On the Road Again 2012 #3

I am, on occasion, some what apprehensive about where I am standing waiting for a ride. Sometimes the shoulder feels a bit narrow and when a big truck goes by it just feels a bit too close for comfort. Other times there is a serious drop off just past the shoulder and I worry about stumbling and then rolling down into a deep ditch. But in this location on the outskirts of Portage la Prairie I seriously thought about digging through my pack to find some strong rope to lash myself to the guard rails to ensure that I would not be blown across the highway. However as tying myself to the guard rail would be counter productive in terms of getting a ride, I decided to walk further down the road in the hopes that I could find some shelter from the wind. That might have been a good plan except for the fact that to do that I had to go up a small hill that was fully exposed to the wind. With the pack on my back it was all that I could do to walk. It felt as if that at any moment I could be swooped up like a bearded Dorothy and tossed to a different world, or at least to a different county. On the other side of the hill the land was wide open and if anything the wind felt even stronger. The Trans-Canada stretched out in front of me and I could see for miles. And for miles there did not appear to be a spot sheltered from the wind.

I was therefore more than pleased when a large pickup truck stopped. I was surprised that he had stopped because as it passed me it looked like a tow truck with the large lights in back and I thought I had seen a female driver. I was sort of right on both accounts. Linda was a woman and the truck was while not a tow truck, was a working truck. Susan owned a company that acted as pilots for over-large vehicles or rather trucks hauling over large materials or equipment. One sees that sort of traffic all of the time. A large truck with a special banner over the front bumper goes past hauling some large tractor and thirty feet behind there is a pick-up truck with flashing lights. I, like most people assumed that the job of the person following would be boring and easy. I was wrong. Over the next 1,000 km, spread over a day and a bit, I was to learn about the pilot's job.

Susan when she picked me up told me that she was going to Edmonton but she  would probably get no further than North Battleford. While I had heard of that town, I had not a clue where it was. I didn't care. I was out of the wind. Certainly by the time we got close to the "Battlefords" ( there are two of them, Battleford and North Battlefords but the sign says :"Welcome to the Battlefords") she was yawning. We stayed ( in separate rooms) in a Super 8 with me getting her trucker's discount. Susan went to bed early and I wandered across the street for a grill cheese sandwich.

We were on the road the next morning by 6:45.