- Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 -

Today's Trip:  85.5km
Total Trip:  2385km

I was pleased my family joined me in Portage la Prairie, MB last night.  I had not seen them for over three weeks and my kids really missed me.  While still in Portage, my crew, my family, and I went out for supper and to the pool; by 10PM I was tired.  Because it would be a shorter trip today I got to sleep in till 7:30.  I had a complimentary breakfast at the hotel and was able to get away about 8:45AM.  It was another hot day.  I covered myself with SPF 9000 (actually being Jenn's SPF 70) which only seems to make your body glisten and attract more sun.

 

I had a mild west wind about 20 km/hr and the shoulders are paved for about half the distance from Portage to Winnipeg, MB.  I am shocked that the #1 highway in Saskatchewan has fully paved shoulders but when you get to Manitoba, they make sure they have laid out more gravel for you to travel on.  Half of the shoulders are paved but the gravel is so thick, if you were forced to hit it then you would surely wipe out.  It made me feel safe to have two cars following me (Jenn and Dan in the tour car, and my wife Sharon, and my two daughters in another vehicle) especially when I am travelling with the semi-trucks.  Everyone was courteous and went around us, most of them waving.

One little red car pulled over and I was not too sure what they wanted, a little hand came out and waved and it was Carmen. She used to work at the shelter for awhile.  Thanks for coming out Carmen.  Shortly after that Dan got on his bike and decided to ride the rest of the way with me.

 

It only took me about 3 hours to reach the city limits and we made a pit stop at the go-kart place (Thunder Rapids Fun Park) in Headingly.  Someone had arranged police escort for us and we were getting a last minute update.  We passed a Tim Horton’s in the Westwood area and a lady was cheering us on, it turned out to be Dan’s mom.  She looked very happy to see us.

An unmarked police car pulled up beside at a red light and pulled us over.  If I did not know better it looked as if we were in trouble breaking some traffic law.  The two officers basically told us to follow him.  And we did.  I was not aware that we would run stop signs and all red lights.  Officers basically put the sirens on as we went thru, it made me nervous but it was nice to have the right away.  CTV news caught up to us a few times but said we were too fast so she had to speed ahead to get in front of the police.  It seemed to only take us about 30 minutes to get from Westwood to the shelter but I am sure it was longer.

I was not impressed to see all the construction in front of the shelter, down to one lane on Route 90.  Apparently, because of the construction, business is very slow for us right now.  Officers led us right into the shelter parking lot where we were greeted with CTV again.  Check us out on the news tonight.  Thank guys for getting us to the shelter safely.

Arrived safely and it is good to be back.  The house dog Fipper was glad to see me, the house cat Big Wig did not care if I was there but he laid in my arms for a few minutes, Buckwheat the orange tabby cat barely looked up at me.  My staff hugged and congratulated me.

On Thursday evening between 4PM and 8PM, we will have cake for the public and it will be a good time to meet and talk to the people about the tour.  Hope to see you there.

-D'Arcy

PS.  What happens if I get a camera ticket??