Day 17: Friend and a Foe

In the same way that a person can feel completely betrayed by a good friend who once treated them so well, only to turn their back when truly needed, I feel as though the wind and I are going to need to work on our relationship. While some days, it can be such a marvelous thing to push me along at breakneck speeds and jet me across the prairies, other days, it can turn mean and like a tamed animal, suddenly catching a sniff of it's natural instincts, tear its once friend apart.

Now that I'm done being all poetic and deep, I'll put it in the terms I'd really like to use; the wind both sucks and blows. While I thought that I'd be sheltered from the wind upon hitting the trees of the shield, I was wrong about two things:

1) There are no trees anymore... logging here was pretty severe
2) There is no shelter... anywhere... ever. Not from the wind

I had a great breakfast with Nordlunds and tried to get on the road at a decent hour, not because I had a big day ahead of me (so I thought) but because I had another great home which was welcoming me in Ignace. I knew something was horribly wrong though once I turned down my first big hill and found myself only traveling 15km/h. A nice, big SE wind blew right in my face for the whole day and likely shaved a good 5-10km/h off of my speed, nearly every way I turned (since I was traveling predominantly SE).

Otherwise, the day was perfect, proving yet again that I'll search for anything to complain about even when things are great. The sun was shining and the scenery was breathtaking.

I grumbled through the day, taking a few more breaks than usual and uttering a LOT more curses than usual and found my way to Ignace and the McIntosh residence. Unfortunately, Linda is currently in Winnipeg checking up on family, however Don welcomed me and was quick to turn my mood around.

Don is a retired engineer, so it took us about 10 minutes to be as thick as thieves. We've had a great afternoon of discussing everything under the sun and for me personally, he's been a joy to bounce some ideas off and talk shop with. So far, we've had burgers for an appetizer around 4, dessert around 6, and we're about to sit down for dinner at close to 9. This fits my schedule perfectly because at the end of the day, it means I get to eat a lot.

Tomorrow, I'll start my trek towards Thunder Bay and have a few nights in the bush. I've got a day off to look forward to in TB, however am becoming more and more afraid of the 'hills' (read: mountains) everyone keeps talking about around lake Superior.

Mother nature is, as expected,welcoming me with open arms, and a nice big thunder storm tomorrow. Shaun... did I mention that I'm VERY glad we went for the 2 piece rain tent and the warmer sleeping bag?

Talk to you in a few days.
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