The Wayward Wanderer

James didn't make a lot of miles this last week. In fact he had more sitting waiting then driving. He was coming back from North Dakota on Wednesday and had made it to almost Portage when he called. The snow was so heavy in that area he just had to call and tell me he saw his first ski-dooer of the year. The ditches had almost 8 inches of snow in them so the sleds were out partaking with the conditions.

The roads certainly weren't the best, however, once he turned off Highway 1 just west of Portage, they improved considerably. James was travelling up Highway 16 enroute to Yorkton.

Around Shoal Lake, Manitoba he almost filled his drawers though. A smaller Cavalier type car was coming at him and the driver lost control in the ice. James is not sure how the guy missed running head on into the semi, but he missed by about a foot. The car rolled a few times into the ditch while James locked the truck up in trying to get stopped.

James ran back to the car thinking that he was about to see a body due to the damage to the vehicle. The windows were all smashed out and the drivers door was open when he got to the vehicle. Of course he felt the driver was thrown out, but to his surprise the driver was at the back of the car trying to stuff his belongings back into the trunk. The fellow appeared to be fine other than maybe a little shookup. The young fellow was enroute to Winnipeg to University and had his car packed with his belongings.

After a short chat, James and the driver got back to James rig and into the warmth where the fellow used James phone to call CAA and a few others. The main thing was that he didn't have any injuries whatsoever. This guy must of had an angel riding co-pilot with him on his drive.

James finally made it to Yorkton and spent the night. He had to drive about 30-40 minutes out of the city up into the Canora area in the morning to offload part of his load. Once he got there, the farmer refused to take delivery of the skidder as he couldn't find a serial number on the equipment. The farmer called the place in Manitoba that had loaded James and the fellow there tried to explain to the farmer where the serial number was without success. One of the manager's then had to head out from Morden, Manitoba and drive to the Canora location. Of course James got to sit and wait his arrival.

Once the manager did arrive he told them where the serial number was and James climbed underneath and got the number for the farmer. Even with that the farmer refused to take delivery. So back to Yorkton with the load and eventually James got it unloaded at a local service center.

He then continued on to Saskatoon and then ended up back in Hanley at about 10:30 p.m. He'll get to spend a couple days here and then he has to head back to Manitoba for another load on Sunday...