the day progressed it seemed to blow harder - I think that was more of a fatigue-perception than an actual fact).

We had no idea of exactly where I would finish up, as there weren’t any real landmarks on the map in the 60-kilometre range. So I’d asked Bob to pretty much follow the same route I did & he could expect to see me in that area (up to 60 km from the motel). There was a very inviting section of the Trans Canada Trail which crossed highway 5, but I had visions of us crossing paths while I was out on the trail, which is not visible from the highway, and of Bob “going nuts” trying to figure out where I was. So I resisted the very strong urge to try the trail & stayed on the pavement. In a sense I was rewarded by the sight of two fields of flax, in blue flower, which grew so densely that even from fairly close they resembled potholes. I REALLY thought they were small lakes!

I crossed the Trans Canada Highway, #1, and rode past Carberry, which is a fairly significant little town, past a fairly large McCain plant (they process potatoes, among other things) and am sure I smelled french fries! Further along, signs to my right informed me that I was passing the Shilo Canadian Forces Base (the rear portion) - brought back memories of our visit with Mikey last summer - didn’t see anyone though. One notable thing...today during one of my “snack breaks”, near Carberry, a gal driving a pickup truck actually stopped & asked if I needed help - first time that’s happened - really sweet of her to have done that.

Since I was not 100% sure that Bob was going to follow my exact itinerary, and since we’d forgotten to set a rendezvous time, and since he had not yet passed me with Casper, I decided I’d best do the entire 60 km, in case he’d taken another route there & was sitting waiting for me. However he was not, so I marked the spot on the GPS (waypoint 002) & phoned him with the sat-phone. He was just leaving Neepawa, so I said I’d ride back towards Carberry, about 12 km away & would wait for him at some point along the road if he had not arrived by the time I was there. Fortunately the wind this time was at my back, so it was a fairly easy ride and my arrival at the southern limits of Carberry pretty much coincided with Bob’s arrival, so I led him to a nearby ice cream stand (do we detect a pattern here?) & it was there that I called it a day.

One final thing, not to do with cycling. We’d decided to have dinner that night at one of the local restaurants, associated with a typical small-town hotel. One of the reasons is it is called “Georgie’s”, and that was the name of one of Panna’s doggy friends from a year or two ago. One of the specials of the night was “roast beef”. Bob is a big roast beef fan, so he ordered it, and I was getting a bit tired of fish & chips or marinated chicken breast so I ordered it too. Well, guess “roast beef” is not exactly the same thing as prime rib! The waitress herself admitted it had been precooked, then was sliced, frozen & reheated as necessary (i.e., for us). It must have been a rump roast or some other type of meat better served as a pot roast. The slices were about 1/4'’ (½ cm) thick, very lean, and with a texture close to shoe leather! Fortunately it was a pretty inexpensive meal, but it sure was not one of our favorites!

DAY 23: 70.8 km, in 4:21 hours, ave. speed 16.2 km/hr, max. speed 32.4

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Photos

13 july '07 Panna loving Bob's cap, Minnedosa, Mb
Sorry, I forgot to include this in the entries for Minnedosa -- that hat will be one of her birthday presents, we think!