We are HOME. And we are so happy and thankful! What an adventure! As we look back on our trip, we have a number of takeaways. They all highlight the goodness that we have experienced over the past 32 days.
McMeldrum Musings:
1. For so much of our travels, we witnessed farmers working hard, helping to feed the world. It didn't matter at what time of day or night we were on the road, we saw farmers in action during harvest time. How I love to see a well-run farm, with healthy animals and crops, where pride of ownership is evident everywhere you look. We saw beautiful Holsteins, Black Angus, Hereford, Charolais, Belted Galloways, Jerseys, a"moo"ng others. We saw horses, sheep, goats, llamas and more. We drove past bountiful fields of corn, hay, soy, wheat, barley and other grains. And on the roads, we saw dump trucks hauling onions, carrots, and potatoes. All of it made this country girl smile!
2. How glorious Canada and the United States are! We lovingly gazed at all sorts of scenic waters: streams, rivers, waterfalls, lakes as well as the Pacific Ocean. How restorative they are to the soul! And the landforms we drove over and passed by were so diverse - rolling hills, plains, foothills and mountains - and to go from one of those landforms to another in a brief amount of time is such a neat experience. There were the places that had trees galore and the stark spots where there was nothing but land and sky. Both have their visual appeal, if you ask me! We also had the added bonus of seeing the fall colours - Highway 401 provided a glorious conclusion to our adventure.
3. We are pleased to share that every person we encountered on our grand adventure was kind. Don and Sandy (Anne's friends) from Lethbridge, Amy Meldrum in West Vancouver and Dick Larson in Gothenburg are just a handful of the pleasant souls we met on our travels. People were helpful, patient and positive. Even Roberto was well-treated! He only got one parking warning in Edmonton - that was it!
4. On our travels, we were able to reconnect with a number of our awesome family and friends. Thank you to Sarah, Derek, Jeff, Cheryl, Arwyn, Owen, Ingrid, Caleb, Brenda, Carl, Cole, Tegan, Paige, Jenny, Lauren, Anne, Russell, Lauren, Carly, Ryan, Cambree, Harker, and Andi. You all enriched our adventure so much. How wonderful it was to sit and visit (and not just scratch the surface, but really have meaningful conversations) as well as to share meals and laughter together. You don't know how much our time together meant to us. Thank you. We love you all!
Facts and Figures:
1. Number of bears spotted: 1
2. Number of blisters on feet: 2 (ironically, not while hiking but from spending the day shopping at the West Edmonton Mall!)
3. Number of Roberto's tires that had to be changed: 1 (Carl and Dave noticed, so we headed to Edmonton to get that done right away)
4. Number of provinces visited: 5
5. Number of states visited: 10
6. Number of kilometres travelled: just over 11,500 (7170 miles)
7. Number of missing wedding rings found: 1 (a miracle!)
8. Number of posters "rehomed" (not sure if that's a word!): 1
9. Number of t-shirts Dave purchased: 2 (one from Lake of the Woods Brewery and one from Ottumwa's M*A*S*H* exhibition)
10. Number of missed visits: 2 (sorry to John and to Susan and Jerry)
11. Highest elevation: 7470 feet (Whistlers Mountain in Jasper)
12. Number of American state license plates we did not tag: 6 (Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Rhode Island and West Virginia)
13. Number of license plate bingo winners: 0 (Dave only needed Rhode Island; I needed Delaware, Massachusetts and West Virginia)
14. Number of photographs taken: thousands!
It is very fitting that we arrive home at the start of Thanksgiving Weekend - as our hearts are overflowing with love and gratitude! We are so excited to see our loved ones here and partake in one of the most beautiful holidays there is.
I know I am repeating myself, but our hearts are indeed full.
Thank you, God, for keeping us safe on the road. We faced a number of challenges on busy, bumpy, windy and steep roadways, but thanks to Him, we got through it all! We are also so grateful to God for the amazing weather. In all, we experienced about five minutes of snow falling in the Rockies in BC, and a bit of rain on a portion of our Ontario drive one evening and a couple of times at night while we were cozy in Roberto. Other than that, we pretty much had sun and blue skies! How incredible it was to see a storm coming in in big sky country!
We thank God for providing us with an adventure that we will cherish for the rest of our lives!
Thank you, Dave, for driving every single kilometre of this trip. I know I said I might try and take the wheel for a bit, but I chickened out. Take it as a compliment - that is how good of a driver I think you are! Thank you for your patience with me. Thank you for making or finding me coffee every morning. How I love your sense of humour and adventure. You make life a joy!
And thank you for coming on the trip with us! Dave and I wish you and yours a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving!
Love,
your Roving Redhead xoxo
