The long road - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

They said it couldn’t be done. And yet, here we are. I have returned from a cross-country excursion that saw the Loughlin family travel more than 7,500 kilometres in an SUV together from the shores of Lake Huron to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Halifax (our most easterly destination) and visit all places in between.

 

We bought the kids (three and six years old, respectively) tablets and headphones, so they did a lot of the heavy lifting, but still. There were days that included 11 hours in the car, complete with roadside diaper changes, stops for food and bathroom breaks in all the corners of this country and a reality check on just how functional we are when it comes to speaking French (not so much). But... we did it.

 

Things were fine here in my absence, of course, and things were fine out east as well. We booked clean hotels with nice pools (an absolute necessity for the kids - I feel like I still smell like chlorine) and the kids were excellent along the way. Not only were they perfect in the car as we drove from place to place, but they were great in the hotel rooms, even with the unusual sleeping arrangements in an effort to fit us all in. Every day and night was an adventure and the kids were game for it all, whether it was eating at a restaurant or getting a pizza and eating it on our beds. 

 

Our diets suffered, sure, and we threw any and all limits on screen time out the window just to get through any given day, but in doing so, we achieved what we wanted to achieve: getting to the Maritimes and back intact.

 

And while it took a lot longer than it would have if we would have flown, there is a grassroots element to travelling in a car that is similar to canoeing on a river, where you feel like you’re part of the landscape. We saw so many interesting things and beautiful, tucked-away corners of Canada as we drove that we would have never seen from the air. For example, when Quebec meets New Brunswick around the northern tip of Maine, the beautiful blue lakes and rolling hills of the landscape are about as amazing as anything you’ll see in Canada. It was rugged, like the coasts of Newfoundland or Ireland, but amazing. More than a few times, Jess and I would find ourselves reflecting on just how beautiful of a country we’re lucky enough to call home.

 

Then, the highway thinned out and the driving became easier (although a lot hillier and windier), the calm of the east coast kicked in, which was a welcome change from the busy highways of Ontario and Quebec. There were many bucolic scenes along the way and it was a joy to enjoy it alongside my family. The kids, specifically, would get so excited when we would enter a new province and my daughter would like to watch the GPS (perhaps one of the most boring things ever to watch for entertainment) when we were one hour away, watching it count down until we arrived at our destination.

 

We are truly blessed to live in such a beautiful country and one that is so friendly and welcoming. As we travelled, aside from some mild teasing in rural Quebec when we struggled to speak the language, we saw nothing but smiling faces who were willing to help and who were happy with where they were living. When you contrast that with some of the living situations around the world, from the far reaches of the Middle East to our neighbours to the south, Canada is a pretty swell place to live. 

 

Seeing so much of it in such an efficient amount of time, alongside the people I love most, was a true treat that I won’t soon forget.