Stabbing Westward

So, here we are 9 days into a trip, and the last post is a week old describing my first night outside the US. If this seems strange or unusual to you, you're new here. Welcome!

Actually, although this has always been behind since the days when I had to pull out my laptop to make updates, it has never been quite this bad. I'll do better.

The next couple days kind of confirmed what I suspected about the difference between Southern Canada and the northwestern US. That section of the US is about as sparsely populated as you will see, but in Canada it's in the south, where most of the people are.  Winnipeg is a big city, skyscrapers and all, and it was late in the day and I still had a long way to go.  There's a beltway, and it's probably twice as efficient as the boulevards, but there are still traffic lights.

I got into a cheap Comfort Inn had I had booked earlier in the day (which is the ramen noodles and spoon story from Facebook) then plugged in all the electronics to charge, and packed it in. 

When in hustle mode, we try to eat before checking in, in this case hours earlier heading into Winnipeg, and take as little into the room as possible, disturbing as little as possible. Get out the next day's clothes, which for me is a pair of drawers and socks rolled up in a T-shirt, and pack up the dirty stuff. If someone knocks on the door, I'm not dressed. 

Another early start, and a run diagonally across Manitoba to Lloydminster on the border of Alberta, where I had enough time to service my drive chain while packing down some tacos and a 22 from across the street.  When the liquor store had bars on the windows and a cashier behind her own window, I told her it seems like I shouldn't be leaving anything strapped to the bike unsecured overnight. Her response was that, although the town is very nice, and if I were a block off the main drag I would be fine, this is the biggest burg on the road between  Edmonton and Saskatoon, and all different types of people come through there at all hours of the day and night in different, uh, levels of need.

If you're paying attention, this contradicts the earlier statement about not doing much disturbing when in a hurry. And I did leave the camping gear on the bike, the bag for which is kind of locked with a cable, but it's still unzippable although you can't get the bag itself. I left that to chance.

I know enough about enough to know that these posts need photos. I'll do better on that, too.

Gratuitous photo of a giant fishing bobber in northern Wisconsin