roadtrip chris arbon: Burnaby Blitz.

Six Day Trip to the West Coast.

____ West bound with a light load of only twelve tonnes; so no need to check the weights at the scale at the end of the road, like I would with a load of Texas-bound peat-moss. Yet it is open for business and I have to roll-over any-way. A reminder that it is MOT Inspection Blitz Week; the first week in June, an annual event that sees most government scale-houses open all day, all week. My fear is that an eighteen year-old truck may be an inspection magnet, but I get a green-light at every out bound weighing. Bizarrely, all the scales were closed on the return leg of the journey.

____ The load has come up from Waller in Texas and going to Burnaby, BC, via Steinbach; which is an awful long way round. I can only assume that the driver had an emergency situation at home and that the company brought him straight back to the yard.There is no other way that it is logical logistics. But the mileage for me is roughly the same as a trip to Texas; just a mountain range to drive over instead of an all down-hill south-bound cruise.

____ First night-out is at Swift Current, after a long sunset. Second night at Golden; leaving just a short day into the Greater Vancouver Area. The regular parking spot for a night at the Delta Petro-Pass before leaving early to get across town to the Burnaby delivery on Friday morning. While unloading; news comes through that the Trans-Canada Highway is closed between Revelstoke and Sicamous. Heavy rain has caused landslides and wash-outs; snow-melt has also swollen the rivers. The reload is from Kelowna and the office suggests a return route via Jasper and Edmonton.

____ Fruit juice from Kelowna and it is heavy; right up to the maximum Canadian weights. 87,000 lbs and across the Rockies by the long way home. On the way back to Kamloops; the road is closed by a fatal accident at Falkland. Detour is by a dirt road towards the town of Chase, totally in the wrong direction, loose surface, clouds of dust and impatient traffic trying to make up for lost time. A fourteen hour day for three hundred miles before reaching Kamloops for the night.

____ Two big days are needed to get the load back to Winnipeg. It starts with a rain-soaked run alongside a raging North Thompson River; past a mist shrouded Mount Robson and through a RV saturated National Park at Jasper. Cloudy skies until Edmonton and onto North Battleford for end of an eleven hundred kilometre day. I reckoned on an eight hour break; but sleep took hold and stretched it to over ten. Thanks to the light-nights of June; I was still able to finish before dark. Dropping the trailer in Winnipeg and bob-tailing back to the yard.