Done in by the wind in southern Manitoba

Lovely camping in Kenora, Ontario in the Anicinabe RV Park. The privately run camping park is like a zoo. The big RV Albertosaurus beasts, complete with their own satelite TV dishes, have their own section of the park. The bicycle / tent campers, the starlings, have a section on the other side of gravel path. There are many people on bicycles loaded with much the same gear we are carrying, tent, sleeping bags, and the obligatory jar of peanut butter or package of salted peanuts for when your energy flags. Automobiles pulling trailer campers seemed to mix in with the RVs, kind of like zebras running with wildebeast. The one SUV carrying their camping gear in the back was tucked into the motorcycle camping lot, a raven amongst the crows. We were screened off from the big beasts by a dense stand of birch and pines. While we prepared dinner we heard a few loons in flight - I have never heard loons sing in flight before, I have only seen them in the water. We fell asleep listening to the wind rustling.

We stayed on Highway 17 west which becomes Highway 1 in Manitoba. We sought refuge from a thunder and lightening storm at a delicatessen in Falcon Lake, just over the border into Manitoba. Falcon Lake would have been a nice place to stay,but we needed to continue to make progress westward. We took the Highway 100 bypass around Winnepeg and turned northward on 16 towards Neepawa hoping to find another nice campground.

On Highway 16 for 75 klicks my left cheek was smashed by the face pad in my helmet from the steady wind. I'm not sure what it is about this type of wind - we experienced it in in Arkansas a few years ago - it isn't the fight to keep the bike in the lane, it is the mind souring, energy sucking quality that I wanted to get away from quickly. We did not stop in Neepawa, turning south to Brandon, the second largest city after Winnepeg. The wind escaped taking our energy with it; I needed a sugar fix. After a 300 mile day I'm finishing off a bag of Cracker Jack. Peter had apple pie and ice cream for dessert; Cracker Jack is gluten, soy and dairy free so that's my treat.

We are in for more rain tomorrow. Hopefully the thunder and lightning will stay out of the forecast.