I would like to publicly acknowledge a Good Samaritan citizen from the Moose Jaw area.
Here's our story.
I was on a motorcycle tour from Edmonton, passing through Saskatoon and Moose Jaw, in early July 2022. On the TransCanada westbound from Moose Jaw to Medicine Hat, I hit strong and gusting crosswinds that threw the bike around, even though the bike, luggage and myself weigh over 850lb total. This got particularly bad as we were passing 18-wheelers. The normal experience when passing one of these is (1) buffeting as you approach the back end of the vehicle, (2) a strange calm as you pass through the 'wind shadow', and (3) a sharp blast as you right through the dirty air thrown off the front of the cab. It's typically not super-pleasant, but it's do-able.
On this particular day, however, the buffeting and shifting winds added a violent and unpredictable twisting motion, which was tough to control. On a motorcycle, the way the rider handles sidewinds, and continues to travel in a straight line, is to lean the machine into the wind. With the winds that day, I was having to lean the bike hard-left, then hard-right, then upright, and repeat. Tiring, and hard on the bike.
Arriving in Swift Current, I found to my horror that the top-box part of the bike's hard luggage had been ripped off. It was there when I left Moose Jaw, and solidly attached, but gone when we reached Swift Current. I thought about riding the 175km back to Moose Jaw to look for it, but I quickly realized the futility of that. So I gave the top-box, and its contents, up for lost.
When I got to Medicine Hat later that day, I put in calls to the RCMP detachments in both Swift Current and Moose Jaw, and they promised to call if anything was handed in to them. I assumed it was lost in a ditch somewhere, probably crushed by one of those same 18-wheelers.
I heard nothing from the RCMP, and finally reconciled myself that the box and its contents were lost forever. It wasn't a small loss either - a notebook computer, an e-reader and a nice pair of binoculars were the valuable items, plus some bits and pieces of clothing. And the box itself certainly had value, on its own and as part of a 3-piece matched Suzuki-badged Givi luggage set.
Imagine my surprise when, in mid-July, 10 days after I got back to Edmonton, I got an email asking if I'd lost something from my motorcycle, on the TransCanada west of Moose Jaw! I wasn't sure if this was some kind of weird hoax, but 'wolfbane' and I traded emails for a few days, and finally established that he had found my top-box, and that I was the owner!
Since the box was in ok shape, and the contents were all present and accounted-for, I needed to get the thing back somehow. And this is where my Good Samaritan went above-and-beyond.
I think he lives outside Moose Jaw itself, but he got himself into town, on more than one trip, checked with FedEx what he had to do to ship the box and contents, found a sturdy box and packaged the top-box up solidly, then went back to FedEx to ship it to me. He worked with me to ship him, by e-transfer, the cost of shipping.
The box, contents and I were reunited a couple of days later. Everything was there, and everything still works.
My Good Samaritan saw the box in the ditch, stopped to pick it up, opened up the box, started up my computer to find my email address, contacted me, then did all the things I described above.
And he wants no compensation for his time and effort.
So I hope this story is published, in recognition of a fine act of kindness. And I hope I haven't embarrassed wolfbane, aka Mike, too much.
Thank you
Rob Arrand P.Eng
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
