Our style of traveling is hard to put into words. It is equally divided between planning, spontaneous “stumbling upon”, argument and the grace of strangers.
We drive until we reach the eeck moment. One hour or half hour or 15 minutes before dark. We are usually somewhere around our approximately planned destination, but not always. Arguments typically erupt as we decipher whatever presents itself and the advice and directions from the cast of characters we meet at that moment. Steve asks people, I consult the map and together we stumble upon the perfect spot. Seriously. I can’t recommend it. But I can tell you it works.
Thus, we have stayed at two roadside parks in Wisconsin and Ontario (neither of which were on any map-so we found them through George Porten’s Son, our own GPS). How w
e ended up at the Pettawa Canadian Airforce Base is harder to fully explain but it had a lot of eeck and seemed crazy and wrong as we found ourselves in the middle of the big base, complete with uniformed soldiers and military housing, following a little sign labeled Back Bear Campground (the name itself was slightly frightening). But when we got lost and Steve asked the first stranger we found, he said “I will show you” and he led us straight to a lovely campground, run by the base. There we had electricity and showers and all at no cost. The next morning, it was breakfast at half price at the Base, and then shopping in the PX.
We got to Quebec City after a great afternoon in Ottawa and found our way into the city with this same process. No surprise w
hen after some serious eeck in city traffic, we stopped and asked and found someone with perfect English and a wealth of knowledge. We decided to spend the money we could spend on a hotel on dinner at the restaurant he recommended and a bottle of wine instead. By the time we were done, sleeping in the van in a city parking lot was just fine. Quebec City the next morning was rainy but warm. Jack especially loved the Hills of Abraham, a biblical sounding name for an amazing park with a lot of history. We left late in the day, and arrived after all of our “eeck and ahh” process, which included gathering directions from the local police, at a wonderful hostel in Rivière-du-Loup, on the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec. 
The hostel life, if anyone wants to know, is one of the most sublime experiences I have ever known. Cooking together, eating together, talking with travelers, sleeping together…well, ahem—it is cheaper in the dorms. So, yup—that is part of the experience and though a light sleeper, I cannot explain how it somehow comforts me and I sleep for the better despite the sounds of others.
Today, warmed by conversation and fellowship, electrical devices charged, and posts sent off, we will likely camp somewhere in Nova Scotia. Next to try: couch surfing.
I want to travel with you!!!! The freedom to play and explore....we're bringing this video game designer to the Oregon Arts Summit in a couple weeks who claims that what is being learned by game designers, about play and about learning and about creating virtual environments....is changing human beings in some deep and radical way. We're - according to Colleen Macklin - figuring out more about the nature of imagination and reality. I think of you and Steve's adventures in traveling as being a "game" that you are playing, discovering or making up the rules as you go along...Colleen would save (I think) that travel is an "iterative process of exploration"...in short....you are playing a game!
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed, we need play. For some of us it's physical, for others, more about mental wandering or being delighted in new ways. But I think it's basically about non-directed, unplanned outcomes. Surprises, ideas that lead you to other ideas, and new ways of seeing.
ReplyDeleteListening to or watching other people's stories is almost like this, but not as active and rewarding. Travel is a way to live it -- if you stay open and unafraid.
I haven't traveled in the really unplanned way you are in a LONG time. It sounds so risky now that I can just check ahead on tripadvisor and see if enough people like the beds at some hotel before I commit! But think of all the quirky coolness that's missed because of all of that shared and supposedly valuable online info. Mmmm, but then again, think of how many comfy new mattresses and good sheets have been invested in by little B&Bs that wanted better ratings!
Travel expands your mind. But art and play do, too. Connect the dots... one good and interesting person/place/idea/sketch leads to another.