On the Road Again 2012 #17

Some days I don't mind sleeping outside on the side of the road. In fact there are times I look forward to it. This particular day I was tired  and would have been quite content to set up my little bevy sack and go to sleep It was almost 9:30, cars were passing me by about the rate of 3-4 a hour and I had about given up hope for a ride that day. I had known that it was going to be a challenge to get out of the NWT and had assumed that it would take more than one day. However I couldn't set up my tent in the daylight - it just felt wrong. So  I  wandered back and forth along the T intersection looking for both a breeze to keep the flies away and for a bit of shade. There was precious little of either.

I was surprised when a small white Prius stopped. Surprised that any car had stopped so late at night but also surprised because it was the first time a white vehicle had stopped. To the best of my recollection I, for the past10-12  years, have never been offered a ride in a white car.  Kaad was originally from Somalia. He had left his home country and as a refugee had done a lot of travelling first to other countries in Africa and then at age 14 to Brazil, USA and finally Canada. His mother and younger brother had ended up in Norway, because they would accept them. He clearly had had a very hard life and it was truly amazing how together he was. He showed no signs of bitterness, nor did he appear to feel that what he done was particularly remarkable. He had ended up in Yellowknife driving for a living. But he had started to hang around with what he called " a bad crowd" and had needed to literally get out of town. In the process of leaving a few weeks earlier, his only valuable possession ( a brand new Prius) had been damaged in an accident. He had left it in Yellowknife to be repaired and had flown up early in the morning from Edmonton to get it.

The Prius is a complicated car and the garage had not done a very good job. The technology that transfers power between the gas engine and the electric motor was acting very strangely and there were times that I was afraid that I was going to be stuck on the road. It would be an understatement to say that Kaad was a fast driver.  But he knew the road well and there were almost no oncoming cars. So I felt reasonably safe.  It is sometimes difficult to know what to do when I am with a driver who is exceeding the speed limit by 40-50 kilometers an hour. If I ask them to slow down there is a very real risk of losing the ride, so I try to relax, not interfere with their driving and put my trust into what ever power that put me in the car in the first place. 

Kaad had a legitimate reason for driving so fast. He had a new job in Peace River and had to attend a training session the next morning at 10:30. He wanted to get some sleep before his course.

Kaad started for me a series of very strange conversations about women. I am quite use to having my male drivers talk about the women in their lives.  However his question was most strange. He started off the discussion by asking why did women prefer "bad boys"? It took me some time to understand the question in part because Kaad's English was sometimes not clear, but also because the question made no sense to me. What he was referring to was the fact that every time he or one of his male friends really liked a girl and therefore treated her well with flowers and supper etc, she would act cold and date other men. But if the guys were standoffish and did not act like they liked the girl, she would work harder at being nicer. Even after he explained it to me a number of times it made little sense. All that I could do was to try and reassure him that in my experience mature women were not like that. I suggested that hanging around ladies that liked to party was perhaps not the best of him finding a permanent relationship.  He either didn't understand my answer or it just did not ring true for him. At any rate it did not satisfy him. I have wondered ever since if I misunderstood the question or if I could have given a better answer.

As we got closer to Peace  River we started to talk about where he would let me off. I think he may have been concerned that I expected to go home with him. (it was his first time picking up a hitchhiker).  I reassured him that I was quite content sleeping outside. He was very good about driving me to the south side of Peace River and tgiving clear directions as to how to get back on the highway.

I found a little forested area just on the outskirts of town and at 3:00 in the morning (as I was quite a bit further south it was finally dark)  I rolled myself into my sleeping bag and was asleep in minutes.