Halifax Trip June 29 to Aug. 22, 2015

Mileage: 11,070 Miles

Gas: 428 Gallons

“What did you do this summer” is the question students will get over and over again as we run head first back into classes this fall. But prior to the summer, my wife and I sat down and tried to design the most epic road trip in order to answer that question, and did we ever. My wife, Cindy, is also a student who is completing her graduate work at WWU for her degree in Creative Writing. Her thesis will be centered on her father’s immigration into Canada through Pier 21, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and she needed to do major on-site research. As we looked at a map of North America, a clear path appeared before our eyes, and it only made sense for us to drive it, not fly.

We planned to car camp along the northern most route through the United States, cross over into Canada and reach halfway point of Halifax Nova Scotia Canada. On our return trip, we would drive only through Canada and stay semi-south, it all looked so small on that tiny map. So, we packed the car and hit the road.

Both my wife and I have some camping skills under our belts and a good amount of quality gear, but when you are packing for two months, you really can’t cut too many corners. Our Subaru was loaded to the roof and luckily, with the loan of an extra cargo car topper, we made it all fit pretty well to include a nice spot for Ruby our dog and travel companion for the ride.

Learning quickly that this was going to take 2 months, we realized that there was no rush to get from point A to point B. Each day we would get up, grind up the coffee beans and enjoy a light breakfast, pack, and hit the road for only a few hundred miles and call it a day and set up camp. We got into a great rhythm that resulted in us timing ourselves, 9 minutes to set up our campsite, I have to say we were pretty pleased with ourselves as was Ruby who quickly laid on the bed and went to sleep.

The highlights are so numerous: Walking through the Green Bay Packers tunnel at Lambeau Field, seeing the 9-11 Memorial in New York City, helping my wife with her research at the Nova Scotia Public Archives or silent starry nights in Banff National Park. All of these afforded me with an opportunity to hone my skills gained in my first year at Everett Community College’s photography program as well as jumping into the Visual Editor’s role for The Clipper with a great story.