Winnipeg

Winnipeg, Manitoba

We are sitting in the Place Louis Riel Hotel in Winnipeg.  The weather has been so hot and muggy that we decided to spoil ourselves a bit.   This is quite a fancy hotel, but, for some reason we got it very cheap.  Maybe because no one comes to Winnipeg voluntarily.  We walked around downtown Winnipeg for a while.  The city seems to lack energy somehow.   The office buildings downtown do not have shops on the ground floor like we see in Victoria or Vancouver.   Telen thinks that is because it gets so cold in the winter that people won’t go outside to shop – they would only got to enclosed spaces.   There is an area near here called “The Forks” which is kind of like a version of Granville Island in an old train station.  There weren’t too many people there either.  

Winnipeg: it sounds like a cheap contest for pirates.

The weather has been very hot.   I am not used to these kind of temperatures and I find them quite debilitating. 

At this point I can also say that I am tired of the prairies.   Granted the riding has not been difficult because there are few up-hills.  The flip side of that is that there are no down-hills.   You cannot coast.  The wind makes sure that you are pedaling constantly – it is a bit like being on a trainer.  With the scenery changing as rapidly as it does it is a like being on a trainer in the basement without a video to watch or music to listen to.   I am getting to be quite the expert on that canola plant…

Two nights ago we stayed in Moosomin, Saskatchewan.   Such an interesting name.  That made me think of some of towns that we visited and their mottos.   The one that really sticks in my mind was Medicine Hat: “the gas capital of the prairies”.  I think they are putting their medicine in the wrong place.  Such interesting names, though:  Moose Jaw, Medicine Hat, Moosomin.  Not conventional names like we have in BC: Spuzzum, Salmon Arm, Surrey…

Interestingly when we passed through a small bend in the road called Qu’Appelle (NOT Ft. Qu’appelle) we found that it had quite a number of garages and car repair places and only one restaurant.  One of the garages was called Ass-Hole’s garage.   I am not kidding!  The restaurant was called Grouch’s café.   I think I don’t want to live there.

Telen writes:

On our way to Winnipeg today, we paid homage to Portage La Prairie.  I have heard of this place from a number of friends who used to live there, e.g. Dr. Ford and his wife Eileen, and Cathy Dexter.  Now I understand why they would want to leave Portage La Prairie!  Before we arrived, I googled Wikipedia about this town.  It apparently has a population of 15,000 and has the World’s Largest Coca Cola can.  This monument is made from a very large wooden barrel.  We found this attraction and I have the photo to prove it.  This is a bit tacky I know.

As I am writing this, a wonderful fireworks display happened a few blocks away from our 15^th floor hotel window.  I am not sure what the occasion is but, hey, the display was spectacular nevertheless.

I have decided that I will not attempt to ride on the highways.  The speed limit is 110 km/hr and the air draught is great.  I feel very nervous hearing these cars and trucks zooming by.  I have persuaded Rand to join a supported cycling tour in PEI later where traffic would be more manageable.

Fort Qu'Appelle

Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan

We spent yesterday in Regina visiting the city.  I have not been to Regina in forty years.   Some things have changed, some have stayed the same.   When you approach a city on a bicycle you get some warning that you are arriving when you seen a road that parallels the highway with tire shops, fast food joints, gas stations and so on.   When you get to Regina you arrive in the city abruptly.   You can see the city from a long way away and all of a sudden you are in the middle of it.  

Unlike Calgary, which is bicycle-hostile, Regina is bicycle-indifferent or more like bicycle-bewildered.  With so much flat land around you would think there would be a million cyclists out there.   We hardly saw any.  People would look at you on the bicycle with an expression of confusion and a little bit of fear.   Children, seeing me in my cycling outfit, would scream and grab onto their mother’s legs.   Mind you, that often happens to me regardless of whether I am in Regina or not – so, nothing new there.  In fact we found out that Regina does not expect people to be out of their cars.  We noticed a dearth of sidewalks but a plethora of roads. 

We had a visit with an old high school friend of mine who still lives here in Regina.  It was great to see him again after so many years.  We got into so much trouble together in our miss-spent youth and we recounted them to each other in exquisite detail.   We added all kinds of new stories.

Some of which may even have been true.

Today I rode from Regina to Ft. Qu’Appelle which is not a long ride.  However, the shoulder of the road, for quite a bit of the way, was ragged.   It had been paved in 1954 and patched in 1956.  Subsequently it had been subjected to prairies seasons and looked considerably worse for having done so.   I spent quite a bit of the time watching the road in front of me and it struck me that I was missing all the scenery.  So I looked up and, nope, hadn’t missed a thing.  Same darn canola plant.

I did beat Telen to Ft.Qu’Appelle by almost an hour.  And she was driving!   Mind you, after I departed she went grocery shopping and stopped at a Starbucks for a coffee. 

That still counts though, doesn’t it?

Ft. Qu’Appelle is a really nice little town right on Echo Lake in the Qu’Appelle Valley.   It has a really nice feel to it.  Kind of a warm, friendly feel.   Mind you it was 31 degrees out today, so that might account for the warm thingy.  We spent the afternoon wandering around the town and down on the beach.   Very nice and relaxing!