Episode 3 – Winnipeg in clear light
Day 10 – Wednesday July 5th
I woke up a couple times at night, but overall, it was a pretty good sleep. I definitely got a full 8 or 9 hours. However, I woke up around 8am to someone trying to open my car door! I got up and it was a guy on a bike, still standing there. “Oh, I was just checking” he said. Yeah, checking to see if you can steal someone’s stuff. What a gang banger. I thought, “oh no, this is the same guy that is going to go to the gas bar and take my frozen patties”. I noticed the light on my cooler wasn’t on all the way, it wasn’t pulling as much power as it needed to work correctly. I went to start my car, and it just clicked – the battery was at about 9.5v so, it was dead. Good thing I have a secondary booster! It took me a minute to find where I hid the cables, but I got it boosted and was on my way.
The problem now is, my battery died, and my battery box also died. So, it would be great to be able to park next to an outlet to charge the box, and keep the cooler on, but I drove around a bit doing this yesterday, and I could not for the life of my find one. I did find one back in a Huntsville Walmart parking lot, and it worked great. The parking spot had an outlet at the base of the street light, and I just pulled my window up so that if someone wanted to steal or disconnect it, they wouldn’t really be able to without breaking the window. Anyways, I am writing this in Tims1 right now, and will just have to move on. If I can’t find a simple solution to a simple problem, I just have to learn to move on, and trust that I will think of something soon.
The cooler box at the gas bar was locked when I got there; I think it was around 9am. It was a different person at the till, but they seemed cool about opening it for me. I went right back to behind the pet store (beside Walmart) and got to work on cooking. The burgers were just as good as they were yesterday. I decided I needed to clean my cutlery, I’ve been meaning to do it for a day or two now. The gym was in the same mega sized parking lot, so I drove there and it was besides a Dollarscama. As I drove along the side, the entire exterior wall was full of 120vac electrical outlets! Jackpot!!!!! So, I backed my car against the wall as close as I could, but had to close the door on the cable as going through the window, it wouldn’t reach. As I walked to the gym, I stopped at the dollar store and bought a cheap (but safe and effective) dish washing tool.
Today I decided I wanted to see how many flights I can climb in half an hour. I climbed 136 flights in 31 minutes, operating at level 9 on this machine. I felt incredible afterwards, I had absolutely no anxiety as I went into the shower with a duffle bag full of my cutlery and cooking equipment. It was great, not as busy as it was the other day. I did my Spanish lesson, and went back to my car. The battery box was still charging at max and it was only at ~70%, so I decided I would try to fix my bumper – again. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve tried to do this. As I was getting things ready, I saw a guy on a bike who looked a little too familiar. “Hey, aren’t you the guy from the morning?” I asked, waiting for the guy to get confused, and say no… but… it was! He tried to pull the “I was just seeing if you were OK” bs. Then he asked where I was from, within Ontario. I said “Toronto” and it ended there. He left, but I expect to see him again. I plan on staying one more night.
I got some contact cement, and put it on both surfaces. I left it for ~10 minutes, then pushed it into place, using duct tape to hold it in place. I went and got some blueberries, something to mix in with the rest of my kefir. The people working at this store I’ve never heard of before were just lovely. I phoned beforehand to see if they had them, and I spoke with a Katelyn. Apparently, she didn’t like blueberries (she didn’t like how they were hard on the outside, but “pop” into mushiness in your mouth. I thought of something kinky after I hang up – that’s a good thing). So, when I was there, I looked at someone at the desk and was like, “Katelyn!?” she said “Kiana” I think. She seemed very receptive, but I was busy and wasn’t really prepared for a spontaneous cute girl interaction, in a situation with conflicting variables that actually probably didn’t really make any sense whatsoever to strike up conversation in.
While I was waiting for the contact cement to dry, I asked a cool looking passerby of what some good things to do are in this city. Basically, nothing. I was told “The Forks” by downtown and the river, is a nice spot. I asked another person and they said the “human” museum. They meant the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, which happens to be in “The Forks”. So… maybe I’ll go see that place tomorrow. Anyways, I got the job done, and decided that even though my powerbox was still charging, I was going to go to Tims to get some more keyboard warrioring done. One of the people (Gary) who asked me for a cigarette from two days ago was at Tims again, and we had a chat. They also suggested “The Forks” to me. So, now I am in planning mode of what to do next.
Over the past 10 days, I realized about 2 or 3 days ago how much I enjoy being on the road. I am starting to become very confident in my realization that I want to be a long-haul semi-truck driver. So, I want to sit down for an evening and really plan this one out. But yea, I am going to start my next trip plan via Maps, and also have some conversations with ChatGPT about being a truck driver (and the trip). Then call it a night and sleep in the same spot; I like it there. If someone tries anything, tonight will be a very bad night for them – I am a teensy bit on edge >:D. Oh yeah, also… day 2 of quitting smoking!!!
Tims1: $2.30 Dollarama: $1.10 + $1.40 Blueberries: $6.50 Tims1: $2.30 Total: $13.60