Just past the gas station/restaurant the shoulders were wide
and there were lots of cars coming out of the gas stop. It was a nice day, it
was still fairly early in the morning and I felt good. I felt even better when
a large pick-up truck stopped and the driver offered me a ride. I threw my pack
in the pack of the truck and we were off. I felt even better when I found out
my driver was bound for Revelstoke which meant that for the next 400 kilometres
I could sit back and enjoy the scenery.
It was an interesting ride. I can't say it was always
enjoyable - there were times when the conversation was frustrating, when my
driver's attitude about some people was so annoying I thought about getting out more than once
but there were other times when the conversation flowed along nicely or we just
drove, quietly enjoying the scenery. My driver was, I would guess, in his mid
30s, He had been raised by a dad - who by any definition sounded like a man was
tough on his kids. He was a father who expected his sons to work hard. Consequently
my driver grew up believing that he was at least partially if not entirely
define by his capacity for working hard, of giving as he put it- 100% all of the
time. He had no patience for anyone who could not or would not work as hard as
he. He had had a number of careers including working on building the high tension electrical towers that
criss-cross our nation; doing some construction and most recently sand blasting
the inside of railroad oil cars. According to my driver, some of the jobs were
very dangerous and required both a lot of skill and the capacity to work hard
for long hours. Personally, I could not imagine being on one of the high towers
assembling the last bolts. Someone has to do it, I am just glad it is not me.
My driver told me stories of how he verbally bullied (there
was no other word for it) employees who could not or would not work flat out
all of the time. He made it absolutely clear that he would do whatever it took
to force someone who was not working up to his expectations to resign. When I said to him that his tactics were
illegal - he said he did not care. He also said that his bosses knew what he
was doing and they were happy with him. I tried to inject into the conversation
the fact that all he was doing was increasing the profits of the companies he
worked for - he said he knew that, but that that was okay. That is what workers
were suppose to do. He was the perfect employee. It really was frustrating. It
became a little bit more frustrating when he decided to stop for a hamburger
somewhere along the way. I wanted to get to Revelstoke as soon as I could -
only so I would have lots of time to continue my trip west. But abandoning this
drive before I had to made no sense, so I hung around as he picked up his lunch
at Wendy's.
The weather was great, the scenery gorgeous and I was with a
driver who had gone out of his way to make sure there was room for me in the
truck. I learn so much from my drivers, about their lives ,their jobs , their philosophies
of life. I do not have to agree with them all of the time, they don't have to
be people I would want to emulate. My job is to entertain them, to get along
with them so that they drive me as far as they can. And he did. He drove me to near the end of
Revelstoke - we wished each other good luck, we shook hands and I got out.
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