Road Trip

For the last number of years, we've made trips in July down to Red Deer to drop off and pick up our boys at Artstrek, the annual summer theatre intensive put on by Theatre Alberta.  This year's jaunt down south gave us an opportunity to tack on a little road trip holiday.

This morning we will leave on a journey that will take us to Cold Lake, Watrous, Kamsack, Saskatoon, Red Deer, Calgary, Canmore and Crownest Pass.  It's going to be a great trip and holiday as it has been a long stretch of working pretty much seven days a week.  It's also going to be my first time in the car with our son Ben behind the wheel.  Heather has been taking him out around town for the last several weeks.  He will try some extended highway driving on this trip.

I'm looking forward to getting on the open road and enjoying the suspension of time.  Everything seems to slow to a crawl when we are on vacation.  I also enjoy looking for wildlife.  We will undoubtedly see lots of hawks, deer, coyotes, and maybe even some moose and bear.

Vacation time also gives plenty of time for reflection and reconnection.  There are lots of things to think about after six full months of being self-employed.  There is also the anticipation of what lies ahead, including another trip to Cambodia and Thailand in January/February.  This trip is also about reconnecting with family.  We will be able to spend time with each of our respective parents and see a few sibling as well.

We leave in a couple of hours.  It's probably time to start the transition from packing in my mind to actually packing.  I'm taking a number of commission projects on the road with us.  As I discovered when we spent a week in Canmore earlier this year, painting gives me something to do to fill the time when we travel.  Even though it has become my livelihood, I still love doing it.

We will return to Fort McMurray on July 21st.  See you on the flip side.