On The Road Again 2012 # 18

I woke up as soon as I felt the first splatters of rain upon my bevy sack. As I quickly gathered my stuff and jammed it into my pack so that it would not wet I realized that I was not camping where I thought I was. The previous night I had thought that I had found a quiet wooded spot out of sight of people. In fact while it was on a dead end street and there were a few small trees around me, there was a fair amount of traffic passing me mainly because I was camping across the street from a trailer park. I was a bit uncomfortable as I went about my business of getting ready. My neighbours were a bit too close. However as it was still early in the morning I don't think anyone really noticed me.

I put on my rain jacket and started the 20-30 minute hike up to the highway. There were lots of vehicles on the road heading in the same direction as me but all of them were going far too fast to even notice me. It was hard to find a spot that felt comfortable to stand as the shoulders were somewhat narrow, the road curved gently so the sight lines were less than ideal and I was not sure if the drivers between their sips of coffee and talking on their cell phones were really paying attention. For most of them this was just another working day and already they wanted it to be over.

It was a cold and blustery day. The sky was a slate grey and it was promising to rain all day. I kept on hoping that I would get a ride  before it started to rain. I did not want to look like some sort of drowned rat to these northern Albertan drivers. Fortunately a vehicle stopped just as it started to rain fairly hard. I am always grateful for a ride, but this time I was far more grateful than usual. Art, who I think could be accurately described as being early middle aged, had been visiting his girl friend in Peace River. It was not until some time later in our drive to Edmonton that we realized that she lived and therefore he had spent the night in the trailer park across the road from where from where I had slept the previous night.

Art along with his older brother owned a company that cleaned the inside of the  boilers used in the processing of pulp. It appeared to be a very lucrative business that allowed him to have lots of time off and to have lots of money. Art when he found out that I was heading to Jasper and then the west coast, changed his route so that he could let me off at the best exit. I think he was a kind and generous man...... except for his attitude around women. Art was the second of my drivers who had some strange ideas about how to treat women.

Art had just come back from a trip with his girlfriend of over five years in his large travel home. They had travelled though parts of BC visiting her friends. They had according to him, had had a great time.( I shall not repeat the stories of great sex while he was driving). While it was a long term relationship, they only saw each other when he was working in the Peace River area. It sounded as months could go by before they saw each other again, but according to Art his girlfriend had understood the "rules" before they got together.  Both parties had been satisfied with the arrangement. It all seemed like a nice situation. The only minor fly in this image of pseudo wedded bliss was that her son did not like him a lot but Art was not worried about that. There was however, another minor stumbling block...... (It is significant to know that we drove together for almost two hours before  I found out about this little problem)

Art was married and had been so for a number of years. It was not that great of a marriage according to Art as all she wanted to do was to watch TV in this beautiful house that he had bought for her. She knew that he had a girlfriend and according to him, she didn't care. However the matter had come to a head both because he wanted to buy a house in Arizona and he would have preferred to live there some of the time with his girlfriend (as opposed to his wife) and his girlfriend had given him an ultimatum. She was tired of sharing him with his wife and wanted him full time. However if he left his wife, she would get half of his assets and he would lose her company during those time he couldn't get north; if he didn't ;eave his wife then he would miss the great sex and a traveling partner.  He wanted my opinion as to what  he should!  

My only comments were (a) I didn't know, and didn't want to know any women who would allowed themselves to be treated this way and (2) that he needed to make a decision and stick to it. I also suggested to him that it was unfair to both women that he had the best of both worlds when his partners did not. Much to my surprise, Art was not unreceptive to this suggestion. He was genuinely confused as to what to do. He did not want to lose any money but his girlfriend was more fun and perhaps a better life partner.

Art was not immoral in the usual sense of the word. He was a caring man who went out of his way to get me to where I wanted to go. I don't think that he would  steal or intentionally hurt people. But he did have blinders  on when he came to thinking about women. If he was happy then they had to be too. One has to wonder how a man can live until his middle age and not have that attitude adjusted by someone.

Art left me off just north of Edmonton at the turn off to Jasper. I had gotten out of the north much faster than I thought I would. I was feeling, in spite of the weather, pretty good. Rockies here I come!