Wildest Ride Ever

'I’m starting to feel what it’s like to be the Queen.'

read Part 1: Fireworks & Applause
previous installment: Wondrous Winnipeg

Parked on the shoulder of the highway. Holding a sign out the window that says ‘Thank You.’ East of Winnipeg, 25 January 2022. Screen capture from a video recorded by Sally.

AUTHOR NOTE: When I initially published this material about Jake & Lynnette, trucker & wife from Saskatoon, they were out-of-the-country. I wasn’t certain if the videos on which I was basing my research were backed up, and worried they might be censored by Facebook. I therefore assigned this couple the pseudonyms Ted & Sally. After they returned, they backed up their videos & consented to the use of their real names.

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During the massive love fest/traffic snarl the Freedom Convoy experiences near Winnipeg, Sally says on the video she’s recording "Well I’m starting to feel what it’s like to be the Queen.”

For hours, she has been waving out the window of the big rig driven by Ted, her husband (not their real names). Throughout the entire day people on the side of the highway have been “Jumping in the air, thumbs up, waving signs,” she says. They’ve been pointing to their hearts and “standing up to their knees in snow, just to make sure you see them…There’s so many people in tears, and just blowing kisses.”

By the time they reach the far side of Winnipeg and regain the open highway, it’s fully dark outside. But people are still waiting for them, some of whom have apparently driven hours just to watch the Freedom Convoy go by.

A double overpass half an hour east of Winnipeg. Screen capture from a video recorded by Sally, 25 January 2022.

“This is the wildest ride ever, I tell you,” says Sally. “People are just desperate. They’re: ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ They’re just pleading. ‘Get it done, get it done.’” People have new hope, she says.

“And they’re putting all the hope on us,” Ted adds.

The blue sign reads ‘Stop the tyrants.’ The lower sign in the middle says ‘Thank you,” and is decorated with hearts.

Shortly after 7 pm, Sally begins a new video. The previous one ended, she explains, when she lost cell phone service:

Look at this, there’s fireworks. Just a little bit back they had a big bonfire in the ditch. I wish I could have caught it. There was a group of about 20 people around that fire. It’s cold out here…There’s ice on these roads.

Ted and Sally discuss getting a hotel room so they’ll be able to shower. As the miles roll on, she talks about how much worse the pandemic restrictions are in Manitoba compared to their home province. “I mean, in Saskatoon we could still eat in food courts, us lepers,” she says, referring to unvaccinated individuals. “Out here, they can’t. Cuz it’s all closed to them.”

When they crossed into Manitoba that morning, she says, a sign on the highway instructed them to quarantine for 14 days. “Yeah, whatever.”

The pandemic goalposts keep moving, she adds. “And it’s never gonna end” unless more people speak up.

next installment: Onward to Ontario