Tuesday, July 21, 2015
On the Road Again 2015 #12
It was hot in Hope. Really hot - that kind of heat that sucks the moisture out of every part of your body, including your hair. Thankfully it does not take long to walk through the town and soon I was at a familiar spot with my thumb out. It was slow going, there was a lot of traffic passing through the intersection just forty feet from where I stood, but much of it was going in the other direction. What vehicles did pass me were either full or had already reached maximum ramp speed. I started to second guess myself about the wisdom of travelling on a national holiday. After all how many single people would be travelling towards Vancouver? I was also a bit anxious as I did not want to get stuck in Vancouver overnight. I would rather sleep out near the terminal at Horseshoe Bay than on a park bench in Vancouver.
After about an hour of standing there, carefully nursing my water bottle (I realized far too late that (1) I should have filled up on water as I walked through town and (2) a granola bar can make you even thirstier that you were before), I got a ride to Chilliwack.
Something happened that has never happened before. I don't remember anything about the driver who picked me up in Hope, or in fact about the driver who picked me up in Chilliwack and drove me to a Skytrain Station in Vancouver. Both of the drivers were men, they were friendly and I am sure that we chatted about the usual things. The first driver was young (I think) and was off to visit some friends. The second driver (I waited almost no time for this ride, but there was a bit of a sketchy walk from the exit ramp to get to a suitable spot at the entrance ramp ) was older. But that is it - I remember nothing about them. Which is a rather a shame as they deserve, no matter how little, some recognition that they helped a stranger out.
I got to downtown Vancouver without hassle. The cit was bustling with folks walking around with fake maple leaf tattoos (the tattoos were fake not the maple leafs), little kids with flags in their hands and the occasional obnoxious anti-Harper protester. I was standing beside a grandmother, her daughter and granddaughter who were also heading towards Horseshoe Bay. It turned out that we had just missed the bus by about 5 minutes. If I had not stopped to get a desperately needed bottle of water, I perhaps would have caught it. There was not another express bus for an hour which would mean that I would miss the ferry I hoped to get. There was however, another slower bus leaving in a few minutes. It was a holiday, there could not be that much traffic on the road ....perhaps we would get lucky and get the ferry we wanted. Taking the slow bus also meant that I would get out of downtown Vancouver before the parade started. I am as patriotic as the next guy - but seeing a parade was pretty far down on my list of things to do.
The bus was crowded, there was far too much traffic on the road, and the driver scrupulously followed his schedule - meaning he sat at a spot for a few minutes just so he would not get to his next stop too early. We arrived at the ferry terminal just as the ferry was pulling away.
While I had some concerns about what was going to happen in terms of getting from Nanaimo to Duncan - I had achieved my goal. I would not have to spend the night in Vancouver.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
On the Road Again 2015 #11
I awoke to a gorgeous morning. One could tell that it was going to be a hot one, but at 6:00 AM, the air was fresh, crisp and clean. I had not been able to see it the night before, but the front yard I had slept in was enclosed by a fairly high wooden fence. It felt quite private. While there were houses on either side, there was an empty field across the road. It all had a sense of being a rural area as opposed to an over crowded tourist area. Perhaps my impressions of the town were a bit misguided.
I lay in my sleeping bag for a while, wondering if my getting a ride, and being such a bad guest last night meant that I should hang around for awhile. But I decided not. So I went into the house, found the bathroom, brushed my teeth, packed up my stuff and left. My driver had given me clear directions as to where to find the end of town. They were good directions, I just didn't follow them. So I ended up walking around for a bit before I figured out what he meant. If there had been a place open to get breakfast, I would have stopped, but it was July 1st and Kelowna wasn't ready to party so early in the morning.
My driver from the night before had been right ..... it was a good place to hitch from or at least it would have been if there had been lots of traffic. I suspect that it was just too early for a high volume of traffic. I think I was there for almost an hour before I car stopped for me.
