On the Road Again # 26

I am now back in my apartment. I am obviously somewhat behind in my blog postings..... I will continue to discuss my trip in sequential order.

I awoke reasonable refreshed and ready to be on the road again. I had thought about staying in Winnipeg for a day and a half so that I could catch the east bound Via train on Monday afternoon. If I did I would be sure to get back to middle Ontario in time to make the wedding on Friday. While I like Winnipeg, I have never had much luck finding places to eat and I did not want to spend hours walking around with nothing to do. As well the thought of hanging around for 36 hours in a house that felt somewhat unwelcoming was not that attractive. Besides I had done so little hitchhiking this year that I wanted a few more rides before I hung up my pack for the season. So I made the decision to trust in the people who travel the roads.

The bus stop on Portage Street was only a few blocks away from the hostel.  Within 45 minutes of waking up I was at the necessary bus stop. Winnipeg has this really neat electronic system that tells you when the next bus is coming,  Unlike in other cities where there can be some anxiety as to whether or not the bus is coming or if one is even at the right stop, this system takes all the worry out of using  an unfamiliar bus system. The first bus driver was as helpful as all of Winnipeg's bus drivers have been to me. He without hesitation told me which bus I needed to get and where to make the connection. I got off of his bus ten minutes later, waited ten more minutes for the next bus and within half an hour I was at the end of the line. One could not ask for anything smoother. I do however, wish that there was a bus that got me closer to where I needed to be.

It is a long walk, at least an hour and a half, to where the Trans-Canada hooks up with the ring road.  The multi-lane highway was surprisingly busy for a Sunday and while on a couple of occasions I did try to hitchhike it just did not feel as if anyone was going to stop. It was going to be a warm day and withing the first 45 minutes of walking I was already wondering if I had made a mistake in deciding to hitchhike all of the way home. I had walked for well over a hour when I decided it was time to drop my pack, drink some water and stick my thumb out for awhile. While I didn't realize it at the time, I was only about two kilometers from the junction. I was delightfully surprised when a small car slowed and stop. I assumed that it was some guy out doing messages on a Sunday morning and that he would just drive me to the junction of Ring Road and the Trans-Canada. which would have been great.

I was wrong. The car was driven by a young woman and she was going all of the way to Vermillion Bay, Ontario which was a good three hour drive. I had stopped there before and I knew that there were restaurants and places to buy water. It also meant that I would be taken well past all of the tourist/cottager spots around Winnipeg. Getting a ride to the other side of Kenora meant that the traffic on the road would be more likely people heading east towards Thunder Bay. For a Sunday morning ride - I was pleased.

Susan was 29 years old and was heading home to her family in Red Lake which is 2-3 hours north of Vermillion Bay. Red Lake is a mining town that like all such towns in the north has gone through a number of bust and boom cycles. It is a one industry town and if you don't want to work at the mine, then other than a few service type jobs such as working in a store for minimum wage, there is nothing to do.

Susan was planning  to head to college in the fall. She was nervous about it as she had been out of school for some time. So we talked about that. Susan struck me as a hard working, organized person. She certainly seemed bright enough to do well in school. Hopefully I was able to give her some useful suggestions - but in fact she knew everything she needed to know to do well. She was committed, ambitious, and had a life plan. Unless something unforeseen occurs to derail her, she will do wonderfully. In fact I suspect that she could easily become a class leader. The PRN course was being held in her home town which makes all kinds of logical sense except for the fact that all of the students knew each other. I think post secondary education works better when one has the sense of starting something new, where old roles or personae can be changed. That is hard to do when everyone knows you.

We also talked about growing up in a rural area and the complexities of working and living in a mining town. Susan had worked for the mine for a couple of years and had had some employment difficulties in terms of being harassed etc. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when I hear these stories, but I am. I guess I expect that if the bosses are not enlightened at least the unions will be. The sad fact is that as long as our communities and our places of work are shaped by a patriarchal system, women will not have full access to the protection we all deserve.  It was an interesting conversation. I always enjoy talking to Northerners - they have an unique perspective of the country. It is not surprising that they so frequently feel as if the rest of the country does not understand them.

As always when I am in a car driven by an interesting person, the ride ended far too soon. But she was going north and I was heading east and then south.