On the Road Again 2013 # 23

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.

It was now close to 5:00. The sky was rather gray and it seemed likely that it might rain. All around me were expensive hotels and what appeared to be a large shopping area. Salmon Arm is a charming town that sits on the shore of Shuswap Lake. I have walked through the town a couple of times and it has always struck me as a town that could be a comfortable place to live. The small downtown core is full of interesting shops. While I have only ever been there after the shops are closed, I suspect it could be be quite lively on a busy Saturday. Unfortunately, like so many other towns along the Trans-Canada, it has gradually become urbanized especially along the highway. There are parts of it that are quite unrecognizable as compared to the town I first stayed in a decade or so ago. Long gone is the motel I stayed at where the owner practiced her violin in the quiet of a late summer's evening, and the main road is now a four lane highway that is challenging to cross - I can't now imagine 2-3 guys trying to push a car along it to get it started as I once did. More importantly there was nowhere for me to sleep anywhere near where I was standing. The fields were long gone.

There has been a gradual change who picks me up along the road. While on the Islands women have always been generous, I do not expect to get a lot of rides from women once I am on the Trans-Canada. Last year however, I got four long rides in various parts of Canada from women. I however, never expect to get rides from women who have children in the car.  I was therefore surprised perhaps even shocked when a van stopped driven (as I later found out) by a grandmother. In the car seat behind her was  her one year old granddaughter. It was an interesting ride for a number of reasons not the least of which was I clearly was picked up because I had a job to do. Alice had to be in Indian River (east of Regina) by 10:00 the next morning. That meant that she had to travel just over 1300 kilometers in about fifteen and half hours. While that was certainly quite do-able she would not have a lot of time for sleep. Alice had seen me on the road, kept on going, thought about it and then turned around to pick me up. She had seen "Calgary" on my sign and thought that some company at least that far would help her get through the mountains safely. I think she was quite happy when I told her that the other side of my sign said "Winnipeg" and therefore I would be able to travel all of the way with her. I also think I was her first hitchhiker in at least a long time. She had picked me up but she was not that comfortable with a stranger in the car. I am not surprised that she was concerned and perhaps a little surprised at her decision. I had been on the road for 36 hours and in all of that time I had not seen a mirror. I suspect that I looked, to say the least, a bit scraggly. I fairly quickly gave her a quick sketch of myself in the hopes of re-assuring her.

I was never too sure if I understood all of Alice's story. She share the story of her life in bits and pieces. Critical pieces of her life were not shared until we had been in the van for a number of hours. I don't think it was because she didn't want to tell me, but rather that she knew her story so well that she could not imagine any one else not knowing it. Alice had had three boys - two of whom were grown up and had left home. Both of these sons had had children but were not living with the mothers of their children. In at least one case the mother was quite unfit and Alice was working on have her and her husband made legal guardians. Because this was happening in Alberta (as opposed to her home province of Saskatchewan) things were a bit more complicated. The fact that Alice had had some difficulties in raising her own two older sons also made the question of her adopting the children somewhat problematic.

So we talked and talked and talked about her life, her struggles with the child protection folks in two provinces, about home studies, lawyers, bureaucracies and the complexities of trying to figure out what was the best thing to do when there are children involved. Alice was frustrated and angry. There appeared to be some mixed messages coming from the social workers that seemed to encourage Alice's combative stance. She wanted to keep on fighting the system but did not know whether it would be worth it. She was prepared to spend a lot of money in court to gain guardianship but the toll of driving back and forth was exhausting her. She was fortunate that her present partner was both reasonably affluent and appeared to be highly supportive. Somewhere east of Calgary in the middle of the night I think I helped her find a strategy that would get her what she wanted and at the same time avoided a court room battle that I think she could not have won.

We only stopped a few time. Each times I loaded up on caffeine. I knew I would pay a price for drinking both an energy drink and a couple of coffees. My body does not tolerate that drug but I was also aware of how tired I was. If I didn't stay awake, then neither would she; then she might not get to the camp to pick up her 12 year old son who would be waiting for her. When I first got in the van we talked about her napping and me driving for awhile but as the miles went by she seemed to be fine. We ate a meal at Husky somewhere along the Prairies and breakfast in Moose Jaw (at a restaurant called the Prairie Oasis- that I had stood beside a number of times and I had always been curious about. It was a neat restaurant full of older local farmers. I would have stayed longer if we could have). At both stops her granddaughter woke up and ate with us. However, for most of the trip she slept. At one point I wondered if Alice was slipping her something in her bottle but she woke up far too quickly as soon as we stopped for that to be true. I don't think I have ever known a child who slept so much.