My new driver was a guy in his mid thirties. He worked as a salesman for a restaurant equipment firm. According to him, while business was not booming, it was nice and steady. I think he was the natural salesman type of person. He didn't need to be pushy or overly aggressive, he was well spoken, knew his product, liked the people he dealt with and perhaps most importantly, he liked his job. He was off on a six hour bike trip.
The first step was to hide his bike near where he wanted to start from, then drive to the small town of Hope, leave his car there, hitchhike back up to the bike and then bike down to where his car was. It sounds like a lot of work, but it really wasn't. He had completed other parts of the Trans-Canada Trail in the area using the same procedure. This was his last segment. To suggest that he was looking forward to the trip would be an understatement. He was really excited and spent a fair amount of time talking about it. It was fun to spend time with someone who was passionate about what he was doing.
We also talked about his 14-15 year old daughter. She didn't live with him, but clearly he was doing his best to be a good dad. He was really proud of the fact that she knew how important this ride was for him and was supportive of him taking a day off from their time together for him to do it.
He let me out for a bit at a potential hitchhiking spot while he hid his bike (I am not too sure if he trusted me a 100%). While I did stick out my thumb whenever there was a car, I was not too serious as I knew he would pick me up and continue down to Hope - which he did twenty minutes later. We continued on to Hope, he let me out at a place where he could leave his car, I wished him a great ride, he said good luck getting to the ferry terminal and we separated. It was a good ride for a number of reasons. I got it early in the morning, I enjoyed his company and perhaps most important, while it was still hot in Hope, it would not get nearly as warm as it would in Kelowna. It felt like a good start to the day.
I lay in my sleeping bag for a while, wondering if my getting a ride, and being such a bad guest last night meant that I should hang around for awhile. But I decided not. So I went into the house, found the bathroom, brushed my teeth, packed up my stuff and left. My driver had given me clear directions as to where to find the end of town. They were good directions, I just didn't follow them. So I ended up walking around for a bit before I figured out what he meant. If there had been a place open to get breakfast, I would have stopped, but it was July 1st and Kelowna wasn't ready to party so early in the morning.
My driver from the night before had been right ..... it was a good place to hitch from or at least it would have been if there had been lots of traffic. I suspect that it was just too early for a high volume of traffic. I think I was there for almost an hour before I car stopped for me.
My new driver was a guy in his mid thirties. He worked as a salesman for a restaurant equipment firm. According to him, while business was not booming, it was nice and steady. I think he was the natural salesman type of person. He didn't need to be pushy or overly aggressive, he was well spoken, knew his product, liked the people he dealt with and perhaps most importantly, he liked his job. He was off on a six hour bike trip.
The first step was to hide his bike near where he wanted to start from, then drive to the small town of Hope, leave his car there, hitchhike back up to the bike and then bike down to where his car was. It sounds like a lot of work, but it really wasn't. He had completed other parts of the Trans-Canada Trail in the area using the same procedure. This was his last segment. To suggest that he was looking forward to the trip would be an understatement. He was really excited and spent a fair amount of time talking about it. It was fun to spend time with someone who was passionate about what he was doing.
We also talked about his 14-15 year old daughter. She didn't live with him, but clearly he was doing his best to be a good dad. He was really proud of the fact that she knew how important this ride was for him and was supportive of him taking a day off from their time together for him to do it.
He let me out for a bit at a potential hitchhiking spot while he hid his bike (I am not too sure if he trusted me a 100%). While I did stick out my thumb whenever there was a car, I was not too serious as I knew he would pick me up and continue down to Hope - which he did twenty minutes later. We continued on to Hope, he let me out at a place where he could leave his car, I wished him a great ride, he said good luck getting to the ferry terminal and we separated. It was a good ride for a number of reasons. I got it early in the morning, I enjoyed his company and perhaps most important, while it was still hot in Hope, it would not get nearly as warm as it would in Kelowna. It felt like a good start to the day.
