I have always heard about the hospitality of residents of Carleton County. In fact, the sign upon entering Woodstock says, "The Hospitality Town." Today I may have become a believer in that statement.
The boys and I packed up the truck for a day at my high-school friend, Kelly's, house which is 2 hours away in St Stephen. We loaded a cooler, swim suits, towels and stroller into the bed of the truck we're borrowing and took off.
I'll pause here to tell you a bit about New Brunswick roads. The new 4 lane Trans Canada highway has just been completed through our little section of the world, and although it had me totally confused for my first day or so in NB, I find it quite convenient now to be zipping along at 110km/hr instead of following farm tractors until I can find a suitable passing zone. Aside from this new highway though, everything else, including the road where I grew up, is full of the biggest pot holes you've ever seen in your life. Trying to drive around them would look something like those car commercials where a professional driver swerves tightly around bright orange cones, only I'm in a Ford pick-up and I'm no expert driver, and the cones are actually craters that could swallow me whole.
So anyway, back to my story. We've survived a 10 minute section of country road driving. I'm now cruising along on the new highway, finally relaxing my grip on the steering wheel a little, when a gold Chevy Impala speeds up beside me (115KM at least- that's like 75 MPH or something), flashing their lights and honking. I look at them, thinking maybe they think I'm my dad since I'm borrowing his truck. So I wave to be friendly and notice that they're a man and woman, unusually old to be driving so quickly.
The gray-haired lady in the gold car proceeds to role down her window and then gesture wildly toward the rear of my truck. I must have looked confused because then, holding her glasses on with one hand and her white sweater closed with the other, she yells, "YOUR TAILGATE IS OPEN!" I nod and mouth "Thank you" then pull over to assess the damage while they continue on down the highway.
There is a soft top cover on the bed of the truck, and amazingly, none of our things flew out on the highway or on the bumpy country road. Thanking God for the provision of the gold impala couple and the presence of our things, I climb back in the truck and continue our drive. But that's not the end.
About 5 miles up the road, I notice that a gold impala has pulled over on the shoulder of the highway. As I draw closer, there is a gray-haired lady in a white sweater standing behind the car with her hand up to her brow, looking back in the distance behind her, one hand on her hip as though she is waiting for something to appear. Upon recognizing our truck, she begins to wave and smile, and as I pass, she climbs back in her car and her husband pulls out onto the highway behind us. Too stunned to even wave back, it only then occurred to me that she must have been waiting to make sure everything was OK. Right? It certainly appeared that way. Even now I'm trying to think of some other reason they may have needed to stop and look behind them on a barren stretch of highway.
I come up with nothing except that they were our angels today. I would certainly have driven the 2 hours with the tailgate down, eventually losing our lunch and probably damaging my dad's truck in the process. So wherever you are tonight lovely, gray couple from Carleton County, thanks!
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