Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

As I was driving through rural Massachusetts in early 2005 while on a business trip, I started to think about my life. You know what I am talking about. When you find yourself all on your own and you have the time to let your thoughts wonder and you start taking a look at where you are and compare that to where you thought you would be. I think they call that “looking at the big picture”. It seems that it is something that most of us don’t do as often as we should. Anyway, while doing this I started thinking about how I had always thought it would be fun to jump in a motor home with my family and cruise around North America and show them all the amazing things that this continent has to offer. As this thought bubbled to the top of my consciousness, I began to wonder when, exactly, this might ever happen. I had not really put much thought into this idea for quite some time but, for some reason, this time around I felt compelled to do some rough calculations. I figured if I ever did decide to actually do this, I would have to do it while the kids were at an age where they would enjoy it. Or to put it more succinctly, I needed to do it at an age where the kids would actually agree to come along with me. In other words, if they were 16 and 18 years old, I would probably have missed my window of opportunity. I think it was at that very point that it started to sink in that the concept of a “window of opportunity” for this idea was a reality and that it was starting to close. It was no longer just something that I could do when I finally got around to it. I only had a certain amount of time in which to make up my mind. It was almost like my own personal biological clock. So I decided to work out how much time I had left to realize this dream. I figured that for this trip to work out well it would be best to do it before either of the kids hit their teens. Morgan and André-Paul were 9 and 11 years old respectively at this point. This meant that in 2007 A-P would be thirteen. So I decided that if I really wanted to do this in the fashion I had envisioned, 2006 would have to be the year. Then I started thinking about what I would have to take care of in order to make this happen. First and foremost, I would need a motor home. Second, I would need to decide how much time we should spend doing this, and hence, figure out how I might manage to get the required time off from work. I would also have to figure out how much this was all going to cost. Somewhere around this point in time I realized that if I really wanted to go on this trip I would have to make up my mind … right now! If I waited any longer I would not likely have the time to get all the logistics worked out and completed in time to meet my 2006 deadline. So, in retrospect, I have to admit that my drive through rural Massachusetts that day turned out to be a very expensive drive indeed.

You can just imagine how things went upon my return home. Here I am, all excited about this big adventure I had been planning in my head for the last couple of days on my own. I had been trying to work out how long we should go for, what places we should visit, where we might find the money to do this, and more. I was so pumped about this by the time I finally introduced the idea to Chantal, it ended up coming out something like this. “Hey, I have this great idea for a family trip! Why don’t we take a year off and just tour around Canada and the US! Wouldn’t it be great? I can show you guys all the cool places I have been to while traveling on business and so much more! We can visit our friends along the way! It’ll be fantastic!” As a word of warning, if you are thinking of doing a trip like this, do NOT introduce the idea to your family as if you have it all worked out. Take it from me, that method does not work so well. At the time I was shocked to find out that Chantal did not think this sounded like a fabulous idea at all. Her response, in a nutshell, sounded something like, “What about your job? What about school for the kids? Where are we going to find the money for this? Where do you plan to find a motor home? Who is going to take care of the house? What about the dog?” I think you get the idea. There were still a few minor details that I had not spent too much time focusing on just yet that needed to be smoothed out. During the ensuing months Chantal and I negotiated until I got her to agree to consider such a trip and she got me to pare it down to “only” a 6-month tour. Given this new shorter timeframe, I wanted to take advantage of the warmest part of the year to avoid that winter white stuff. So I suggested leaving in April and returning in October. However, Chantal wanted to let the kids could finish their school year first. So it got adjusted to be June to December and I just crossed my fingers and hoped we wouldn’t end up having to drive the motor home in the snow. As for the motor home, we started looking that summer of 2005. First, I started out by going to one of those “RV-for-Rent” web sites to get an idea of what it might cost to rent one for our trip. I typed in a June start date and a December end date and the price it kicked back at me was on the order of $40,000 !!! That was great news! One decision had been made! We definitely won’t be renting. So that meant that we would have to buy one. I knew nothing about motor homes other than the fact that I could not afford a new one. So that meant that I had to educate myself not only on what motor homes are all about but also what to look for, and to avoid, in a used motor home. It was definitely a learning experience and I must take a moment here to thank my friend Kammy who provided all sorts of valuable information to us along the way. I am sure things would not have worked out nearly as well as they did without her help. So in July 2005, while we were on vacation, camping in Prince Edward Island (PEI), we decided to take advantage of the fact that there were motor homes all around and simply ask the people who own them about what we should be looking for. We explained that we were hoping to get their feedback because we were thinking of buying one and didn’t know much about them. Strangely enough, the second one we looked at ended up being the one we ultimately bought, although we didn’t actually buy it until four months later. It turns out they were planning to sell their motor home and they also turned out to live only about a five hour drive from our place. After looking at many other motor homes in real life, and on the Internet, we still kept gravitating to that one we saw in PEI. So in October we called them up and they still had it for sale. After they let us try it out for a night we decided to buy it and came to terms. Up to that point there was still a possibility that the trip could get cancelled, but once the money changed hands, and we drove what turned out to become the JoRoMoHo back to our place, we knew there was no turning back.

