On the Road Again 2015 #29

I wasn't at that great spot for anymore than twenty minutes when a VW Jetta pulled over. As I opened the back door to throw my pack in, I looked over the front seat to see who was driving. I was surprised to see a young woman. I don't get very many rides from women, especially across the Prairies, but as I got to know this young lady, it was clear why she never even thought about any risks.   She was off to Winnipeg and was looking for company. I was glad to oblige.

My driver was amongst other things, a qualified boiler maker. She was one of the few women in that profession in Western Canada. It meant that when she was working, she worked long hours in frequently difficult and isolated locations, and primarily in male dominated settings.  She knew she was good at her job and I suspect had enough confidence in her ability to stare down any man who thought differently. I think she was also a rather tough lady who could give as good as she got - that meant that she didn't take crap from anyone. It was fun being with her.

She had just recently come back from am 18 day tour of Eastern Canada on her motorcycle. She had made it all the way to Nova Scotia and back - mostly on her own. While initially the trip was to meet an old friend in Ontario, once she got there she decided, somewhat on a whim, that she might as well go the rest of the way to see another friend in the Maritimes. While many people, if they had done the trip, would have bragged at least a little bit about it, she didn't. She talked about the trip in a rather matter of fact way, talked about what she had seen and what she had learned about herself while travelling - but she did so with no outward sense of bragging or thinking what she had done was remarkable. She had decided to do something and she did it. End of story.

The Jetta was her brother's car. She was driving from the other side of Regina to Winnipeg to meet a girl. The two of them had meet through some internet dating site, had emailed and then talked to each other on the phone for hours and finally had decided to meet each other. My driver was driving somewhere around 570 kilometres for a date! Two things struck me about this conversation. One was that it was the third driver that I had had on my return trip who had developed a relationship with someone through what seemed to me to be slightly unusual methods and secondly, I was in awe of someone who could make the kind of gamble this young person was making. She was pretty sure that they would get along, they had spent a lot of time talking but to drive for seven or so hours for a first date seemed to me to demonstrate a rather extraordinary faith in life's possibilities.

We talked - I don't remember all of our conversation. I know we talked about her dog, her relationship with her brother and her mother (who she had been talking to as she picked me up- her mother thought she was crazy to pick up a hitchhiker), about her job and what it was like working with an all male crew, who her mentors were, her trip down east and in an around about way, what it was like to be Gay. She was an interesting mix young person who could be as tough as nails but then every once in a while, a little vulnerability, a little fragility was allowed to show through. One of the things that she said to me that I will remember for some time was that ever since she had gotten up that morning, and all the way through Regina, she had had a nagging sense that there was something that she needed to stop and pick up. As soon as she saw me - she knew I was that thing.

In Regina it had been cool. I had started the day wearing a tee-shirt, my heavy canvas green shirt, my fleece and my light rain jacket. By the time we got to Winnipeg around 2:00 in the afternoon, it was hot and humid.  I would have been quite happy just wearing just my tee-shirt. It was hard to believe the difference in temperature.

My driver let me out at the Flying J. I had a decision to make - did I go through town and face the hour or two walk at the east end of town to get to the Trans-Canada or should I gamble and try to get a ride on the ring road.