____ It started snowing at nightfall and is still coming down at 4 o’clock this afternoon; I’ll not start shoveling until it stops. Plenty of time to find a diary trip with snow on it. April 2012, crossing paths with a couple of Brits driving for Searcy Trucking, a flat bed haulier in Winnipeg.
____Day 1: Waking up to snow covered roads leads to a slow drive into work and a late start. Peat-moss to Texas, again. Across the 49th Parallel at Pembina and a late lunch with Messrs. Cooper and Ramsden at the Grand Forks’ Flying’J before they split eastwards at Fargo; destined for an evening meal with Flying Eagle #32 at Hudson, Wisconsin. Another ex-pat with chronic check-engine light problems on a Peterbilt 368. I’m in constant contact with Paul; trying to explain that even a totally de-rated vehicle should be able to have 90 seconds of life and the ability to clear the roadworks and get on the shoulder. The motor refuses to start and is eventually towed. Monday morning he finds out that he had run out of diesel. Meanwhile, I push on down the Interstate 29 to Percival, Iowa.
____Day 2: Bobby Troup wrote the song, “I get my kicks on Route 66,” but I don’t think they named the town after him. A regular drop at a plant nursery, south of town; this trip I avoid Troup by coming down Highway 71 in Arkansas and swinging across eastern Texas on Highway 259; taking me to the buzzing little Chevron Truckstop at Henderson for the night. It also by-passes Tyler; a town that conspires to stop me at every red-light, every single time I come through.
____Day 3: Four Manitoban trucks are unloading peat-moss at 7 o’clock on a Monday morning; with some quick fork-lift action, we’re all away by eight. But I doubt if any of the others was up and running with a reload before me. Seventy miles North-east to Marshall and 30 pallets of scented candles are safely stowed and sealed in the trailer before 11 o’clock. Then it’s back to Texarkana for fuel before retracing Highway 71 to the town of Nevada in Missouri.
____Day 4: Two thousand, three hundred miles; from Texas to Alberta with a load of scented candles. Some would say it’s a waste of precious fossil fuel that is denying a future for our children. But it gives employment to workers in Texas and Canada; making and selling them plus wages for the drivers who distribute them. Ideal for presents at Christmas. Sure-fire sellers at Summer car-boot sales and a thrilling 50 cent purchase for some aging hippie. I’m usually at the tap-end of the bath when one or two of these things finally gets lit.
____Day 5: I meet up again with Mr. Cooper who is also overnighting at Fargo; heading to Logan Lake in British Columbia with mining equipment, loaded in Michigan. A trapped nerve in his back was giving constant pain in his right leg; but Cooperman is “Old-School, North of England.” Limping back to Winnipeg and going sick would never cross his mind. I follow him through the border at North Portal as we both push on to Swift Current for the night.
____Day 6: A snow-warning is in effect for south-west Saskatchewan; 25 centimetres expected and it starts falling before dawn. Five hours of near white-out and I’m done for the day; Calgary Flying’J and about half an hour from the Costco RDC at Airdrie. Coops pushes on westbound on the Trans-Canada Highway and phones to say that the Rockies are getting tricky. Meanwhile, Lucky Ramsden has been sitting for two days waiting for re-load instructions at the Florida/Georgia state line; he phones to say that it’s 18 degrees C and sunny.
____Day 7: Still snowing when I crawl up to Airdrie and into the RDC for a quick tip, considering the conditions. Then it’s down to Taber with a sweet smelling trailer for a reload of sugar that will get me back to Niverville. A three hour drive with very little sign to black-top. Driving hours are getting short now and reach 70 in seven days at Speedy Creek; aka Swift Current. Still snowing
____Day 8: Three 18-wheelers in the ditch before Moose Jaw sets the tone for day: slow and steady. Twenty tons of sugar in the trailer is a great help. Getting dusted by the loose snow thrown up by fearless B-train grain haulers in the fast lane is the biggest problem; going bright and clear to white-out conditions in the blink of an eye at 60 mph needs a steady hand on the wheel. I can’t complain; as I dust-up others when overtaking. As they say on the CB radio: “If you can’t run with the big dogs, then stay on the porch.” I’m back in the yard before dark.
____Overall Distance: 7343 km.
