On the Road Again 2015 # 8

At some point in the wee dark hours of the morning I was awakened by rain hitting my bivy sack, and a rather impressive thunder and lightning storm. Or rather it would have been impressive if I had had time to enjoy it. As it was, I was struggling to find the zipper to close up the hood of the sack. It had been a clear night and I had left the canopy open. I should have known better. The bivy sack is, even in the daylight, somewhat claustrophobic. There is not a lot of room to move and in the dark finding a small zipper is a bit of a challenge. Consequently the top of my sleeping bag got a bit wet as did the inside of my sack. It made the rest of the night a touch uncomfortable.

I was awake and up by 6:00. The sun was sort of up, trucks were moving around me and I felt somewhat exposed to the world. I say the sun was "sort of" up because ever since just west of Brandon the sky had be hazy - almost like driving through a light fog. The smoke was from fires burning further north. It irritated our eyes and while there was not an overpowering smell, the taste of smoke lingered in our throats. The smoke would be visable to just around Calgary.

Al did not have to be on the road until 8:30. However I am use to truckers getting up early, doing their log book  and then starting whenever they want to. I assumed that Al after six or so hours of sleep would be up and ready to roll. So I hung around and did not try to find a ride. I thought about it, but I am a great believer that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I had a guaranteed ride to Calgary and perhaps to near Vancouver. While going through the Rockies in a truck is not my favourite method (due to slowness) it was better than being stuck somewhere east of Calgary. At some pont during that long morning of doing nothing. I started to wonder if using that particular bit of logic had been a mistake.

I ate a egg/muffin from Tim Hortons. While it is not a great breakfast, the taste is always  consistent. No matter where you are in Canada - it will always taste the same. It was my first hot meal since leaving Sudbury. In fact it was my first food since leaving Winnipeg the day before. After eating it far too quickly, I wandered around the parking lot and the roadway, trying to look either as if I was not lurking or that I was not impatient. I am not too sure if I was successful in this as I got some strange stares.

 There was a lot of activity on the road where the truck was parked. Tim Horton's was busy with both the truckers who stopped for a coffee and the locals who were picking up their morning fix of caffeine before heading off to their jobs. I am always surprised at how truckers can sleep through the chaos of a parking lot. With their black out curtains in place they really are quite isolated from the world. For me, travelling is a once a year adventure and it is not surprising that I am a bit impatient/excited to travel on. For truckers, this is their life. There is no more real excitement for them each morning than any other worker getting up for the day.

Waiting for someone else is boring.  I wanted to get going.  I suppose I should have gone into Timmy's and used the computer but I kept on hoping that we would be leaving soon.  Al got up just after 8:00, grabbed something to eat, and then sat in his truck until 8:30 when he was "allowed" to leave. Shortly after getting started he contacted his boss and found out that he was not going to Vancouver. He would let me out at the truck stop in Calgary which he assured me was a great place to get a ride. I once again wondered if I had misjudged the situatin; if I would have been better off getting a ride two or three hours earlier.

Of course when we got to the truck stop, while there were lots of trucks coming and going, there was really no place to stand where they could see me and have a chance to stop. So I found a bus station and made the somewhat arduous trek to the west end of Calgary. There was some road construction at the west end of the city and consequently I had to walk a lot further then normal to get to a good spot.

I never blame a driver for where he lets me out. They are not hitchhikers and I can't expect them to know what a good spot, nor to be able to get me there. It had been a great ride. We had lots to talk about. We had a real conversation with lots of give and take. While academically I was clearly better educated, he was a very experienced guy who spent a lot of time thinking about things. He was naturally inquisitive and not at all reluctant to say that he didn't know something. His knowledge of trucking was extensive and I was able to add to my knowledge of that lifestyle.But he could not explain to me what doubly clutching or a split shift was or meant. But then no trucker has been able to explain it to me. This is because of my incapacity to understand thing mechanical, not their inability to explain.

We had passed on the road two other hitchhikers and their dog. We both agreed that they would have a hard time getting a ride. I was surprised to meet them on a bus in Calgary. However they got off just before me and I never saw them again.