On the Road Again 2015 #31

The van that stopped for me was driven by an aboriginal gentleman. With him in the front seat was his teenage son. Originally I thought he said he could just drive me to the corner where the north and south ring roads join together and turn east. That in itself was not a great ride, but it did mean that I would get away from all of the folks using the ring road to commute from one part of Winnipeg to another. However what he really said was that he could take me near the border of Manitoba and Ontario. That was a great ride.

Shoal Lake, where they were headed, is a First Nation community that has the sad claim to fame of being a community with one of the longest "boil water" advisory in Canada. Seventeen years seems like a long time for folks to figure out how to rectify the problem. So of course we talked about that issue, the problem with the three levels of government being unable to agree upon who should pay for what and the frustration of living in that community. It was in some aspects, a painful conversation in that there was nothing I could say to explain or justify the situation. All I could do was to apologize for the inadequacy of the government's response and the fact that the vast majority of Canadians seem to be unable maintain any interest in this or any other issue that primarily affects just First Nations communities. He was, I think. a kind man who saw no need to make me feel bad or to give me a lecture. I suspect he could have, he just chose not to.

We did, during our two and bit hour drive, talk about other stuff as well. He did some construction in the area as well as some maintenance on cottages etc. He seemed to have a semi-permanent connection with a person who had transformed their cottage into a very expensive permanent home. I think he said that he had done much of that work plus whatever else the person wanted him to do. He had had a number of children (I think he said eight) and talked about the fact that he would be working until he died to pay for them. He appeared to be satisfied with his life and was clearly not complaining about his need to work for the foreseeable future.  While he may have struggled with some of his adult relationships ( I think he had had a number of relationships) he was a very caring dad who enjoyed being a dad. His son, said almost nothing during our time together even when I tried to engage him in the conversation.

At some point in our time together he pulled out his telephone and showed me some pictures of his most recent project. (It should be noted that almost all of my drivers used a cell phone at least once during my time with them, ignoring with little or no thought the law or the danger). One of the things he did was to make components of Pow Wow dancers' regalia. The picture was of a large (looked to be at least as big as an extra large pizza pan) back decorations. The feathers had been dyed an extraordinarily brilliant turquoise. It was, to say the least absolutely gorgeous. I asked him where he got the feathers from. He said they were eagle feathers and people give them to him. There were a lot of feathers in the one piece of regalia. The cynic in me wonders if he buys them and if people are killing eagles to get them. Having watched a number of dancers at Pow Wows - it is hard for me to believe that that many feather just fall out of the sky as the birds fly by.

He let me out and turned down Shoal Lake road. I felt as if I was in the middle of nowhere. There were very few cars on the road, no houses, no signs. I was not lost, but I did not know where I was. I started to look at various sections of the grass across the ditch - wondering if I was going to sleep outside that night. I had stopped thinking about food and I still had a fair amount of water so I was not worried. On the other hand - it was bear country. I need not have worried. Within fifteen or so minutes, a SUV coming from Shoal Lake turned the corner on the Trans-Canada and stopped for me.

My driver was a young man from that community and was off to Kenora. I was surprised that Kenora was only a 20 kilometre trip. None-the-less I was very grateful for the ride. It was a great little conversation. I learnt a couple of things that I had not known. One was that while outsiders like me assume that First Nations individuals have a strong connection to their home community, my driver said that that was not always true. In fact, especially when there are a number of communities in close proximity to each other, people are inclined to move around between communities and therefore may have mixed loyalties. This was supported by the fact that my previous driver seemed to have two homes - one somewhere near Winnipeg on a reserve and one at Shoal Lake. The other thing, which I guess I really knew if I had thought about it, was that young people in First Nations communities are just as confused about their roles in life and what they should do as anyone else in Canada. The exception to that might be that some, including my driver, felt a strong obligation to be engaged in the movement to change the relationship with the Canadian Government. But he like so many people did not have a clue how to do that.

As he made the turn off to Kenora (there is a by-pass but the Trans-Canada goes right through Kenora), he asked me where I wanted to get out. It was now just past 7:00PM. I had been on the road for 12 hours, it was going to get dark fairly soon and I have never had to hitch through Kenora. I decided I didn't want to do it at night so I said "I think I will get out at the next small motel that we see". One came up shortly after, it looked to be small, there was a restaurant attached - good enough for me. I thanked the driver, got out, crossed the road, dropped my pack and went to find the office.

On the Road Again 2015 #30

In other years, Winnipeg has been a bit of watershed place for me. Not only is it where I start off when heading west, but geographically, at least in my mind, it is the place where I transition from the west to the east. It is also a city that has caused me significant problems getting through it. More often than not I have been lucky and I have got a ride right around Winnipeg and have not had to deal with the complexities of getting to the other side. Other times I have stayed either in the city at a hostel or slept outside at the Flying J and then travelled through the city the next day. The problem with passing through the city is that while the bus system is great for getting to the west end of the city and the Trans-Canada, it is terrible on the east side. The bus gets one fairly close to the ring road (which technically is the Trans-Canada), but it is nowhere near where highway turns east to Kenora. Until one gets to that point, 90% of the traffic is all local and it is difficult to get a ride. The walk is noisy and dirty. There are long stretches over overpasses etc. where it is impossible to hitchhike. It may be my least favourite hike of the whole trip.

