Hitchhiking Memoir Part 15: homeless families, tourist towns and scaring kids

You are about to read the 15th instalment of my cross Canada hitchhiking adventure. Each issue can stand alone but if you would like to know the entire story... all of the stories are linked below. Continue after the links for this weeks instalment.

Enjoy Part 15!

I got onto the ferry at about 12:30 pm. The ferry left Pictou County and arrived on Prince Edward Island just before 2:00 pm. It was a free ride, as tourism must be the industry on the island and getting people there is the only issue. Free ferries must do the trick.

I walked off the boat and about 1 km to a tourist info booth. Keep in mind that everything that I am navigating is meant for vehicles and the 1 km road from the boat to the info booth is just a little skip for a car. I looked at a few maps to figure out my charted course. PEI is 258 km wide from one end to the other. Pretty small if you are in a car. I could walk it end to end in under a week, although I wouldn't really want to.

I started walking in the direction of Charlottetown. 59 km the road sign let me know how far I had to go. I knew there was not a good chance of getting a ride until the next boat deposited some more cars onto the island, but I was done kicking around at the info booth and figured I would get a head start.

The scenery was beautiful. There were coastal views, lovely rivers and forests. The roadways were very clean. Spotless even. There were potato farms everywhere and the dirt was red. I have never seen red dirt before. In Alberta we have potato farms and the black dirt makes it so you cannot see the rows, just the plants. The red dirt lets you see under the plants. It is much brighter and makes for a nicer view. I would recommend coming to PEI just to see the red dirt alone... but there is more to see than that.

I started getting really bitter. The next run of cars started passing me. A huge row of well to do PEI'ers and tourists with no intention of picking me up. I kept walking with my thumb up, but at this point the row of cars turned into a trickle of stragglers and people who spent a little longer at the info booth. I started to do the math in my head. 55 km (as I had probable covered 5 km at this point) at 5 km/h. I could make it to Charlottetown in 11 hours if worst came to worst.

Nearing the end of the trickle and likely 25 minutes before the next influx of cars a couple of elderly gentlemen, long time friends, picked me up. My bitterness left instantly, I was restored. We didn't discuss much beyond the small talk. I had the pleasure of listening to friends for likely 50 years talk. It was fun.

One guy was from Cape Breton Island, the other was from PEI. The Cape Breton'er asked, "if I had been to see Cape Breton?"

"No," I explained, "I only had time to visit one of the islands and I chose PEI."

This brought up a chuckle from his friend who chimed in that, "(I) made the right choice."

The old rivalry between islands was strong, likely as strong as the rivalry between Edmonton and Calgary. I had a good time listening to the two go back and forth about how their island was better and why, only to hear their whole line of reasoning get shot down . They went back and forth for a bit. They were hilarious.

I got dropped off at the outskirts of Charlottetown and was instantly hit with a man holding a sign at an intersection. "Homeless... Broke... Help!"

I thought back to my ride with George (Part 12) and how he bought me a sub and two juices and told me to "pay it forward." Here was my chance to do so. I introduced myself to Andre and told him to come with me. My intention was to take him to a place and get him something to eat.

I found out soon enough that Andre was taking care of his girlfriend and her 4 kids as well as his dog. This changed my approach. We went to a grocery store and bought some bread, peanut butter, jam, milk and a few cans of Alpha-getti. We set up in a park on a picnic table and had a feast of PBnJ's and cold pasta.

The kids were ridiculous. They were spitting water at each other, stealing their siblings shoes and throwing them, there were tears, punches, tantrums and a whole lot of hilarity too. I couldn't imagine not having a home and having 4 kids and a dog to look after. I caught a glimpse of it, and that was enough. I was happy to help out and happy to have someone give me the lay of the land. I was also happy that they were not mine to deal with any longer. I felt for them though.

Andre showed me a few important landmarks and the whole family went their way and I went mine.

The Chieftons were playing downtown tonight and I thought that could be a fun way to spend the day. They had downtown gated off and admission was $35. Ouch. I kept on walking. I had left Edmonton with $400 in my bank and the Chieftons were not in the budget.

I walked until it was dark checking out the old architecture and looking for a good place to set up camp. I learned that it is important, especially in tourist cities, that I stay out of site after dark. Vagabond types aren't appreciated in tourist towns where everyone is expected to be drained of their funds and then escorted back out of town. This is how it works in tourist towns. When the money runs out, the tourist leaves as they know that there is no good left for them in town.

I am in town and already that is what the "system" has in store for me... no good!

I kept on walking late into the night. I slept in at Amy's house until nearly noon and was up late with the Irwin family the night before, so I wasn't super tired. I was not satisfied with any of the campsites that I found so I kept looking. I finally settled around midnight on the campsite that Andre recommended to me. It was behind the bench of a gazebo in the park where we had our picnic. It was really hard to get behind there, and I was practically invisible from anywhere except to the eyes that were inside the gazebo, and even then, it would be tough to see. I figured that by midnight the gazebo was likely not to see much traffic until the morning. I planned to be out of there at the crack of dawn anyway.

I was woken up at 3 am by a couple of BMX riding teenagers who stopped in the gazebo for a smoke and a break. They were just hanging out and talking nonsense as teenagers tend to do. I was spotted. They saw a chunk of my backpack bulging out from under the bench and must have bent down to get a better look and then they saw me stretched out.

They coaxed each other to check it out. Neither was willing. "It could be a dead body," One would say.
"I am so freaked out right now." I heard the other reply.
"If it moved right now I would run so fast."
"Go touch it. I dare you."
"NO WAY!"

They went on like this for a while. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out how best to take care of this. I figured that I would need to scare them good at the opportune time so that I could get out from behind the benches. People that are scared could end up doing some damage to me asI had really no way of moving. I was trapped behind this bench.

Finally, one of them got the courage up to come over to my side of the gazebo. At first they thought that I was a tire, then he said, "what the heck, it's a sleeping bag!"

This was my moment. "BOOO!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

The kid let out a girlish yelp and they both ran towards their bikes. I created enough time and space to get out from behind the bench and started laughing. I didn't want these kids to be traumatized. They did think that I was a dead body 2 minutes ago.

The kids started laughing too, realizing how they really let their imaginations get away on them. Teenage boys have the tendency to get carried away with ideas. They also get caught up in oneupmanship and competition. When one is scared and the other feeds into that, a hysteria is soon to follow. This laughter got rid of all the hysteria and once again, there were just people in a gezebo.

We talked for half an hour. I told them about my exploits on the road and about the Irwin family reunion last night. They told me how hard it was to get a job in Charlottetown as a teenager. One of them just got a summer job after a month of looking. The other was still looking. They also talked about BMX biking and how they get their best rides in at 3 in the morning because the "streets are theirs." I get it.

They left, comforted that I was just a cool 20 something hitchhiker and not a dead body, or a zombie or a serial killer. I went back to sleep sure that I would not be disturbed again tonight.

The sun hit my face and I peeked through the lattice into the park. It was a beautiful day and there wasn't a body to be seen. I got up, dressed and packed. I started walking out of Charlottetown towards the confederation bridge. I had another big day ahead.

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aice20 (45) 7 years ago

wow

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allcapsonezero (63) 7 years ago

Thank you!!!

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learner365 (51) 7 years ago

good article . keep up the good work bro. loved reading it :)

1 vote

Thanks a bunch! It means a lot that someone is enjoying the stories. Check the back issues on this one too... there a many good nuggets in the previous 14 instalments.

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