47 Rides – #24 Red Deer Disturbing

I was headed towards a division in the highway, pondering which way I’d end up taking, when a truck stopped and reversed back to me.  He was headed to Sask-what the fuck?- Red Deer which is dead center between Edmonton and Calgary.  So I’m half way..(I’m fixin to make it to Calgary tonight)

He was running trucks from Red Deer to Edmonton and back.  Pickup trucks, not the big ones.  $5 an hour or something but he says it’s good work just driving around.

He was interested in motorcycle repair which I dig ever since reading Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.  I’d originally thought of motorbiking this trip but couldn’t afford it (and I don’t really know how to ride a bike (motorbike that is…well I guess I’m not great at either).  This way’s more interesting anyway.  He tells me I should check out Adrenaline Crew on the internet, stunts on bikes.  He was rhyming off brands and models which makes me feel like I should bone up on my brand knowledge but I don’t need to and I won’t anyway.

He told me a disturbing story (not ghost story disturbing but unsettling) about how he was at a bar in Red Deer and he had 2 drinks and wound up in the drunk tank when the cops found him passed out at a stop light with his foot on the brake.  He had bruises from the bouncers kicking him out but doesn’t remember anything and figures he ended up with a drink with something slipped in it.  Tough Break.  It screws his insurance/suspends his license.  He pleaded not guilty but they can’t prove drugs so they’re gonna stick it to him.  I’m sure he’ll be fine.  He, evidently, still has a job.

So here I am at a diner on Gasoline Alley in Red Deer sippin coffee and writing away.  Guess I should get movin…

47 Rides – #23 Not Long

Not a long ride but definitely appreciated.  I think I was like half an hour out of town and to some small town type of place but more of a Safeway on the highway.  But I think there was a town back there somewhere.

He picked me up not long after I was dropped off.  This is good hitchin grounds out here.

I forget everything he said.

47 Rides – #22 In Exchange For Advice

Alright!  3 rides before noon!  Well here’s the first..

Hoofin down the street in Edmonton, stoked to be moving forward again after a 4 day stay (Edmonton’s a pretty hep burg but I don’t think it’d ever be worth it to stick out a winter there) I walked it almost right out of town.  Well that’s not really true; I was still on the bus route so I stopped on a bench to catch a ride to the outskirts.

Waiting there, a guy came up to me and asked what it was like hitchin’.  He was headed to Peterborough tomorrow and was thinking of hitchhiking there.  We shot the shit for a while and as he got up to leave he offered me a ride to the outskirts (getting that karma collected).  He was doing about the same thing I was except in the opposite direction.

He was headed to meet a girl on a kind of open ended invite and to then prospectively head on afterwards.  It didn’t sound too promising for him.  I wished him luck although luck’s probably not the right word..

So he dropped me off on the ’skirts and down the highway I walked…

… perspicacity?

47 Rides – #21 Bus II

www.youmeddlingdogooder.com  

This one was an intentional bus ride, for the sake of getting from Saskatoon on to Edmonton.  It makes me appreciate having hitched the rest of the way.  The Country looks a lot better through the front windshield than from the side.  After reading for a bit from Hunter Thompson’s The Great Shark Hunt I listened to the rest of the Faith No More tape I picked up yesterday with the refund of some crap headphones I had bought.  Now I’m listening to Mars Volta and writing this.  I guess it’s a little useless to report on a ride that not finished yet…….

The fidgety girls beside me just puked in a bag to my surprise, not noticing ’til her heaves turned to coughs.  Now I’m sitting where the mother was, on the opposite side to let a couple sit together where I was.  The mother and the heaving little girl are now at the front.  The seat here is much more declined than I dared in my other chair.

47 Rides – #20-Trucker III

Before I even got bored of standing there:  I saw a wave from another hitchhiker – headed the other ways toward a funeral – toward the top of the on ramp to the TransCanada, where I was considering to be a better vantage for hitching.  I nodded, “Yeah, I probably will have a better chance there” and headed up, only to find a truck already stopped.

“I’ve been driving since 12 last night and I need someone to rap with so I can make it to Saskatoon by this afternoon!”

“I’VE BEEN DRIVING SINCE 12 LAST NIGHT AND I NEED SOMEONE TO RAP WITH SO ICAN MAKE IT TO SASKATOON BY THIS AFTERNOON!”

