Home Sweet Home
Change in Plans
Last week I decided to cut my trip short and head straight home from Jasper, Alberta. The reason why isn’t important here. But as a result of that decision, my adventure into Canada ended after less than a week instead of extending to the end of October as originally intended. To put minds at ease, I am fine. Sometimes circumstances in our lives lead to changing priorities, and that’s what happened here. No regrets at leaving the trip early. It was definitely the right decision.
Making a beeline for home and trying to get there as quickly as possible is a very different experience than taking a roadtrip for the sheer enjoyment of exploring and learning. Focusing on the final destination means ignoring all the enticing invitations to get off the highway, seek out the byways, and make frequent stops. When time became a factor, the usual appeal of the open road became an impediment that I impatiently sped through.
When you are in a hurry to get somewhere, the isolation of the open road isn’t so appealing anymore.
As always, I try to learn and reflect on my experiences, even under less than ideal circumstances. Here are a few thoughts in the aftermath of my drive home:
When you are no longer interested in exploring or living moment to moment, the endless landscape stretching out in all directions is a constant reminder of how long it takes to get anywhere by land vehicle. Around every curve and over every hill is another endless stretch of road that seems to slow the clock.
Without Sadie I could have made the distance in half the time (or even flown home). With Sadie, I needed to stop more often to give her relief from the monotony. (unlike other dogs, she doesn’t sleep in the van and becomes restless - and very whiny - rather quickly when she’s tired, hungry, or just needs to stretch).
When the trip is about the journey, every piece of the highway or road and every town or city along the way has a special allure for me and invites me to slow down, stop, and take in the place and the moment. When my sole purpose is getting to the final destination, I have tunnel vision, don’t look around me, and don’t acknowledge or see what I might be missing.
Because I was focused on only one goal and my mind was jumping around, my usual go-tos that help pass the long hours on the road didn’t work. My mental distractions turned music, which usually feeds my soul and shapes my moods, into unpleasant noise, and news or podcasts into jumbles of words that I couldn’t follow.
I couldn’t help noticing that on the westward part of the trip the weather was sunny and gorgeous and the temperatures were beautifully mild almost everyday. On the way east, every day was cold, wet, rainy and cloudy. Coincidence of course, and I’m not particularly religious, but couldn’t help seeing the metaphor and noticing the contrast in mood that the weather seemed to encourage.
Covering over 2100 miles in four days is not the best way to experience anywhere.
Once I was done with exploring and focused on getting home, I realized I was also done with camping, particularly after long days of driving. Finding cheap hotels that take dogs is not overly difficult. And they aren’t the bottom of the barrel hotels, either. I was grateful.
When I finally got home in the late afternoon of the 5th day on the road, the best sister in the world - who was out of the house all day - had prepared a delicious casserole that only needed heating up in the oven. Casper the cat was there to welcome us back.
I have no doubt that I’ll have another shot at Canada, and have already begun thinking about how I want to do that trip.
The Columbia Icefield was stunning even if Sadie and I didn’t have time to get up close and personal with it.
Fun Facts and Final Thoughts
To wrap up this trip once and for all, I have a small collection of notes and observations I picked up along the way that seem like a nice note to end this trip on. Here they are, in no particular order:
The mountains were majestic, but I also loved the fragrance of the moss covered trees in the damp forests of the Pacific Northwest.
In the U.S., if you want to shop or buy gas at Costco, you must make all purchases with a VISA card. In Canada, you’d better have a MasterCard instead.
The Cottonwood tree is running a close second to the Live Oak as my favorite tree.
The magpie is my new favorite bird. We don’t have those in the midwest.
