The Manitoba section of my trip was off to a bumpy start. I woke up just inside the province on a very beautiful man made lake called lake of the praire. It was very promising for me to see such a nice place just inside the province. I woke up feeling great, thrilled to jump on my bike and start pedalling. I packed up camp in a flash and jumped on my bike. Damn! flat tire. That should have been no problem to patch but unfortunately the entire valve was somehow ripped off. I tried my best by overlapping several patches but had no luck. I was pretty much in the middle of nowhere so I was forced to hitch a ride to the next town where I found that the bike store was closed. I phoned the owner and he said that he had the inner tubes so I could get it first thing tomorow. I stayed in the house of the guy who I got a ride from because he was very eager to help me and was a genuinely nice guy. That night we toured around the country side to the town of Inglis a wonderfully charming town with 5 beauitfully restored grain elevators and then went to see the damn where the Assinboine river is damned to form the Lake of The Praire. The next day I went to the bike store to find that they did not have the right tubes for my bike. I was very dissapointed but then the same guy offered to drive me to Dauphin 100 km. to the east where there was surely what I needed. Unfortunately the bike store was closed and neither Canadian Tire nor Wal mart had it. I finally found the name of the guy who owned the store and he agreed to come into the shop and get me a tube. Finnaly I was on my way this time of course with a spare tube.So far Manitoba indeed seemed very friendly.


That day I peddalled to Manitoba Lake narrows and found a beautiful place to camp. My plan was to sart early the next day and make a run for Winnipeg 210 km. away. Unfortunatley I met the staff of the campsite/resort and they got me extremely drunk . I went to bed at 4 Am as the eastern horizon began to get light. I thought about packing up and leaving right then but decided Id better sober up first. After 3 1/2 hours sleep I woke up and rolled my way into the lake to help me wake up, then I chugged down 2 litres of water and ate a big breakfast of oatmeal. I was good to go, still quite drunk and grogy but I was going to give it a try. I pushed hard for 4 hours and was already done 90 km. when I stopped for lunch. However, after finnishing my lunch I felt very sleepy and exhausted. I biked another 20 km. but in the hot afternoon sun I felt like I was going to fall asleep and was barely concsious. I pulled off the road in a grassy field below the shade of some poplars where I dozed off for about three hours. When I woke up I was so exhausted it took a massive effort just to lift my bike up off the ground. I shuffled up to a restarunt where I recharged my energy with some bad coffee and some greasy poutine( french fries with gravy and cheese). I made it another 10 km down the road and then found a beach too camp on.

The next day I had an easy ride towards Winnipeg but I found it to be a very difficult one; This section was extemely barren of trees and stupendously flat. The flatness began to irritate me, it just kept coming at me . It reminded me of the bike machines in the gyms that I hate so much and I felt like I was not moving at all. "Damn it! When will these lonesome praires end, " I yelled out but nobody could here me; nobody was there, nothing. And so I continued towards Winnipeg staring only at the road below me.

At around 2 I was getting very hungry so I began watching for a place to get groceries. I passed a sign out in the middle of nowhere saying Buffet every Sunday and in the distance was a patch of trees and a sign saying "Hitchin'post, Country barbeque house." I checked my watch and sure enough it was Sunday so I rolled down the gravel road towards the restaraunt which actually looked more like a barn. Sure enough thats pretty much what it was a long barn style building with a nice concrete floor. The food was beautifully layed out in a long table. I eagerly went up to pay my 10 dollars and start eating.I talked to the lady for a while and then met the owner who it turned out had passed me that morning on the highway. When I told them my story they insisted that I eat for free. So I replenished myself with two giant plates of Smoked ham, home made perogees, Mennonite Sausage, Vegetables, and salad. Also they insited that I take a T-shirt of thier restaraunt as a souvenir.

Arriving in Winnipeg I settled in at the comfortable Winnipeg HI youth hostel. I contacted my old childhood friend Josina who is the daughter of Puck and Bill who's house I stayed at in Saskatoon. Its always nice to have a friend somewhere and also I was introduced to many other of her friends. They told me about something called Critical Mass and international movement in many cities across the world where cyclists meet in the center of town on the last friday of every month to ride in a group through the busy streets of downtown. It is an unorganized event with no leader and the point is sometimes to promote alternative forms of transportation aswell as advocate for bike lanes especially in a city like Winnipeg which contains absolutely no biking infrastruture. I was thrilled to take part in such an event and so the night before we all drank beer and made signs with statements such as " This is my car," or "I spoke out for bike lanes." The sign I made was " $1.19 / Liter , Why Drive? , Biking is Free!" I actually kept my sign on my bike untill 1000km. later when it disentegrated in a rain storm. Also one of my ideas somebody else turned into a sign was published in the local newspaper" No More Blood Stains, Give Us Bike Lanes," which is funny because I was actually a little drunk and really just joking.

The event turned out wonderfully with a record of about 600 cyclists due to the previous months slightly violent police clash and the publicity that ensued. Riding through the streets of Winnipeg in a giant mob of bikers shutting down the traffic flow felt great after so many weeks being pushed off highways by cars.

On my second last day in Winnpeg my frined Steve, who I met on vancouver Island and was also biking across Canada showed up at the hostel. So all together me, Steve, and Cam took off from their back onto the not so lonesome praire. Already after 100km. the praire gave way to forests as we entered Whiteshell Provincial Park. Wisely we took a road less travelled rather than the Trans Canada Highway due to the lack of shoulders for cycling in Manitoba. Then Finnaly in a terrific moment of joy I spotted something far ahead. It was a rock! The first sign that we were entering the Canadian shield. A vast area of canada is made up of the Canadian shield, the oldest rock fromation in the world over 1 billion years old. Sometimes actaul mountains but usually just rolling rocky forested hills flattened over time by weather and ice. That night we camped in a nice spot but made haste into our tents as the sun dipped below ther horizon because hordes of insects began to emerge. Disgusting swarms that would drive a man insane immidiatley had he no shelter or protection could be heard buzzing around the tent.

We got an early start the next morning and in no time we were in the hills climbing and cruising down all the while through pleasent forest. What a reward! The praires we had beaten but now faced an even longer and possibly more ardous task, that of Northern Ontario right to Ottawa the nations capital 2100 km. away. Manitoba had charmed me with its lakes and the incredible frienldlyness of its people and Winnipeg was indeed very interesting but I was very happy to leave its boundaries, also because I finally felt that eastern Canada was getting near.