On the Road Again (finally) part 7

I slept well that night in Golden and I was up and ready to roll by just before 7:00. As there was no one around I left, without goodbys or any fuss. It was quite frankly, as if I had never been there.

It is about a 20-25 minute walk to the west end of town. There were not a lot of cars on the road but I was, as always hoping to be the early bird getting that lonely worm. It was cold and very foggy. I don't think I have ever seen so much fog in this area before. I stopped at the Subway just before the lights and had a breakfast sub. Not the worse meal I have ever had, but close. However it was cheap, and it meant that I could eat it on the side of the road. Just in case someone wanted to stop. It was a long 45-50 minutes (which shows how spoiled I was becoming). Occasionally  the strong wind would blow the fog away and I could see some blue sky and once for about 10 minutes I could see the majesty of the Rockies. How could one not be excited about being there?

A truck stopped. It was my first ride with a trucker in 2 years and I was pleased. It had felt as if I would never get another ride with one. I didn't get his name, or if I did - I don't remember it, but he was an oldtimer. He had been driving trucks all of his life, it was all that he knew and all that he thought he could do. I love truckers and their trucks and I am always grateful when they pick me up. However of all of the places to pick me up, the Rockies are my least favourite. Trucks are slow going through the hills. On the Prairies they are great, there are no hills to slow them down, but in mountains not only are there lots of up and down sections but there are also all of the tourist who, according to my various truck drivers, including this one, do not know how to drive.

The conversation for much of the trip to Kelona initially covered the usually topics- which trucks are best (according to my driver Volvo trucks are the worst and their drivers only brag about them because they are so embarrassed about being seen in one) the cost of fuel or rather how little they get for the taxes they pay, how vital the trucking industry is for Canada's economy, how unfair it is that the railroads are subsidized and truckers aren't and fairly continually - how bad the drivers are in front of them. While I am never sure is all of their facts are right - there is no doubt that many of the drivers on the road do not have a clue how to behave around trucks.

But my this driver also had some other stories that were well worth listening to. He had been married more than once, but for the last 10-15 years he had been living with a woman from and living in a First Nations community.She  had two sons from another relationship and he had accepted responsibility for raising them as his sons. His wife was an alcoholic and both sons had alcohol and drug addictions. It was hard to sit there and listen to his tales without feeling a sense of rage and frustration that this man who had tried so hard to be honourable, seemed to have been given such a heavy load to bear. On the other hand it was somewhat comforting to know that there were honourable men out there who do not run away from their assumed responsibilities.

He gave me a number of choices as to where to be let off. I chose just south of Kelona on the Coquihalla highway. He gave me two bottles of water for which I was grateful as it had gotten hot in the Okanagan Valley.

On the Road Again (intermission #3)

Strange being at the hostel. My room of 6 bunks seems to be one where people are only staying 1 night and therefore there are not a lot of conversations happening. The hostel is fairly full but the level of energy is down from other years.

I think it is because of the number of people using their own computers. Really hard to talk to someone when they are plugged into their machines.

There are three young ladies in my room,Two have huge wheeled suitcases. One of them is a very small person and I suspect that she could quite easily fit into her bag. Another young lady is from Switzerland - she is hanging around for a few days and we have had a few brief conversations, nothing substantial but is is nice to have someone to say good morning to.

Great weather - hot and sunny. Had to buy a straw hat as my dark brown drizabone travelling hat is a bit too hot to wear in the sun. It is a good hat, seems to have brought me luck on the road but it is not really useful in the city.

Had a great supper and walk about the town yesterday with a dear friend and I am having drinks this afternoon with an other. Glad I cam down.

On the Road Again (finally) part 6

It felt good to know that I had gotten through Calgary relatively easily. As I walked up the highway towards Canmore - which was no more than a 20 minute hike up hill, I occasionally turned around and stuck my thumb out. Much to my surprise I got a ride fairly quickly, well before I reached the spot where I felt that I was outside of the city limits.

Peter was just going to Kanaskis  (sp)- which is not that far but it was a good start. He was from the Newfoundland- but he had virtually no accent. He said it came out after a few beers. He was a plumber and loving living in the area. He was a snow boarder so working in the Foothills was just an excuse to enjoy the snow.

