We took our time at Pancake Bay in the morning. Family needed a re-group after the late arrival the previous night. We did pack up relatively efficiently and as we completed the process we all went to the lake. We dipped our feet in Superior, collected stones for Houdini’s garden and ran and played in the sand. We checked out good campsites for potential visits on the way home or in years to come. There are lots, the whole place is very beautiful and I think we could spend an entire vacation there. As we left, a fun run just began and we checked out the other events on the park bulletin…lots happening, great place!

The next leg saw us get 80kms down the road and break for lunch in Sault Ste. Marie. We ate Aurora’s pizza which was amazing and had a two plus hour break. So, at about 2:30pm we set out for our second to last destination, Bracebridge, ON. It was a bang on trip. Good timing for pit stops and cooperative young ones. We arrived at the Wilson clan’s humble abode by 10:30pm and all settled in for a good sleep.

We had a couple of restful nights parked inthe driveway and some great walks on the trail system. The pit stop in the Muskoka’s was highlighted by Russell Guy meeting his Aunt Sas and Uncle Scott for the first time and the whole family spending time with Great Grandma Ivie.

Building from our success of the previous day’s travel we set out from Thunder Bay in the hopes of a repeat performance (worth noting that this had not happened on the trip yet). We set out late. Having lost an hour, this was not so surprising. In fact this was to be more of an omen. Nothing lined up for us, the kids didn’t cooperate and Catherine and I were off. Yet we pushed on amidst swarms of blackflies at stops of interest. The first stop of interest was the Terry Fox monument in Thunder Bay. This is a must stop on any cross Canada journey. Jules was riveted by his story and for the next 500kms asked regularly “Is this where the Fox man ran?”

We had some fun, but fought the day. Our three step long distance day plan did not work out; no one napped, no one slept on the final leg, and I would have kept driving into the night once they had fallen asleep but Catherine stopped us at Pancake Bay. Good call!

Setting out from Falcon Lake, MB we did end up with wet feet and damp shirts. However, we did dodge the brunt of another surly day and were on the highway again before the rains began in earnest. We weren’t quite sure where we would end up on this the day we bagn the long haul across the top of Lake Superior. There are many nice provincial parks on route and we had even whispered the idea of making it all the way to Thunder Bay. In the end the stars aligned and we did just that.

Our dodging of dodgy weather did continue though. We stopped in Dryden, ON and found the Rotary Park for lunch. We basically had the place to ourselves and so we chose the picnic table closest to the lake and playground. No sooner was the avocado being doled out that the skies closed in around us. We decided to head for the shelter and as soon as we started to organize our things it became a sprint for cover. I had to make several trips, which Blizzard interpreted as play time, and despite the torrential downpour I was happy to oblige. A good break for everyone meant several good hours on the road. Our next stop was White River, ON.

Stopping for dinner at the Winnie the Pooh park and White River visitor centre, the boys hopped on and off the stationary train car and explored all of the playground completely oblivious to the constant rain. I whipped up some tomato soup, noodle soup and assorted leftovers for a quick but warm meal, capped by a round of ice cream sandwiches. Everyone, then into their PJs and on the road again. The rest of the evening miles were naming each lake as we passed it for Julian and explaining how they might have come by their monikers. He then took up the challenge to name all the lakes that we could not based on some observation. Tower Lake, Hill Lake, Round Lake… In the end, we actually made it to Thunder Bay. As we rolled in, Jules piped up “There must be lots of lightning and thunder here. Thunder Bay must be named for thunder!” On that note we arrived to Trowbridge Falls municipal campground and set up for the night. Lots of cool sites and great campground roads for learning to ride a bike!

If you missed the 10 second news report on       CBC’s the National, then you might have missed that Dawson Creek had a once in a hundred years flood in June. This extreme weather event saw 110mm of rain fill the city with water. After that, the Henrys just tried to keep their heads above the surface in the days leading to our trans Canada adventure. Pushed events, changed meeting schedules etc. etc. kept us hopping. We managed to dodge most of the potentially major hiccups and hit the road only a day late.

