24   Tuesday, September 23   Brandon, MB

First full day in Manitoba, and the roads have gone
from bad to worse. The shoulders, pitiable at first,
have now disappeared completely, leaving me to ride
on the road itself. This is fine, until a vehicle
comes up. Then I am forced onto the gravel of the
side, where my very skeleton is shaken, rattled until
I am weary and worse. Then, I am left to fear for my
tyres, if not my sanity, until the monster passes,
and finally, finally, I may let myself back onto the
road, forever looking back until the coming of the
next car. Okay, so I'm over-dramatizing. I've always
had a bit of a flair for the melodramatic, hehe. But
I still yearn for the roads of Alberta. They were
good. Brandon is an interesting place. For a city boy
like me, one of the few smaller cities that I feel I
would be content to live in. Although the nightlife
seems rather... wanting. I encountered a great line-up
stretching fully around one of the blocks downtown. My
interest piqued, I went to check it out, thinking that
maybe there was a band or somethign in town. No, just
the movie theaters, as it turned out. What was
playing? "Air Force One" and "Men In Black"... come
on guys, these are months old!! AS I said, though,
Brandon is a nice town. Situated in the middle of wheat
fields, although as I have stated, the general trend
is towards more trees, and less wheat; most of today
was spent riding through light forests. The change is
gradual, though. Coming into Alberta, the change from
mountain forests to prairie took less than half an
hour, now it's days and days getting out. Winds have
changed again, as it seems to strike their fancy to
do often around here. Now, maybe I can make some good
time tomorrow... Portage, if I'm lucky.