On the road again (finally) part 5

When standing on the road on the outskirts of Medicine Hat there were literally 100s of cars zooming by me every few minutes. The other side of Brooks there were perhaps 3-4 cars passing me by ever 10 minutes. It is part of the frustration of hitchhiking that one never knows (until a car stops) where all of the cars are going. If the majority are only going 10 minutes down the road, then it is understandable why most don't stop. But one never knows.

The mosquitoes were surprisingly bad at this intersection. Tiny little things -hardly worth mentioning except two had the gall to bite me! I was quite delighted when a another van stopped to pick me up after being there for less than 1/2 an hour. My driver was unusual in that he was Asian. I have talked to Asians in the past as to why one never sees an Asian hitchhike. One answer is that it is so foreign to their culture. To hitchhike would suggest that the person was too poor to travel any other way. Not too sure how true this is and when I mentioned it to my driver he was rather non-committal.

My driver was off to Calgary and would get me near a C train station. I was delighted. He ran his own company selling kits for solar water heaters. This is impressive for a couple of reasons.   Medicine Hat is the sunniest city in Canada (not the warmest- just the most days of sun per year) and therefore would seem to be a good location for a solar business - however,  it is self labeled as the natural gas capital of Canada. A city that is built upon the natural gas industry and therefore is committed to the logic that the availability of natural gas is unlimited. It would seem as if solar power would be a hard sell. And according to my driver it was. He had only been doing it for a year and business was still pretty slow. I admired his courage. It was one more bit of proof for me that we need immigrants for their innovation and desire to be successful.

He was surprised that I knew so much about solar and other types of alternative energy. I suspect that he had not meet many people in the west who could talk about it.

It was a short drive but enjoyable. We stopped for a bathroom break at a small little park just outside of Calgary. It was the same one that a trucker had stopped at a few years ago for a few hours of sleep.Because we had arrived in the dark that time I was never too sure where it was. It was nice to see it in the daylight. It is a delightful little place and so well hidden. It is almost as if they don't want anyone to use it.

One of the things that I learned as we approached Calgary  is that it now has an almost completed ring road. Of course the city is expanding so much that the road will be soon encompassed by houses, but at least now folks are who are going further west do not have to drive through rush hour traffic. Mt driver was gracious enough to go out of his way and get me to the train station. A nice man and I wish his business well. By 12:35 I was at the C train station

In the past I may have maligned Calgary bus drivers for being the worst in Canada in terms of being both unfriendly and unhelpful. I think I have been unkind. I was asking the wrong question. Looking like I look with my pack on my back, I assumed that by asking for the west end of town it should have been evident what I wanted. It wasn't and I have spent hours wandering the city, walking far too much trying to get to the Trans-Canada. All I needed to do is ask to go to Olympic Park - and they get me to when I want to go without fuss. The Calgary transit system is clean, efficient and generally seems to run on the honour system. I did buy a ticket at a machine but no one ever asked to see it. As well, in spite of the fact that the city is built for cars - pedestrians are well looked after in terms of safety - although sometimes climbing the stairs over the tracks and road ways can be a bit tiring.