Thunder bay to Winnipeg

Day 18

Seriously long day in the saddle think I did more than 700 km today and it was hard going. Got out reasonably on time and started heading out of Thunder bay where it went from quite well built up to nothing within miles and before I knew it I was in the middle of know where with very little petrol and when I typed fuel into my GPS is kept pointing me backwards 60km in the direction I had just come from dilemma do turn round and go back and refill or do I push on and I needed to make the decision fast or I was going to run out anyhow. After a while I bottled it and did a U turn and started heading back there was no one around to ask until I saw someone had broke down on the side of the road and asked him. It turned out that there where 3 petrol stations in Uppsala (Not Sweden), which was about 40 km in the direction, I wanted to go so after another quick calculations decided to go for it. (Bloody GPS not one of these stations showed up on it but all fully functional they probably have to pay to show on the GPS, which is not much use to me!

Found and Esso station in the middle of no where so filled up the bike and had breakfast as I had not passed a Tim Horton’s and was not expecting one for a while on the route I was taking. Long ride between forest and lakes interesting enough but me bum ain’t half sore. Later in the day in Dryden talking to a chap outside Tim Horton’s (afternoon snack of a cinnamon roll and French vanilla drink) and as you do we were talking about sore bums and he mentioned a place up the road that sell sheep skins which are good for long distance riders. Now I have always thought they looked a bit silly and served no purpose but 30 minutes up the road I saw the place and I stopped to have a butchers. Well to cut a long story short I am now the proud owner of a black sheepskin tied to me saddle. It only cost 60 buck so worth a try. Does it work well difficult to tell as I had already done 400km today so was already stiff but I think it did make a difference so maybe there is something to this?

Crossed the border (feels like and looks like a border to me) from Ontario to Manitoba and dived into the tourist info to swop me Ontario tourist blurb for Manitoba tourist blurb and maps and then dived on to a fantastic little back road on my to Winnipeg and thought if the roads are going to be like this when then it all good however this was short lived as the last 80km to Winnipeg the road was straight with not one corner for mile after mile and considering how many clicks I had done today very hard to concentrate. Spotted a bear, which mad me focus a bit more for the final run to Winnipeg. I had also crossed a time zone today so gained and extra hour. Booked into the hostel and had a vegetarian burger for me dinner (Tim Horton Offset) and wonder into town as there was free techno electric music festival so plonked myself down there and chilled to the music. Tough but another good day. Rest day tomorrow and there is another festival this time aboriginals at the forks as well as electric festival at the old exchange square (talking like a local already) went to bed a tired little bear.