…And Relax


We were exhausted coming out of Edmonton, so when we arrived in Winnipeg all we did for a few days was relax. Neither of us had access to our bikes yet - we put them on the Greyhound (easier and cheaper) and mine was coming a little later because I got a new one! We sold our mountain bikes (don’t worry, we’ll get new ones eventually), and it just happened to work to our advantage for us to trade them at a bike shop against a new road bike for me. I’m not complaining. I won’t go on about it, except to say that it involves a lot of carbon fibre. It’s more than I deserve.

So, Winnipeg was our chance to breathe before the final leg of our journey, and it was refreshing indeed. Myra has only been there twice in small doses, the last time with me for Christmas last year, so this was her first real look at the city.

In her words: It’s a comfortable city, and cute. The aesthetics are better than Edmonton’s, and it’s got more character. You really can’t, however, top Edmonton’s river valley, (seen here) and I wholeheartedly agree.



When our bikes arrived we immediately assembled them and headed out as much as possible, up until Myra’s incident. It was just one of those things. A blind corner on a bike path, Myra was looking somewhere else, some other guy comes sauntering by a little wide, Myra manages to avoid him, but finds a tree instead - and at a pretty good clip too. She was pretty banged up, but the hospital gave her the green light, so all is well. A scary moment nonetheless.



Bike injuries are the strangest things. It’s almost never in a blaze of glory, and almost always something stupid. We came out of a 24 hour mountain bike race (in the mountains, yet) unscathed (mostly), and Myra gets worked on a paved bike path in Winnipeg, finding pretty much the only tree around. Such is life.



The rest of the time was safely spent with friends and family, at home and at the essential Winnipeg restaurants. We even got out to Gimli (the lake, not the town) for the day, which was fabulous.



It was great to be home, and I got to see my new nephew for the first time, who is cuter than cute. My sister just keeps churning out perfect kids.



With two and a half weeks, you’d think we’d have seen everything in Winnipeg you could, but we missed a few things, and a few people. Next time. I guess there’s not much to report, it was just a good relaxing time. I’m glad I’m not there anymore so I can look forward to going “home” and visiting. With one last bbq of my mom’s unbeatable burgers (and my dad’s giant new bbq), we were out, early in the morning, with most of our belongings on our back, destined for a long wait in Toronto, and then the UK.