Hi folks…Rochelle here...I'm "guest blogging" the details of today's ordeal! And what an ordeal it was!
Geoff and I left the Emerson Campground around 9:30 AM heading for the border. Understandably, we were questioned thoroughly and eventually, VanGo was "patted down" by the US agricultural guards. Of course, they found nothing ;-) I guess that's to be expected with a VW Van with a peace medallion on the rear view mirror ;-)
After crossing the border, we stopped at the first small town (Pembina) and Geoff got on his bike and headed off. I was to go grab some US cash at the local bank. Unfortunately, VanGo wouldn't start! UGH!! It was just like in the movies ;-) The engine turned over but it wouldn't fire. I gave it gas and eventually I think I flooded it. Meanwhile, Geoff was on his way and we started texting. I connected our two batteries together; got another car to try and boost me; all to no avail. After 6 km, Geoff turned around and came back to help. When he got back, he jumped in the car, turned the key, floored the gas and VanGo started! Yeah!! (Although I was a bit upset with VanGo for playing favorites ;-) We then got on our way and about 7 km down the road, the engine temperature started to rise and we pulled over immediately on the side of the highway. There was no steam so we decided to get going again. Well guess what?! VanGo would not start. We tried everything and finally after 30 minutes called CAA/AAA.
AAA North Dakota couldn't figure out where we were and kept telling me that I wasn't in North Dakota!! ARGH!! They were also complaining because my cell phone kept breaking up (I was barely getting Canadian coverage and the US carrier had yet to kick in - yes, that's how close we were to the border. In fact, when I called, I was first connected to CAA Manitoba and they were AWESOME and very helpful!) Eventually, I got disconnected - ARGH!!! I called back and CAA Manitoba answered again and agreed that AAA North Dakota was challenging. CAA Manitoba then started to plan to tow us back across the border into Manitoba until they finally connected with someone from AAA North Dakota who said she could help. She got our details and finally told me after 30 minutes that a tow truck would arrive in 1-1.5 hours. Apparently, the driver was on another call and would be passing by as he picked up his tow truck, which is what happened. She also mentioned that all the shops nearby were closed and she could not make any recommendations. She told us to get online and find a shop ourselves - again NOT very helpful - which we did. We found Sears Auto Center in Grand Forks and gave them a call. They were open and had an opening after 5 pm. The tow truck driver stopped by after his call, but was unable to solve anything by fiddling around with the engine so he went off to get his flat-bed truck and we had lunch in VanGo. About 45 minutes later the tow truck and driver showed up and we drove the 71 miles to Grand Forks.
That's when the mechanics at Sears started VanGo with the very first try! Are you kidding me?! They drove VanGo into one of the bays and then turned it off. Guess what?! Yup, they couldn't get it started again. Eventually, after sitting for a bit, they got VanGo going again and left him running out front. They really had no idea what was going on and couldn't do anything more. They were apologetic and didn't charge us anything. However, while VanGo was sitting there idling, he started to overheat and coolant began to gush onto the ground. So, he was turned off and Geoff and I were left debating what to do for the evening. The crew at Sears gave us some recommendations for motels and even offered to drive us anywhere we wanted. After several deep sighs, Geoff and I decided to take a chance with VanGo and head over to Walmart (better overnight security and only ~1km away). VanGo started perfectly and the engine temperature for the short trip was fine. After we safely arrived at Walmart, we got a call from one of the Sears mechanics telling us that his friend could work on VanGo and we have a 9 am appointment on Monday. Looks like Grand Forks for the weekend!
To top things off, we've also been having quite a time trying to connect to the Internet. We have several devices and for some reason they are not working properly. As a result, we bought yet another carrier, Verizon, hotspot device (Geoff's pseudo-birthday gift ;-) and we treated ourselves out to dinner at Red Lobster, which was just at the other end of the Walmart parking lot ;-)
That said, we had very nice dinner and are hoping tomorrow is better than today!
So, there you have it…the long, shaggy dog story of how VanGo wrecked Geoff's birthday :-(
When I left at 9 am this morning it was already 18C with a big blue sky. The winds were relatively light and were generally helpful for the first 30 km as I took the Winnipeg Perimeter Road towards highway 75 south. This was really my first major departure from the Transcanada highway since leaving Hope BC. We won't be on it again until somewhere in the Maritime provinces. Highway 75 zigzags toward the US board so the predominately west winds sometimes helped and sometimes hindered.
