Canada 2016 - Virden to Brandon - TAILWIND!!

Tuesday - July 12
It looks like there isn't much available between here and Brandon so we picked up some sandwiches on our way out of town.

What a difference a day makes. There is a storm off to the west and so we have a tailwind today! 

We are seeing a lot more trees, even some in the median. Notice the shoulder. We aren't sure why some of the info on this route said to avoid Highway 1 in Manitoba.

This flower is a frequent sight off the shoulder.

We are a long way from Corvallis and the Oregon State Beavers.

We are keeping a close eye on those clouds that are gathering to the south and east of us. When we stopped to eat a snack, our average speed was 13.8 mph so we are pretty sure the wind is at least that strong. Sometimes we were going 15-16 mph without pedaling.

It is noon and we already have gone 45 miles in the time it took us to do 25 miles yesterday. Since it is supposed to rain most of the afternoon, this is a really good thing.

We dropped off our gear (it was only 12:30 so our room wasn't ready), then headed to the local bike shop. We did get a little distracted by this pickup parked outside the adjacent store/cafe.

Clayton, co-owner of Stream 'n' Wood, fit us into his busy schedule. He looked over Doug's front wheel and added better rim tape and did some more smoothing out of the rough spot. His help was greatly appreciated. And we really liked the store!

It started spitting rain as we headed up this path back to the motel.

These 2 young ladies didn't seem to notice.

This is what it looked like 10 minutes after we checked in at 2:45. We are feeling so lucky that the tailwind got us to Brandon so early in the day because it looked like this most of the rest of the afternoon and evening. We made good use of the jacuzzi, water slide and in-hotel restaurant. Stage 10 of the Tour de France had an exciting finish. Arvid has made it to Cochrane, Ontario. We might get to Winnipeg by the time he gets to Halifax.