2019 On The Road Again #6

As I have written before, the west end of Brandon can be chaotic as local drivers manoeuvre along either the service roads or the Trans-Canada to get their errands done and as longer distance drivers scramble to get food, coffee and/or fuel along the same routes. I have lost count of the number of near misses as cars make illegal turns or sometimes just don't look where they are going. To make life even a bit more exciting for me, trucks sometimes park along the highway just behind me so that they can run into Tim Hortons for a coffee. When they do so, they usually limit the space available for any driver who might even consider stopping for me. On this particular occasion - nothing had changed. There were still as many poor drivers in a rush and just as many local drivers trying to get their errands done. Most annoying this time was a car that parked 15 feet in front of me for ten or so minutes so that the driver, an elderly looking woman and what could have been her granddaughter, could get out and walk to the Tim Hortons. If they had only driven to Tim's they could have saved time and not blocked any car from seeing me. What made it worse is that I think she knew exactly what she had done - she absolutely refused to make any eye contact - intentionally looking the other way.

After I had been there for a couple of hours, someone got out of a car, dug into his pack - put on a brightly colour t-shirt, took out a large, hand-drawn sign and stuck out his thumb - 20 feet in front of me! Not only was this person standing at the intersection, that, with all of the turning cars etc, looked very dangerous but he was standing in front of me and thereby getting seen first. It is one of those unwritten rules - you don't stand in front of someone else who was there first. After a few minutes, I walked over to him and asked what he was doing. He told me that I did not own the road and that he could stand where ever he wanted to. I tried to suggest to him that there were some common understandings amongst hitchhikers and he said that he was going to do whatever he wanted. I walked back to my spot fuming.

A few minutes later someone else - wearing a brightly colour safety vest - walked over to him too. From his appearance, I thought that this person might work for a road crew and was suggesting that he should not stand there. But the new hitchhiker stayed there anyway. Within 10 minutes, he got a ride. I was not happy. Looking over I saw the person with the safety vest waiting at Tim Hortons - he had a pack. I then realized that he was the older hitchhiker I had met the night before. I waved at him.

I moved my pack a bit closer to the intersection and shortly thereafter I got a ride. As I got into my new ride, I yelled out to my fellow hitchhiker who, as I now realized, had been defending my right to be first in line - "thank you". He ran over to talk - and was offered a ride as well. As my driver was off to Fort MacMurry and my fellow hitchhiker was off to Edmonton - it sounded like a perfect match. While I had not yelled 'thank you" so that he would get a ride..... I am glad that it worked out.