It doesn’t matter how fit someone is, how prepared they are or the kind of gear they’re toting, they are largely at the mercy of Mother Nature. I was thinking that today as we battled heavy wind, straight into our faces all day long. We only did 88km but it felt like a lot more. We both spent most of the day knuckled over our bikes, riding, focused directly on the tiny cracked and irregular shoulder. I was riding with reluctance, yearning for a day off, but Jellicoe was definitely not the place to park for a full day. Our last day off was in Winnipeg, 1060 km away. Longlac was our next stop, a small town on northern Ontario highway 11 and the very last community until Hearst, 210 km east.
We are fully equipped for camping, with tent, inflatable mattress pads, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, etc., but there is no freaking way I am going to camp out here in this bear, mosquito, black fly, no-see-um, deer fly, horsefly infested part of Canada. Oh, and I forgot, spruce bugs. And it’s been raining every night. Final word, non-negotiable, no changing my mind. I’ll be much better when we get into more populated areas.
Hooray! We got into Longlac! First on my list was a visit to Rexall to buy a cortisone cream for my swollen, itchy bug bites. These, despite that I wear a full bug suit most of the time. Charlie doesn’t seem to be bothered by them much. Somehow the little buggers still seem to get to me, around my wrists, behind my ears in the 20 seconds I have my net off. The bites itch and swell and last forever. And of course, they add so much to my appearance….
While I was in Rexall , Charlie attracted a small crowd of 3 kids who had all kinds of questions about our trip, where we had come from, where we were going, and what it was like to bike across Canada. A man came along, Ron, a retired paramedic, and he joined in the conversation. He has a sign shop but also takes people out kayaking. I noticed that while I had dozens of black flies swarming around outside my bug suit, he had none. He told us that as this was a particularly bad year for biting insects, even he will get the occasional bite but the best thing is to be freshly showered (well, good luck, we just cycled 88km), to add garlic to our diets daily and to avoid eating bananas. I’d actually read that sometime before but it had slipped my mind. We have been eating bananas every day but there will be no bananas tomorrow, that’s for sure! Ron also suggested a local family-owned motel around the corner, the RanDan. 
Marilynn and Claude, married more than 50 years have owned the RanDan since the 1980’s. They have a bunch of kids, grandkids and greatgrandkids. They run the motel, all 17 rooms doing all the cleaning themselves. Charlie likes to shop around for hotels/motels but I took one look at this place and said “We’ll stay here!”. It was very basic but so clean with brand new beds and a kitchenette. Just what we need for tonight and for lazing around all day tomorrow! Charlie rode to the local grocery store and came back with all kinds of good things to eat. We are settled in!!! 
Wendingourway:Across Canada by Bike 2017 
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