My brother Pete called me on the 9th that my mom had been visiting with friends and family through the day in the care home in Swan River MB but they all realized that because her aneurism was bleeding again that she wouldn’t make another night.

So I thought and prayed about it and decided that I needed to go the next morning and help make funeral arrangements. Judy and several of the girls would come a few days later so rather than take a separate vehicle I decided to hitchhike or what they call ‘getting a lift’ in Africa. I had a good jacket with big pockets that I was able to get water, some food and personal things in without having a backpack. Not good for extreme cold but adequate.

Left Sunday morning, walking for some distance before a couple picked me up and took me to Sparwood. They dropped me off in town and by the time I crossed the highway, I saw them turn out on the highway again. So I thought, ‘I just got dumped’.

Another fellow took me to the far end of Crowsnest Pass and then I walked again. An acquaintance down the road from where we live picked me up in a new Ram pickup and I’m thinking: how did he get this when he’s unemployed? It was a rented vehicle and he was moving a girlfriend from Calgary to Fernie making 3 trips in 3 days. Coming from an old Honda Accord he was having fun figuring out all the gadgets - supposedly for $190 and unlimited kms. When he realized I was going across the prairies, he bypassed Hwy 22, which is the shortcut and drove me to Fort MacLeod where he headed north.

A couple of young farm hands picked me up and I was a little frightened but they turned out to be friendly; they drove me past their destination of Lethbridge so I could be out on the open highway. I gave them $10 to splurge with.

Next, a young Ukrainian farm hand, only 4 months in Canada, picked me up. I peppered him with as many questions as possible, forcing him to reply, because he wanted to learn English. He planned to marry a Canadian but wanted to buy a sports car first. He dropped me at the bypass before Medicine Hat because I had tried getting a ride in the city several years ago and ended up walking till dark and sleeping in a deserted barn with the mice and birds.

Then I walked and walked, getting two short rides which kept my hopes up. Finally, at the other end of the ‘Hat’ I stood by a gas station to no avail and started to walk again. Now it was getting dark and cold after the warm sun all day. Around 10 in the evening I was ‘wasted’ having walked 30-40 kms but hoped to be able to walk to Irwin (a hamlet) another 5 kms and perhaps find a bar open, to bed down for the night. A car pulled up, the driver cracked the window and asked if I had any weapons. He later told me that a rider had pulled a knife on him and it was only by texting his friend to intervene - his friend made it look like he was forcing him over to the shoulder of the road and together they got him out of the car.

This night he had to be at work in Regina by 7am so he was driving up to 150 kph. I kept talking (to keep him awake) about life and faith because he was a Muslim from Lebanon so we compared our beliefs ending with Jesus being the living Savior. We got to Regina around 2:30 and he dropped me at the Travel Lodge in the middle of the city and he was going to park in front of his workplace. I gave him $40 for gas and a big thanks. It took half an hour to check in because the place was being renovated including the computer system upgrade. I got to my room which wasn’t even made up from the last guest but I was too tired to care and went to sleep.

At 9:30 I got my free breakfast with only a minute to spare before they would start charging. I made calls for the funeral arrangement and left the motel at 11 feeling confident after my incredible ride the night before. I walked through and out of the city for 20 kms thumbing with a wave and a smile as hundreds of cars pulled over to the far lane before driving by. I always have my sign with a big $ but some people think I’m broke instead of realizing I want to help pay for gas. It was getting late in the afternoon and I stopped around White City to have a Dairy Queen salad. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to walk another 5 kms to Balgonie to the junction going north to Ft. Qu’ Appelle. I was singing a song with the words:

‘Keep me Jesus as the apple of your eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings. Thou alone can save me ere I die, keep me Jesus as the apple of thine eye.’

‘Just when I need someone to tell me trouble to. Just when I’m feeling downhearted and blue. Just when I’m thinking I cannot make it through, then Jesus comes and answers prayer.’

A small company truck pulled over and I soon realized he was a building inspector which was my career. He was also a Christian and said that he had just passed me and felt he had to find his way back on the divided highway and pick me up. It was an instant friendship with Joshua Nitz; talking about our career and maintaining faith serving the Lord in spite of challenges – his being a childless marriage for 14 years with no option to adopt. He took me to Balcarres after charging my phone and buying me a hot chocolate.

Now it was getting dark again but a native man ‘Elijah Blue Stonechild’ coming home from a day of construction work in Regina, picked me up (they almost never pass a person hitchhiking even if the car is full). He said that most of his life he was an addict but the previous year he had gone to peyote ceremony and never had an urge again. I couldn’t argue with that. He wasn’t going far as he had to turn off to the reservation. So now I’m in the middle of nowhere again and pretty well dark.

A lady picked me up. She was a retired nurse practitioner and she said that when she was courting she hitchhiked all the time between Edmonton and Canora just north of Yorkton. She made a short stop at Melville to drop something off for her son and we continued to Canora where I would have to go east. It was around 7-8 pm and I started walking in a bitter cold wind that had been blowing all day – everyone commented on how bad it was.

I hadn’t gone very far and I realized that it was foolish to press on so I walked back to town. I went to Subway and enjoyed a hot sub and conversation with the owner. I went and bought a sandwich for the next morning and checked into a motel right at the junction. My legs and hips were sore and I soaked in a hot bath and slept well.

First thing in the morning I got out under the lights of the intersection and thumbed and then waved as a few vehicles went by. A semi rounded the corner and pulled away and a second semi from the same company pulled around and stopped. This man’s name was Blaine Hart and he knew some of my friends in Swan River. He was a Christian and very active with his wife in their church and community. He and myself had both gone through very troubling times working with our fathers and losing an inheritance. The family farm house had also burned down without insurance but he was so positive relating how the Lord had provided a new house and then after 4 crop failures due to flooding, he sold the land and was just happy that he had a job at 66 years old. He dropped me in a church parking lot in Swan River, where I was picked up by my brother Pete and we spent all day making funeral arrangements.