122 kilometers through Winnipeg!

Well the sleep was pretty poor last night since all of the buildings in the campground seem to illuminate the whole park at night. That however can be negligible but the security guy booting around the campground on his motorised quad until 2am was not. I wondered how long it would take me to get a sniper rifle so I could shoot him.

In the morning I ate a grapefruit and some bread with peanut butter before packing up and getting back on the road. The wind was with me again and I was making good time despite my little butt problem (your probably tired of hearing about it so I will leave it at that). Near Winnipeg there is a crop with a light purple flower that almost looks like a little lake from the distance. Very beautiful indeed when mixed with the yellow canola crops gracefully blowing in the wind.

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Last night felt the full furry of a Manitoba storm. In fact it was just like the Saskatchewan storm with a little more thunder and lightening but no tornado or hail. It was hard to sleep but I think that was really because I ate a chocolate bar before bed. I am really eating a of food these days. No idea but full breakfast, pre lunch, lunch, afternoon splurg, dinner and about 6 bottles of water and/or Gatorade. Sometimes I wake up in the night and eat as well.

At around 8am (I am on Central time now) I was woken by loud thunder again. Outside there was lightening and torrential rain. I got up and jogged passed literal streams of water to get to the Clay Pot Cafe to get my “Donated breakfast”. Breakfast was excellent and waitress wanted a picture so after getting ready I came back with the bike for a proper picture. By then the rain had stopped and it was nice and cool to start.

Back out on the highway I hit a 500 meter gravel patch where the shoulder should be and grumpily road in the gravel to the other side where I complained bitterly on Twitter. It was unnecessary and undeserved since the road was good except the last 6 kilometers into Portage la Prairie. And who can complain when they have a slight tailwind anyway?

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145 kilometers, time is not accurate.

I was feeling pretty ambitious after yesterdays ride but I was quickly put in me place by the wind. Though not strong it was enough too keep me around 20km/hr in the beginning. I really didn’t have breakfast so I pulled in Elkhorn for the classic bacon and eggs with hash browns. The owner is saving up money and plans to sell the place and move to Cuba. Not a bad retirement plan if you ask me.

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231 kilometers, my farthest ever!

With all the rest I had in Regina I was surprised how rusty I felt for the first 50 kilometers. I was still making good time though as I had a tailwind, nothing epic but anyone pedalling the opposite direction would be slowed down. As Regina disappeared behind me the road was more or less flat and gradually straightened out into a south easterly direction toward Manitoba.

I got in a 100 kilometers before noon and arrived at my originally planned destination of Wosely. I knew I was going to go further today but I wanted to check out the town as this is part of the “Hamer” road which is Wosely to Wapella. There is a lake on one side of the town with a little swing bridge and the town hall is an old brick building that is over 100 years old. It is quiet a beautiful town with trees on both sides of the road often with the treetops touching over the middle of the road making it nice and shady it the hot summer sun.

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Actually this is untrue, I really liked Regina and had some time to relax and catch up on some things.

The first full day I was there I contact a radio station and a couple of newspapers. No bites yet but it was good to talk to some media. I then checked out my coach at the Saskatchewan hall of fame.

Then proceeded to have a few too many beers at O’Hanlans pub in the downtown core where they have a beautiful park buzzing with dragon flies. Literally there were thousands and not a mosquito in sight. Mom don’t worry I had this former CFL’er looking out for me.

The group he was with were a lot of fun and Rachel took the lead rounding up some donations. I took a cab home but it was dicey as Dan Jeffries would say.

The next day I spent catching up in the nice shade of a tree facing Wascana Lake. I also took a tour of the Legislative building.  I rode around the eastern side of the lake had dinner and called it a night.

Then came Canada day. I participated in the strong man competition by watching. Then I decided to go get my bicycle as a prop and ask people for donations. I hit a lot of nice people and raised $182! You can see the list of names a href=” http://adollarakilometer.jeffglen.ca/2012/07/02/canada-day-donors-from-regina-raised-181-50/” here!/a

That about sums it up but I really enjoyed it and would love to go back some time!

Epic tailwind – 195 kilometers

A little update between yesterdays post since I posted early. I went into town for dinner and there didn’t seem to be a restaurant. I came across two young men, really 8 or 9 year olds who mentioned the Elk hotel. They really seemed to be a lot older in maturity, maybe they were thinking of roughing up the city boy. Totally kidding but they seemed excited that a subway restaurant was coming to town this year. Anyway I headed to the Elk and when I walked in there was complete silence and everyone was starring at me. I said “hello” and one of them said hello back as they all watched me go sit down. After about 15 minutes a waitress came by and as always people warm up to me quickly. I probably didn’t need more food but I had the fried chicken which was a cholesterol nightmare!