“Great!”

Now conversation.  I was pretty beat from being up all night fending off the wind and rain at the drive-in I slept at.  I woke up in the middle of the night (relatively speaking.  A few hours after the movies)  to thunder and lightning and I whipped the tarp out of my backpack and tied it to the fence before it started to pour.  It was then I realized I was in a patch of thistles. 

I stayed on the ball with him, if not contributing much to the conversation, I was at least able to follow what he was saying and he was in no way short on filling the space I left him.  He had a fairly confusing web of ex-wives, girl-friends and “future” wives.  He was headed to Malta at some point, either to see his daughter  or ex or with his girlfriend or to meet a girl or something like that.  He had a daughter my age but his hair was still fully red.

I told him how I spent my time in Regina with these two English chicks and an Aussie girl and he was shocked and saddened that I didn’t sleep with any of them.  Making these fleeting acquaintances more intimate seems a little pointless and inappropriate.  I’m just having a good time.

47 Rides – #19 The Good Samaritan and Pity

I almost forgot!  Limping down Alberta St. “downtown;-)” Regina, carrying all my stuff, a girl named Ivy gave me a ride saying, “I’ll give you a ride if you promise not to hurt me or anything.” I thanked her profusely, having kinda been staring around helplessly hoping someone would help me out. 

I had gotten off the bus at nowhere and started backtracking.  My foot’s been killing me and I’m walking with a pretty noticeable limp.  It’s been a long couple of past days…  Sweet pity’s carrying me across Canada when I’m too tired to walk.

She drove me to the Regina hostel while I regaled her with my story.  Even though I’m shuffling around in pain I can tell this is a beautiful town.

Dumb luck is the purest form of luck.  Getting good at life has something to do with paying attention to the rhythms your given.  The key is predicting where the rhythm will modify.

Very hard to define, but easy to recognize…. 

Moment of truth

Don’t let your mind seize up

Reminds of a chance I had and fucked up

Buckled under the pressure and left to my successor

However he’s been you can bet I’m doin’ better

47 Rides – #18 Trucker II

I like truckers.  More specifically I like riding in the the trucks and I like how they always take me real far.  This one was a cool old dude.

Old-timer, always talking about something thing that happened in ‘59 or ‘73 or telling clever little jokes ie “I spilled spot remover on my dog and he dissappeared.”  He said it’s nice to have someone to ride with:  ”I tell myself jokes but I’ve heard most of them.”  I like that he said ‘most’:)

We stopped for coffee in Whiteriver(?)  We told jokes and chatted away.  It was alot easier to talk in the diner.  The A/C in the truck was broken so all the windows were open and it was hard to hear.  

Good man.  Nice friendly down to earth guy.  Just what I need after the last few crazy dayz…

47 Rides – #17 The Gay Guy

Picked me up and said, “How’d you get way out here?”  The middle of nowhere is sometimes the reason you get picked up.  

I went for a sip of my water and he offered me a beer!  From joints to beers, it’s a good day to catch a ride.  People are generous in this area but maybe I’m generalizing.  

He asked me what I thought of the gay marriage issue and I told him I was all for it.  My older brother’s gay and even before I knew that I was arguing gay rights against some of my small-town friends in high school.  He asked if I was gay and I replied that I found women more attractive sexually.  With the curves and the smells and all..  So he says, “Hey, don’t knock it ’til you tried it!” *Awkward silence* 

We got talking about kitchen work, we’d both worked in quite a few kitchens in our day.  I chugged the last of my beer as he dropped me off, a good ways down the highway but not at Regina yet.

In retrospect, he maybe thought of me the same way I thought about #15 earlier today.  ”I picked up a hitchhiker today.  Surprisingly, no sex..”

47 Rides – #16 Middle of Nowhere

Kinda an uptight guy.  People are a lot more serious around here…

Didn’t drive me far.  Actually, left me right about the middle of nowhere…

47 Rides – #15 The Girl

First girl to pick me up.  Surprisingly, no sex.  Maybe next time…

She talked slow.  ”I’m .. from .. Canada .. so .. they .. think .. I’m .. slow, ..eh?”  She was cool though.

Apparently there’s a psycho hospital in this town so this is where they all get released back into civilization.  Doesn’t surprise me.