Red Deer 鈥� At 7 p.m., Alberta time, Feb. 25, the United We Roll! convoy rolled into Red Deer, pulling into Gort鈥檚 Truck Wash, the same place they left on Feb. 14.
After thousands of kilometres, 11 days, a blizzard that held them up with a closed road at Winnipeg, and a very noisy two days on Parliament Hill, they were greeted with plenty of people standing and waving, horns honking and vehicles with their blinkers on.
As they were in the final stretch, many of the participants, in the numerous live feeds on Facebook, spoke of how they felt they united the country.
鈥淣ext time we do this in July,鈥� said Jay Riedel, of Estevan, on his live Facebook feed as he got out of the truck into -25 C weather.
鈥淚 thought I was going to go home, but now, I can鈥檛. I can鈥檛 go home,鈥� he said of the choice of remaining with the convoy instead of splitting off at Virden with the rest of the Saskatchewan contingent.
鈥淎bsolutely blown away. I don鈥檛 even know what to say. Absolute emotion,鈥� he said as the convoy participants hugged each other and shed their share of tears. The strains of Paul Brant singing C.J. McCall鈥檚 song, Convoy, played in the background.
鈥淯nbelievable, eh?鈥� said Glen Carritt, the Innisfail councillor and owner of OP Fire & Safety. He led the convoy, and paid for much of its expenses as he waited for funds from Go Fund Me campaign to be released.
He said it was 鈥渁bsolutely successful.鈥�
鈥淭he story here is all the people we united in Canada. Everywhere we went, Canadians do love each other. That鈥檚 the biggest story right here.鈥�
And as they came in from the cold, the song played on in the background 鈥溾�� we crashed the gate, doing 98, I says let them truckers roll, 10-4.鈥�
