No Pain..... No Grain!!

After a great stay with Thom and Cheryl (Apologies for the spelling if it's wrong) We biked our way out of Kenora. After a few hiccups, a blown tire, and a tire that was rubbing on a piece of the bike we decided was irrelevant, we got out of Ontario. Coming into Manitoba, we stopped at the tourist bureau, got some advice, read about others adventures in the bike log and ventured into the prairie province. After the highway became four lanes and we were scared by some eager trucks we decided to take a more scenic route into Winnipeg. I briefly saw the first bear of the trip, which was a young one, but we ventured past cautiously keeping an eye out for Mama. In our true style we stayed that night on the edge of Whiteshell Provincial Park in a picnic park not 100ft. from an actual camp ground that would have been more than happy to take our money. Supper that night was of our own creation and included the remainder of our minute rice, and a can of chili beans, chick peas and tuna each. Packed with protein but lacking flavour we saoked it all in Tabasco Sauce and ate quickly before bed.

The next day we kept on the trail and were over 100km from Winnipeg. About 40 km in we were off of the Canadian Shield and onto the flat lands. The roads were straight as an arrow all the way into town. In Alma we stopped and ordered up some gas station fried chicken while we tried to make arrangements for the night. We ended up getting a hold of a couple people. The first were Daniel and Michelle Bahuaud. They were more than willing to have us even though it was both their anniversary and their young children were away for the evening. However, our old friends the Bleicherts called back soon after we got a hold of the Bahuauds and we decided that they'd probably rather have a nice anniversary on their own than to house, feed, and entertain our filthy selves. Al Bleichert came out and met us in his trusty van to escort us to his house which would have been difficult to get to without his help. That night we enjoyed some soup, homemade bread, and rhubarb dessert with Al, his wife Frances and also met their daughter Sarah.

The next day we were able to get a hold of L'Arche Winnipeg and organize going to a house to meet them for dinner. After wandering around the downtown, buying some necessary items from MEC and Dollarama, and getting lost, we made our way to the L'Arche house. They welcomed us with open arms and we met Anthony, Renato, Lorenne, Russell, Michael and Jimmy who lived in the house together. Luckily for us we came to L'Arche on their vacation week and we stayed until late in the evening and met many more fantastic people involved with L'Arche in one way or another.

The next day we got up and got out of Winnipeg, again with the help of Al, leaving with a few more items than we showed up with. Sarah had a old beater guitar that we were lucky enough to steal and Al had a camel pack that we swore he didn't use. So again we took that off of his hands.
The accommodations in Winnipeg met and exceeded all that we deserved and we left with a nice bag of Francis' cookies to help us along out way.

Just as we had been warned over and over the wind was fierce and unforgiving. We stopped in Portage La Prairie for food at their friendly Sobey's where we were able to convince the worker in the bakery to donate some things that were headed for the garbage to us instead. Apparently we've begun talking a little weird as well because one of the cashiers there asked us and I quote " So what kind of accent am i hearing there, Australian or English." I assured her that it was simply a Nova Scotian accent with whatever alterations that may have been picked up through tenting in the woods. We moseyed on for a few more kilometers before we rested behind a gas staion for the evening.

The next morning we were pleasantly awaken by some nice people whippersnipping and lawn mowing the grass we were sleeping on which I swear our 7'x6' tent covered more than half of. We got up and again suffered the strong prairie winds and pushed through some surprising hills until we made it to Brandon. Here we had another contact Donna and Dave August who I'd met when Donna was managing the NDP campaign in Truro, NS before we took off. We ate like kings, drank some of Dave's fine chokecherry wine and met Donna's brothers Jerry and Ken, as well as Ken's wife Bev, before hitting the hay with our bellies full.

Today we're about to take off with intentions of making it to Saskatchewan. We just helped Ken and Bev move into their new spot and they gave us a generous donation for our trip. Again Manitoba lived up to it's "Friendly Manitoba" name and we were treated all too well.
Saskatchewan is in the sights and from what we've heard the wind apparently isn't going to improve when we get there so it should be a difficult ride for the duration.
You know what they say though . . "No Pain, no Grain"

See ya guys and gals,

Skye and Ryan