“Driving today is like having a baby: If you’re not absolutely sure that you should, then just don’t.” This was the guidance offered on this Tuesday by the radio DJ on CJAY92 as I found myself piloting an empty 15-foot U-Haul truck through the sloppy streets of Calgary in lunch hour traffic, trying to salvage some kind of a day after a massive overnight snowstorm intersected exactly with my arrival to resume Badger's winter migration to the West coast. Calgary averages 10 cm of snow in the full month of October, and last night got 45. I know well enough that weird weather is the norm in Calgary, but nevertheless, the city was a chaos. |
Once I got past the initial wave of frustration/annoyance/pity/etc. over the snow, I actually found it quite easy to embrace the circumstance for its pure improbability. How many times in life will I have reason to rent a moving truck on a moment's notice, makeshift my way through loading my motorcycle into it, and driving my way out of an epic storm? This open-ended mission quickly solidifed as my best Plan B, and I set to it.
Sourcing a truck that had a pull-out ramp and was available for a one-way rental on zero notice took a couple of extra phone calls, but soon enough I found one at the Kensington Road U-Haul outlet near downtown. Once there, the agent made his best effort to talk me out of attempting to pilot the empty box truck and its unweighted rear drive axles through the mess of snowstorm streets, but I calmly assured him that I was actually there to obtain my most maximum traction transportation machine for the day, and yes-I-initialled-that-liability-assumption-there-already-and-here-I'll-initial-it-again-now-just-fork-over-the-damn-keys-already-wouldyoupleaseandthankyou. I booked the truck for a 24-hour period, to be returned 300 km to the south in sunny Lethbridge, piloted it the 30 km out to Badger's temporary parking garage, loaded up, strapped down, and was finally on the road at 3:15 pm.
Thanks to my father-in-law for a basket of wonderful father-in-lawly assists today like an airport pickup, like driving me to the U-Haul outlet, like lending me his four best ratchet straps, and like somehow causing us to magically end up at a Five Guys in the process.
I arrived in Lethbridge at the golden hour, and to my delight it was sunny, t-shirt weather, and I had no trouble imagining the sound of chirping birds from inside the cab. I found a hotel room, parked the orange beasts, and, over Lethbridge TripAdvisor's best pizza (Two Guys And A Pizza Place*), scanned all the forecasts and wondered which direction might hold rideable roads come morning.
* With these restaurant names today, it's a shocker the moving truck didn't end up coming from these guys.
Day totals: 0 km by bike; 310 km by U-Haul. Trip totals: 1,833 km by bike; 310 km by U-Haul. | Start: Cochrane, AB. End: Lethbridge, AB. Soundtrack: Rhythmic whir-whir of windshield wipers. |