Hail to the bus driver

Posted by Ken Campbell April 4, 2009 0 Comment 748 views

The sky is starting to lighten as I write this, and it won’t be long before another day is upon us. My ride should be here in about an hour.

I am not opposed to shuttling myself – when it’s practical, I’ll do the job on my bike – but there are more times than not when that route is just not practical. Today, for instance, when I’m planning on doing about 15 miles of paddling, a shuttle on the Orange Crush would involve at least 30 miles of pedaling.

I have an option, however, because I have good friends. Today it’s Colleen who’s taking time out of her Saturday to run me up to the put-in. A couple weeks ago, it was Corinne. I can’t even begin to count how many times my wife, Mary, has been there to either drop me somewhere or come to collect me. “Yes ma’am. Your husband, if he is the loud gentleman in the white hat, is at the bar. Thank you for coming.” In another 14 years or so, I’m sure I’ll cajole the boy into hauling me around as well. We’ll have to see how that works out.

In Newfoundland, in 2000, a couple of friends of mine proved just how strong their friendship was. Karl and Kelly drove from St. John’s to where Mary and I had left the car in the tiny community of Rose Blanche, where the road ends. They drove from there to Marystown, way down on the Burin Peninsula, and got to where we were staying a day after we’d arrived. (From there, Mary would take the car back to St. John’s and fly back home; I had about three weeks of paddling left.) I figure Karl and Kelly drove about 1100 miles to complete the shuttle, a record that I don’t expect to be broken, ever.

Thank you. To all of you who have been there with kindness, coffee and a ride when I needed it most.

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