Okay sorry to bore you. At 4am I woke up to the howling wind, I had to look outside to check the direction: it was going my way. I was thinking about getting up but slept in to 6am before getting packed etc. I was off by 7:30 and the wind was massive and for the first time a tail wind! I went into a zone right away. For those that do not bike, you do not question or wait to admire a tailwind you get out there and crank out the gears. Even though I had to pee I did not stop until 38 kilometers in because you never know when the the road or wind will change direction. It was a challenging wind as well since it was from the South West so the southerly gusts would give the bike a good jolt. I had to keep a tight grip on things which meant my hands started to go to sleep after a while.

I took my first drink of water also at the 38km because it was not safe to have only one hand on the handle bars. Again cyclists understand. This is like a powder day for skiers, you just go and ask questions later. Around Chaplin lake I had a few surprises (please stop reading if you are my mother or a sister), the first being the paved shoulder disappearing and being replaced by loose gravel. I think I got a little lucky and hung on until I got back on the road. This was unpleasant though because I had to ride on the road. It was a good kilometer before there was about a foot of shoulder which was still unsavoury. Eventually the shoulder expanded again, keep in mind I still had cross winds gusts from the south so I was a little nervous out there. Then it happened again, this time it looked like gravel but I wasn’t sure and when I hit it there was no option to turn out of it, I had to ride it out to a complete stop. I think this one was luckier because I was going 40km/hr and in gravel things happen really fast and I wouldn’t have been able to clip out. After that a another slim shoulder for quite a while. This is a bad stretch of road folks and you need to be careful here.

Most stretches felt like no chain and I had a stretch of 45km/hr for about 4 kilometers without much effort at allow. I rarely got out of the big ring even on the hills where I would only slow down to the low 20’s. I loathed to stop for pictures but I have to do it because sharing the story is very important and some of you folks paid for some road. Earl your stretch kicked ass!

I arrived at Moose Jaw and was immediately beaten by the wind since I was now heading South into town. I met with reporter for the Moose Jaw Herald Lisa Goudy for some photos since we had talked on the phone yesterday. Hey I made the paper!

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I finished the journey from Vancouver BC to St. John’s NL on Thursday August 30th. However I will continue to post me (I am turning Newfie, I meant “my”) whereabouts here for those interested in my remaining travels in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Thursday, September 13, 2012 – Halifax
Friday, September 14, 2012 – Halifax
Saturday, September 15, 2012 – Halifax?

As of Tuesday September 18th I am safely home in Vancouver!

61 kilometers of green

I woke up at 6am but was dead tired and didn’t want to move. I slept in to about 7am before crawling out of my little hobble. I was in a total funk and couldn’t wake up but preceded to pack things up very slow a methodically. I probably took a good hour or so before I was ready to go. I went to pay the caretaker Ron Marcia and he turned around and donated the money to the cause. He told me that he had no problem donating to someone working hard biking across the country. I really appreciated that statement.

Off I went up to highway 1 and made my way to the edge of town where I did some stretching since the body was a little stiff and hadn’t woken up yet. The weather was clear but cloudy and a slight head wind like the day before. It is more hilly than yesterday but I am making okay time considering I am not putting much effort at all, simply going through the motions.

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185 kilometer details

This was the biggest ride to date and although not the hardest ride I was done by the end. I woke up around quarter to 5 am still brooding over yesterdays defeat. I was ready to go but it was still dark so I laid in my sleeping bag before packing up and getting on the road. There was an erie mist surrounding the whole country side and the sun was barely poking through the haze to give a few hundred meters of visibility. I figured it was safe enough as there was next zero traffic.

I rode for maybe 5 minutes with no wind, yes this is correct no wind, until I came upon Saskatchewan in the form of a rest stop. I took a few pictures but didn’t want to lose any opportunity with the wind being asleep and all. The road was kind of hilly with mist hanging off the tops of the hills. Any traffic that passed me soon disappeared about a kilometer ahead as if entering the Bermuda triangle. Though hilly I got over 30km an hour on some of the downhills and actually got into the big ring once.
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48 kilometers of hell

Every day we always start with the best intentions. Though a little mentally and physically tired I got up early thinking maybe I sneak into town for a little bit before making my way into Saskatchewan. Before heading off though I wanted to tighten up the rear rack since it seemed a little loose. After applying a little pressure the lower mounting bolt broke – shit! Now I was in trouble sort of. By this time Randy had come by and he said he had a drill and at the very least could get the bolt end out.

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