He let me out and I assumed - in my new found optimism - that I would get a ride quickly. I was in the Rockies after all with lots of young people well immersed in the culture of picking up hitchhikers. I was wrong. I was in that spot for well over 1 1/2 hours. And it was windy. I gave up wearing my hat. The wind blew so hard that my chin strap was almost strangling me! I had on a un-done short sleeve shirt and a tee shirt underneath it on and the wind kept on trying to take the shirt of off my back. When I truck went by, I literally was almost blown over. It was not fun. In spite of the sun being out most of the time it was cold.

Finally Guy, a lawyer picked me up and drove me to Golden which far exceeded my expections. I would have been happy getting to Canmore. In fact  I was sort of looking forward to stopping there at the new hostel and having the best veggie burger in Canada at a little restaurant that I had found a few years back.

But I was not complaining. We had a great conversation - again it was about politics and the lack of civic engagement of young people. Again I defend the youth. We also had a long talk about what made a good leader aand used his critia to talk a bit Canadian prime ministers. It was fun. Guy had spent his professional life being an advocate, he had protested in the late 60s and while he thought it was useful and productive he decided to grow up and do something useful. Like others who have picked me up, Guy, I think, had a need to defend his past and to prove that he had not really changed. I think it is my appearance that brings out this defensiveness. Which is strange as I have live a relatively conservative life.

Got the hostel in Golden which had lots of beds available. It is a really poorly run hostel - it is clean etc but the hosts do nothing to make one feel welcome. I think it is used mainly for winter sports and therefore they doo not really work at being the place to be in the summer. There is another hostel in Golden. Next tie I might staty there. On the other hand, this one is convenient and the beds are really great. I changed into my sandals and cross the CPR tracks to find a beer and something to eat. I felt as if I had earned it. Although in fact I had not worked hard at all.

Just after I got there, a couple drove up in a Corvette and registered.  It seemed somewhat wrong that folks in a corvette would stay in a hostel. They had a private room so I did not see much of them.I would have asked for a ride except there clearly was not room for me in their two seater

On the road again (intermission #2)

Sometimes we make bad decisions. I got a ride into Duncan to catch the 2:35 bus. I should have hitched into Victoria as the bus schedule had been changed and didn't leave until 3:50....then it was 35 miutes late. I could have been in Victoria by then.

Feeling kind of dumb. It was a beuatiful day and the 60 minute drive into the city should have been a easy hitch. Where was my brain?

oh well - I am at the hostel now and all is well

On the road again (finally) part 5

When standing on the road on the outskirts of Medicine Hat there were literally 100s of cars zooming by me every few minutes. The other side of Brooks there were perhaps 3-4 cars passing me by ever 10 minutes. It is part of the frustration of hitchhiking that one never knows (until a car stops) where all of the cars are going. If the majority are only going 10 minutes down the road, then it is understandable why most don't stop. But one never knows.

The mosquitoes were surprisingly bad at this intersection. Tiny little things -hardly worth mentioning except two had the gall to bite me! I was quite delighted when a another van stopped to pick me up after being there for less than 1/2 an hour. My driver was unusual in that he was Asian. I have talked to Asians in the past as to why one never sees an Asian hitchhike. One answer is that it is so foreign to their culture. To hitchhike would suggest that the person was too poor to travel any other way. Not too sure how true this is and when I mentioned it to my driver he was rather non-committal.

My driver was off to Calgary and would get me near a C train station. I was delighted. He ran his own company selling kits for solar water heaters. This is impressive for a couple of reasons.   Medicine Hat is the sunniest city in Canada (not the warmest- just the most days of sun per year) and therefore would seem to be a good location for a solar business - however,  it is self labeled as the natural gas capital of Canada. A city that is built upon the natural gas industry and therefore is committed to the logic that the availability of natural gas is unlimited. It would seem as if solar power would be a hard sell. And according to my driver it was. He had only been doing it for a year and business was still pretty slow. I admired his courage. It was one more bit of proof for me that we need immigrants for their innovation and desire to be successful.

He was surprised that I knew so much about solar and other types of alternative energy. I suspect that he had not meet many people in the west who could talk about it.

