Day 22 — Friday, July 11

East of Virden to Portage la Prairie — 204.5 km
It turns out that the top of Allan’s tent blew away during the night so everything that he stashed inside when he set up the tent (as he thought he’d be tenting last night) got drenched. We had a good laugh about that. We also had a good laugh when he told us how he slept on the bottom part of a bunk bed and when he woke up the next morning, he forgot where he was sleeping, sat straight up, and smoked his head on the top bunk. The best possible start to any day.

We thanked Cathie for her hospitality, then headed back into Brandon where I was going to get my bike “fitted”, which would hopefully help my knee. We went to the bike shop and after fitting the bike and putting toe clips on my pedals, I noticed a significant improvement. I couldn’t believe it. I’d already decided that today was the day I would try riding, and this was encouraging.

We drove out about 60 km west of Brandon and were dropped off at the exact spot (thanks to our GPS) Vanessa and Kelly left off yesterday. We had a tailwind. Nice!

The riding started off well and felt great into Brandon. Climbing one hill just before Brandon kind of hurt which worried me. I also had my knee wrapped with a brace, so it was snug. We stopped at a gas station to eat and it actually hurt more to walk than it did to bike. In this video I interview the other riders.



My parents (Rich and Ruth) were driving down from Provost, Alberta to meet us for supper. I was keeping my eyes open for them. They said they’d just catch up to us. After eating, we took off for Portage la Prairie, which with the tailwind made it a lot more attainable, despite already have done 60 km and starting at about noon.

I think my parents must have went by us while we were eating at the gas station. I phoned them and they were nearly at Winnipeg already! They didn’t see us on the road so they kept heading east. They turned around and met us just west of Portage la Prairie and provided another follow vehicle for us. Awesome!

We finally made it to the campsite which was 10 km further east of Portage la Prairie. We set up camp and all went into town to Boston Pizza where we all had a good time reminiscing about the day and sharing some stories with my parents. It was really nice to see them. We decided that we’d all have breakfast together the next morning too. We headed back to camp while my parents went to a hotel.

Not a bad day. My knee felt great and I got to spend time with my parents. I didn't think I'd be doing my longest ride ever on my first day back but my knee felt surprisingly well.