2018 On the Road Again #13

I have done a fair amount of hitchhiking across Canada. In the past 15-16 years, there have been a few windy days where I found the wind annoying or even tiring, but usually the wind was restricted to a specific local. It may of been windy in Portage, but the time I got my next ride a few hours down the road, the wind would have died down. This year, perhaps because I had had only short rides, it felt as if the wind was far stronger than normal and that it was spread across the whole of the Prairies. Regardless of why I was so aware of the strong wind, it was annoying, tiring and made a mess of my hair. Normally my braided chin strap is enough to keep the hat on my head, but not this time - I frequently had to hold my hat down with my hand else the hat would lift up and the strap would choke me. However, the next day in the same general area, there were tornadoes so I guess I should be grateful that the wind was not any worse.

It was still very early in the morning just outside that small truck stop in Swift Current. My spot looked to be a good one in terms of the width of the shoulder and visibility but cars were going by too quickly. Once one eliminated the big trucks, local traffic (people going to work) and cars and trucks belonging to various local companies from the vehicles streaming past me, there were not a lot of options. But the business of hitchhiking is in part to be grateful for the possibilities, to take joy in the knowledge that the next ride will be the best ride ever. Hitchhiking is always about being grateful for the present circumstance and always looking forward to the next opportunity. So I stuck out my sign, held down my hat and slipped into the semi awake, not really conscious of how much time you are spending standing there mode and tried to remember to look at every vehicle as it passed me.

It takes a lot of energy to stay focused. It is so easy to stand on the side of the road and just let the cars move on past without any real awareness. If one believes that eye contact, or at least looking at the driver may be one of the ways to get a driver to slow down, then one has to work at it. To remind oneself to do it. Sometimes after an hour or two or three, I need to mentally kick myself as I realize that I have been lost in my thoughts, not paying attention to the task at hand. I always wonder if I have missed a drive or two because I was day dreaming or whatever it is that I do when I stand on the side of the road. In fact I almost missed my next ride because I not paying attention.

The truck stop was not a large one but it appeared to have a decent sized restaurant that looked to be fairly busy. The trucks that were coming and going from the parking lot were not at all interested in me, and the cars seemed to be driven mainly by local people stopping by for some gas or a coffee before they started their day. I eventually stopped paying a lot attention to the coming and goings of the parking lot. However, after standing there for a couple of hours, by sheer chance or the grace of the hitchhiking Gods, I looked at the parking lot and saw a young looking woman waving at me. I was not sure that she was actually waving to me but I saw her doing things that looked as if she was moving stuff around to make room in her van. I took the chance, grabbed my bag and hurried over to her.

Yes - she had been waving to me and she was going to Kolowna .