It was far too early to stop traveling for the day. However if I spent time taking the bus through the city, by the time I got to the other side, I would have wasted most of the daylight. I was also starting to feel some time pressure as I had medical/dental appointments coming up and I was still a long way from home. I decided to gamble and try to hitch from the corner of the road leaving the Flying J and the Trans-Canada. The set of traffic lights would, I hoped, slow down some of the traffic; trucks and cars leaving the Flying J would have ample opportunity to see me and I was only fifty feet away from the ramp onto the ring road. Anyone turning on to it would be in the lane closes to me. It was hot, humid and busy. There were a number of different traffic flows that were created depending upon whether or not vehicles were turning or going straight. It took me a while to understand the pattern of traffic light changes as the traffic light changes were connected to oncoming traffic, but after twenty or so minutes I had mastered it. It felt as if I there were lots of rides potentially available at least in part because I was getting quite a few passengers waving at me, smiling and pointing. While I would have preferred them to stop and offer me a ride, at least it felt as if they were cheering for me. What a change from Regina!

After about 45 minutes, a large, new looking pick-up truck stop. The guy asked me to put my pack in the back. I didn't mind doing that except for the fact that the truck had such big tyres, I was not sure if I would be able to retrieve my pack at the end of the ride. My newest driver was just going 2/3 of the way around the ring road but it was a start. He apologize for not having the air conditioning on but he had just bought the truck at a vehicle auction and the AC didn't work. I had never known anyone who had bought a vehicle an auction so I had lots of questions. One of the things that surprised me the most was the fact that no one can take the vehicles for a test ride. They get started, they can look at the engine - but whether it actually steers or has breaks is a bit of a gamble. However my driver (who was older) was an expert. He was a car salesman and knew what to look for. He was just driving the truck to the dealership where they would tune it up and then put it on the lot. I didn't ask how much he had paid for it. My guess is that they would make a fair amount of money on it when they got the AC working. I had lots more questions to ask, but before I knew it - the ride was over. 

There are some rides that make little sense to me. This driver did not strike me as someone who would normally pick up hitchhikers. I think he just did it on a whim or perhaps he wanted to show off the truck that he bought. For whatever reason - I was happy that I had made it at least part of the way around Winnipeg.

He let me off at a spot I had been at before. It had worked out well for me last time so I was optimistic about getting a ride fairly quickly. But the spot was dirty. The wind had picked up and there was some road construction happening across the highway which meant that there was a lot of dust blowing around. There was a lot of traffic and in fact it was a bit scary as cars were either moving fairly quickly, or jockeying for positions as drivers tried to get past the dump trucks before the next set of lights. There were also cars turning on to the highway. I don't think any of those drivers ever had seen someone hitchhiking on the shoulder of the road because a number of them used the shoulder to pass cars. Some of them came far too close to me for my comfort. I really don't think they saw me as they were more concerned as to whether or not they could merge into the traffic. I was glad that I was not there too long.

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.

On the Road Again 2015 #28

I noticed as I walked up the road towards the Trans-Canada that there were a couple of folks sleeping on the grass outside the McDonald's. I don't have a clue as to where they were trying to hitchhike from. I had been at the only really good spot and I had not seen them. Perhaps there is another spot that I am not aware of, but they clearly were not having any better luck than I was. I had to wonder if the folks sleeping were the people my friend from Switzerland had been hanging out with. If so they had been too had been scared off by the workers from the Husky. I never knew where the older gentleman disappeared to. I am pretty sure he didn't get a ride from a trucker, but I will never know.

It was just after 7:00 AM. The highway leading out of town was a zoo. If I said thousands of cars, it would sound like an exaggeration, but it certainly felt like there was an endless stream of cars and trucks passing me by. The wind, if anything, was worse than the previous days. There were times as big truck passed me that I was literally almost blown off my feet. More than once I was push by the wind to take a step or two back. There were a number of stoplights but given the volume of traffic there was no break in the flow.

Usually, when there is the chance to do it, large trucks and cars pull over to the far lane when they see someone on the side of the road. I sometimes think it is because they are afraid of me jumping out at them, but in reality, specifically for truckers - they are trying to reduce the amount of wind directed at the hitchhiker. I am not too sure why drivers of cars do it. In Regina - it felt as if the exact opposite was true. Cars and trucks whenever they had the opportunity switched lanes to the inside lane right where I was. Maybe I was taking it too personal, but it felt as if they were trying to see how close they could get to me. I also saw some of the craziest driving I saw on this trip or any other. Cars were switching lanes, cutting off other cars - all the while driving at above any reasonable speed limit. All the while looking angry or unhappy. I have never seen so many unhappy drivers.  I am also not too sure if there was something about the weather conditions that affected everyone's turn indicators or whether folks just didn't use them - but I didn't see, in spite of the constant lane changes, a single indicator being used.

I was there for well over an hour. In hindsight - I should never have bothered trying to get a ride during rush hour. I would never have believed not believe that there were that many people heading east out of Regina. I never did figure out where they were going to. Eventually I did get a short drive with a very interesting older man. He was not going very far but he promised that he would get me out past most of the local traffic and that was just fine by me.

I mentioned to him the large number of crazy drivers that I had noticed. He agreed with me. He suggested that it was because so many of the people in the area were use to driving on near empty roads and highways. They had no driving manners because for most of their driving life -they didn't need them. He argued that one never learns to share the road when there is no one else on the road to share it with. It was as good as explanation as any other. When I mentioned the fact that so many of the drivers looked to be in a bad mood, he agreed with me but had explanation. Pity.

My driver of twenty minutes was as good as his word. He got me past all of the chaos and the mad drivers. He let me off at spot with decent shoulders, good view lines and only a handful of cars passing by every few minutes or so. Exactly the kind of spot that I like. I could not help but remind myself that if I had made a different decision yesterday, I could have been at this spot or even further along yesterday afternoon. Oh well.....