On the Road Again 2012 #29

It was getting late in the afternoon and it was hot and dry. I had stood in this location at least twice before. This part of Canada is not the most visually interesting. The land is flat and the roads are straight. However, there was a large restaurant/gas station/ truck park on my right; just in front of me was the turn off to the big moose and I assume to downtown Moose Jaw. So there was lots of traffic and things to watch. But like so many other places that I have stood, most of the vehicles were local traffic and therefore were not about to pick me up. I had some hopes for the trucks that were pulling out of the parking area but none of them even looked my way. At some point I started to second guess my decision to get on the road again as opposed to waiting for Jay.

However, after about an hour and a half a large black pick up (yes another one of the huge trucks that are great to ride in as there is lots of room for my pack and for my legs to stretch out but consume mountains of gas). My driver was going to Regina. So at least I would end up in a major city that had a significant truck stop.  I was quite relieved.

Joe had just hitchhiked to Calgary to pick up this truck and so he was empathetic to hitchhikers. He, when he had move to Regina for a job as a roofer had not been able to afford to drive his truck east, but now after two months working he was able to fill his gas tank and I think, to do some minor repairs on it. It seemed a bit strange that one could not make money in Calgary as a roofer but one could in Regina. But many of my drivers have told me that Saskatchewan and Manitoba are booming and that there are more jobs than people. Unfortunately Jo had a bit of an accent that I could not place and I had some difficulty understanding him. We spent much of the 75 or so kilometers listening to the radio. I think that Jo was so happy to have his truck back that he really didn’t need conversation.

When he asked me where I wanted off, I misunderstood him. When he talked about it being near a number of gas stations and restaurants I assumed that he was referring to the strip of stores, hotels and gas stations at the east end of town. He wasn’t. He was talking about a few small stations at the west of end of town. I was a bit disappointed when I realized that I was nowhere near where I wanted to be. It was now getting close to 7:30. I could tell that it was going to get dark soon and I was stuck in a city that I did not know and one that in the past has not always been good to me. However I had no choice but to make the 30 minute walk back to the highway and look for a good spot to stand (Jo said it was only 15 minutes but he must walk faster than me. He also gave me his phone number so that if I got stuck in town, he said I could stay with him for the night… another great driver who was prepared to trust me- after only an hour of driving with him. How incredible!!)

I found a spot – chosen in part because it looked as if there was a spot to sleep – right in the middle of a large traffic cloverleaf- but it did have some low lying bushes to hide me from the car lights. It would, I thought, be interesting brushing my teeth the next morning with rush hour traffic zooming by me. I was ten minutes away from calling it a night when he another large four door pick-up truck picked me up. In the front seat were two young men. I suspected, looking at the age of my driver, that he had not had a driver’s license too long. They were just out for a drive. They were not joy riding or being silly and they certainly were sober. Neither of the young men had ever picked up a hitchhiker before and they were so excited about it. They had a thousand questions that just bubbled out. Even before I had answered their first question they had two more questions ready. They were happy to drive me to the east end of town and the Husky gas station.  It was a short ride but a great one. They really got me out of a jam. I hope that they will carefully pick up others. Perhaps they can start a trend in that part of the world.

As I was getting out of the back seat of the truck I felt obliged to warn them the hitchhiking could be a bit risky and that they should not drive home and tell their moms that they wanted to go out on the road. They both assured me that they were not going to tell their parents about me at all!

It had been a strange day. I had not travelled nearly as far as I had wanted to. Part of that was because Jay had been very (unusually so) conscious of his gas mileage and seldom went over 109 km an hour on a highway where I have frequently travelled at 125 km an hour. I had also spent a fair amount on the road watching cars going by me. But I had had three drives and learnt some things. My last two drivers had either offered me a place to stay or had gone out of their way just to help me out. Not too many mile in terms of the road but I had made, I think, three new friends. Which I guess means by any method of measurement one could use, that it had been a good day.