So today (June 7th) was another big day. I rode another 230km and made it to Kenora, ON! The wind was mostly at my back which made it much much easier to maintain a decent speed.
Strange things in Kenora….
I made a special milestone today outside of Winnipeg, the longitudinal centre of Canada. I stopped for the oblogatory photos of course. Also when I made it into Ontario I also stopped for photos, but alas I had no one to share my triumph with.
Center o’ Canada 
Entering Ontario!
Kenora is a surprisingly beautiful town. The Lac du Bois is huge and with many inlets and islands making it look like it would be a lot of fun to sail around in. The towns-people were a bit stand offish and when I asked for a folding tire at the local bike shop they just stared at me blankly. “Why the tire?” you ask. Well, I ran into a young couple in the Winnipeg hostel who were riding across the country as their honeymoon or something. They were cycling much smaller numbers than me as far as distance but they were doing it everyday! No breaks!
Lac Du Bois
Anyway he was telling me that the only trouble they’d had was his tire got shredded on the road for some reason but they couldn’t figure out why. luckily they had a spare tire and now they had two spare tires. I hadn’t really considered that possibility and so I wasn’t worried about it until they mentioned it. Anyway i’m doing just fine without one.
I did however change my first spoke. All by myself! I know it isn’t exactly a ticker-tape kind of thing but it was still cool. It was actually the first trouble I’d had with the front wheel the whole trip.
Another reason for the big number today was the bugs. I had this swarm of about 100 horse flies (large wasp sized bastards too) follow me the whole way! They were sometimes drafting off of me and sometimes not. Of course I couldn’t tell if the same ones followed me the whole way or if they called ahead for re-enforcements and then traded off.
They would dive-bomb my helmet and make a solid “thunk” when they hit. They had some mass behind them. Occassionally one of them would get stuck in my helmet and it would buzz like mad until it got loose again.
Anyway I never got bitten but my speed didn’t drop below 29km until I got to Kenora!
I also realize I never wrote about Winnipeg.
Its a nice city but a little run-down. They really need someone to teach them how to make concrete that doesn’t crumble. I stubbed my foot on a piece a metal that was sticking out of the ground while walking around.
People seem a bit paranoid too. They have roll down shutters on most of the businesses, and everyone told me to be careful with my bike. I guess bike theft is common or something.
St. Boniface.
I went to St. Boniface and got a nice young lady to take my picture with the rue “Hamel” sign, just like my family had some on our trip across Canada 25 years ago. I also saw Louis Reil’s tomb and was so shocked at how little I knew about him I bought a book. Here is a synopsis
For those who don’t know Louis Riel was an intelligent man who had the good fortune of being sent to Montreal from the Red River area to learn English. The Hudson Bay sold Rupert’s Land or all the land that drained into the Hudson Bay to John A Mac Donald’s Canadian Government. That included the Red River area. Local Metis (half French-half Native) settlers became uneasy because there were no provisions in it for them. In fact they found out about the deal in the newspaper.
So the Metis formed their own provisional government, with Louis Riel as their leader, to negotiate with the Canadian government. The Manitoba act, drafted by this provisional government allowed Manitoba to join Canada. Unfortunately this shameful time in Canadian History saw Canada fuck over the Metis, break several promises and use Louis Riel as a scape goat.
Later, poor Louis cracked under enourmous stress, and started another revolution in Saskatchewan, in the Cypress Hills area. He was captured and hung. The constitution that he wrote however was a shining example of what a fore-thinker he really was.
Louis Riel’s Tomb “Bon Courage Louis!”
Louis Riel Walkway.
La Rue Hamel
While in Winnipeg a Summer storm came through and I got this neat photo 
Stats:
Distance: 230km
Time: 8:29
Ave: 27.2
Max: 54.1