As time progressed we were also able to find a home for our dog (Thank you Paul and Dominique), and someone to take care of my beloved Miata (Thank you Eric and Lenore), and also someone to take care of our pool (Thank you Mike and Cathy). Offering to let these people use the item they were taking care of worked well for the car and the pool, but perhaps not so much for the dog. (She looks so harmless in the photo, though, eh?) So let me extend an extra thanks to Paul and Dominique. If you look at the positive, however, I believe that Paul and Dominique were able to come to a clear conclusion on the subject of whether or not they want a dog. Turns out the answer is no. Good thing they were able to do a 6-month trial run first, eh?

In 2006, as our June launch date approached, my mother entered the hospital for an operation to remove a cancerous growth. Things did not go well and we were all shocked when my mother passed away on June 3rd. My mother was a person who loved adventure and she would have jumped at the chance to take a trip like we were planning to take. Although her passing delayed our departure, we knew Mom would have wanted us to go and enjoy ourselves to the fullest, so off we went on July 23rd. My mother was a voracious reader and I wish she could have had the chance to follow our travels via our blog. Perhaps she was.

When I look back on our extravaganza through Canada and the United States, it seems almost surreal. I am so glad we took this trip. We learned a lot about each other and ourselves as we gallivanted around the continent. And perhaps I feel most proud to have been able to give this gift of adventure to my children. As I try to recall some of the highlights of the last six months this is what comes to mind. We looked out over the world from the tops of mountains. We stood in awe while contemplating the seemingly endless expanses of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. We felt the exhilaration of whizzing through the air, hanging by a wire suspended high over the trees and rivers of British Columbia. We marveled at the sheer immensity of the prairies. We enveloped ourselves in the lush, greenery of old growth rain forests. We surveyed the majestic remains of ancient volcanoes. We watched the sparkling lights of the Seattle skyline by night on a ferry ride from Bainbridge Island. We were introduced to the gorgeous and peaceful splendor of a Louisiana swamp. We scurried around forests in camouflage with paintball guns trying to “take out” our adversaries. We hiked our way down into sulfur-filled bubbling and steaming mud pits. We stood in disbelief as we drank in the decadence and excess of Beverly Hills and Las Vegas. We had our eyes opened to the beauty, quirkiness, grace, speed, power and frailty of some of the most amazing animals on the planet. We rode and loved some of the most terrifying amusement park rides we could find. We were dazzled by the serendipity of life when we ran into our old friends on Vancouver Island. We shivered in awe at the amazing caverns in Carlsbad. We witnessed the thrill beaming from the faces of our kids as they drove go-carts for the first time. We splashed and laughed our way through some of the wettest water parks around. We were fortunate enough to be able to bike along trails through forests, routes through cities, paths along beautiful rivers and creeks, and even boardwalks by beaches and oceans, all of which were sprinkled along the way. We felt the incredible and humbling power of nature as we barely dodged tornados in the mid-west, survived our way through Rocky Mountain passes and weathered night-time hailstorms in New Mexico. We had the fortune of being able to visit with Chantal’s amazing 95-year-old great-aunt Alice. We frolicked in oceans and chased birds off beaches on all three coasts. We walked across the Golden Gate bridge at sunset, hundreds of feet above San Francisco bay, while overlooking Alcatraz and the city. We spent a sunny afternoon on a shrimp boat on Mississippi’s gulf coast, escorted by pelicans and dolphins. We felt the excitement of flight in an F-14 simulator in Pensacola and actually got a chance to taste real flight in a Cessna in Austin. We traveled through the birthplace of the American Civil Rights movement and were touched by the powerful stories of injustice and the inspirational actions taken to turn things around. We experienced the impressive and intimidating grandeur of cities like Chicago and San Francisco. We enjoyed the quaintness and warmth of small towns like Ucluelet and Depoe Bay. We were blown away by the immense beauty of Zion and Bryce in Utah, and Sedona and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. And we marveled at the universe from the top of Kitt Peak. But the best part of all of this had to be the fact that we were able to experience all of these incredible wonders and share them together as a family. We all had to sacrifice, to a certain extent, to do this and we all had to give up a few things to make this happen, but there is no question that it was worth it. And the added bonus was that we got a chance to rekindle many relationships along the way, with the many friends we don’t normally get to see very often.

Unfortunately our trip came to an end with very sad news. In a cruel twist of fate, Chantal’s mother passed away just a few days after we returned home. Fortunately Chantal had a chance to be with her mother during those final days. We had no idea that our trip would start and end with such sorrow. As I look back over the year it seems that 2006 has brought us many moments filled with joy and wonder while also giving us times of great grief and heartache.