It was a short drive but enjoyable. We stopped for a bathroom break at a small little park just outside of Calgary. It was the same one that a trucker had stopped at a few years ago for a few hours of sleep.Because we had arrived in the dark that time I was never too sure where it was. It was nice to see it in the daylight. It is a delightful little place and so well hidden. It is almost as if they don't want anyone to use it.

One of the things that I learned as we approached Calgary  is that it now has an almost completed ring road. Of course the city is expanding so much that the road will be soon encompassed by houses, but at least now folks are who are going further west do not have to drive through rush hour traffic. Mt driver was gracious enough to go out of his way and get me to the train station. A nice man and I wish his business well. By 12:35 I was at the C train station

In the past I may have maligned Calgary bus drivers for being the worst in Canada in terms of being both unfriendly and unhelpful. I think I have been unkind. I was asking the wrong question. Looking like I look with my pack on my back, I assumed that by asking for the west end of town it should have been evident what I wanted. It wasn't and I have spent hours wandering the city, walking far too much trying to get to the Trans-Canada. All I needed to do is ask to go to Olympic Park - and they get me to when I want to go without fuss. The Calgary transit system is clean, efficient and generally seems to run on the honour system. I did buy a ticket at a machine but no one ever asked to see it. As well, in spite of the fact that the city is built for cars - pedestrians are well looked after in terms of safety - although sometimes climbing the stairs over the tracks and road ways can be a bit tiring.

On the road again (intermission #1)

While it was my intent to write sequentially - that is to talk about the events of my trip in the order that they occurred - I need/want to talk about yesterday.

It was a glorious day in terms of weather -the best we have had since I hit the coast ( which admittedly does say much). My daughter (in law), my son, my grandson and I went to Cherry Point Beach for a walk. The kid loved it! The tide was out and there were 1,000s of shells and small crabs and and other assorted denizens of the deep (and not so deep) resting on the shore. It was fun to pick up shells and look at them. It is perhaps a touristy thing to do, but it is an endless fascinating thing to do especially with my son who knows and understands so much of the world around him. Next year my grandson will be walking and I am sure that when we go to the beach, he will want to start his own collection of shells and special stones.

It was a nice drive there and equally as nice on the way back. I find the roads a bit confusing on the island. There seem to be so many ways of getting to any one point. But the scenery is beautiful. No gentle soft sandy beaches here. This may be a resort area, a place were city folks visit, but is is also a place where people work and live. There are parts that are less than beautiful - parts of the seashore that are not accessible because of the ruggedness but it has a gentle grandeur that is seductive.

As we were winding our way home my daughter in law's father passed us on his motorcycle....he did a u turn and followed us to a parking lot. He came back for supper and we had a great visit.

After supper we had a bit of a nap and then decided that we would go to a outside dance/camping/reggae party get-together. We left the dishes on the counter, assembled the assorted paraphernalia that such an expedition requires and headed out. Again I don't have a clue where we went. It was somewhere on the Cowichan river, or at least so they said, but it could have been the Amazon for all I knew. After getting out of the car we walked and walked.The first part of the path was overgrown and more dangerously, had man traps dug. These were 3-4 large holes in the ground specifically dug to prevent me from trespassing. Navigating the stroller over these holes was, to say the least, an interesting experience.

But it got worse. The last 200- 300 hundred meters of the path would have made a Rocky Mountain Goat hesitant.  To call it a path demeans the many fine paths tat I have followed. It was steep, uneven, narrow and on occasion it almost disappeared. The path was not made for a stroller and we abandoned the fine vehicle at the top of the last descent. But we got to the bottom safely, set up our chairs and prepared for the party to start. Other than the 3 guys who were setting up the speakers, generator and the computer, no one else came for 2 plus hours. Which was a disappointment. But a fire was lit and it was strangely pleasant if paradoxical by the river. There we were in a semi-pristine, largely untouched wilderness listening to a digitized and amplified Bob Marley powered by a portable generator.It was quite remarkable. I am not too sure if I would do it again - but I am glad that I went.

