Friendly Manitoba

Hanging out with Grandpa in Winkler. He still takes the stairs and insisted Karen give him some of her stuff to carry.

This past week was filled with several milestones. We made it into Manitoba on May 29, and then on June 1 we made it to Winnipeg, which we had planned to be our second big rest stop after Edmonton. May 30 was also a significant milestone because we had our first day of tailwinds, which allowed us to do our first 200+ km day from Pipestone to Crystal City.

It’s been a great week for tapping into our Mennonite roots. We spent an afternoon with my grandpa in Winkler eating apple pie and ice cream. In different towns we stayed with friends, family, friends of family, and families of friends. When we finally made it to Winnipeg we had a classic meal of kielke (rolled-up noodles) and schmaundt fat (cream gravy), homemade buns, and farmer sausage at my aunt and uncle’s place. There’s nothing quite like Mennonite fats and carbs to refuel us.

We got to Winnipeg just as the smoke was getting really bad, so we would have had to take a few days off regardless of what we had scheduled to wait for the air quality to improve. The smoke forecasting hasn’t been consistent so we’ll take it one day at a time. At worst we can bus to Kenora or Thunder Bay, or possibly head south and bike under the Great Lakes if the smoke is better there. We love and miss Winnipeg, but we’d also like to continue on soon and not spend the whole summer here.


Hanging out at The Forks with university friends 


This is probably the last week of being in the prairies and seeing friends or family regularly. From here on in, it’s back to just Karen and I, and the kind strangers we come across, as we head towards Ontario.


“One scoop of Dunkaroo ice cream and one scoop of Lucky Charms ice cream, please.”

Karen’s Manitoba book of the week: A Boy of Good Breeding by Miriam Toews


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