On the Road Again 2014 Prologue #3

I bought a train ticket to Winnipeg yesterday. I did so with some hesitancy in part because it seems a bit paradoxical to be so "planfull" so far ahead in what is suppose to be a spontaneous trip (at least in the method of travel). It also feels a bit like cheating to take the train part of the way.

I have hitched a number of times from Sudbury to Vancouver Island. The stretch between Sudbury and Winnipeg has always been the slowest and the least favourite part of any of my trips. Travelling through Northern Ontario at the end of June is slow, uncomfortable and more than occasionally, involves the loss of blood. It also has cost me more money than I had planned to spend. I don't think I have ever made it out of the Province in less than two days and on more than one occasion it has taken me almost four. After two or three days of hitchhiking I need a shower and so end up spending money on a motel room for the shower, a soft bed and a night's sleep without the incessant whining of the seemingly thousands of mosquitoes who have waited their entire life time for a southerner's blood. Fairly often by the time I get to Thunder Bay I have decided to get on the overnight bus to Winnipeg. I always have this sense of urgency when heading west that I suspect evolved in those early days when I only had three weeks to get there and get back. While I don't need to eat a lot while I travel, I do spend money on food especially when the rides are few and far between and I am standing outside a Husky Gas Station/Restaurant  for hours on end brushing black flies away from my eyes and ears.  So a train is a far better use of my time, I don't contribute my blood the reproduction of more mosquitoes and I think I may even save a bit of money.

To go by bus from Sudbury to Winnipeg, if one orders the ticket well in advance, it cost $129.00 and takes about 24 hours. 24 hours of hell - sitting in a seat that rapidly becomes far too small for any adult with legs, in a bus that may be crowded with people who are as unhappy as I am about being there. No one takes the bus if they have a choice, everyone can probably think of a hundred places they would rather be. It is hard to sleep, there seem to be relatively few conversations amongst strangers and one can only feel pity for the poor parents and their young children who are confined to long stretches of cruising on what very quickly feels like endless miles of highway that all looks the same.

Or one can take the train which if one orders a ticket when there is a sale on cost $134.00. The train, much to my surprise takes two-three hours (assuming it is on time) longer than the bus. But the train has seats that while they are a bit short on the thigh support, at least have lots of room to stretch out. Conversations amongst strangers are more likely and if one is bored, one can always get up and go for a walk to the dome car.

When considering the cost driving between Sudbury and Winnipeg including the price of fuel, food and perhaps a night's sleep in a cheap motel,  $135.00 sounds like a pretty good deal. I think it would cost at least that much to drive.

 So perhaps I am cheating a little bit, perhaps I am planning a bit further ahead than normal (the last two-three years I have bought the ticket a week or two before) - but perhaps it is about time that I started to learn from my experiences.

Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women

The RCMP has confirmed that they have accumulated in the past thirty years just over 1,100 cases of missing or murdered aboriginal women  (CBC). I would guess that the number is in fact still higher. This story is disturbing on a number of levels.

As a parent  I can only imagine the pain of a child disappearing with no one in a position of authority seeming to care about where they have gone. The sense of not knowing the fate of a child would inevitably cause a permanent tear in that family's narrative. I would suspect that it would be barely marginally better to know that that the child is dead. However the lack of official caring would both infuriating and crushing to the psych. The denial that there is a systemic problem must only add to the frustration and to the pain.

Of far greater concern is that lack of government response not just now but for the past 30 years. The present federal government makes the argument that their recent initiatives will resolve the problem; that there is not a need to investigate why, again according the CBC 

              " aboriginal women make up four per cent of Canada's population, they represent 16 per                cent of all murdered females between 1980 and 2012, as well as 12 per cent of all missing 

               females on  record. CBC"

Our present government seems to believe, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that stricter laws and harsher penalties will make Canadians more law abiding. And that all that we need to do is to create better systems of managing the system and the problems will go away. While we should be concerned as to why these women were abducted and/or murdered, and what we can do to stop this level of violence, we also need to discuss as a nation why no one cared enough to raise the alarm as to what was happening. Or more accurately why when Aboriginal groups raised the issue again and again - no one listened.

It is important that we continue to refine systems/laws that address violence against women. But  I don't know how we can do that if we don't let the women most affected tell their stories.

Toyota

I don't like cars. I don't like driving them; I don't like fixing them and I don't like begin dependent upon them (yes I am aware it is a wee bit paradoxical that a hitchhiker doesn't like being dependent upon cars). While it may be a bit unlikely, if machines could have feelings, I am quite convinced that cars and machines in general don't like me either.

The engine light on my Toyota '07 Yaris was on. The garage that I normally go to said the car was running fine and that the light did not signal anything serious mechanically. But I had to go to the dealer today to get it fixed as it was time to get my license  sticker renewed and I needed to get the air quality test done. It turns out that the charcoal cylinder has moisture in it and needs to be replaced. It will cost $1,000.00!!!

I find it absurd that one part could cost that much.

Toyota should be ashamed of itself for producing something that (1) it needs to be replaced after 75,000 km and (2) that cost so much.  In spite of my last two cars being a Toyota, I certainly will never buy one ever again.

On the Road Again 2014 Prologue #2

It has been such a strange spring that I am loath to announce that it (spring) is finally here. In fact I somehow suspect that we have gone from a state of very early spring- still almost winter to late spring- almost summer in a handful of days. I am not complaining but it does feel as if we have missed at least part of a season. However as the long term forecast suggest that 11 degrees will be the average temperature for the next week or so - perhaps I am being overly optomistic. Still I don't think that this year I will experience spring fever this year. Pity.

I am however ready to travel west. I have a bit of administrative clean up to do at work but by tomorrow noon I will be out of school and I won't be back until September. I can feel the start of that gentle pull to be on the road; I have started thinking of spots that I have stood before and to wonder if I will stand there again this year. I can see in my mind street corners I will need to get to so that I can catch a city bus to the outskirts of Winnipeg or Calgary or Vancouver. I can, without even thinking about it, see the highway stretching out before me at Portage La Prairie, Medicine Hat, Canmore, or Salmon Arms. I remember the stories of previous drivers; unbidden I find myself repeating my story to make sure I have not forgotten any part of it. Yes I am ready to be on the road again and it feels good to be in that state of anticipation and nervousness.

I have made a commitment to be at the Peterborough farmer's Market for most Saturdays in May and June. I have lots of weaving  to sell and I find myself looking forward to meeting new customers (especially the kids who have never seen a spinning wheel and the seniors who start of the conversation with "I can remember my mother doing that when I was young").  But in spite of my enthusiasm for being at the Market - I almost regret making that commitment. If I didn't have to sell stuff I could head out west in a few weeks.................

I know I should feel blessed that I have such wonderful choices - and I do.