On the Road Again 2015 # 10
It is not possible to hitchhike from the east side of Golden to the west side. There is just too much traffic and nowhere to stand. While Golden is, at least along the highway, not a particularly large town, it is a long walk between the east and west sides. I was therefore delighted when a young man stopped and offered me a ride to the other end of town. He had a few minutes to kill and just wanted to help. He drove me to a gas station where I did buy water and then to the corner to look for my next ride. While I appreciate all of the rides that I receive, the generosity of this young person was quite energizing. Whenever I hear the older generations complain about how we are all going to hell in a hand basket - I think of the many young people who I have met in my travels and in the classroom. I am constantly reassured by their capacity to care and to be aware of the world around them.
The only bad part of getting this drive was that I didn't have the chance to buy any food. I had only had the one egg muffin in the past two day, I wasn't hungry but I was aware that it would be a good idea to eat something. None-the-less, now that I was at the edge of town, I stuck out my thumb. It was getting late and a bit dark and storming looking. Either I would get a ride within the next hour or so, or I would spend the night in Golden. It had been a good day and either possibility was just fine with me. Fortunately, I once again got lucky and within a few minutes a van stopped and offered me a ride to Kelwona.
This driver was friendly, perhaps too much so. He was either very bright, bombastic and assertive, or he was well read from the internet, opinionated and somewhat of a verbal bully. I could never quite figure out which. We, of course, talked about everything under the sun. Or at least he talked about them, with me interjecting the odd comment when he stopped for a breath. It was an interesting ride. He had warned me when I got in his van that he had lots of stories to tell and he did. It had been a long day. I was glad to have someone to take the lead in both the topics and the conversation. On occasion it was frustrating to figure out what was true and what was fiction. For example he never mentioned his education until the last hour or so of our ride together. He then told me that he had a BA, a MA and a MBA. Not impossible but he interjected those set of facts without any context. He also was quite proud of his IQ scores (which were above "normal" but not by that much)
My driver had a number of occupations, most of them to do with the tourist industry. I was not clear as to what it all entailed but at least one of the jobs involved selling advertising space in a tourist magazine (I think), another had something to do with ecotourism. However he earned his living, he lived fairly close to some financial ledge where he was always in danger of falling off.
We had not been driving very long when it started to rain. Very shortly afterwards a rather extraordinary thunder and lightening show was put on for the drivers heading west through the mountains. It was spectacular! Going through the passes, there were times when the lightening started from high up in the sky and ran its jagged edges right to the ground. I was glad that I was not driving. In fact there were times that it was raining so hard - that cowards like me would have stopped on the side of the road and waited for a break in the rain.
My driver was going to Kelowna - one of my least favourite cities in BC. It is very hot, busy (the highway passes through downtown) and I have always had hard time hitchhiking out of it. I could have gotten out halfway to Kelowna and headed towards Kamloops, but by the time we reached that intersection, it was dark. The last thing I wanted was to sleep on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. I would deal with how to get out of Kelowna the next morning. My driver assured me that he knew of a great hitchhiking spot. I think I had heard that line before. I did not believe him.
One of the things that got my driver most excited was the fact that I could drive. Twice during our 4-5 hour trip he asked me to drive so that he could rest his eyes. He may have been the worst backseat driver I have ever had the misfortune to be with. I could do nothing right. He was particularly concerned with me driving too close to the shoulder. While I do have that tendency, I don't think he sat very often in the passenger seat and therefore didn't realize that his perspective of where the car was, was different than mine. At one point he actually grabbed the wheel and turned it. I was furious. I suggested that I would be glad to get out and let him be on his way. We had this brief shouting match that I suppose in hindsight was a bit silly, but we were both tired, it was late and for the driver - it was his only vehicle - he needed it for work and had no money to buy another one.
Thankfully we were not far from his house when the argument happened. We switched positions and within a short time we were at his house. Earlier in the evening he had stopped for some beer and the original plan was that we would arrive at his house, have a beer to celebrate our arrival and then I would set up my bivy sack in his front yard. By the time we got there, it was after 11:00, I was really tired and elected to go to sleep. I was not being a very good guest but I was too tired to care and was far past entertaining him.
