Day 21 — Thursday, July 10

Moosomin to East of Virden
We got up and uploaded a set of blogs, as we had internet at this campground. Turned out, it would be the last internet we’d have for a while.

We hit the road at about 10 a.m., Vanessa and Kelly being the only riders again, and soon discovered a big headwind. To make matters worse, not long after a town called Virden, Manitoba, the shoulder was completely gravel. We couldn’t believe it. Allan and I followed in the van while the cyclists ride on the right edge of the road. Motorists were very courteous and moved over into the left lane to pass us. Many giving us friendly honks.

Vanessa and Kelly had gone an extra 50 km or so the day earlier, so that helped, but they were unable to make it to Brandon today, which was our goal. We were still 60 km away from Brandon when they decided to pack it in. Not a bad idea considering their average speed was somewhere between 10 and 15 km/hour. Besides, we had supper plans.

We were told by Bob Cooney that he had a friend in Brandon who ran a restaurant and wanted to treat us to supper. Awesome! We walked in and met the owner, Cathie Crossin, and had an amazing meal. This was a little fast food joint (yet, still healthy) that appeared to be quite popular with the locals. Cathie subsequently invited us to pitch our tents at her house in Shilo, about 15 minutes east of Brandon.

We set up our tents and hung out with Cathie in the house while a massive storm developed. It was super windy and Kelly and I were the only ones to sleep outside. I thought my tent was going to get blown across the yard on a number of occasions.