On the Road Again 2012 #13

Hitchhiking is at least in a small part like Yogi Berra's "deja vu all over again". There are logical places to hitchhike from and consequently I stand in those spots fairly often. Like my second attempt to get out of High Level, I had spent a few hours there the day before and now I was going to stand in exactly the same spot for another few hours. I had had a great nights sleep and felt refreshed. I suppose I could have and even should have had breakfast, but I wanted to get Yellowknife and that old fear of missing the perfect ride would have spoiled my meal. So I was on the road by7:15. ( I could have done it earlier but I needed to wait until 7:00 so the office would open and I could get back my $10.00 key deposit)

As usually I could have stayed in bed an extra hour, had a leisurely breakfast, slowly wandered over to my particular stretch of highway and still have had time to get a bit bored. But then if I had stayed in bed I would have missed watching the town get ready for the Canada Day parade. All of the town fire trucks, the town maintenance vehicles as well as a few floats went by me, heading I assume, to the start of the parade. Of course there would be no fire works...what is the point if it does not get dark.

I did not get a ride until 10:00 - but what a great ride!!  Dale was a nurse working in Fort Simpson, another couple of hundred mile north of the turn off for Yellowknife. She was driving a medium sized camper van, coming back from a family reunion/niece high school graduation affair somewhere in BC. It was only the second time that  I have ridden in such a vehicle and it was a delight. I am not too sure if Chester the dog approved of my company but Dale seemed to like me enough to drive me a long way.

Like so many of my drivers she was a kind hearted generous person. I say that not because she picked me up but also because of how she spoke about her family and the community she worked in. Dale was proud of her job, her community and the Northwest Territories. I think she was quite delighted that I had so many questions about the health care system and life in general in the region. There was so much that I did not know. For example there was no bridge across the Mackenzie river (or the river leading to Fort Simpson either - Dale had to call a friend to make sure it was running). One had to take a ferry. I was initially concerned as ferries can make hitchhiking more complicated, but Dale assured me that they were free. Our ride was full of little bits of knowledge, stuff that perhaps would have found its way into a Trivial Pursuit game on Northern Canada. I was absolutely delighted.
However the high point of the trip until that point was Dale asking me if I wanted to stop at the tourist welcome centre at the 60th parallel.  Normally I don't bother stopping at such places but I did this time.And as you can see Dale even offered to take my picture. That is a first for me. Inside was very well done.......with lots of stuffed animals including a huge polar, and musk ox, some caribou and some smaller animals as well.  It was very nicely done. Because it was my first crossing of the 60th parallel I could have gotten a certificate - but I didn't think that I had any way of getting it anywhere without getting it crushed. I am sorry I didn't get one

The other thing that was surprising about the NWT was the number of horse/deer flies. There were hundreds of them surrounding the travel home, Dale, me........anything that breathed.The front of all vehicles were brown with dead flies. I didn't get bitten by the loud and annoying beasties but I suspect that if they had landed on me they would have taken a fair junk out of my arm or where ever they decided to chew on.

The other thing that Dale did for me was to stop at Elizabeth Falls and take me for a walk. The falls were quite amazing and I was glad that she had suggested it. It was not much of a campground if one was using a tent. I am not sure if I could have handled the flies all of the time but if one had a RV it would have been very nice.

I debated going to Fort Simpson with the Dale. It would have been a very interesting trip and I would have met lots of people. But I got off at the "T" intersection, Dale continued up the road and  I turned right.  There are some rides that are iconic or so memorable that a trip seems to revolve around them.  Dale's ride was one of them. She had got me to the Northwest Territories and she had enjoyed my excitement over being there...no she had fueled my excitement.

I had erroneously assumed two things when I decided to head north. (a) that once I got n the highway to Yellowknife virtually all of the vehicles would be heading to Yellowknife and (b) that Northerners are naturally friendly and would quickly pick me up. I was a bit off in my assumptions.