With our fabuous adventure now behind us I couldn’t help but wonder if there would be any noticeable changes in the kids. Amazingly enough I have seen some differences already. My first indication of this was seeing them playing XBOX. They were playing one of their car racing games and they chose the Laguna Seca track. You see, they know exactly what it looks like because they were camping there in September! And then, during his first week back at school, André-Paul told me he was reading his geography book and he noticed a photo of Mount Revelstoke. He recognized it because he was there in July! And when they watch television they now proudly tell me when they see landmarks like the Golden Gate bridge or the John Hancock building in Chicago. For some reason that just gives me a good feeling inside. It is no surprise that everyone I talk to now asks me how the trip was. When I look back on it I realize that it was even better than I thought it would be. We saw some amazing sights. We lived some amazing experiences. And we were fortunate enough to enjoy the amazing hospitality and kindness of many good friends and relatives along the way. It was so nice to see where they live and get to know their families a little better. But perhaps my favorite moment of the trip took place on the very last day as we were driving the final leg of our journey to Ottawa. It was approaching midnight and Chantal and Morgan were snoozing. André-Paul had joined me up in the front seat and was telling me how he was happy that we had gone on this trip. He said that at the beginning he was not that keen on the idea and he just decided to make the best of it. But now, having lived the trip he realized how great it really was. Then he turned to me and said, “This trip changed my life.” What more could I ask for?

I do have one regret, however. The entire time we were off on this wonderful adventure I had strived to somehow utilize a few, particular words in my blog entries, but alas, I was unsuccessful. So, I thought that it might be fun to try to employ all of these selected words in the next few sentences in order to relive my frustration. So sit back, relax, and see if you can pick out my favorite unused terms.

During our entire trip I had been longing to defenestrate something, anything, just so I could use that word. But with all the states having laws against littering, it could have potentially turned into a bit of an imbroglio if I was caught doing so. However, if I was apprehended for such a thing, I would have done my best to equivocate about the circumstances in order to exculpate myself. Of course, if I wasn’t caught, I’m sure you would have seen a fanfaronade on the blog about this event. I suppose someone a little more erudite would not have needed to add this final paragraph as it really is just brummagem. However, anyone who knows me well will tell you that I can be somewhat pervicacious at times, which might help explain why this paragraph is here. In retrospect, as I read this over, I realize how recondite it is and how it makes me look so sesquipedalian!

Whew! I feel better now that I have gotten that out of my system. As a final parting thought, let me ask you for this one last favour. Please take a look at the final two definitions below and let me know if you can think of other words, like these two examples, that do such a good job of being able to be used to describe themselves. For instance, I find “Recondite” to be so recondite. And the word “Sesquipedalian” is, indeed, sesquipedalian. So please share with me any other words you know that fall into this self-descriptive category and take advantage of your last chance to leave a comment on the Aylmer Express MoHo Extravaganza!

Before I go I must take some time to thank John. None of this blogging would have been nearly as nice to read without the greatly appreciated help from my buddy John in Kansas City who not only pointed me in the right direction on how to build this blog, (complete with text, images and video) but actually pulled together a prototype for me and then went on to add the “Where is JoRoMoHo” site to track us through the US in realtime using a Sprint Phone that he loaned to us. A HUGE thank you to you, John.

And, of course, it has been a pleasure having all of you along as blog readers and I thank you for all your positive comments along the way. Until next time!


Today’s words:

defenestrate \dee-FEN-uh-strayt\, transitive verb:
To throw out of a window.

imbroglio \im-BROHL-yoh\, noun:
1. A complicated and embarrassing state of things.
2. A confused or complicated disagreement or misunderstanding.
3. An intricate, complicated plot, as of a drama or work of fiction.
4. A confused mass; a tangle.

equivocate \ih-KWIV-uh-kayt\, intransitive verb:
To be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or to avoid committing oneself to anything definite.

exculpate \EK-skuhl-payt; ek-SKUHL-payt\, transitive verb:
To clear from alleged fault or guilt; to prove to be guiltless; to relieve of blame; to acquit.

fanfaronade \fan-fair-uh-NAYD; -NOD\, noun:
1. Swaggering; empty boasting; blustering manner or behavior; ostentatious display.
2. Fanfare.

erudite \AIR-yuh-dyt; -uh-dyt\, adjective:
Characterized by extensive reading or knowledge; learned.

brummagem \BRUHM-uh-juhm\, adjective:
Cheap and showy, tawdry; also, spurious, counterfeit.

pervicacious \puhr-vih-KAY-shuhs\, adjective:
Refusing to change one's ideas, behavior, etc.; stubborn; obstinate.

recondite \REK-uhn-dyt\, adjective:
1. Difficult to understand; [1]abstruse.
2. Concerned with obscure subject matter.

sesquipedalian \ses-kwuh-puh-DAYL-yuhn\, adjective:
1. Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
2. Long and ponderous; having many syllables.