The theme for today was to "rack up mileage."
After a restful evening at a nice Sheraton in Saskatoon, we got the earliest start (9:30 am) and the most miles (493) of any day yet. Saskatoon is the largest city in Saskatchewan and primarily an agricultural center.
Continuing down the Trans-Canada Highway, the landscape is primarily agricultural. While this makes for excellent riding conditions — long, straight roads with very little traffic —it is not particularly conducive to much variety in photography. Therefore, we took very few pictures today.
The primary difference in the terrain in Saskatchewan and Manitoba is the size of the fields. In Saskatchewan, they extend as far as the eye can see, while the fields in Manitoba are still large, but many are bordered by trees or drainage ditches, providing more definition.
There was a gravel pullout at the sign marking the entrance to Manitoba. We stopped there for a couple of pictures. Josh and Jared were horsing around to see if they could spin the back wheels of their bikes and throw the gravel. Jared was able to do this with his three-wheeler, but Josh didn't realize how heavy his bike was and ended up laying it down. No damage done other than a little to Josh's ego, and we had a good laugh after it was all over.
The last two hours were slow going as we encountered a rough thunderstorm and heavy winds. The raindrops were so big, they felt like small hail. We had planned to stop east of Winnipeg; however, it was late, dark, and we were tired. We spotted a Howard Johnson across the street from our last gas stop and decided to call it a day. Another first--a room under $100
A local Chinese restaurant provided us a good meal and we are getting ready for another long day tomorrow. The trip to Thunder Bay is supposed to be more scenic than today's, but it is over 400 miles. Hopefully, we can take some more pictures.
The tentative plan is for the trip to end in Appleton Friday Afternoon. Josh and Jared will fly home Saturday. This schedule remains dependent on the weather and our progress.
