A retired Alberta couple has come up with a novel way to transport a lobster trap from Prince Edward Island to their home. They are asking strangers to “hitchhike” it across the country, in what has been dubbed “Lobster Quest 2024.”
Chris and Karen McCallum wanted to bring a lobster trap back with them after their vacation in Prince Edward Island to their home in the town of Okotoks, Alta. Unfortunately, it was too large to transport by air without paying a heavy fee, so they decided to try hitchhiking.
“My mom and dad are from Prince Edward Island, so my roots are there, and we live out west. Now, we just wanted a little piece of the east and from Prince Edward Island in our house and in Okotoks. That was the intent originally and we were gifted this trap from a fella named Blake, an actual lobster fisherman,” Chris told National Post.
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They left the lobster trap by the side of the road in Charlottetown, P.E.I., on April 29 with a note asking that it be hitchhiked to their residence in Okotoks. It took until July 15 for it to reach New Brunswick. As of Wednesday, it had made it to northern Ontario.
The lobster trap also has its own mascot, Lucky the Lobster, a plush toy that Good Samaritans have taken to posing with on TikTok. Many of these photos are taken at scenic locations or by local landmarks such as the town sign for Silver Islet, Ont.
“We named him Lucky, and we laminated a card and explained to fellow Canadians what we were asking them to do, and there was a QR code … it came to a YouTube video of Chris and I relying on the hearts of Canadians to hitchhike him home for us and social media has taken it by storm and moved it along Eastern Canada, and now it’s into the West. As we speak today, it was just handed off to a new set of handlers in Thunder Bay,” Karen said.
Lucky and the trap will remain in Thunder Bay, Ont., until Thursday, according to a social media post, and a TikTok commenter has already offered to get them from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg, Man., by the weekend. Another commenter offered to pick the trap up from there and drive it straight to Edmonton, Alta., but the McCallums refused so Saskatchewan can get a turn with Lucky. “I think Lucky will be in Manitoba for a few days first and then we need him to get to Regina or Saskatoon!” the Lobster Quest account responded.
The lobster trap has also been adorned by several mementos and souvenirs while on its journey, including a stuffed moose from New Brunswick, a Quebec flag, a teddy bear from Ontario, a trophy from when he was in a race car at the Full Throttle Motor Speedway in Varney, Ont., and, of course, a Tim Hortons mug.
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This story of Canadian cooperation has reminded many of the hitchBOT experiment created back in 2014 by David Harris Smith, a professor of communication studies & multimedia at McMaster University and Frauke Zeller, a professor in the school of professional communication at Ryerson University.
HitchBOT was created as a social experiment to test human cooperation and inspire discussions about trust, safety, and people’s attitudes towards technology. It would gain significant attention online, generating over 35,000 followers on Twitter, 12,000 followers on Instagram, and 48,000 likes on Facebook in under a month.
Lobster Quest has around 20,900 followers on TikTok and over 50,000 likes.
In many ways, the Lobster Quest has reaffirmed what hitchBOT proved about Canadian courtesy and national community a decade ago, by showing how people will go out of their way to do good for someone else and engage in small acts of goodwill.
One thing that surprised the McCallum’s about this project has been the outpouring of support, not just across Canada but from around the world. “We’ve had people from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, all around Europe, U.K., up into Sweden, the UAE, Philippines, Japan, of course all across the U.S., they’re following and commenting. Great, positive comments,” Chris said.
In one instance, an international fan asked them who Terry Fox was after seeing Lucky the Lobster at a memorial dedicated to the Canadian icon, which gave them a chance to share an important piece of Canadian heritage.
Interestingly, this is not the McCallum’s first attempt at this. They first tried to hitchhike a lobster trap from east to west back in 2009. However, they relied only on a note and occasional updates, not using social media. This attempt failed after the trap took an unintended detour to Chicago after an Ontarian forgot it in the back of his car.
The McCallum couple has given Canadians a chance to commemorate the event by selling $20 white shirts with a cartoon lobster on it that reads “I Got Lucky Across Canada” with the subheading “Lobster Quest From East To West 2024” for a limited time.
According to Karen, the only issue with Lucky and the lobster trap has been people’s eagerness to have Lucky visit their province.
“The only negative feedback we get is people being impatient, like every province wants to get their hands on them so, ‘Come on Ontario, you’ve had it too long! Hurry up and pass it on!’ Like, Manitoba’s going crazy!”
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