Day 23, July 12, Portage la Prairie to Richer

There was another storm last night. I didn’t think my tent would make it at times. The day began well. The tailwind was around 40km/h for the first 20k or so. Then it began to rain, rain, and rain. I remember thinking, “ don’t get a flat,” so of course I did. I was going pretty fast when I hit some raised pavement.

It took me awhile, but I managed to get it in. After about 500 meters, I had another flat. I realized I had punctured my tire. It took me about a half hour to change the tire and the tube. Trying to change a tube and a tire when it’s raining in 40km/h wind is not easy or fun. Especially when the driver has a religious radio station on. I don’t think he knew.

Brett’s parents followed Vanessa and Brett on the highway as I changed my tire. I eventually met up with them on at a gas station where we had lunch. Vanessa friend, a recent U of L graduate, joined us for lunch.

We decided to continue on despite the weather. We took a southern highway to bypass Winnipeg. We passed a semi that had crashed on a bridge 10 minutes before we got there. As we went to see if we could do anything, two min-vans rubbernecking began playing bumper cars.

My rain jacket seemed to have blown away during the windstorm at the last campsite. The poncho I bought at the gas station tore in the wind within 20 minutes. I was completely drenched. I did pushups on my handlebars to keep warm. On the bright side, the wind was with us 80% of the time.

We eventually made it to a campsite, which had a hot tube and showers. Brett and Vanessa went to the hospital to see what was with a sore Brett had. It was a 140k day.