I was awake before the sun was up. I had had a great night's
sleep but because I went to bed so early - I was done sleeping by 6:00AM. As
well, there seemed to be a number of large trucks going down the road, past the
motel towards the highway. While I was not overly optimistic that I would get a
drive from one of them, if I didn't stick my thumb out - I was guaranteed not
to get a ride. It was very tempting to go back into town - just to have
breakfast at the diner. I suspected that it would be a much busier and much
more interesting place in the morning, but I had spent enough time in Gull
Lake. It was time for me to head towards Winnipeg. With any luck, I could be
there by nightfall.
There were stop lights at the corner of the road to and
through Gull Lake and the Trans-Canada. I always wonder if, on other countries' main highways,
they too have stop lights in the middle of nowhere. Certainly if I was cruising
down the road, trying to get to some
distant city, I would have been surprised to find that I had to slow down. It
was not obvious that there was a little town just off the highway, or that
there were other towns even further down that road.
The corner however, was very busy. Most of the big trucks
that I had heard from my motel window were grain trucks, delivering or picking
up the grains that had just been harvested. I knew that there was absolutely no
chance that these trucks, which were really just local traffic would ever stop
to pick me up. There was a fair amount of traffic on the road, but some it
turned north or south off of the highway. Many of the drivers who went straight
through looked as if they were dressed up for work, I knew that Swift Current
was only half an hour away. I assumed that the majority of cars that did pass
me we heading in that direction. It was a crazy place to stand in that the
normally wide shoulder became the entrance ramp. I was forced to walk a fair
piece down the road before the shoulder reappeared. Any effect that the
stoplights may have had in slowing down the traffic was dissipated by the time
the cars reached me.
Finally a little bright yellow car stopped and picked me up.
I think it may have been the first time that I have gotten a ride in yellow
car. My driver was an older gentleman who was just going to Swift Current. I
say "just" because so many
people pass me by and many of them are just going a little bit down the road -
some even indicate that to me by showing me their hand with the thumb and forefinger
separated by half an inch or so. Someone
could have driven me to Swift Current an hour earlier if they had thought about
it. Obviously in the 50 kilometres we had little time to talk about anything
other than the weather. He did promise to let me out a better spot.
I am not sure if it was a better spot, but it was a spot
that I knew well. It was just outside the Husky station and restaurant. It is a
weird place to stand - lots of space but it is on a bit of a curve, with cars
on the right of me, heading at highway
speed to the east and cars taking the off-ramp on the left, only going
marginally slower. I am never comfortable
there. None-the-less I got a ride fairly
quickly although when I first saw the large pick-up truck I was not too sure what
he was doing.
There is a service road down the hill from where I was
standing - perhaps ten feet lower than me. In between the service road, and
where I was standing is shallow, grass covered ditch. The truck went into the
ditch, up the other side, across the exit ramp and pulled up beside me. At
first I thought it was just some local guy taking a short cut. A bit crazy, but
as long as he didn't hit me or anything else - it was just a bit of
entertainment for me to watch. When I realized that he had pulled this stunt
because he wanted to offer me a drive - I was a bit less entertained. Delighted
for a ride - just a bit worried if the driver was always that reckless.
In fact he was not reckless at all. He just wanted to pick
me up and it was the fastest way to get to me. My young driver was off to just
east of Regina. Not a long ride - no more than 250 kilometres, but it was so
early in the day, that I knew I would be at the large Husky truck stop in
Regina by just after 1:00PM. I never had had a problem getting a ride out of
there - at least one of the rides had been all the way to North Bay. I was
feeling good. I had eaten relatively recently, had had a shower, my clothes
were dry, I had slept well and there were drivers out there looking for
company.
My driver worked throughout the west provinces building pole
barns. The crew had been busy because farmers needed the extra storage space
due to the bumper crop in some parts of the Prairies. I knew nothing about how
one built a pole barn so I had lots of questions. From what he said, barns were
ordered from a company including materials etc and then his crew were hired to
assemble it. The barns were basically all the same, differing only in how long
they were. They could put them up in a few days. It was an interesting
conversation. The young man struck me as someone who was pretty together about his
life and what he was doing. He had a great boss who treated the crew with
respect - he in return recognized that that respect was in part earned because
they worked hard. He knew that he wouldn't do this job forever, but the money
was good and he liked the job and the people he worked with.
He was coming back from a funeral. A 18 year old girl and
her father from his hometown had been killed in a motorcycle accident. It was
pretty sad story only made worse by the fact that the girl's older sister had
been killed just before she had turned 18. One has to wonder how the mother and
the one remaining sister could cope with all that pain.
He was going another hour or so down the road - but I got
out in Regina - I was looking for that one long haul that would get me home. I
should learn to take what I am offered and not look for something that isn't.
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