That’s not Mr. DC in the picture…

From dodging schedule disasters we are now dodging thunderstorms and as with our schedules we are being mostly successful. Starting night one on the road, at Carson Pegasus provincial park, we just got a fire going after wrapping up a walk and jumping in our PJs when thunder roared around us and the heavy sky finally burst. (This only minutes after I told Julian a ghost story revolving around thunder. I even made a point of surprising him at the end of the story. This required a solid Freddy the Frog anecdote to calm nerves before bed.) It was a quick scramble to clean up and overall everything stayed dry, except me. Early to bed on night one.

After a night of rain we awoke to dreary skies but no drizzle. We packed up and hit the road. No sooner were we rolling then the rains came down. We were heading for Saskatoon and it was on and off rain the whole way. Lunch in Edmonton was great. We found an awesome school playground with ample parking and an adjacent leash free dog park. Nice work Edmonton. This was all by accident though and city driving/navigating is not where Catherine and I excel at making collaborative decisions. In any case, we all played and walked and as soon as we started for the trailer to get set for the road again…boom, the skies opened up. Another leg of the journey with wet feet and damp shirt. We arrived just to Camperland RV park just outside of Saskatoon late, quickly set up shop, and hit the hay.

We casually got going on the morning of day three. We were going to see where the road led us. We were going to try and swim at the park pool. Alas we were not allowed as rain was predicted. With this prediction we started to organize. Laundry started, trailer organized, impromptu bike riding lesson. As Catherine showered, I was loading up the boys and gathering our scattered belongings.

Trailer was packed up dry, which was great because as I was sorting the remnants of a tornado that incredibly struck only my lot, the skies unleashed a prairie monsoon that soaked me to the bone in a minute. Catherine made it back, showered twice, and so we drove to the laundry house and waited for the dryer to finish.

On the road again, heading for Manitoba. Wet feet? Check. Damp shirt? Check. Our drive on day three meandered through Saskatchewan but did not stall out. We drove through some epic weather on our way to Russell.

Stopping in Colonsay for gas, the tap turned off. We headed to Manitou springs and passed through blinding sheets of rain,  only to arrive with parting clouds. Highway 15 took us the rest of the way to Russell MB and as we neared, the skies darkened to the colour of Saskatoon berries. This was an unbelievable contrast to the fields of lemon yellow canola. About 30kms outside of Russell the boys were antsy and we were trying to point out anything of interest, praying another prairie train would roll by soon to keep their attention. Then the two storms on either side of us came together. It was as if the lights were turned down and any noise from the boys vanished.

Lightning exploded next to us and a sideways rain drove into the side of the trailer, pushing it sideways. As I strained at the road ahead we emerged from the storm as quickly as it surrounded us. The temperature changed 5-10 degrees three times as we passed through the storm. Entering the town of Russell as the last light of the day faded I fully expected to set up camp in the rain. This was, amazingly, not to be. The clouds drifted away and we stayed dry. I stared at the Big Dipper drifting off to sleep.

The only rain in Russell came as we departed. In fact, only as we did the tourist picture at the Welcome to Russell sign did we get drenched. Day 4… Wet feet? Check. Damp shirt? Check.

Camping was free in Russell at Peace Park and the drive through Manitoba was awesome! We definitely passed through some more prairie rains, but all rather quickly. For lunch the skies even provided some sunshine in Portage LaPrairie, where we barbecued and picked strawberries. At our arrival in Falcon Lake we grabbed our site and ate well. We even went for an evening walk to the beach. Forced back to camp only as the clouds collapsed around the lake and the rain began. We made it back though and Catherine was the only one to suffer wet feet and damp shirt working to get stuff out of the rain as it began in earnest.

Maybe hitting a stride… I think Manitoba, with its good camping, good roads and beautiful communities helped us out.

Looked at the forecast for tomorrow and it seems there is s good chance of wet feet and damp shirts!

On the road again! Makin’ miles! Keepin’ time with the telephone poles! As the school year closed, a corner in 2016 was turned. The last seven months have been a blur. It seems like haulin’ across the country is actually a change of pace. What happened seven months ago? What happened over the last seven months? Many things, hopefully many posts to tell the tales. But for now…

We are road trippin’! We are travellin’ the beaten and untrodden path! We are in Russell Manitoba!

As I write this post (it has taken three days, spotty internet etc. etc.) I am making coffee, feeding the young man of the same name as our host village and getting a lunch bag put together. Everyone else by some road trip miracle is sleeping in.

It has taken us this far to find our groove but we are also more seasoned and have not had any roadside meltdowns. (Thinking circa 2012, potential divorce by Grande Prairie!) Our groove seems to be changing every day though as we figure something out and get better. That being said, it seems that the spirit of Houdini is pushing us along as every day it is “squirrel!” And we choose the left turn instead of the well researched right. Yesterday this took us to the ‘Dead Sea of Canada’ found in Southern Saskatchewan. Who knew? So Squirrel turned into three hours on a sometimes super sketchy secondary highway. However, it provided us with quintessential Saskatchewan.

Good Mornin’ Dom. ‘Bout to get goin’…

See Catherine’s Facebook for pics. Catherine Ducheminski

Wow, the month of May has come and gone and with it many adventures, chores, outings and visiting with friends and family.Dominic remains ready for action at the drop of a hat and suffers from the same FOMO as his mother.He always seems to lead the charge, whatever we are up to. So, I’ll try and capture some of the fun in the sun and snow 😦 We had a visit from Pete the Cat who spent two days glued to Jules’ hip, dealt with a dandelion takeover and celebrated the long weekend assessing the damage from a less than unlikely May Long snow storm! Two days later we were enjoying the sun again, riding around on tractors, celebrating birthdays in backyards, barbequeing steaks on the patio, enjoying walks in the park and  making the most of sandbox time. Dad, even got a summer time haircut at school, celebrating his students’ love of reading. I bet we’ll blink again and June will be gone too!

Pete the Cat

Garden in need of some TLC

ugghhhhh

Happy May Long

Tractor Trailer

Lovin life!

Toben’s Dino fiesta!

mmmmmmmm

Steak Dinner with Grandpa Dave and Grandma Ronnie

A new haircut for dad.

Beautiful skies!

Beautiful Boys!

Hello June! No more interruptions to sandbox time, please.

I have been home for nearly 10 days from a conference I attended in Toronto. Life at home didn’t slow down through my absence and it has been full steam ahead on the home front. The boys are thoroughly enjoying the warmer weather and Dominic basically lives outside. Julian is also motivated to get out and go for walks but with the singular purpose of getting to the ice cream store. We were able, on the weekend, to get together with good friends and Jules spent some more time on his new bike. We all enjoyed smokies and chili on Maggie’s farm. Dom’s bike got a seat upgrade and he is striding around like a champ. Back to the conference…it was a very worthwhile early literacy conference and I came away inspired and armed with some new tools and lots of good learning. The other great thing was that I was able to do a solo tour around southern Ontario visiting as much of my family as I could. This odyssey took me from Toronto to Bracebridge to Ottawa, Wakefield and then to Kingston, Burlington and back to Toronto. The highlight was my visit with Grandma. She is well on her way to 91 and still makes the best fruit salad you can find. In fact, my affinity for fruit salad was born in her dining room thirty odd years ago! So comfortable to relax and tell stories in her unchanged living room of my youth in the company of my Aunt Susan and Uncle Chris. I then squeezed in a couple great sleeps at the family homestead in the Gatineau Hills. This was complimented by a couple of hikes through the still snow covered forest and fields with mom and dad in what would have been a lovely couple days mid-January! I can’t wait to introduce Blizzard to Rio and let them run each other ragged. Rio is a great dog who will sit in your lap if you’re in his spot #notalapdog. I managed to quickly check in with my brother in K-town, stayed during the conference at my sister and brother in-law’s place in Burlington and even got a visit in with the legendary Uncle Guy in Toronto one evening. Being on the other side of the country makes this type of tour all the more difficult and I hope next time I’ll be able to connect with my whole family in tow. It took a lot of driving (including through two blizzards in TO) but the selfie tour was well worth it!

