7/18/17 Canola fields forever

It was a yellow day.

We hitched up and headed out ready to tackle a day on the Plains of Canada. But first we had to wrestle Winnipeg. The capital of Manitoba loomed in the distance as Rascal and her riders battled the circumference traffic. Road construction, eighteen wheelers and crazed commuters swarmed around us. And then The Yellowhead appeared. Route 16 was our savior as it rescued us from four lane craziness, to a much lower key ride.

The Yellowhead Trail, Route 16, is named for Pierre Bostonais, a fur trader and explorer who forged this trail and found a pass over the Rockies. An Iroquois-Métis, he was called Tête Jaune, because of his blonde hair. Signs sporting a yellow head denote the trail and farms yellow with ripening canola rim its path. Hundreds of miles of bright yellow fields guided us through this northern bread basket. 

Wallowing in the A+ weather, we extended our picnic in a glade, secluded between highway lanes, oblivious to the world around us. Back on the road, we followed the yellow heads, sang along with our tunes and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our ride. Losing steam in Russell, we decided to save Saskatchewan for another day and put the kickstand down.

Bright yellow sun, the Yellowhead Trail and miles of canola painted our day with the warmest of colors. Exhausted yet contented, our boots relegated to the closet floor, we revisited this day and all that went before. Every time we put our legs over and start the engine, we open another episode of our meandering, and the meaning it brings to our lives together is immeasurable.



A BIG car in Steinbach

The Yellowhead Trail

Silos break the perspective

Canola: Canada's gold

We found a boat

The Yellowhead Route sign

I can't unsee this

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