mikao's world

25 Hour Road Trip

Last week was modular week/spring break in the college here, where you're given the choice of taking a week-long class or taking off. I opted to stay at school and do homework. My friend Lowana did as well. So, early last week, we discussed taking a road trip on Saturday to do something fun after a week of work.

Originally we thought of going to Saskatoon, the largest city in Saskatchewan. But, eventually we decided perhaps Regina would be a better bet economically, being only about 100km away, a one-hour drive. Sure we've been to Regina a bazillion times, but this trip was just us, with our own agenda, for fun.

So, somehow Lowana tracked down a car for us by mid-week, and we confirmed our plans. Saturday morning she phoned me at 10:30, when we were to leave, to tell me she had checked on road conditions. Blowing snow to Moose Jaw (a 20 minute drive), and then Moose Jaw to Regina was worse with blowing snow and icy patches. But it looked fine out my window. So, we decided to go.

She also wanted to make sure if it was okay if she brought this guy Dave along. I had no idea who Dave was. "Sure," I said, why not? And, besides, he could drive, because the car Lowana found was a 1968 Ford XL Gas Guzzler.

At 11am Lowana and Dave pulled up, and we set off. The car was a real beaut, a lovely tan-green sort of colour on the outside, with an olive green interior in somewhat perfect condition. You could seriously fit at least eight people comfortably in this car. The car's radio didn't work, but Lowana was pretty pumped to discover the owner of the car kept a Fisher-Price radio with a microphone in the car, so we did a few interviews and a little karaoke along the way.

The drive to Moose Jaw wasn't all that bad, so when we got there we filled up the Gas Guzzler and decided to brave it and go all the way to Regina. A bunch of people were staring at the car at the gas station, and one guy even tapped on the window and freaked Lowana out while Dave was inside paying for the gas. I told her to roll down the window. She said you just don't do that in Ontario. I guess you don't there, but hey, this is the Prairies. The guy wanted to know where we got the car from because he used to have one just like it back when he was a kid and this one was in way better condition than that one had ever been.

The roads didn't seem to be too bad. It was snowing off and on a little bit, and every once in awhile you'd hit a patch of road where there was a lot of blowing snow. But visibility was good for the most part.

About 40km from Regina we passed by an accident where a semi truck had hit the ditch and there were a few police cars at the scene and a tow truck pulling him out.

About 10km later or so, we were behind a cautious driver who kept speeding up and slowing down? and eventually Dave hit the brakes and we started to swerve, and in seemingly slow motion, we flipped around so we were facing oncoming traffic, and ended up in the ditch between the two highways.

What do you do when you hit the ditch? We weren't really sure what to do. We didn't have a cellphone, who carries a cellphone in Saskatchewan? And no one stops because it's the #1 Highway (Canada's only National Highway), and you could be a freak out to kill whoever stops to help you.

So there we were, three Bible college students sitting in the ditch. Lowana interviewed me and Dave. I mentioned that I had a granola bar in my camera bag that I could split three ways if anyone got hungry. We had been in the ditch less than 10 minutes when one of those RCMP officers we had passed earlier drove up. We were saved! I took a picture of his flashing lights.

He came over and asked us how we were getting out. I chuckled. He coached us in skills needed to drive out of a ditch. It didn't work. He asked us where we were from and where the car was from, and then mentioned that he remembered our car passing by him before. How could you forget a beast of a car like that?

Then the tow truck drove by and came back around to pull us out. We were indeed saved. He charged us $20 and we were on our way. We thought it was a bargain, we had been in the ditch for about 15 minutes and it really wasn't that much of a hassle. Still, Dave drove a little slower the rest of the way.

So we made it to Regina. We went to A&W for lunch. We hit up Value Village. We discussed how all Value Villages have that same distinct-used-clothes-smell. Why is that? We all tried on a bunch of stuff. Dave found a couple of ties for Tie Tuesdays at school. Lowana found a bunch of shirts. I told her I was concerned that she was blinded by brand names when she bought a white and pink horizontally striped Liz Clayborn tank top. I left with a blue long sleeve t-shirt with a dorky screen print on the front that I'm going to cover up with a patch or something, and a navy blue t-shirt from the boys' section that says "i fish i may, i fish i might, catch the fish i FISH tonight" and has this picture of these two bears fishing on the front. It's got camp-cool potential. And I'm the only 25-year old on the planet who owns this shirt, I guarantee it.

Then we were off to Old Navy. Regina just got an Old Navy last fall. I'd only been to the Regina location once before. It was packed that time. It was packed this time too. Lowana and I found the clearance sale section. Dave took a seat in the kids section, where the only bench was. It was plastic and had a plastic dog sitting on it and a button that you pushed and the dog said something. I didn't take a picture because I was worried that I might get in trouble from the store manager, but it was definitely picture worthy.

Lowana and I found a bunch of stuff to try on. I ended up getting a plain pistachio-green long sleeved t-shirt and a black one of the same style, some blue cowboy buckin' broncho pajama pants from the men's clearance rack for $6.99, and this really cool blouse that I spent way too much money on.

At the check out I got this male cashier who was definitely much older, at 35 or 40-ish, that the average Old Navy employee. I interrupted his spiel after he had told me about Old Navy's return policy to ask him if he liked working at Old Navy. "It is good most of the time, but has it's downs like any other job I suppose," he said. Then he went back to his spiel and told me what he had already told me, but also added that he loved the blouse I was buying. I found that a little odd.

At Old Navy we ran into a bunch of other students from our school, and eventually decided to meet them at the cheap theatre at 9:20pm to watch a movie, "Cheaper by the Dozen". Lowana and I thought it might perhaps be wise of us to leave before it got dark, but Dave thought returning following another car would be a good idea and ideal in case we hit the ditch again.

We went to Wal-Mart. We succumbed to consumerism and bought stuff. We killed time at Burger King, eating our supper, using the facilities, reading the coffee-newspaper-thingy, etc. By the time we left a little after 8, it was snowing full force. Roads were slick. Who did we know in Regina that we could stay with if need be tonight?

We got to the mall with the cheap theatre and called the Saskatchewan Road Conditions number. "Snow. Blowing snow. Swirling snow. Icy patches. Black ice. Zero visibility. Travel not recommended." Okay, pull out the phone book. I knew that someday memorizing my friends' fathers' names was going to come in handy and this was the night. But there was no Bart in the phone book. Try all the B's. Nope. Mary, try Mary, that's her mom's name. Nope. Try all the M's. Nope. Okay, phone the dorm and find out her number. Phone the RD (residence director) and find out her number. We're running out of change.

Finally, we got our friend's Regina number. We talked to her Mom. Kaia was at the cheap theatre with her dad. "What? We're at the cheap theatre!" Eventually we found her. And we stayed at her house overnight. Her brother played the piano for us at 1 in the morning. We got out everything we had bought. Dave taught Lowana how to tie a tie. I took pictures. Lowana, Kaia, and I slept on their living room floor. I re-named all of Kaia's cats and for that they slept on top of me.

It was a little surreal. We woke up, cleaned up a bit, and stopped in at Tim Horton's. The road reports said the roads were bad but we wanted to go home and shower and put on deodorant and brush our teeth.

Our day trip turned into a 25 hour trip when we didn't get back until noon Sunday. Good thing I had bought pajama pants, I couldn't have slept in my jeans like Dave did.