In five days of driving, we travelled 2190 km. If we covered that amount of road going in a straight line, we'd have made it to Thunder Bay.
In five days of driving we saw several black bears, several deer, several chipmunks, several cattle, several horses, several dogs, a few cats, a few loons, a few ducks, a few eagles, a few trout jumping and a fox. Those are live creatures by the way. If we add in the taxidermied specimens and roadkill the list is more extensive.
In five days of driving Dad won 23 jelly beans and I won 22. The highest praise a bean can receive (another old family saying) is "That's a good quality bean" and these were good quality beans. The flavours were, shall we say, robust, with licorice leading the way in the "I can smell that from here!" category of scent. We both agreed that we never could (and still can't) figure out exactly what flavour 'pink' is supposed to be. Anyone?
In five days of driving we saw the landscape change from lush valley to verdant riverside to dry hills to high grassland to mountain vistas to humid rainforest, and back again. And we only went a third of the way up the province.
In five days of driving we talked about the concurrent hockey draft, our various strategies for picking horses, Dad's golf game, my theory of the difference between being smart, clever, intelligent, intellectual and wise. We recounted familiar family histories and filled in the gaps on other ones. I learned more about how he got the name "the Bing Crosby of Maple Ridge" (he won a singing contest with 'Galway Bay', and bought a record player with the winnings), how he has dealt with various situations, both happy and sad, in his life. I learned about the names, stats. and histories (where from, where gone) of sportsmen and 'women in hockey, baseball, football, basketball, soccer, track and field, boxing, tennis, etc. etc. who participated in the 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s. I did not learn how he can remember all that. I hope he learned something about me.
In five days of driving we didn't have any grand visions on the meaning of life, nor make any earthshattering revelations to each other that would change our relationship. We shared our thoughts and opinions as we have always done, we listened to each other and agreed or not as we have always done, we repeated ourselves and laughed at our own foibles as we have always done and we talked about all the other members of our family with love and candour as we have always done. Without saying it explicitly we both felt lucky to be able to do such a trip together, to be alive, healthy and stress-free (although never worry-free - that's a birthright in my family!). We are grateful for the people who love us and whom we love, for the years of sharing time together in the past and the prospect that there will be many more years of the same in front of us. My father is a man of principles and talent - his daughter is a woman of ideas and capacity - together we are a force.
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