on the road again

The kitchen fridge buzzed. That’s what I remember of our one level, two bedroom apartment in ‘downtown’ Ucluelet. It had high ceilings and big plants and cold floors and a view out our bedroom window that looked out on Mount Ozzard and the harbour. In the morning I’d wake up to the sea lions hollering away. Who knows what those damn things were saying. Good morning maybe? I’ll never know.

I have and will always be a morning bird. I’d start my day walking down to Big Beach and walking the Wild Pacific Trail. The strong smell of the ocean was everywhere there. In my hair. In my clothes. It practically turned the water in my body as salty as the ocean by the time we left that place. I’d watch the waves come in and grow stronger each day, crashing upon mossy cliffs and chocolate-coloured rocks. The trees dripped in moss and the air was always so sticky and sweet and thick with humidity. It felt like another planet. It felt like a fairy tale.

Once my walk was over I’d take myself down to Zoe’s Bakery and get a croissant (or two) and stroll back up the hill to home and have breakfast. I spent my days like that for two and a half months. Rise. Walk. Croissant. Repeat. At the time, it was a dream. An oasis from the chaos of the world and the harms of the pandemic just outside our doorstep.

I worked online. I made connections. I volunteered. I got a job! And a dream one at that working for my first non-profit organization outside of university. Outside of work and volunteering, I watched movies. Walked the Wild Pacific Trail many times over. Sat by the beach. Surfed. Had beach fires and partied with friends. Boated in the Tofino Harbour. Ate lots. Played the Switch. Relaxed.

By the time our two and a half months was up in Ucluelet, I remember feeling ready to go. I was itching to get back on the road and out of Ukee’s gorgeous, but isolating landscape. I craved people and new connections. So mid March 2021, we packed everything we had back into Fifi and took off.

The next four weeks were a bit of a blur. We left Ucluelet with no real plan other than to eventually drive East for the summer, with again, no idea of what it is that we would do when we got there. All the while, I was still working online and picking up shitty wifi in parking lots or sitting on the side of logging roads with my weak LTE going trying to connect with my team. We moved around the island a lot during this time. From the Fairy Creek Blockade, to a quick stay with a friend in Victoria over Easter, to homestead life at a workaway on a gorgeous property outside of Duncan, to camping for two weeks straight north of Campbell River. Eventually, a plan formed, and within days we were off the island, and in Abbotsford at another workaway, waiting out winter conditions in the prairies to make the long drive back across the country in time to start a new chapter at a hostel outside of Algonquin Provincial Park.

The drive back was long, but eventful. We hiked in Waterton Lakes National Park, drove through an unexpected snowstorm on our way down to Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan, got lost on prairie back roads, almost ran out of gas more times than I would like to admit, basked in the warmth and sunshine of spring in Manitoba and Northern Ontario’s Lake Superior, listened to endless podcasts, and were welcomed back to Ontario by the most beautiful sunsets.

I was home again. And for the time being, I was happy.

All for now,

All my love,

Onward.

-m

(Written 10/28/2023)