“What is life but one grand adventure?”
Sure. Sounds right. But what does one pack for this grand adventure? That’s what I wanted to know. Here we are, a family of 5 who are going to visit the Eastern Provinces of Canada for the first time while pulling a 27 ft trailer for the first time and living together for three weeks in this rectangular, mobile, apartment for the first time. So many “first times” in one sentence.
So back to that question of what does one pack? I should also add here the somewhat important point that this trip isn’t just a family summer holiday. We have a very specific purpose. Our “grand adventure” is happening next summer - this summer is our “mini-grand adventure” during which we need to shake out all the kinks and bumps and bugs in our trailer. We need to determine how many days of food can actually be kept cold in the tiny fridge and freezer. We need to know how many clothes will fit in the small, overhead storage cupboards. We need to see if there are enough outlets to charge all of our devices and whether we have any space for toys larger than a shoebox. And those are the easy questions. We also need to figure out how to back this monster into narrow camp sites. We have no idea how we’ll fit into a regular road-side gas station or if we’ll ever get out if we do manage to get in. We’ve never had to run diagnostics on any of the mechanical parts of the trailer nor have we felt how it feels to drive in high winds or at highway speeds. Basically everything is a new experience for us and we have so many questions to answer.
Therefore, leaving home was difficult. Perhaps it was the fear of something going wrong. If it was just us adults, I suspect the fear would have been less but knowing that our three young kids will be with us seems to add a bit more heat to that fear factor. Or perhaps the apprehension was directed at this random list of things to bring that was generated with absolutely no experience or knowledge. How will I know what I need if I’ve never needed it before? It’s almost a guarantee that I’ll have missed packing something important. But Erik’s gentle reminder that we’ll likely drive past multiple Walmarts each day helped to quell any angst around packing all the right things. So that really only leaves one reason why it was so tough to leave home for this seemingly straight-forward three week trip: the fear that we would hate it.
I mentioned that our “grand adventure” happens next summer. This trip is meant to be a test to see how we do living together in a trailer, setting up and tearing down our wheeled apartment, cooking and eating in tight quarters, sharing cleaning duties, and spending lots of hours together in the truck. We’re committed to doing this for 12-18 months beginning next summer so what if we hate our 3 weeks together? What if everything goes poorly and we find it very difficult to adjust? What if we are consumed with negativity and get on each others’ nerves? Looking back at our preparations, I can honestly say that these questions were what plagued me the most. What will we do if this trip is a big failure?
Spoiler Alert - it wasn’t a failure. It was a fantastically perfect adventure. We learned exactly what we needed to learn and saw a very beautiful part of our country. We are so happy to have had the chance to visit The Maritimes and Newfoundland. We must go back again some day.
Early morning departure. Everyone was very cooperative in getting up and getting out the door before 7:30! We had a Tim’s breakfast before getting the trailer and rolling out.