We got to the little village of Indian Head in good time. Alice let me out at a gas station just off the Trans-Canada. She was planning to go down the road a little bit and see if she could find a place to pull over and nap for an hour or so before getting her son. I was envious. A nap would have been nice. It had been a great ride in terms of distances covered and when. When I travel all night it feels as if I have gained back some of the time that I have lost just standing on the side of the road. I had been on the road for 53 hours and I was almost half way home. If I had had a schedule, I would have been right on time. It had also been an interesting ride. There was certainly lots to talk about. It had been a while since I had had to talk for 15 hours - but I had done it and proved myself useful.


On the other hand I had gone through the mountains at night and therefore had not seen some of my favorite sites, nor had I had chance to observe any of the damage from the early summer flooding. I had missed saying both hello and good bye to the mountains this year.

Bread and Circuses - addendum

While I can appreciate that some Canadians are affected by the cost of cable, cell phones or even on occasion by Air Canada - those issues do not affect all of us all of the time. However, the cost of fuel for our vehicles affects almost all of us directly or indirectly.

If the Government of Canada really wanted to help the consumer they would would stop the price fixing of gasoline that occurs on a regular basis. Anyone (with the exception of the government anti-trust inspectors) would realize that there must be some sort of collusion between the oil companies. All one has to do is to watch the prices bounce up and down in concert with every other gas station in the area. For example on Thursday in my area gas cost $1.16, on Friday (the start of a long weekend) the price was up to $1.21  and now on Wednesday the price is down to $1.17. The explanation that oil prices fluctuates at the well head does not explain why the prices move up and down so rapidly in a smooth and clear connection to other gas prices in the area.

To say it is a coincidence that all gas companies decided individually to adjust their prices up and then down at the same time substantially stretches my definition of coincidence beyond usefulness.
So government - I know it is against your philosophical belief to interfere with the market place - but could you, if you are going to interfere with the market (in terms of cable or cell phone providers) anyways - could you please also stop this blatant price fixing of gasoline prices at the pump.

Not that it would make me vote for you - but I would perhaps have some respect for you when you say you care about the consumer.

Bread and Circuses

Youth unemployment/under employment, student debt, the environment, the exportation of raw resources, the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, euthanasia, the deterioration of our infrastructure, the lack of public transport , the scarcity of affordable housing, the total absence of a national day care policy, racism, homophobia, the extraordinary disconnect between what the First Nations of Canada need and deserve and are owed as compared to what they are offered and of course the senate- the list goes on and on. All are issues that that are complex in nature and that will require the intelligence and compassion of all Canadians to resolve.

According to CBC, in the throne speech tomorrow, the government will continue to be focused on the economy. That is - they will create legislation that enables their political agenda (code words for support their right wing political base) of sound economic policies. In other words they will continue to do what they have in the past - allow the land to be raped, permit large corporations to do what they want and maintain their personal vision of Canada that is at best out of date and in fact reflects a reality that never did exist.What they won't do is deal with any of the above issues in a meaningful fashion.

On a positive note they are going to suggest that they want the cable companies to "de-bundle" their services, that cell phone companies reduce cell phone costs and that Air Canada stop over-booking flights. All of which would require some regulations in those industries - something the Conservatives have been reluctant to do. So we can assume they will not do those things but will be able to gain some credibility amongst those Canadians who have lost the ability/desire to think critically. Hopefully for most of us, we will see these plans to act on behalf of Canadian consumers - exactly that. A calculated plan to blind us from looking at the more important issues.

The government is also going to announce more funding and plans for the continued celebration of the war of 1812-14. A war that is only marginally interesting to a handful of Canadians while being totally irrelevant for a large geographic proportion of Canada. In fact with the exception of teasing some American fellow travellers about why their White House is white - the war never enters my thoughts. I don't think I am alone. We are also going start the celebrations for Canada's 150 birthday - which is not until 2017. Nothing like a long build-up.

So the government is going offer us more parties celebrating an event that had little consequence and suggest that things will get better if we just trust them. Sorry Mr. Harper -potentially better access to some specialty cable stations is not enough to convince me that I should trust you.

