Monotony

Well, mainland hitchhiking had maintained its monotony.

Three hours after standing in the sun, Scrib having burnt the entire underside of his arm from having his thumb abjectly dangling above the highway, we decided to call it quits for a while. We could go make some cash in Abbotsford, grab a few beers, and exploit Murphy`s law. (Hitchhiking in years past has taught me that any time you crack a beer on the highway and plan to enjoy it, a car pulls up right away forcing you to toss it or slam it.)

We flagged up $40 pretty quickly and split a pizza from Pizza Hut. (Narrator`s note: try their Veggie Korma pizza. It`s fucking delicious!) We grabbed a bottle of cider and some beers as well, and headed back to the highway. I swore to Murphy along the way that if He allowed us to get picked up by exploiting his law, I`d dropkick the beer into the forest.

We cracked a beer and got picked up. Damn. I wanted to drink that beer, but I stayed true to my promise and kicked what remained off into the forest beyond the highway.

We dove into the car and met our new chauffeur: a smiley east Indian girl named Ramen who called herself Noodles. She was nice - perhaps too nice. Though I can`t say anything against someone kind enough to give us a ride, she clearly didn`t know much about hitchhiking because she dropped us off in a ridiculous place with no room for any cars to pull over and minimal traffic. Gee. Murphy sure showed us.

We walked along the highway for a while, sheltered by the shade, until we got our next ride.

Our saviour, a mustachioed, ex-patch Hell`s Angel, had a truck filled to the brim with glass windows. The experience we had really went to show two things: where there`s a will, there`s a way. You can always fit any amount of shit into nearly any small space. On top of that, it showed that playing Tetris as a kid really helps to teach you how to cram shit properly into a vehicle.

The ride was short and intertwined with twisted stories about how our driver had tried to kill his roommate with a shotgun. He`d missed, however, and shot himself in the knee. That explained why he couldn't help much while we rearranged the stuff in his car. Rough.

He dropped us off twenty minutes from where we`d met him and we were quick to crack the cider and sip it back. The sun had just begun to set when we got picked up by a fellow named Gary, who took us all the way to Chilliwack.  He brought us to Burger King and bought me and Scrib a couple burgers. Scrib was almost entirely overwhelmed by Gary`s generosity, spitting out endless thanks. It was an adorable thing to see.

Nice. As we sat down to eat our burgers I checked my Facebook on my phone. I saw a friend request from a girl I hadn`t talked to in over a year since we`d been in Toronto... and... it turned out she`d just moved to Chilliwack. Coincidence? I think not. This was meant to be. We exchanged numbers and decided to meet up.

Our plans fell through though as the sun fell beneath the horizon and me and Scrib found ourselves heading back to the highway to make a nest next to the hitching spot. We fell into a world of dreams as the traffic buzzed by in the back of our minds, soothed to sleep by the song of their engines.