On the Road Again 2017 #11

One would think that by now I would realize that a night spent under the lights of a Husky truck stop will probably less than fun. But every time I get to one, I feel excited - as if something magical is about to happen. It is good to be an optimist with especially thick skin. I was about to be disappointed again.

It was a fine truck stop. The restaurant was closed but the convenience store had all kinds of junk food, juice and coffee. The two young guys working there were nice and helpful. Some of the local people stopping for gas were friendly and even some of the truck drivers gave me a polite, if disinterested nod of the head. One in fact even suggested where I would have a better chance in getting a ride. He didn't however offer to give me a ride there. But it was a bit windy, there was nowhere to sit, the view was particularly uninspiring and it was boring. When I got there somewhere around 11:00 there were a few young guys hanging around picking through the garbage cans looking for bottles ( and who may have seen me as competition) and someone else trying to charge and set up a cell phone he had just purchased - but they were not interested in talking to me. The two folks inside were polite when we talked about when the restaurant would re-open and about how which direction to go in to catch the right bus, but they saw hundreds if not thousands of people a week passing through the store. They were not at all interested in my story. So I hung around, paced looked at people and in general tried to keep myself awake until the restaurant opened at 4:30 or so.

Until well past midnight I saw the odd city bus go past. I thought about getting on one but I had nowhere to go. As boring as was the Husky, I thought that downtown Calgary at 1:00 in the morning would be no better, and perhaps much worse. So I stayed, making eye contact with the odd truck driver who passed by me, occasionally changing where I had my pack and the sign on top to what may or may not have been a better location to catch someone's eye. I don't think it mattered. It was a long few hours. I am not too sure how I filled it. But the time did pass, the restaurant did open. It was normal breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs and homefries. I was hungry enough and had been thinking about it for so long that almost anything would have been good. Shortly after I finished and then had brushed my teeth - I saw that the buses were running. It was time to get on the road again.