don't it make you smile....

Dear Dad,

Here we are, three provinces, five states, seven beds and multiple iced coffees later, we are home! We made it, we did it, 4,500kms, didn't get lost once, didn't run out of gas or get stuck for a place to sleep. We survived the CSI motel with the red bathtub in Niagara Falls, Whitby, the strip-mall capital of Ontario and I survived the pain of having to leave beautiful Burlington, VT. We even survived the dog/house sitter.

We left Mum's house in the country and her two pooches with a trusty rusty sitter. We felt pretty good on day one heading down the highway knowing someone was holding down the fort, someone that was close enough to us to know the sensitive nature of our trip, someone in her mid-fifties. She arrived like Nanny McPhee with her straw hat and sewing box, her first aid kit in a Rubbermaid container and various other things to keep her occupied for a couple of weeks in the country, exercise bands, self-help books, a laptop computer. We left the house stocked with groceries and my car in case of emergency.

On night one we called to check in with "Nanny McPhee" and there was no answer. After 10:00pm, dark country roads and she was out. She finally called back long after I was in bed for the night, she had been out for a joy ride and missed the driveway upon her return. This put me in a tizzy but the further away we got the less I thought of home, hmmm, maybe you can run away from your troubles, leave them far behind.

We checked our email each night looking for an update from home, I think by Tuesday we may have gotten one. Finally at our rest stop at the Grandmother's we called. A week into our trip, the last leg being our scenic route to savour when suddenly the needle was lifted off the record. "Nanny McPhee" is heading to the airport in the morning (in my car) to pick up a guy she met on the internet, he's flying in from Saskatoon for the week!

After a lot of cursing and plotting and fretting, we decided to stick to our route, we weren't going to let this ruin our vacation. We went through all of the quaint towns you took us through, Winooski, Skowhegan, Saranac Lake. I suppose we would have stopped at the giant can of maple syrup if we didn't have thoughts of a serial killer in our house.

We arrived home late Wednesday night, 10:15ish and were relieved to find she and Mr. eHarmony had fled the scene in a rental car, we haven't heard from them since. The house was in order, the only evidence that anyone was here is her straw hat left on the lampshade.

As I write this, I have just spent the day mowing and am a little sun burnt and I smell like grass. So while a piece of my heart remains in Grand Bend, a piece of you remains in me. When I close my eyes I see you as a boy hunting golf balls at the Oakwood Resort and selling them back to the golfers, I see you as a young father taking us to the beach for the day and now I see you at peace.

Many lessons learned on this journey, for one, the pooches are coming with us on the next trip. They are small enough to sit in the cup holders, we'll just have to drink our iced coffees faster.

Love Poops

I miss you always...