It's Day 15. I am one third of the way through the journey of Authentic Lent. So today I want to talk about road trips. They have become a significant experience for me in the last few years, both with my husband and my mother.
My husband and my mother are the two most important people in my life and I get to share with each of them this fun little experience of road trips. With Manfred, our road trips are business focused. We are on the road with work, but for me, there is always a joy of seeing new places and going to familiar locations again and again. One of the highlights of our road trips is an annual drive to my hometown of Fort St. John. Just being there is magic for me. I live seven hours away from Fort St. John, so it feels far away and inaccessible to my child's heart. But work brings us there once a year and just breathing the air is precious. I was even able to show my husband the farm where I grew up. That was precious.
Our road trips have introduced me to Alberta Communities that I hadn't seen before... like Fort McMurray, Grande Cache, Lac La Biche and Cold Lake. The picture in this post is during our drive through the Grande Cache area. We took the scenic route home from Grande Prairie last year. It was a beautiful drive.
With my Mom, our road trips have been twice a year since my sister died. Both "traditions" were established with that loss as a foundation. In May for Mother's Day weekend, I take Mom on a road trip. So far we have been to Saskatchewan and to Northern BC. Our trip to BC involved heading back to our past. I had the joy of taking my Mom back to the farm where we both spent ten years of our lives. This year we plan to head to Southern BC and Southern Alberta. Those trips include visits to family and friends. This May, I want to drive with my Mom through the Rockies and take in the mountain scenery with her. It will be a honour to my sister as she loved the mountains.
Our annual fall trip is to Outlook, Saskatchewan for LCBI Homecoming. My sister died in the summer of 2023 and that fall my Mom and I attended LCBI, our former high school (boarding school) for what would have been my sister's fortieth year from her Grade 12 graduation. In 2027, I will celebrate my fortieth year from high school and I wanted to go back every year in between to tie the two events together. Both Mom and spent 3 years of high school at LCBI and Mom did two more years of Bible School. So every year we are pretty much guaranteed to know someone at Homecoming. I am excited to see different faces from my past come back for their honoured years. I am looking forward to gathering with some of the members of my class in 2027.
There are two very different purposes to my road trips with Manfred and Mom, but they both give me something of joy and excitement at the wonder and adventure involved. As I get older, I am happy staying at home and I am happy when I get a chance to have an adventure. I share space with both.
The road trips are as free as I can be right now. I am, for the most part, land locked at this time of my life. I have dreams of flying to far away countries some day, but they are just dreams. The road trips are my reality and I enjoy what they give me. I don't feel like I am missing out by staying in Canada for now. I live in a big beautiful province in a big beautiful country. There is lots to see here. I just need a truck and some gasoline and a partner. I have that in my husband and my mom.
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