roadtrip chris arbon: Long Distance Hidalgo.

10 Day Trip.

____ Hidalgo, the movie; a mustang and long-distance rider go to the Middle-East for a 3000 mile horse race in the 1890's. An enjoyable film that had me wondering about the horse's name: Hidalgo. It is Spanish for "Nobility." There is a Hidalgo state in Mexico and the town on the Rio Grande in Texas. My route, due South from the border at Pembina is 1700 miles to Hidalgo; the longest North/South run in the US.

____ The first time for a while that I'm south of the border before noon, needing three days to get the peat-moss to it's destination. To Cubby Bear's in Norfolk, then the Winstar at Thackerville and third night-out at the Flying'J at Edinburg, on the edge of the urban sprawl that covers both banks of the Rio Grande where it flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Unloaded at a trans-ship warehouse before heading up to Waller for a pre-loaded trailer. Booked in to unload at Edmonton, Alberta, on the following Wednesday; so over four days to cover 3500 kilometres. Familiar roads north for two days; then a cross-country, two-lane highway route across Nebraska and the Dakotas. Heading for a border-crossing at North Portal on roads I haven't run in years.

____ Virtually no big rigs from the major fleets, just a few farm trucks moving grain and a whole stream of bull-racks, hammer-down with their King of the Road attitude. Then a cutting crew; two matching Peterbilts, combines on low-loaders with their grain trailers tacked on the back. Another Pete with a huge tractor and trailer on a double-drop, doubled-up with the headers on a step-deck. Bringing up the rear; a service truck towing a big travel-trailer. South-bound to Texas where the fields of barley are already turning into fields of gold. In Saskatchewan, the air-seeders are still sowing; desperately trying to avoid the wet patches.

____ Delivered on time at Edmonton and across town for the re-load; getting away just after lunch. Wood-chips for a firm of hog-haulers at La Broquerie, just a few miles from Steinbach. I take it back to the yard; finishing late on Day 10. But just in time to have a word with the guys in the workshop; an intermittent speedometer fault. Sometimes it's fine, then it goes hay-wire, then back to normal. I haven't a clue what's wrong and I don't think they know either.