Along the Perimeter Road, I saw a pretty amazing place called Adrenaline Adventures. Looks like it could be a lot of fun.
I met up with Rochelle in the town of Morris where we had lunch and I rested a bit. I was really hot and tired. VanGo was quite hot inside as well so by the time I got out, it was really cooler to be riding than sitting around. The winds started to die down and were generally tail winds so the additional 42 km to Emerson went by fairly easily. The shoulders were really good on highway 75 so I had a smooth ride with my freshly tuned up bicycle. I got into the campsite at about 5pm after 133 km of riding.
I saw a large wind farm a few kilometres before Emerson.
Tomorrow we cross the border into North Dakoda and head towards Grand Forks. That is another day of over 130 km. There is a prediction of thunderstorms and high winds so maybe it won't be quite so far. There seems to be a communications dead zone between the border and just north of Grand Forks so we will have to resort to old fashion methods of keeping in touch. Mostly by not getting that far from each other.
"Rest Day" did not describe today very well. We packed up VanGo fairly early and headed into Winnipeg from the campground just west of town.
The first stop was Continental Car Service where we picked up a new door release cable for VanGo that we broke in Golden, BC. Bob and Brett at Continental did a great job of finding this part for the 28 year old VanGo and helped us out with a couple of auxiliary bits to put it all together. As it turns out the cable was just a bit too long and the door didn't quite open. A stop at Home Depot came up with slight modification of the system and now the door can be opened from the inside AND outside! The door works better and smoother than when we got it!
Stop number 2 was lunch at The Forks. A funky marketplace with retail shops and little food shops in some old, refurbished industrial buildings. It felt much like Granville Market in Vancouver. We met with Margaret Switala, a talented ArtSites artist, and had a great lunch and conversation with her.
From there it was shopping at various places. We stopped at Mountain Equipment Coop to pick up some new tires and have the bike looked over. $250 later, the bike is in pretty good shape although with well over 5000 km on it since I bought it 14 months ago, it's getting pretty worn. At least the rear wheel does not wobble any more and the rear breaks and shifters work a lot better. I also replaced the 4 week old chain as it was just about worn out already. I bought an extra chains as I will need it before the end of the trip. It turns out it's costing considerably more to keep the bicycle going than VanGo.
It was really windy today and we had a couple of heavy but short downpours. If I had been cycling, that wind would have been head on.
When we got back to the campsite, I installed the new rear tire and added some new lights. I now have 5 sets of extremely bright blinking LED lights on the bike. You can see me coming from a long way off! My rear view mirror on the left handlebar was not working as well as I would have liked so I now have a helmet mounted mirror too. Let's see if that is more effective.
Last night we made some major revisions to our route. We had originally planned to head south east from Winnipeg and towards Duluth, MN, then east over the north end of Lake Michigan, and finally turning south towards the Detroit area. I had some concerns about limited services along that route including almost non-existent cell coverage. I had a new look at other routes and noticed that going around the south end of Lake Michigan, passing near Chicago would only add about 100 km (1 day) to the route and had a number of benefits. These included being able to drop in on some people we thought we would miss, as well as travel though some more populated regions and have much more consistent cell coverage.
Tomorrow, it's back on the bike and heading south. The goal is Emerson, MB (130 km), right on the border with North Dakota. If winds are not favourable, we might only get to Morris, MB (86 km). A hot and sunny day with west winds are expected so it looks like more cross winds from the right again. I think that my tires are wearing a little extra on the right side from leaning into the wind.
It was a tough day today. I had cross winds that started light and built throughout the day. Sometimes they were slightly tail winds, sometimes more of a head wind but mostly directly from the right (south). Although it started out threatening to rain, it turned into a sunny, hot and somewhat humid day. If it wasn't for the wind, it would have been really hot.
I had a constant escort for most of the day. At almost all times there was what I think was a red winged blackbird hovering over me. They would launch themselves out of the tall grass along the side of the road 20 to 50 meters ahead of me and swoop over me for 100 to 200 meters of my trip and then double back to where they came from. I assume this was to protect a nest. When I would stop, there was usually one of these birds that would constantly swoop near me to get my attention and then fly away, watching to see if I would follow. I think it was trying to lure me away from a nest. It wasn't unusual for me to see 3 or 4 shadows of these birds keeping pace with me at any one time. I have seen this behaviour over the last couple of days but today was much more frequent.
