Day 24 – Churning out the Miles (Minnedosa MB to Portage la Prairie MB)

The temperature today was in the mid 80°s and not a cloud in the sky. Since I was on breakfast crew, we got off to a late start (8:45 A.M.) after feeding everyone a hot pancake breakfast, packing up our tents, and loading the truck with everyone’s luggage.


I decided to ride alone and basically got into a rhythm pedaling at a pace which kept my heart rate between 60% and 75% of maximum. My speed was between 18 and 22 MPH which allowed me to churn out the mileage. I wasn’t too interested in sightseeing (more prairies) yet I still managed to stop and take 32 photos.

For future riders of the Tour, the bakery in Gladstone MB (about ¼ mile off the main highway Rte 16) is well worth the detour – great pastries, and great ice cream!!!

It turns out that the unplanned theme of the day was “Really Big Things” starting with my record sized pancake finishing off the remaining batter – the hardest part was getting the “flip” without having the pancake fall apart.  

It seems that the telltale sign for a town of any size in the prairies is a large farm equipment dealership at the east and west ends of the towns. They usually have huge farming equipment lined up alongside the road looking like huge insects. Here is a shot of one of the machines – to give you a perspective of its size, my bike is leaning against it (front center).

One of the canola fields on the north side of the highway went from the road to the horizon, which in the prairies is a pretty long way (easily over 3 miles). The biggest single field we have seen so far.

Occasionally as we are riding along the road we will see oversized trucks carrying type of machinery or another – thankfully all of them have been heading in the opposite direction, so we are not forced off the road. Here is a collection of what we saw today and yesterday:
 

 

I could probably ride my bike under the middle of this without hitting anything!!!

Towards the end of the ride, we passed by a huge grain elevator – basically a collection facility replacing all of the individual grain elevators which used to mark each prairie town. Again, to get a perspective on the size of the facility, if you look at the bottom of the photo, you can see a diesel locomotive (the small blue “box”) in the foreground.

 

After 85 miles of riding alone, at 20+ mph in the heat, I decided to quench my thirst at the local A&W in Portage la Prairie – again following the “BIG” theme.

Great riding, great weather, but we are getting anxious to see something other than fields of grain.