July 13 - Neepawa to Portage la Prairie - 107 km

What a change - we woke up to a beautiful day. The sky was perfectly clear, the wind was still from the Northwest but had dropped and it was cool. It was looking like a great day for cycling.

We headed out east on Highway 16, making great mileage (kilometerage?) in the tailwind. The road had reasonably good paved shoulders as well. We stopped at Gladstone for a break and met a group of cyclists with their racing bikes on the back of their car. They had been somewhere south of here for a half Triathlon yesterday and had fought the winds like we did. One fellow said he went 15 km/h against the wind and 70 km/h with the wind!

I stopped to watch and photograph this crop duster out of Gladstone. Check out how he is flying below the level of the trees in the field!

We turned the corner onto Highway #1 and were dismayed to see the paved shoulders disappear on Canada's busiest road. Luckily, we only had a short distance to go on #1 before Portage.

Gerry, Ashley and Leddy tried to check into the Super 8 motel, but found out it was full. However, right at that moment another gentleman dropped by and cancelled a couple of rooms. Great luck!

Laura and I biked into Portage to her cousin's Pat and Ben's place, where we will stay for a couple of days. The others will head into Winnipeg on the 14th and stay there.

Last night we all had dinner at Pat and Ben's, where we devoured Bison steaks that Ben cooked up on the BBQ. Thanks very much.