May
28/06, Sunday Day 24 2174 Km's
Sunset
Motel, Portage la Prairie, Manitoba 102 Km's ~ 4:35 Hrs
Hard
shell again tonight. Last night was miserable with rain &
lightning. Hail & lightning woke me at about 6:AM. We hung out,
hummed & hawed and watched the weather channel looking for a
break. The forecast was for thunder storms, damaging winds and
possible tornados. We left the room & went for the brunch buffet
at Chicken Coral. About 12:30 the winds shifted from northeast to
northwest and we started out.
Rain
started at the edge of town.
Stopped
at the junk shop about
an hour out of town
and met the owner, Phil. The
place was supposed to be a gas station but his major business seemed
to be selling anything that would sell. The place was jammed full of
machine parts, toys, food, appliances, chemicals and junk.
Doug
got some tape but it won't have smell on it :-(
Had
a little trouble with my shifter and Phil sold me some oil. The
mechanism had been wet and oily and picked up some sand and grit that
was inhibitting its action. It had been passable while the rain was
falling and the water kept the grit loose. Now that the rain had
stopped things had stiffened up.
It's better now.
Caught
a tailwind away from Phil's and did 30+ for about 45 minutes. In fact
after the first hour out of Neepawa we hardly dropped below 20 Km/Hr.
Caught another tailwind on the turn south to the T.H.C. junction and
had another, shorter, speed run. I was getting pretty tired by then.
In
this area T.H.C. has no paved shoulders. Just edge of the lane then
1" drop to gravel shoulder. Lots of traffic makes me wonder why
people would choose this route.
I
must say that the drivers on this part of the T.H.C. were quite good
about sharing the road with us. No one seemed to panic. People
steered wide, giving us about a half a lane on average. They probably
see cyclists riding this section of road on a daily basis during the
summer months, unlike the some Saskatchewan roads.
We
settled into our room at the Sunset Motel, sort of. I don't recall
the rain starting and stopping again but I do recall spreading my
clothes on chairs outside the room to let them dry. The room itself
had been recently steam-cleaned. It was humid and the carpets were
damp. It would be another night of not being completely dry as I
slept.
Before
bed, we went to the sports lounge across the street for a beer. We
came to the agreement that the waitress was insane. She talked to
people who weren't there. Drew drinks then poured them down the sink.
Drew drinks and placed them on the bar where no one was sitting.
(There were only 6 customers in the bar, including us.) Got our order
for two draft beers wrong. And when we left, what she charged us had
little relation to what we'd ordered or received. Neither of us
argued about the drinks or the bill, thinking it best to just mosie
on out of there.
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