My grandson again was great. He loved the music - insisting on staying awake and dancing for much of the time that we were there. It was a beautiful sight to see his mom and him snuggling together as he dozed off for a nap.The trip back was.......... I don't know what the word is. Interesting is far too mild; crazy may be slightly too much of an exaggeration.Climbing up the less than accessible goat path, wandering through the forest, and scrambling across the man traps was done with humour and by cooperation. I think it was one of those iconic bonding moments between friends that we will talk about in the future when my grandson is older. He may not believe us. Which would be a pity because most parents would never had the courage or the energy to try to get him to the river. He deserves to know they did.

A really interesting day

p.s. I am told that I have to tell the whole story - I left something out so that the guilty would not be named or blamed. (LOL) However if they insist......... on the way back I fell into one of the man traps. At the time I was carrying three (yes three) folding chairs, my small knapsack that had amongst other things someone else's water jug and of course my tiny little flashlight. My son was carry his son in the heavy baby seat and assisting with the stroller as well as carrying the large lantern that lit up everything within 10 feet. ( I, of course, was 12 feet behind them) I am not sure what the third person was carrying - perhaps almost nothing

As I  jumped across the hole, I foolishly assumed that the person in front of me who was carrying so little would keep on moving. They didn't. I had no where to go but backwards. And backwards I went into the four foot hole. My hip was slightly bruised, but I being as graceful as always avoided major injury.

There I have told the whole story.

On the Road Again (finally) part 4

I slept like a log at the motel and by 6:30 I was wide awake and feeling fine. It had been well over 24 hours since I had eaten anything substantial and while I wasn't really hungry, I knew that I had to eat. I was about to face the dreaded stretch between Medicine Hat and Canmore and I had visions of being stuck somewhere along that road for hours.. So I got up, had a shower, got some breakfast at the Husky across the street, and by 7:30 I was ready to hit the road again.

Medicine Hat is not a great place for pedestrians. In fact I am not too sure if the city fathers (or mothers) even recognize that there are such beings as pedestrians. The proof of this? There appears to be a real shortage of sidewalks. Of course there may be sidewalks in the downtown area, I don't know I have never been there but heading out along Highway #1 there are none. This lack of consideration for folks like me makes it a bit of a dangerous trip getting out of town.There are some sections on the overpass that one needs to time the crossing with the lights to avoid being brushed by cars as they head out of town.

When I reached a place that looked safe I got out my sign, set my pose, put on the smile and relaxed. I knew I was going anywhere soon.The sun was out in full force and I  quickly got out the sun screen. I remembered one other occasion standing at this spot and getting fairly badly burned on the inside of my hitchhiking arm. However my wait was not as long as I had feared. An hour or so later, a93 blue Mercury van made a rather daring lane change and stopped a 100 yards up the road. I swong the pack up on my shoulders and jogged up to the van.

My driver was a man from a local First Nations community. He had just bought the van (he was quick to assure me that it was not stolen), had put on some plates that he had lying around and was heading out to the "reserve" for awhile. He had paid $550 for the vehicle and it looked to be a great deal. He (like so many of my drivers) had just broken up with his girlfriend/wife. I don't know if there is a correlation between marriage break ups and picking up hitchhikers, but I think there might be.Perhaps because they are lonely or no longer give a damn.

He had bought the van because "he was tired  walking". Which I suppose is as good as reason as any to buy a vehicle. He told me that he was going to Brooks which was only a hour or so down the road. As we got closer to Brooks he told me that he was going to pick up a few things at Brooks and then would drive me a bit further if I wanted to hang out with him while he was shopping. He got a suitcase from a trailer in Brooks and then we waited in a parking lot until the liquor store opened. When it opened, he went in and quickly returned with a bag. My job was to stay in the van as he was afraid to turn off the van. It had needed a boost that morning and he wasn't sure it would start. (yes he had keys for it).

As soon as we on the road again he reached into the bag, pulled out a beer and started to drink. One of my few rules is that I don't drive with people who are either drunk or who are drinking in the car. But I knew I was getting out 10 minutes outside of town. He offered me a beer, which was generous of him, but I declined with the  excuse that beer on my breath might discourage some drivers. I don't think I have been offered a beer so early in the morning before.