Peace Rider: Hey, Joe you out there? Where are you when I need you! I've got a story to tell.
Friend: Well, I'm still here what's up?
PR I headed out of Ft. St John on the morning of 11/14 from the home of Sandra Weibe and David Dyck, my generous Warm Showers Hosts, well rested and ready to hit the road.
F So no problems en route to Dawson Creek I assume?
PR No problems, a couple of killer grades beyond Taylor climbing out of the Peace River Valley and again south of the Kiskatinaw River crossing. I arrived in Dawson Creek the second day in late morning and headed for the Greyhound Bus station. I had a box of food forwarded to me via Greyhound from Watson Lake, with a note to hold for my arrival in Dawson Creek. No problem right?
F Right, so what happened?
PR When I got to the station it was closed on Sundays between ll:00 AM and 3:30 PM. Rats, I thought, not going to get out of town until late if at all. I had food to buy and time to kill which I did. I returned to the station a little before reopening. Tim the agent arrived a few minutes early to open up. Great, I'll get my box and hit the road. It didn't turn out that way. Herein is a tale.
F Let's hear it.
PR I handed Tim the receipt for my box of food only to be told Don Ross had picked up his box. You've got to be kidding, I said. He wasn't kidding. No phone number was on the box so they called the Don Ross listed in the phone book and he came and got my box. Now what are the chances of that?
I was not at all happy with this turn of events as you might imagine and said so. But I didn't get angry or any of those other possible emotions that can rise to the surface.. Well, Tim said he'd call Don and try to recover my wayward parcel of food. He did that and Skye-Ann his daughter answered the phone. Don was out so she took the message. Nothing for me to do but wait. Forget about leaving Dawson Creek this day. It was starting to get dark by this time.
Sometime later Don calls back and talks to Tim. He has my box and said he'd bring it in. Wonderful! But his place was a 45 minute drive north of town. More waiting. In the meantime I'm thinking I need a place to stay for the night. I'll ask Don if I can camp out in his yard for the night. Don arrived with my box and I talked to him. Sure he says you can stay at my place you don't need to camp out. Great!
F So why didn't he just return the box when he discovered it wasn't his.
PR It turns out as Don explained that his dad's name is Dan and he drives a truck up and down the Alaska Highway for Lynden Transport. So Don didn't catch the name difference and thought it was a box his dad had sent him. He called his dad but he was out of town driving so didn't catch up with him until a few days before I showed up in Dawson Creek. He thought then to wait until his dad came through town and they could maybe figure it out together.
F. But then you showed up and the puzzle was solved, right?
PR Right, I got my box, and had a place to stay for the night. Don dropped me at the Greyhound Bus station on his way to work early the next morning. He also made some valuable suggestion for routes into the States.
But you know there is a reason for everything even though it may not be readily apparent. I didn't know in the midst of things why I was being delayed in Dawson Creek through some very unusual circumstances. That evening it started to snow which continued through the night. By morning the roads were covered in 8 to 10 inches of new snow, the shoulders unplowed.
If I had left town when I had planned I would have been caught out on the road in a snow storm. Being delayed saved me from that. I decided again to take the bus south and get to where I could safely cycle again which put me into Whitecourt late that day.
F So you're in Edson, eh?
PR Yeah, and that's an interesting story in itself. I had just turned onto Highway 32 to Edson from Whitecourt when up ahead I see a Halliburton facility on my right. And I thought about Dick Cheney, ex CEO of Halliburton and how lacking in understanding he was in believing the end justifies the means. The means and end are one. It is why Jesus said turn the other cheek. He understood that violence only leads to more of the same because at a fundamental level we are all connected. He was also mistaken in believing that power over is greater than power with. All things including ourselves are connected. This is not well appreciated.
F. So then what?
PR No sooner had those thought come and gone than just off to the side of the Halliburton gate a car pulls over and a man gets out waiting for me to cycle up. Don Laird introduces himself and wants to know what I'm up to. I explain and it doesn't escape me that in front of Dick Cheney's former employer, Halliburton, I'm telling Don that my motivation for this ride is the Way of Peace which is the Way of Love. Don said he planned to make a coast to coast cycling trip next summer and peppered me with questions.
At the end of it Don says look him up when I get to Edson if I need a place to stay. The timing worked out. I called Don and I'm now at his place in Edson after a day and a half on the road from Whitecourt. Lots of good food, generous hospitality and just as important conversation about ways of building momentum for creating a Ride for the Planet day in the spring.
F So it sounds like you are pretty pleased with all these developments. Where to next?
PR You bet, one of the joys of this trip is meeting people and making new friends. Next stop is Exchange Ranch just outside Hinton and after that Jasper Park.
I am stopping at Exchange Range to meet several people there suggested by Connie Friend whom I met in Tok, Alaska. It's the reason I planned my route to pass by Hinton.
More on that down the road. Ciao!
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