Shirtless in a Canadian Winter

A roadside construction crew cheered the trucker Convoy by removing their shirts and waving them in the air.

Part 1: Time to Move On!

Screen capture from a video recorded by Sheldon near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Four shirtless dudes, beginning with the guy in dump truck.

After racing to catch up with the Freedom Convoy Wednesday, "our eyes opened up" on Thursday, Sheldon says. It was their first taste of the crowds and the enthusiasm.

"This huge amount of people were in Thunder Bay," he remembers. Near there he also recalls

a big road construction site, right beside the highway. With four or five or six excavators. All these excavators were stopped, and they all had their buckets up high in the air, as if they were saluting us. It was minus-30, and a couple of these guys are standing out there with their shirts off, whipping their shirts up in the air, just cheering us all on. It was incredible.

Another screen capture from Sheldon’s video. On the right we see what he was seeing in his side mirror. The flag attached to his trailer, the trucks behind him, the left lane kept free for non-Convoy traffic.

The drive to Ottawa was emotional. He hasn't, he says, cried that much since his wedding day. "All these people, they're coming to your vehicle because they want you to know they're proud of you. Everybody had Canada flags, Canada clothing, Canada everything. It just united this country. Everybody's just so proud to be Canadian again."

Photo supplied by Sheldon. Taken by a third party.

During his journey, Sheldon remembers an Amish horse and buggy out in the snow. On his phone there's a photo of two Amish adults and two children waving as the truckers drive by.

Photo supplied by Sheldon.

When they reached the nation's capital on Saturday afternoon, police escorted them down onto the Sir John A Macdonald Parkway. In Sheldon's view, they'd been sidelined. "You know, out of sight, out of mind." The next day, he says, "we took off." Their group of a dozen or so trucks "did a slow roll down the 417 [highway]. We just figured, let's go find someplace else."

On Nicholas Street, which he describes as a "major truck route" several blocks from Parliament Hill, they were halted by police, who told them they weren't permitted to round the corner toward the Rideau shopping mall, but could remain where they were.

Map provided by Sheldon. The Nicholas Street trucks were parked along the red line. Traffic continued to flow in the right lane. Their trucks took up the other two lanes.

Soon, they'd established a campsite. "I brought a picnic table from Manitoba, a folding picnic table," along with several lawn chairs, Sheldon explains. "The first couple of days we were there, we just had a little gas-powered barbecue, but that didn't work very good. Actually, I brought a fire pit and a bunch of firewood. But they wouldn't let us burn nothing, because then we'd be charged with attempted arson or something."

Winter camping. Photo supplied by Sheldon.

Early on, he says,

I really didn't know much about police, I never really had any interactions with them except for the odd time I got a speeding ticket. But looking back at it now, I can see that the first couple days we were there the police would come over and sit down and chat with us. At first I thought they were just being friendly, but afterwards I realized they were assessing the situation, to see who was going to be a problem and who wasn't.

Soon, his boss' tool trailer became a home base for the Nicholas Street crew. "Instead of people just sitting in the cab of their truck, they have a place to come for refuge, for warmth, food, fellowship," Sheldon told the podcaster. A woodstove got installed, with a metal heat shield behind and a chimney venting to the outdoors. That stove became their trusty cook top as well as their source of heat.

next installment: The Perks of Protesting