On the Road Again 2013 #22

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.

The first words out of my older driver was "please!!!" I looked at him a bit confused. He then grabbed my sign that said Calgary and said "you should put the word please on your sign. Perhaps them more people would stop for you". He then went on a five minute rant about how many hitchhikers he sees but how none of their signs ever have the word please on them. It was an interesting comment that I have never heard before. I was a bit concerned that this guy was going a long distance and that I would end up being yelled at for the next six or seven hours. It was not a pleasant thought. But after his rather brief comments (although it didn't feel brief at the time) it was a reasonably good if short ride.

My driver was a bit of a racist when it came to discussing First Nations issues (I don't remember how that topic came up - I had had clearly no control of the conversation from the second I entered the vehicle). There were the usual comments about them being lazy and expecting too much from the Canadian Government with little or no understanding on his part of the cultural genocide that has been perpetrated upon the Indigenous people of this land. I have since wondered if my driver was just a bombastic speaker. That is he said everything loudly and forcefully perhaps either because no one ever listened to him and therefore he thought saying things stridently would get other people's attention or because he was a bit of a dominating control person/bully and did not know how else to engage in a conversation with a stranger. Regardless I decided to just let him say what he wanted with me trying to slip in the odd opposing point of view when ever I could. Fortunately for perhaps both of us, he was only going to Chase which meant that we were only together for 60 kilometers. If I thought about it, I would have bet that he would let me out at spot that he would tell me was a much better spot than where he found me. I would have won that bet. He did say exactly that.

He let me out a gas station. It was not a better spot. However, on the other hand I was a bit hungry. With the exception of a couple of apples and a granola bar, the last full meal I had eaten had been on the ferry 30 odd hours ago. So I bought some water and  peanuts and as I munched hand fulls of peanuts and guzzled water ) water seems to weigh less inside me than carrying in on the outside of my pack) I made sure that all of my pack straps were tight. I then crossed the highway and stuck out my thumb. There was a bit of a curve so the sight lines were not great and the shoulder was a bit narrow. I was fairly sure that I would not get ride there but would need to walk up the road a piece. I would have started walking but I was quite sure that there was not a better spot for quite a few miles. I was feeling lazy and that I had done my share of walking that day.

I was delighted to be proven wrong about it being a bad spot when a large pick-up truck stopped for me after only being there for five minutes. In comparison to my previous driver, my new driver was an absolute delight. He was the kind of person who gives everyone hope for the future. He was 26 years old and from the Maritimes. He had come to B.C. with his girlfriend and her little girl to find a job so that he could support them well. He told me that he had easily found a job on a road crew and seems to have quickly been promoted into a more responsible position. He had a great work ethic but at the same time was clearly not prepared to pushed around by his bosses. He was already looking for a job that would be more permanent/less affected by the weather and the whims of a boss and would offer more chances for promotion. When I thanked him for stopping at what was a bit of a tricky spot especially for a large truck, he quickly brushed away my comments saying ' I was going in the same direction and I had room, how could I not pick you up?" If only more drivers thought the way he did! He was a decent young person working hard to support his family. I liked him a lot. I hope he does well and gets to be in a position where he can be a model for others. He would make a great teacher.

Unfortunately he was only going to Salmon Arm, less than an hour down the road. I was starting to be concerned that I would be faced with a whole series a short rides with potentially long waits in between. I had gotten stuck in that pattern a few times along this road. Short rides from locals are great but they consume time and don't get me very far. As we were getting close to Salmon Arm he asked where he could let me off. While my traditional answer is always "as far as you are going", Salmon Arms like so many towns along the Trans-Canada is stretched out. There is also a significant long hill at the other end of town. I knew that if I had to walk through town and up that hill, that by the time I got to the top of the hill it would be getting late. My chances of a ride would be diminished and I would have to find a place to sleep. So I told him that if he had the time I would love a drive to the top hill. He said "of course, I would feel bad if I was at home knowing that I had left you to walk up the hill". As I said - he was a decent guy.

He let me out at the top of the hill at a gas station. I crossed the gas station parking lot, scrambled down and then up a deep ditch that was thankfully fairly dry and was once again standing on the highway with my thumb out. It was just pass four o'clock. I had been on the road for ten hours and had gone less than five hundred miles. I needed to increase my speed somehow. Of course of all things that I think I have control over - I know that I have none over who picks me up and how far they are going.