Me and my soap box! Oh lucky you!

Hope and War

Like most of us I have occasionally tackled the really big questions that being alive and looking around will pose. “War” ranks up among my top 10 questions. Much has been said on a grand scale about the whys and the where fore of war, but I have not heard much about the reasons that soldiers sign up and provide the fodder for the preservation of war. My pondering began here. The road I took started with the most obvious scenario. When faced with emanate attack from a foe who appears to want something you have got, food, water, money or your life, taking up arms to defend your self/family/tribe does appear on the surface to make sense. Unfortunately for those of us living comfortably here in the developed world, this is not were or when we take up arms. Or more rightly spoken, this is not where we send our young off to fight. Rather we pack them of to some distant land. Typically an underdeveloped country that has something we want or don’t want. So why is it that we can talk these young folks into to going? Because we all know that if war was left to anyone over the age of 40, only the really depressed would show up! Secondly unless it was really the first case scenario why would you want to kill someone just like your self. So only a few bullies and their friends would be fighting. Alas this is definitely not the case. Long ago the old guys in the tribe figured out how to whip up the testosterone young men of the tribe into a murderous rage, and promise them the spoils of war like wine women and loot, then pointed them at some foe and war was made possible. So far simple, but this is not all I believe is going on. I believe that hope plays a huge part. I am not talking about the “hope” that any war will be the end of war forever. Grant me that we all see the stupidity of believing war can create peace. No I am talking about the personal belief that an individual can improve his/her odds of staying alive by shooting first. The young are vulnerable in many ways. Give them a grand story of heroic proportions that lets them off the hook or gives them the appearance of winning the prize and you have their attention. Tell them that it is really only their tribe they must protect. The bigger picture is not their concern/ or too complicated for them to grapple with given their lack of experience excreta, excreta. And besides you get to shoot first! And here we come to the kernel that I believe under pins war as a way to solve problems rather than non violence. We all hope that if we shoot first we won’t die. Which is a false hope, whether we shoot first or take a stand peacefully we are all going to die eventually. Shooting first is not going to end the shooting. Not shooting will.

PS the young good looking gal in the pic is Emily, adventurer extraordinaire

They a say a fool and her money are soon parted!

Oh how I wish the above were not true!

Our latest truck trip provided us both with a updated lesson in humility, the power of glamour, and the confirmation that coyote is alive and well living at a rest area on the border of Ohio and Indiana!

This was just a typical day on one of the busiest interstates in America, I70. I70 is a corridor to the major cities on the eastern seaboard and the traffic is constant and relentless, like rush hour on speed. Now this particular day we passed two accidents involving truck meets car, with the truck ending up in the weeds on it's side in one case and on its back in another. Larry and I both counted our blessings as we usually do when we see these things.

I suspect we both also harboured a wee bit of smugness, that somehow we were above a bad day. Well what every the case was that day we were about to meet our match!

One of the true joys of driving in the USA is it's attention to rest areas. It is almost like the individual states compete with each other to see who can build the best one. I wish Canadian provinces would catch the bug!

The Scene: I70 west bound last rest area before leaving Ohio for Indiana.
Time: 4:00pm local time

We were making a typical pit stop. Larry was first to head for the facilities while I waited in the truck. We were loaded heading for home, which means a driver must stick with the load at all times. As Larry was doing the driving I was perched in the passenger seat working on some hand quilting. A fellow acting all excited spotted me and approached the truck, I lowered the window to hear what he had to say. His excitement was of the happy kind and in that moment I had no a clue as to what he might be on about.

My recollection of the conversation is sketchy, part of the script I suspect, and his accent, a drawl from the south I think, was so thick and his speech was so fast that I can say now that the spell was cast effortlessly. What I do remember is him wanting me to come with him to see his friend who had just won a lot of money. He asked me if I heard other truckers talking about it on the CB. I answered that we don't run with the CB on, which is true. He also asked me where we were headed, and I proudly answered BC, Canada, just above Seattle. (one quickly learns to give a context that folks in the US can relate too) His enthusiasm was such that I found myself following him out of the truck. My mind did note that I would not go anywhere where I could not maintain a sight line to the load! As it turned out we only went to the back of our van, where seemingly out of nowhere there materialized about 6 men who I took for granted where fellow truck drivers. The first fellow was maintaining a steady stream of excited conversation with me, while the rest of the men formed a semi circle around a guy who was carry a very large fist full of money. He squatted on the pavement and laid out three playing cards face up. Two black cards and one red card. The other men then engaged in a game with him in which they tried to guess which card was the red one when they were inverted. I'm sure there is a name for this trick... "the shell game"....

