CHAPTER 4 Saskatoon to Winnipeg

The weather in Saskatoon had been really nice all weekend, and as I headed out of town there came a strong head wind on me but with no rain. All clouds seemed distant and harmless. This looks familiar , I thought as I stared out at this dark cloudy beast in the south. Then I passed a road sign which stated the distance until my destination, Lannigan, was 8km. No problem.

But by the time I reached 3 km away, the storm had gone opposite of the wind and deliberately circled in front of me and cut me off, I swear it. Immediately there was lightening and hail that i could not escape from. Hail the size of dimes and I'm in a tank top. Some vehicles were honking at me but obviously i couldn't stop. I kept thinking  'Just 1 more km!'

I reach the town and pass through puddles that are actually ponds as i sink up to my bags!
I finally arrived at a subway, everything completely drenched, and there were literally rivers flowing across the streets.  The power shuts down as I'm ordering some food and so I swim (not really) to the nearest motel. And of course 10 min after I'm dry and warm, the storm goes away and the sun comes out again.  Birds are chirping . Business as usual.

The storms love to tease 

So do the Horse Flies!

About 1 day away from Manitoba these flies started bothering me and I was extra bothered by the fact that they were so big and that I didn't know if they were a threat or not.

So I did some forensic investigating. I caught one of the flies (top) and searched the web for a match(bottom).

Ba-zingg. Gotcha. Horse Fly. Oh that sucks.

These little guys did not get a chance to bite me since i would fight them off with short bursts of acceleration. Lots of swerving and swatting too. You can imagine what I looked like. 

That lasted for about 4 days. 

And on that same stretch of highway for those 4 days for some reason there were a lot of birds nests close to the hi-way. None were really bothered by traffic, except for that of

  The Tern!
You'd think cyclists were it's sworn enemy for life.

It started with just one , when I heard a loud screeching . I couldn't quite see where it was because it was hovering behind my head trying to dive at me. He gave up when I started screaming back at him.

Then it escalated to 2 bird attacks and so on.
At one point I remember I started laughing because there was a swarm of horseflies that were following me  and then I startled about 5 or 6 Terns who had all came together for the ultimate defense system  attack. I thought to myself, 'this is a scary basis for a movie.Hitchcock must've had a bad bird experience.Probably not bugs and birds. 1 up.'
All that I could do was yell, swat and pedal as much as I could until they got tired of chasing me. I wish I had a photo.

That's Bunky , who worked at the Carnival in Yorkton, which was their last stop on their Western Canadian tour. Bunky is also known as DJ Bunky.

A machine gun and a cow head.

Just a little piece of Saskatchewan.

This is a church I saw near Yorkton. I pulled over to take a picture (top).

After I looked at it , I thought it kind of had a glow around it.

So I darkened the picture a bit (bottom). 

I'm not saying go to church, I'm just saying, "Cool"

It looked' out of order'.

But obviously it's on.

As I crossed the border between Saskatchewan and Manitoba , I thought back to Al-Sask and expected there to be an in betweenzie town with a hybrid name like Sask-Man. 

But they had not been as witty to come up with such a name.

The border town was Russell, Manitoba. It turned out to be a pleasant little town. With river tubing and close proximity to what they would call a mountain.

I tented on the outskirts of town.No one around.

 I went to bed early and was awakened out of my dreams by this sound.

A sound I could not describe. A sound I have never heard. The next day I searched for sounds on the Internet. I found a match for it. This is the exact sound. I thought Sasquatch. But apparently not.

This is not my video but this is exactly what I heard. Turn it up and listen closely.

It was a weird way to wake up .

The town of Russel, in my books, is Sask-Man.

As I was closing in towards Portage la Prairie I blew a tire.

I unsaddled, changed the tire, and then I had to use the hand pump. Then these 2guys pull over and ask me if I want to use an electric pump. so I said , 'heck ya' 

and I asked, 'What are your names'

They said, 'Bradman and Robin' ......

Indeed they were.

 because these 2 ordinary guys were doing the work of heroes.

They saved me some time and some tubes. 

 Everything seemed to feel right except that Robin was missing a sandal.

He said golfing, and I understood.

Thanks for your contribution guys. You made my journey a lot easier.

Check out what Robin's doing.
He's doing a fundraiser with tribute to his father who has Stage 4 cancer.

Thanks for your Manitoba hospitality.


Friends, Darren and Donna were a warm welcome from Winnipeg. And by warm I mean hot. It was hot in Winnipeg. Thanks for the Oasis you guys. Thanks for the jam Nigel.

And Big thanks to Noah at Peg City Yoga. You have a wonderful studio and fantastic students.