We have arrived in Minnedosa after a long day and are staying with Katherine’s relatives for the night. Our updates will be posted shortly! We ended up climbing 300m today. We thought the prairies were flat!
Entry to be posted soon!
Update from Katherine:
We started the morning early but got held up a bit because we made pancakes for breakfast. They were good! Around 8am we headed out of Portage along the bike lane by the lake. Just lovely:)
We cut up from the lake onto the TCH, where we met the worst piece of road so far on the trip. The section between Portage and the turn off to Hwy 16 had no paved shoulder at all. The shoulder was large loose gravel, with an a bit of a flat spot near the grass. Traffic was heavy with trucks and we decided to ride exclusively on the shoulder. It was a very bumpy ride and we were glad to see the turn off.
Once we got onto Hwy 16, things improved a bit. The shoulder was narrow but at least there was one and the truck traffic decreased a bit. We cycled along nicely and made some quick stops in towns along the way. Adam took some pictures of the alien-like farm equipment going down the road.
At lunch time, we decided to stop in Gladstone, home of the giant “happy rock”. We headed into town at the first exit off the highway and stopped at the bakery downtown. It was a nice prairie town. Adam had an amazing looking sandwich and soup and eclair and I had a coffee and some of our own food. Everyone kept stopping on the street and asking us where we were from and about our bikes. We were nice and full and headed in search of the “happy rock”. We biked down to the town park but couldn’t find it and so we headed out of town on the west exit. We later learned from my aunt that it was on the highway between the two exits! Oh well, no big loss.
After lunch, we found that the truck traffic had really increased on the highway and we had some close calls with some giant farm equipment going down the road on flatbeds. For some reason, these vehicles do not have lead vehicles…making things very exciting!
The day really warmed up and we pulled into Neepawa for some much needed cold drinks and a break from the heat and the constant review mirror checking.
Once we left Neepawa, the road improved tremendously and we had a wide shoulder the whole way! It was gorgeous. As we approached Minnedosa, we had some exciting encounters with two dogs. I am definitely not a dog person, so even friendly dogs make me nervous…Adam photographed the encounter….very exciting!
We got into Minnedosa right at 7pm and went straight to my aunt and uncle’s place. Dorothy and Don were amazing. They fed us a wonderful roast beef dinner with homemade bread and apple crunch for dessert. Yum! They also let me give their washing machine a workout with 3 loads of laundry AND fed us a great breakfast in the morning. Dorothy even gave us half a banana bread and cucumbers and roast beef for lunch! Thank you Dorothy and Don, we appreciate it!
Trip Around The World 
Whoo Hoo – Saskatchewan here you come! Hope you get some great weather and a gentle tail wind to push you along to Alberta. What an amazing journey you have had already – and the Rocky Mountains are yet to come! Amazing couple. See you in about a week.
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