Rhythm of the Road and Manitoba Moonscape

Rhythms

It takes awhile to find a road rhythm. While we have given up normal rhythms, We try to maintain our morning time with coffee, conversation and meditation. Sometimes in our camp chairs, someties as we drive down the road. We begin each day with this routine and the rest of the day just happens. And somehow it happens just right. 

A few days ago as we continued down the 🍁 (trans Canadian highway) it was so open and uncluttered it felt like riding a train. Water, water everywhere! Surrounded by clouds and mist and sometimes sunshine that made every surface glimmer like jewels. I felt my breathing deepen and slow. Just 6 mornings into our trip we began experiencing a certain freedom. No big cities, no traffic, no hoardes of mosquitoes (some, of course) no schedule, no expectations. And cool weather!!

I love cozy clothes when camping. We were searching with great anticipation for a roadside stand. We are in a rich agricultural area and remember well the deliciousness. Late in the day we followed a small sign to find our hearts desire. A Hutterite community with horse-drawn wagons, smiling faces and fantastic vegetables. Now this is the kind of grocery shopping I can get into. It’s not easy to resist the temptation to buy more than we can eat in a few days. To trust that more will come our way as we travel. 

I am feeling so lightheaded. Just happy to look around. Canola fields stretching out for miles. Simple, simple beauty. 

The weather changes fast. We never know when we will have rain or sunshine. I love this challenge. I am super organized. And always have Plan B and Plan C in my pocket. But when I truly step forward into the unknown my planning might be helpful, but if, and only if I can let go of outcomes. The best example at this point in our trip is my careful packing…things sorted by category, frequency of use, etc. Well, in bear country the way I pack is not a good idea….since our kitchen is attached to our bedroom. So I am figuring out how to transfer all food to our car/trunk and move trunk items to the kitchen. I laugh a lot at my organized self. I just have to let go. I have to move things around…often…instead of letting them have their place. And perhaps most challenging, I have to go easy with myself when I can’t remember what I moved where and why!

I love this life!!! And this part of me that is flourishing in the beauty, chaos, missed turns, and misconceptions, and always the ever- present kindness of strangers. 

The kitchen…

And my enthusiastic kitchen helper

What you can’t see is the name on the green sign of the town we were driving thru…Sunshine 😜

And from Steve

Manitoba moonscape

Maybe it’s my second childhood, I don’t know. As we drove North in Manitoba through sparsely populated land, I thought I had landed on landscape as foreign as the moon. Nothing was familiar. The bright yellow canola fields and the lush green wheat fields that we drove through  and the mystical low-lying clouds that hugged the horizon sent me tripping in all of the lovely beauty of this planet earth. 

If this was a moonscape what would tonight’s  airbnb hosts look like. Surely some form of aliens. 

Almost true! She was an elf from Bogota Colombia and he was a huge farm boy from Alberta Canada. An unlikely match. He wrapped us up in his big smile and laughter while she confessed that she really was not too fond of the human species. 

I unwrapped myself from a fantasy of alien travel and asked them to tell us their story. She was a Reiki master, language teacher and Tarot card reader who traveled back-and-forth between Manitoba and the mountain areas of Columbia. He was an artisan, woodcarver and farm equipment sales person. They met when he took a Spanish lesson from her.

Their small village life was paradoxically both simple and complex. During the pandemic Manitoba closed its borders to casual travelers unless they could make the 9 Hour drive from one province to the next. And they were part of this fragile interconnected earth community. His farm equipment was designed in Germany made in France delivered to Hamilton Ontario. Their lettuce was grown in California, their blueberries came from  South America, their hot sauce from Mexico…..and 50 miles down the road was a potato factory that shipped out 300,000,000 pounds of frozen potato products every year. The 500 car train that buzzed their house 100 yards away carried gasoline and oil from Alberta oil fields to the eastern population areas. 

Canada they told me was a land of immigrants. Open to many nationalities and recently a landing place for Ukrainian refugees. Canada needs workers willing to brave the 6 months of winter with some 30 below weather. 

And in a part of the world that had few humans, I could see the world differently. Maybe I was the alien who had landed in a land of strange beauty in backcountry Canada.  I see a world that is fertile and abundant and feel the presence of the great Mother who nurtures us. 

Heading today into black bear country at riding mountain national park, a tiny Jewel of a park with lots of wildlife. Why did Debbie tell me, keep my fresh candy bar wrapper in my pocket??