It has been five years since purchasing our house in a great location in Dawson Creek. It is close to schools, parks, the creek greenbelt… it’s great! The neighbourhood was, however, built over a swamp and this means water. It is a wet area, our backyard is a low spot for the surrounding houses, and the drainage on the house was not correct. It has been five years of water investigation and mitigation as every year we had (unidentified by the seller) a water puddle in the basement by the garage entrance. It has been a gradual process of try something and wait for spring. Roof downspouts have been covered and some added…still water. All the downspouts redirected to the front and water to street…the pudlle returns. A patio was built and yard regraded from house, plus the water flow point at the foundation was dug up and addressed…still water (however, much less time and amount). Last summer a French drain was added to run from a yard low spot to the front of the house…NO WATER!!! Not only no water but the backyard drained with incredible speed and the flow from the French drain outlet was a thing of beauty!

As my father, the man who installed 600ft of drain at his place in the Gatineau Hills, said “A working drain is a beautiful thing.” No truer words have been spoken.

There were many good things and good people that came together over this past week. From soaring peaks and roaring trains to carving turns and turkey, Spring Break was a blast for the Henry clan. Feels like an annual pilgrimmage in the making. Let the good times roll!

Collage…cool!

“I’m exhausted.” This is the collective experience of the Henry’s at the moment. It was hectic at home before spring break began. Catherine was swamped in her contract work and this is not slowing down in the foreseeable. She is super mom! She can get Julian to preschool, Dominic to strongstart, herself to work, Russell fed at some point, Julian to swim lessons, Dominic to nap, back to work, Julian to skating, all in a single bound! Many things going on leading into the break and we all left Dawson Creek a bit run down; Dominic getting some molars, Julian with a wet cough and Russell with a sinus cold and goopey eyes. However, we still hit the road excited for the Stewcation ahead.

Uncle Stew has set us up with some awesome activities. He sent everyone up Hudson Bay Mountain for some spring skiing and looked after all three of the boys. They are loving their time with Uncle Stew; splitting wood, cooking smores, building campfires, walks in the woods, morning cartoons, games of chase and tag. Today was an afternoon train voyage from Smithers to New Hazelton. This beautiful journey through the mountains was enjoyed by the Henry clan and their partner in the Stewtinerary, Meghan. It was a geat experience for all, except for the two hour delay of the train’s departure. This took its toll and everyone was fighting and often succumbing to sleep along the way.

Mom and Dad are having a tough time staying healthy through the busy-ness and adventure. Dad has acquired Julian’s flu, Mom is feeling sick also and strained some neck muscles in a seeemingly innocuous movement after her day of skiing. This to say that the exhaustion is compounded by flu and injury. Oh, and Russell has pink eye.  (Poor guy suffered for four days)

So, day two began with calls to the public health phone and then a trip to emerg. Russell is already on the mend with the prescribed eye drops but I feel the challenge for the rest of the family to get healthy remains. Some sleep tonight for all will be of immense benefit.

Despite the above challenges, our visit to Smithers has been incredible so far and thanks to Uncle Stew and Daphne’s amazing hospitality we are well fed, well organized, well chaufferred, well supported. It is no small feat welcoming a family of five (three boys under 4) and seeing to it they have days that warrant big smiles. This is the case, we all have big smiles and we are enjoying these days and each moment with family.