I saw this driving range with a lot of Canadian flags very much in the middle of nowhere. When I took the picture, I had not idea what it was but I figured I should capture it.
I think that when I arrived at the KOA campground after 5.5 hours of cycling, I was more exhausted than at the end of any previous day. I'm quite happy that tomorrow is a rest day.
The campground must have flooded this spring. All the trees and buildings have a well-defined water line.
We are just 10 km west of Winnipeg. We have a number of things to do in Winnipeg tomorrow so it's not so much restful as a break from cycling. After that, we start heading south into Minnesota.
Today was a little more normal. I got away late at about 9 am but it was nice to sleep in a bit. It was fairly cold and raining when I left but there was promise of a nicer day in the forecast. At least it was warmer than yesterday and not nearly as windy.
The day's ride was split in two by Brandon. From Virden to Brandon, the scenery was similar to the last few days. Very few hills and mostly farmland. After Brandon, it was more rolling hills and increasing tree cover, less farmland.
My pace was fairly average covering 143 km in 5:45 (not including stops). That was an hour more cycling than yesterday to cover 26 km less. Wind direction can make a big difference. I also found myself to be less energetic today. I find that after a particularly energetic day like yesterday, the following day is less so. I guess I took more out of myself yesterday that I realized.
I have covered enough ground since Regina that I have removed one riding day getting to Winnipeg. We should be there tomorrow.
At 37.4 km east of Brandon a Google street view camera car passed me. In a couple of months I will have to check the street view of that stretch of road to see if I can find myself!
I had my second flat today. This afternoon, about 20 km from Sidney I could hear a 
high pressure hissing from my rear tire just after running through a lot of debris. I stopped but could no longer hear the air and the tire remain pressurised. I continued on but about 2 km further down the road, it finally lost enough air that I had to fix it. I checked for any sharp objects still embedded in the tire and then put in another tube. About 1 km further down the road, the tire started to go flat again. The tube I put in was not holding air. I checked the tire more carefully and I installed my last tube and hoped it would hold. It did.
I had checked my rear tire a couple of days ago and noticed that it was nearing the end of its life. Today, when I looked at it, it hard worn down to the cords almost all the way around. It's cut and has many small holes in it. It likely did not take much to puncture it today given its state. I am pretty sure it will make it to Winnipeg tomorrow where I know I can get the same tire.
It is another 140 km to Winnipeg tomorrow. We've not yet nailed down where we will stay so the actual distance might be more or less.
Burrrr. It was a really cold day. It was 3C when I left at about 7am. It was also raining lightly and the winds were blowing from the north west at 50-70 km/h. In other words, a bad winter storm in Vancouver. I bundled up as well as I could with my winter cycling gear but I was still pretty cold for half of the day's ride. Luckily the wind was at my back for most of the day so I covered a lot of distance very quickly. Usually my average speed drops slowly as the day progresses but today it increased. It was only 28 km/h after the first hour but ended up at 35 km/h by the end of 5 hours.
The pace was so good, I passed our original stop of Elkhorn, MB at the 135 km point and went on to my optional stop of Virden, MB at 169 km. I still had a lot of energy and thought I could go further but it's not a race and I didn't want to wipe myself out for tomorrow.
I passed a number of big wind generators on the route today. With the high winds today, they were likely generating a lot of power. I wonder if those blades that Rochelle saw yesterday were bound for this area?
Rochelle timed her chase very well, arriving at our camp spot about a minute before me. It is nice little campground just on the south side of Virden operated by the local Lion's club.
I got a 7:00am start today. That's not too hard to do because the sun rises very early here in eastern Saskatchewan, especially as they do not observe daylight savings time. There was a gentle tail wind and lots of sunshine.
The wind picked up during the morning but was mostly behind me. The route switched between east and south east. The winds were from the south and south west so there were a few times when the wind got in front of me and slowed me down a lot. Overall, I managed to keep up a pretty good pace of about 26 km/h and covered the 118 km distance to Grenfell in a little over 4 hours.
