On the highway outside of Saskatchewan’s capital, a fog hung over the road, swallowing trucks whole and masking tail lights from view for uncomfortably long moments.

The second day of the United We Roll Convoy for Canada found the party is still driven, having garnered strong support from the Prairies through a slew of roadside rallies that have peppered the route most of the way.

But there’s also a hint of uncertainty in the air, particularly around how the procession will be received in Ontario.

“I think these fellas are in for some interesting times in Arnprior,” driver Dave Kinsella said, referring to the convoy’s Monday rest site before rolling into Ottawa on Tuesday.

Recalling a yellow vest rally at the Alberta legislature in Edmonton in mid-December, which saw protesters clash with counter-protesters and a member from each side being detained by police, he expressed concern that something similar might happen closer to the cavalcade’s destination.

From the radio resting on his centre console, tuned to a channel used by the convoy to co-ordinate, a voice breaks through to recount an incident that flies in the face of the support drivers have seen so far.

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“A lady in Strathmore gave me the finger,” one man said.

“Copy that,” another said. “Want me to give it to (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau?”

“Nah, I don’t think so,” the first man replied.

Kinsella, however, won’t be following the convoy much longer. A resident of Innisfail, Alta., about 1,000 kilometres away, he’s turning around after the group reaches Ontario, when he plans to return home to his family.

Clothed in a bright yellow jacket, he started with the convoy in Red Deer, and brought two of his children along for the first 20 kilometres before dropping them off at school and rejoining the train in Airdrie.

But he’s not travelling alone. Along for the ride is the Alberta oil and gas worker’s Bichon poodle, Gigi, also clad in a bright yellow sweater.

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An instrumentation mechanic by trade, Kinsella, 45, works in the energy sector back home, and said he joined the convoy not for himself, but for less-fortunate colleagues who don’t have the means.

“I’m one of the lucky ones — I have the resources to do this,” he said. “But I’m doing this for everybody else that I’ve seen lose their jobs.”

Like many others in the movement, he is calling for the federal government to build pipelines, and is critical of recent measures aimed to support the industry, like the $1.6 billion in federal funding announced in December, most of which comes in the form of loans.

“We don’t want money,” he said. “We just want to go to work. Let us go to work.”

That frustration was echoed by others on the ride, he explained, particularly on the first night when he tuned in to a shared moment of vulnerability on the radio that saw drivers airing their frustrations and swapping stories about the emotional toll of the journey so far.

“Everybody was talking about their ride, and why they’re doing this, and who they have back home, how they feel about this country, and how they feel about the support we’re getting,” Kinsella said. “There was grown, burly, trucker guys getting frogs in their throats. They could hardly talk.”

But as the convoy gets closer to its destination, and away from the provinces that have cheered them on thus far, a bump on the road hints at what could be a rough ride ahead.

After sunset, just outside of Winnipeg, the convoy saw what might be the first sign of an organized opposition to their mission.

Standing along the Trans-Canada Highway, lit red and blue by flashing police lights from cruisers parked nearby, a group of masked protesters waved the group on, but with middle fingers flying in the air.

It’s development that Wade Woywitka, a Vermilion, Alta., convoy driver who is continuing on to Ottawa, has been expecting. He just wasn’t counting on it until after the group crossed the Ontario border.

“Here we go,” he said uneasily. “It’s starting.”

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