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The Snowball Effect By Nadine Marchand Snowballs start off as small objects that continue to become larger as they roll through the snow. While hitchhiking from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, Bruce and I began to realize our experience was analogous to this snowball effect. The adventure began with the two of us; however, we soon learned that it would come to include more people as time passed. Chris, one of the first drivers we met, became the small snowball that grew larger when he involved his uncle Mike in our adventure. In fact, the snowball grew even larger as we continued to travel across Canada. We met more and more people who became a part of our lives for brief periods of time, yet our memories of them will last a lifetime. This is how we will remember Chris and Mike. This is how our adventure with them began. We stood on the shoulder of the highway outside Calgary, thumbs in the air, waiting for that elusive ride. Cars whizzed by and the wind whipped our hair. The sign we were holding read, WINNIPEG. Our hope was to travel to Cape Breton to visit my family. A small camper van pulled over. Chris was driving to Lethbridge, but said he would take us to Strathmore instead (which, to me, seemed slightly off course for him). He mentioned how he had hitchhiked before and knew what it was like to wait for a ride. For this reason, he decided to stop for us. In Strathmore, Chris said we could possibly grab a lift from one of the drivers at the local truck stop. We decided to have a coffee with him before heading over to the parking lot where the trucks were located. We talked about our experiences tree planting and our spontaneous decision to embark on this hitchhiking journey. We thanked him for the ride and headed towards some parked semi-trailers, hoping to illicit another ride from one of the drivers. No luck. We headed back to the restaurant and ran into Chris. When we told him of our ill fortune, he asked us to sit down and wait. He would return in a moment. Meanwhile, we sat and wondered what Chris was planning to do. We were fully prepared to continue "thumbing it" on the highway. Chris returned and explained that his uncle was travelling to Toronto from Calgary, and would be passing through Strathmore. He tried phoning him, but there was no answer. He figured that his uncle left already, and if we were lucky, he would be passing through around this time. Chris decided we should wait by the side of the highway until he saw his uncle drive by. He would then try to distract his uncle by vigorously honking the horn. Bruce and I, by this point, were astounded by Chris' generosity, and not to mention, his determination. He waited by the side of the road for what seemed like an eternity. I didn't mind. I was enjoying this adventure and where it would lead. Suddenly, Chris spotted his uncle's car, but unfortunately, he was unable to get his attention. He proceeded to pull onto the highway and began to follow his uncle. The next fifteen minutes passed by like a blur, as we were suddenly propelled into the middle of a high-speed chase straight out of a Hollywood movie. Chris continued to keep track of his uncle's car. Honking the horn didn't seem to help, so Chris tried to pull up beside him. When they were finally parallel to each other, Chris hammered on the horn until his uncle noticed him. Chris motioned to his uncle to pull over. I was quite certain his uncle looked perplexed, but it was difficult to tell from Chris' van. Chris' uncle, Mike, opened his car door on the shoulder of the highway. Bruce and I waited in Chris' van while he and his uncle shared a few words. We were still amazed by Chris' perseverance in getting us this ride. It must have been some sort of "karma" coming back to us when we needed it most. Mike turned out to be just as generous as Chris, and was more than happy to have us join him on his drive to Toronto. He was not in the least bit upset about his nephew's determination to have him pull over. In fact, we discovered that Mike's generosity extended to more than just Bruce and I, but to two more hitchhikers who were seated in the back of his car. We couldn't believe it, but we figured that fate brought us all together. Jessie and Shane were also travelling across Canada, but they were stopping in Regina for a couple of days. Mike's generosity far outweighed the cramped quarters in the car. Mike proved to be the most considerate man we met on our hitchhiking adventure. He bought us breakfast a couple of times and a subway/bus ticket to Bowmanville, but what meant the most to us was our conversations with him and our introductions to his personal power tapes. He was the most optimistic and positive person we met, and really instilled the belief that there is no such thing as 'never.' It's too negative, as he said many times in the car. At one point, he had each of us take a psychology test to determine our personalities. He had us draw a house, a river, a snake, a pathway, and the sun. If we drew a house with a door and windows and a pathway leading to it, we were friendly and open to new people in our lives. I felt this summed up Mike's personality. I really found this test to be quite liberating. Bruce and I weren't embarking on this adventure to save money, as we thought before. We were embarking on this adventure to open and strengthen our minds. I have Mike (and Chris) to thank for this. They both made this possible with their generosity and openness to four people they didn't know and accepted into their lives for a few days (and a few hours). Travelling across Canada and seeing landscape that took my breath away sometimes made me feel like we were on the lost highway. However, Chris and Mike made it feel like home. We were travelling for weeks, but it felt like days in their company. This was the impact Chris and Mike had on our lives. They left us with a definite faith in humanity because of their acts of kindness. |
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