Crazy Canuck!

11:43. That’s the time when I finally opened mystery beer #2. Marc and Celene instructed me to only partake once the kids were all tucked into bed, dreaming of endless roads and constant movement. I took that advice, and applied it to my strategy for this trip. I had planned at night to always prep for the next day – especially if it was nice weather, as one never knows what the next day holds. Prepping included the obvious things, like cleaning up from dinner, getting the trailer in order, but also staging the truck for the next leg of the journey. I planned activities, packed books to rotate through, allowed the kids to each bring a travel box of toys, etc., and every night I wanted to return the truck back to an ordered state. By the end of each day I expected chaos, and thus far I have not been disappointed. Prepping also included in my mind any food preparation for the next day. As today I finally got my grocery shop in, prepping took some extra time.

So, 11:43 was when I could finally sit down and unwrap my nightcap. Great Lakes Brewery’s “Crazy Canuck” seems fitting. The little note is right: I am a tad crazy to do this trip. But I think many of times I’ve travelled across the country would count as being a bit crazy. Consider the following:

• October 2005 – drove from Edmonton to Simcoe with Rob Hill in around 50 hours to both (a) return my dad’s truck that we had borrowed (what became Seth’s “General”) and (b) defend my LLM thesis. While I was there, I also caught a wedding of some folks we knew
• July 2006 – drove from Edmonton to Waterloo simply to surprise Rob and Ang at their backyard wedding – notable about this trip was the fact that only two days prior to leaving I had heat stroke whilst hiking the Tonquin Valley trail with Leia, Eric and Julia. As Leia was around 5 months pregnant with Jordan at that time, I carried all of our gear, minus a few sweaters. It was an extremely hot July 1 weekend in Jasper that year, and mosquitos were bad. Oh, right, Leia was also 5 months pregnant on that trip.
• November 2006 – a few short days (5, to be exact) after greeting my first born, I hopped into the car around 4 am on a cold Edmonton morning (around -40) to drive back to Toronto to pick Jordan and Leia up a few days later. When I arrived in Toronto 2.5 days later, the temperature was +10.
• June 2008 – I had been invited to talk at a conference in Newfoundland, and rather than fly by myself, I convinced the funders to pay me the equivalent in gas money. I drove to Toronto, picked up Leia and Jordan, who flew (Leia was 7 months pregnant with Marley!), and we proceeded to journey to St. John’s. After visiting with family, and touring the East Coast, I then drove back to Edmonton. In all, I put on about 15,000 km in a month – I also picked up a hitchhiker: Charles, the self-professed gypsy from Quebec who I drove from Thunder Bay to Edmonton and who awoke me at the Husky in Saskatoon by playing amazing jazz at 2 am with a random trombone player.

I could go on – I’ve driven out twice just to work on basements (Kim and Rob’s, and Becky and Judith’s) – but I think you got the point. I’ve done lots of crazy trips.

Yet, this one will likely take the cake. It will also likely be the most exhausting. Sure, sitting and staring at the road for hours on end is tiring, and driving through the night (which I’ve done many times) and imagining every shadow as a moose or deer or sasquatch is draining albeit slightly exhilarating, having to care for the kids requires so much more energy. Today, it was from 8 am to 11:43 straight. At least when I drove like a madman across the country I could close my eyes when I wanted (even on this trip, I am nostalgic as I pass parking lots, rest stations, and picnic areas where I recall pulling over to rest my eyes).

Although tiring, today was a great day. Girls slept in a bit – as they likely will tomorrow – as they were up too late. I had to drive further today than I wanted – in total we drove over 650 kms. We left Tim and Michelle’s shortly after a pancake breakfast, around 10 am, and didn’t pull into Rabbit Blanket Lake Campground until nearly 8 pm. The only real stops in that entire time were to gas and coffee up in Parry Sound, groceries and lunch in Sudbury, closing Evelyn’s door and putting on the child-lock somewhere between Sudbury and the Sault, and gassing and coffeeing up in Sault Ste. Marie. The kids spent a long time in the car. And, it wasn’t until about 7:30, when the road just never seemed to end to Jordan, who has a prime view sitting in the middle, that she began to unravel a bit, missing Mom. A few tears were shed. But the waterworks didn’t last long. And, thankfully, neither did the rain. It clearly rained quite a bit prior to our arrival here, but I was able to set up without rain – only had to contend with mosquitos. There were enough that I felt like I was getting bitten places I know I didn’t get bitten.

Because of our late arrival, the girls had a late dinner of grilled cheese. Then, off to bed they went, prior to my prepping – which brings us full circle to the Crazy Canuck. It sure is hitting the spot right now.

I don’t feel crazy. I’ll be arrogant for a minute: if you had my kids, you probably wouldn’t be too afraid of a cross-country journey either. No offence is meant to anyone’s kids, I am just really confident in my kid’s ability to cope. Having moved them too many times to want to recount, and having observed them manage to maneuver the crazy busy lives Leia and I seem to lead, I know they are very capable to handle challenges.

A late dinner with the girls!

More than that, they are fun. They love to laugh. Today’s drive started with Marley and Evelyn were speaking over one another trying to get my attention, only to have Evelyn say, “shush, shush, shush! I’m speaking to Daddy” in a silly yet stern voice, which brought the rest of us to laughter. It ended with the girls laughing and giggling as they wore mosquito nets to go brush their teeth.

I’d be crazy not to want to spend so much time with them.