June 22 - Manitoba -- here we come

First activity of the day was to clean the mud off the bike -- looked much better!! Got a later start after a previous long and tiring day -- away at 10:00am. The plan was to go to Winnipeg today and stay with a friend for a couple of days, but due to a newly 'broken ankle' on the part of our host, we thought it better to skip the visit and bypass Winnipeg. Just a few kilometres inside the Manitoba border, the trees that surrounded us much of the trip come to a sudden and abrupt end --- welcome to the prairies where at times you seem to be able to see forever. Warm and sunny. Oh, oh ---- some major storm clouds to the west and north. Maybe we'll get lucky and miss the 'severe lightening and rain storm' since we're heading off to highway 2 (south of the Trans-Canada) to get more of the small road and small town experience. Yes -- we did bypass the storms and that was a good thing. Made an ice cream stop in small town Manitoba -- the pause that refreshes. Decided to go to Virden for overnight. Nice little town and a rather good and inexpensive meal. Beer goes well with whatever we were going to eat. Nightfall is late, as we are now 'north of 49'. 665 km today.