The first guy who was keeping up the steady babble at me handed me a bunch of 20 dollar bills like I had just won at this game. I was really more interested in checking out the guy with the money, who looked like winning a lottery was was a good thing for him. He looked very ruff, had a gash on his arm that sported a dozen black stitches, was very thin and scruffy looking. Why would he want to give his money away to poor truck drivers. This thought was part of the conversation the first guy was trying to put across to me.

Then Larry showed up. Immediately all the energy switched to him. I could see that this was just as overwhelming to him as it was to me. But my radar had not yet detected anything amiss. So when he looked to me to see if he should play along I indicated why not. If this guy wanted to give away money I was game.

Boy in hindsight the last comment I just made came back to haunt me big time!

I saw Larry get out his money, turned out to be $120.00 US. There was some joshing of the other men to make room for Larry to get close enough to play the game. Somewhere there the fist full of money I had been given was gone. Another truck trailer beside ours began to move in reverse as if to back over our group. Larry said afterward that this was just when He was trying to engage in the game, having handed over his money. As everyone scrambled to avoid the backing up truck Larry lost sight of the moving cards and picked the wrong one. Bingo! In a matter of seconds everyone vanished, leaving Larry and I standing there.

He cursed and ran to follow swearing that he had just been robbed! By the time we made it to the front of our truck, the group had scattered and vanished into the trees surrounding the rest area building.

Time elapsed? Maybe five minutes, starting with my meeting the man.

Wow, I was blown away at just how slick the whole event was performed. Meanwhile Larry was still cursing, we had just given away $120.00 US!

I was also struck immediately with just easily my greed had been roused. For me I thought I deserved to be scammed! Those guys obviously needed that money more than I did. Though amongst a group that large it really was not that much profit for a suberb preformance!

I would not have believed it, but I saw it for myself!

Driving across our fair continent, well some of it anyway, you get to see all manner of wonderful and strange things. On our most recent trip I saw on interstate 90 in South Dakota the follow scene. Unfortunately I was driving and my camera was not at hand.... but I think you can all picture this.

A four lane high way with a median. A cop car pulled up on either side of the median and three cops standing in a semi circle in the median. Lights on the cruisers are flashing. As I approached my mind quickly did a list, can't see a car in the median, maybe a motorbike, ah maybe.... as I drew abreast I got to see just what those cops were up too. Why they were corralling a pig! Yes a large pig, very much alive pig. Well Three pigs and a pig, why it just doesn't get any better than that,too bad I didn't get a pic!

The following are things you can see driving along the highway, or stopped at a truck stop, or at a delivery.....






The road can also remind a person to be always humble, alert and careful. It has been along time since I have scared myself driving. So it was with great alarm and heart palpation's that I mistakenly took a corner on the trans Canada Highway just past Three Valley Gap. I was going way to quick and had to take all the road to make it.... Luckily for me it was late at night and there was no on coming traffic!

The morning after would have been terrible to miss....

"Borders" you got-ta love em NOT!

July 3 Courtenay
Again I will forge on without an audience, and without finishing the Haines adventure, cause Larry assures me that the photo disk can be found!

We have been out on the road for nearly two weeks straight, well with a four day break last stint and with 3 days off this stint, and Larry and I are getting a little punchy, well okay I'm getting a paunchy! Egad I have blossomed to over 150 smackers... Pretty soon I will not only be a trucker but I'll look like one too!

There are perks to this job and with our last run we got to collect on one of them. A day with my kids for free, well and I suppose I could say I got paid to make the trip to Kamloops too.
Sand boxes are great entertainment!



And no Chelsee and Maia and me are not part of the building crew!

Our most recent trip took us past the building of the next "Wonders" of the Trans Canada Highway BC style. If you haven't made a trek to Calgary lately here's what you have been missing....



In theory this bridge will cut out part of the old road above Golden that was threatening to fall into the abyss.
This trip also took us through my favorite "rest area" province in Canada "Saskatchewan". Were the question is always,"Are you supposed to pee in the dumster or beside the dumster???"


The remainder of the trip to McArthur Ohio, our usual gig was uneventful for us. I did see a tractor sans trailor on the side of the freeway in Indiana with the drive a few yards away on the cell presumably calling for a fire truck cause his truck was doing the flame thing! You often see the scorch marks but this was the first for me to see the flames.

Our return trip to Courtenay had two regretable events. The first a flat tire on the trailor. Again! On our last trip we had two flats at the same time. Sympathy is common on duals. And like the last time they happened on a Sunday when getting serviced is well a pain. Cause you are getting them out on their days off.