Just as I came into Grenfell, I crossed the 2,000 km point of this trip! About 25% done! I celebrated with two small pices of chocolate.
Along the way, I passed Indian Head: "A Progressive Prairie Town" and Sintaluta.
Rochelle saw some huge wind generator blades on a train that looked much like the picture above.
I arrived in Grenfell a bit before noon but it took me a while to find the campground. There are actually two campgrounds in this little town and I found the other one first. Eventually I found the Grenfell Regional Park Campground just behind the swimming pool and sports complex. That complex also provides washroom and shower facilities for the campground.
With today's cycling over by noon, I've got the rest of the day to do other stuff. The pool looks inviting!
Tomorrow, we cross over into Manitoba and head for Elkhorn, 135 km away.
We've been on the road for three weeks now. While we've had a few little issue with VanGo, the trip has gone remarkably well so far and we are now almost 1900 km into the trip. Rochelle has done such an amazing job to keep things running smoothy and allowing me to focus on the riding.
Today was a rest day. After 7 straight days and almost 800 km of riding, I thought it might be a good day to just take it easy. It was also predicted to be rainy and some good head winds and the next stop is 118 km away. It seemed like a good day to take a break.
We both caught up on email and I did some fine tuning and cleaning of the bike. I did some ArtSites feature development. I also spent some time researching the next couple of weeks of travelling. As you can see, we have a pretty good computer setup in VanGo with dual screens for both of us. It was quite productive.
In the late afternoon, we decided to veg out and set up one of the monitors to watch some movies and TV shows.
I hope to have a post about the technology that we've been using in the next few days.
The skys are clearing, the wind is still strong but heading in the right direction. That is expected to continue all day tomorrow. I am hoping to get going early as I head out for Grenfell.
It was a short day today travelling from Moose Jaw to Regina (87 km) although some head winds still made it a bit difficult. I may also be a bit tired, having ridden the last 7 days in a row. The weather is not looking great for tomorrow due to high head winds again and the next stop is 118 km down the road so we might take it as a rest day.
Today's ride was very flat. The first really flat ground that I have seen in Saskatchewan. I think because of the head winds, I had the feeling that I was riding uphill all day. It was a bit of an odd feeling like everything was just tilted a bit.
I passed a very big processing operation. I wasn't able to figure out what it was for but there seemed to be some big piles of white tailings.
I arrived at our meeting point, the Regina Costco at about 11:30am. We had something to eat there and resupplied before continuing on to our camp spot, King's Acres Campground, just 4 km further east.
It has been a scorching hot afternoon so we have been relaxing and catching up on a few things this afternoon. It think that it's time to get a little maintenance done on the bike too.
I got a reasonably early start of 8:30am. There was a nice tail wind and I wanted to take advantage of it before it changed.
I passed a sodium sulfate salt mining operation near Chaplin, SK. Piles and piles of white salt everywhere derived from Chaplin Lake, the second largest saline body in Canada.
I passed the two women from Montreal, who had left an hour or so before I did, about 60 km out. I hit 90km at about 3 hours. I was really moving. I did start to slow down after that with some slight head winds from time to time but still reached Moose Jaw in about 4 hours (112 km from Morse). Rochelle had just left Morse so I kept going.
About 8km east of Moose Jaw I got a text from Rochelle saying that VanGo was overheating and she had stopped on the side of the highway near Moose Jaw. After some troubleshooting and waiting for cooling, I turned around and rode back to where Rochelle had pulled over.
I had a look at the engine. It would start gushing radiator fluid about 60 seconds after starting it. It looked like a blown hose. Here was a chance to use our newly purchased BCAA membership. Walker's Towing was out there within 10 minutes and had us to a Canadian Tire within a half hour.
I'm writing this in the waiting room of Canadian Tire - our latest mobile "office". They got VanGo in immediately and quickly told us the relatively good news that they thought it was a hose.
Assuming that VanGo is released today, we will camp in a campground on the east side of Moose Jaw. If not, there are a couple of motels close by.
UPDATE: Thanks to Linda and Ryan at Canadian Tire we were in and out within about an hour and on our way. We are now camped out at the Prairie Oasis Campground.
Tomorrow we will head into Regina, about 80 km away. It's is a relatively short day so that maybe we can get some other stuff done during the day.