It’s hit or miss when crossing the border from Canada into the U.S. My nightmare scenario was that I would get held up as the U.S. border agents completely emptied my van looking for contraband. Since I was in a hurry to get home I didn’t want that to happen, so I carefully got rid of all fresh fruits and vegetables and organic plant material (except for some pears, hidden in my dirty clothes bag, that I had picked in Oregon when visiting my cousin). I discovered later that I had forgotten to empty the vase of fresh wildflowers I had picked in various places during my few days in Canada. It was sitting in my window, easily visible to the border agent. Sadie was in the back and I had all her required papers ready to hand over. As it happened, the nice agent never asked if I had any animals with me, didn’t see the vase of flowers in the window, and believed me when I assured him that I had no fresh produce (I mean, technically I had not acquired the pears in Canada so they didn’t count, right?). In five minutes I was back in the United States and on my way. Sometimes things happen just the way they need to.
There is a thriving cranberry industry on the Longbeach Peninsula in Washington State, and the region is known as the “Cranberry Coast.” Who knew??
Ice fields and glaciers are not the same thing.
Glaciers and icefields are waayy coool, even when seen from a distance.
The Canadian prairie east of the Canadian Rockies looks a lot like the U.S. prairie east of the U.S. Rockies. I guess it’s no surprise that a flat, endless horizon looks pretty much the same no matter which country you are in. At least when you are in a rush to get through it.
In general, gas prices went up going west, and went down going east. In Oregon and Washington, I was paying close to $5.00 a gallon and by the time I got to Illinois I was seeing prices under $3.00 per gallon. Canada was similar to the western U.S. Costco gas typically saved me about $.30 per gallon over the other gas stations. This is a big deal since I get less than 17 miles per gallon with the campervan.
In Leavenworth, Kansas, most of the downtown streets are named after Indian tribes.
In Nebraska I passed a cemetery sitting alone in the middle of nowhere. No church, no farm, no buildings of any kind anywhere within sight of the stones. Also in Nebraska, the roads between the cities line up as a grid. Kind of like graph paper with each block being a one mile square. The east/west routes are labelled as numbered roads, and the north/south routes are labeled as numbered avenues.
I learned a new term when I passed a big industrial site: biorefinery.
At around 28 miles, Long Beach Peninsula claims to be the longest peninsula beach in the world. It certainly was beautiful, and the morning we were there Sadie loved having the beach to herself.
Jerry Garcia played the banjo and dabbled in bluegrass and acoustic music before focusing on the guitar and becoming famous with the Grateful Dead.
Apparently it is true that mice don’t like the smell of peppermint. As a result, my camper will forever have a minty-fresh scent…
When on a long-distance road trip, there are kindnesses everywhere that restore one’s faith in the sanctity of humanity. From the park ranger who brought me some free firewood “just because,” to the mechanic who interrupted his day to take a quick peak under my hood to assure me that my engine was in good shape, to the boat inspector who took time to offer suggestions on the best nearby public campgrounds to a camper who didn’t have a boat with her, to the friendly store clerks intent on helping me get rid of my mouse problem, to the hotel clerk who upgraded my room for no particular reason. These small gestures matter.
I began paying attention to cardinals after losing Jay when I learned about a myth that they embody the spirit of our lost loved ones. While I don’t really believe that literally, I have, nevertheless, had several “odd” encounters with cardinals over the years since 2018. Again, while I’m not particularly religious, I am also aware that we can’t easily explain away everything that happens to us or around us. On this trip a cardinal crossed my path at several key points while I was driving. A couple of times when I was on a hike or exploring a park on the Lewis and Clark trail the cardinal was close enough to sit nearby, look directly at me and make eye contact before flying away. While my rational self tells me that the spiritual significance of such encounters is doubtful, they always bring me comfort when they occur. One of those unexplainable things that I choose to find meaningful. A gentle reminder that Jay is always nearby when I travel.
And this closes the book on the 2025 Lewis and Clark adventure roadtrip.
No matter where I put her, Sadie never seemed to get tired of posing for my pictures.
Next Steps
Not sure what’s coming next, but stay tuned for whatever the next installment of Family Breadcrumbs brings. The travel calendar for 2026 is already filling up, so new adventures await! And I’m way overdue for a trip to Peru…
Wise words to live by.