The second incident proved once and for all to Larry that Canadians are NOT always polite. As a matter of fact they can be down right rude, aggressive and self centred.
It's the border crossing at Blaine, the "I5" is backed up beyond the truck exit. Its like a line up for a boxing day sale only we are talking cars and big rigs, hot tempers and air horns. Not pretty. It took us three hours to get to the customs booth!

Tis the season to be slow!

Dear friends relatives and countrymen... I must smile here cause no one but me knows that I am blogging and that's because I'm awfully slow at getting to the keyboard these days! Why you ask well my flower garden and my quilting seem to be taking over my life!


Before I get too carried away with the current news I will finish up on the trip to Haines.....
Our trip would take us up new roads the Stewart / Cassiar or highway 37, which is a right turn off highway 16 (The Yellowhead) at Kitwanga BC. This highway pretty much follows parallel to the Alcan highway but west next to the Alaskan Panhandle.

The first leg to Kitwanga was not new to either Larry or myself, but once we turned north and passed the turn to Stewart ( A place we visited in our old job working for Glenncoe )it would be all new.

The trip up to this point was uneventful, the weather decent but not very warm and it was obvious, that May can still be the start of spring in some parts of BC. The excitement of this trip began at the edge of the unknown. I was driving on the first leg on highway 37 and was jocking the camera for a picture of the historic turn to the north when the truck did something unusual it almost stalled out... Larry reacted with alarm first at what he supposed was my poor driving skills and then to the scene of smoke pouring from the trailer wheels !!!!

What the hell.... I was stunned when I looked in the mirrors to see the same smoke! I stopped just shy of the corner and was completely at a loss as to what was happening or what to do. Fortunately Larry knew what to do to start with and that was to get water to the wheels and fast! Steam rose and the temprature of the drums cooled. Sigh of releif, we were't going to blow today, well okay catch fire and then blow....

The problem a broken brake pod/pig. Out here in the middle of no where it was obvious we needed to disable that brake to continue. Now this is a job that can be done but Larry had yet to try the theory out. It took a moment or two to get off the road and into some snow of course. Might as well be wet and cold if you have to work under a trailer! But with not too much effort we managed, well Larry managed to get the job done. The plan now was to get the brake fixed in Watson Lake or Whitehorse.

I do have wonderful pictures of this trip and I was about to start adding them when I realized through an amazing mix up I have probably lost all the photos I took on that trip. All I have left are thumb nails stuck in a program and I can't use them or print them or anything! RATS

In shock I think I will close for today and begin again another day. ;(

The roadshow heads north again....

Welcome to my new story board! T'is my hope that this format will be more accessible to my dear friends and family...

I must first bring you all up to date. After our great adventure to Inuvik, trucking life settled into a steady routine of trips back and forth to Ohio. We had great luck with the weather and any minor white knuckle events have already drifted out of memory!

So it was with great excitement that we accepted a load to Haines Alaska. Of course the first question is just were is Haines Alaska? (Cause neither one of us knew) It is on the Alaskan Panhandle around the corner from Skagway and just north of Juneau (100km). Hmmm we would be traveling on the "Stewart Cassiar Hwy" which would be new to both of us and of course somehow wiggling our way down the panhandle. Google maps comes in handy right about now. Our route would be highway 1 to Cache Creek then hwy 97 to Prince George, left on hwy 16 to Kitwanga then north on hwy 37 "Stewart Cassiar Hwy". Highway 37 connects up with the Alcan Hwy running up to Whitehorse. We would stay on the Alcan till we reached Haines Junction still in the Yukon. We would turn south on Highway 3 crossing out of the Yukon and back into British Columbia and crossing the border into Alaska about 42 miles north of Haines.

Now that is the route and one can't really get lost cause there just aren't many other roads a person could take! I know I expected we would see some pretty spectactular scenery if the weather was in our favour, but I could not have imagined just how much spectactular one can see!

Our Haines adventure began with hooking up to a "chaisis" which held a "Can". More trucking jargon that I had never run into. A wee bit of back ground hear for all the unintiates like myself. If you have ever seen cargo ships or trains with what looks like transport vans all stacked up. Those vans are called "cans" and because they have no wheels they are loaded unto to a "chasis" sooooo In short we would be hauling a small version of this to Haines.


All are trips begin in Courtenay and when we have product we must take the Sea Span Barge, which is a bare bones container carrier with no amenities and as the pic shows not much for safety!!