His brother lived with him and before we were home for more than ten minutes, they had a huge row. Something about the plants not being watered. I crawled into my sleeping bag and was asleep within minutes.
The only bad part of getting this drive was that I didn't have the chance to buy any food. I had only had the one egg muffin in the past two day, I wasn't hungry but I was aware that it would be a good idea to eat something. None-the-less, now that I was at the edge of town, I stuck out my thumb. It was getting late and a bit dark and storming looking. Either I would get a ride within the next hour or so, or I would spend the night in Golden. It had been a good day and either possibility was just fine with me. Fortunately, I once again got lucky and within a few minutes a van stopped and offered me a ride to Kelwona.
This driver was friendly, perhaps too much so. He was either very bright, bombastic and assertive, or he was well read from the internet, opinionated and somewhat of a verbal bully. I could never quite figure out which. We, of course, talked about everything under the sun. Or at least he talked about them, with me interjecting the odd comment when he stopped for a breath. It was an interesting ride. He had warned me when I got in his van that he had lots of stories to tell and he did. It had been a long day. I was glad to have someone to take the lead in both the topics and the conversation. On occasion it was frustrating to figure out what was true and what was fiction. For example he never mentioned his education until the last hour or so of our ride together. He then told me that he had a BA, a MA and a MBA. Not impossible but he interjected those set of facts without any context. He also was quite proud of his IQ scores (which were above "normal" but not by that much)
My driver had a number of occupations, most of them to do with the tourist industry. I was not clear as to what it all entailed but at least one of the jobs involved selling advertising space in a tourist magazine (I think), another had something to do with ecotourism. However he earned his living, he lived fairly close to some financial ledge where he was always in danger of falling off.
We had not been driving very long when it started to rain. Very shortly afterwards a rather extraordinary thunder and lightening show was put on for the drivers heading west through the mountains. It was spectacular! Going through the passes, there were times when the lightening started from high up in the sky and ran its jagged edges right to the ground. I was glad that I was not driving. In fact there were times that it was raining so hard - that cowards like me would have stopped on the side of the road and waited for a break in the rain.
My driver was going to Kelowna - one of my least favourite cities in BC. It is very hot, busy (the highway passes through downtown) and I have always had hard time hitchhiking out of it. I could have gotten out halfway to Kelowna and headed towards Kamloops, but by the time we reached that intersection, it was dark. The last thing I wanted was to sleep on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. I would deal with how to get out of Kelowna the next morning. My driver assured me that he knew of a great hitchhiking spot. I think I had heard that line before. I did not believe him.
One of the things that got my driver most excited was the fact that I could drive. Twice during our 4-5 hour trip he asked me to drive so that he could rest his eyes. He may have been the worst backseat driver I have ever had the misfortune to be with. I could do nothing right. He was particularly concerned with me driving too close to the shoulder. While I do have that tendency, I don't think he sat very often in the passenger seat and therefore didn't realize that his perspective of where the car was, was different than mine. At one point he actually grabbed the wheel and turned it. I was furious. I suggested that I would be glad to get out and let him be on his way. We had this brief shouting match that I suppose in hindsight was a bit silly, but we were both tired, it was late and for the driver - it was his only vehicle - he needed it for work and had no money to buy another one.
Thankfully we were not far from his house when the argument happened. We switched positions and within a short time we were at his house. Earlier in the evening he had stopped for some beer and the original plan was that we would arrive at his house, have a beer to celebrate our arrival and then I would set up my bivy sack in his front yard. By the time we got there, it was after 11:00, I was really tired and elected to go to sleep. I was not being a very good guest but I was too tired to care and was far past entertaining him.
His brother lived with him and before we were home for more than ten minutes, they had a huge row. Something about the plants not being watered. I crawled into my sleeping bag and was asleep within minutes.
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