A very intense thunderstorm kept us in the tent until 8:00 this morning, dropping just enough rain to make the back roads to Ste Madeleine and along the river impassable. So, another weather diversion. The forecast is also calling for two days of strong gusting headwinds so where do we want to hunker down for a couple of days. We called Assessippi Prov Park and were told that their concession is only open on Fri/Sat/Sun. So, another campground. A call to Rickers campground which is supposed to have a store and a small restaurant, we were told that their water is off and they are searching for a part to repair it. Also a no go. So we decided to head for Roblin, which has a decent campground right in town and restaurants and stores and museums and such! So off we went on a gravel road paralleling the highway a mile to the west. At the risk of starting to sound like a whiner, the province of Manitoba must have a program to cover every unpaved road in a minimum of 2” of coarse gravel. The grid roads were heavy gravel. The farm roads were heavy gravel. The little two-track backroads were heavy gravel. In fact we found a tiny little green tunnel through the trees road that….yes you guessed it, was covered in 2” of gravel! How in hell they got a gravel truck down there is beyond me. 😳 The only part that we rode today that was not heavy gravel was 1 1/2 miles of the TCT that consisted of a quad trail on a road allowance and a mile of a farmer’s hay field. On one section just outside Roblin someone decided that the best way to fix a wet and deeply rutted piece of road was to dump gravel on the ruts and blade it level. Lynne’s front wheel dropped into one of the gravel filled ruts and she went down. Luckily just some road rash and bruises to deal with, nothing serious. So we are sitting on a bench at the Roblin campground with our bellies full of Chinese food waiting to see what the next couple of days will bring. Probably more heavy gravel!!!! 😁