We were hitch-hiking from Vancouver to Whitehorse in 2001 and ended up being stranded somewhere in redneck territory - imagine a bunch of guys in a pickup truck

We were hitch-hiking from Vancouver to Whitehorse in 2001 and ended up being stranded somewhere in redneck territory - imagine a bunch of guys in a pickup truck driving past while hollering "hey buddy grow some tits and we'll give you a ride" - when we finally got a ride on a big rig. The driver was 72 years old, name of Ken, callsign "Big D" on CB. He took us all the way to Whitehorse since he was running a load of condensate to the north of Alaska anyway and it was on the route (which is understandable given that there is only one Alaska Highway). Being in the truck with him for 1½ days we got to talk - which is why he took hitch-hikers along in the first place - and touched the subject of him driving that truck while he could have been enjoying his pension. 'I tried it, being pensioned, but did not like it' he said so he just took right off where he left. As long as his body and mind held out he wanted to keep on doing this work 'cause sitting at home was boring. Having left Whitehorse in a canoe on our way to the Bering strait we met another 72 years old man, this one named Tom. Tom was also paddling the Yukon, or maybe I should say he was enjoying the current taking him downstream. His plan was to paddle the whole river like we were doing but he was doing it in stages where he would take to the river for a few days, then find his way back to his truck somehow to get his canoe. Tom was a pensioned school teacher, he lived on his own in a cabin and quite liked being pensioned but not hanging around in his cabin all the time so he sometimes took to the river. When I reach that age I suspect I'll do something similar seeing how as I think I'd be bored by the "normal" life of a pensioner.