Jeffery Straker is a pop-pianist from Saskatchewan who has logged a lot of miles on the province’s highways. As he’s learned on his travels, there are plenty of regional single-lane highways that leave fast drivers cursing the slow driver in front of them and slower drivers cursing the impatient bull dogs riding their tails.
Straker’s most harrowing winter driving experience was on one such highway. In 2009, the singer was booked to play a house concert at a little bistro in the small town of Birch Hills, Saskatchewan. It’s about 400 kilometres north of Regina, so Straker figured it would be a four-hour drive. Before the trip he did his due diligence by calling the Saskatchewan Highway Hotline and checking out the road conditions. Everything sounded great for the southern leg of the journey, but the message said things got sketchy further north.
Straker remembers there were “ominous warnings of wet snow and packing snow and snow catching on the road or whatever. They had a wording for it that didn’t sound very pretty. So we left anyway because there’s this weird thing that drives you out beyond your reasonable logic to do the gig anyway even though you could possibly die, so off we go.”
Of course, Straker’s journey in his ’97 Jetta with very narrow wheels didn’t go quite as smoothly as he’d hoped:
[insert audio clip “So we’re heading north…but lived to tell the tale” runs 2:24]
[audio: an encounter with an 18-wheeler]
Another of Straker’s winter touring stories couldn’t be more Canadian if you tried. Remember last spring’s federal election campaign, when the French language leaders debate was rescheduled because it conflicted with the start of NHL playoffs? The Montreal Canadiens were in the running for the Stanley Cup, and some party leaders admitted most Canadians would rather watch hockey instead of a political face-off.
Imagine Straker’s dismay when he discovered that his winter 2010 performance in Shaunavon, Sask., was the same evening that the Canadian women’s Olympic hockey team had their gold medal final. And guess where Hayley Wickenheiser, the captain for that team was from? You guessed it: Shaunavon.
[insert audio clip “So you can imagine… it was pretty cool.” runs 1:25]
[audio: the concert that almost didn't happen]
Would you pick a live concert over a big hockey game? And have you ever had a close call with a semi you’ve lived to remember? We’re keen to know.