MAY 30, 2019 - Huntsville to Home
By JOHN LILIES & LANA CARBON
[John] Here it is everyone... our final day of this big roadtrip. We will likely post more (related pieces) about the trip later on, but this specific article is about our final day of travel.
I have to say that waking up on this morning felt different. There was an aspect of relief, knowing our own bed was awaiting us at home but simultaneously there was a sense of dread, knowing the city wasn't far away and the time to explore was almost over when it hadn't felt long enough to begin with.
[Lana] Ordinarily, with a trip of this length, I would be excited about heading home. This was not one of those times. We had been having too much fun seeing all the different little towns and parts of what it was that made them different and special from each other. I just wasn’t ready for it to be over.
[John] I never like feeling sad at the end of a nice time – I always try to look forward but knowing how much we both really wanted this trip to continue and how unprepared we were to finish the adventure, made it so difficult to be pumped up for a day of driving.
We got ourselves up and ready relatively early, checked out and drove across the street to fill up Lucy with gas; our final tank-fill of the trip. When we arrived at the gas station, our distance tracking read 2,043.5 kilometres. Not too bad but it actually made me want to go another 2,000 kilometres. I have, many times, thought about driving as far north in Ontario as the road will take us and while we were in Cochrane we weren't as far away from that ability. I was tempted to turn back and head north again. I was so tempted that I had to actually tell myself to just stick with the plan.
[Lana] At this point, I was ready to go just about anywhere that the road took us.
[John] And, I knew that. I knew how Lana was feeling and I knew that if I mentioned wanting to turn back north, he would have been on board. I tried to stay quiet. I tried to not mention how I was feeling because I didn’t want to have to be the one to deny us the extra adventure. I had to return to work in a few more days – vacation time was over but, I did say it. I told Lana I wanted to head north again. I told him my urge was so strong to keep exploring. I told him, and I had to be the one to deny us the extra adventure.
So, we moved on. We checked out the One Stop General Store and Gift Shop before leaving town. We picked up our obligatory post card and after not really finding much else interesting, we hit the road for home.
[Lana] Do you mean to say that you didn’t find hats made out of skunk hide interesting?!?
[John] Interesting for some people, I’m sure. For me? Well, I think if I were to have a skunk hat it would need to serve a purpose more functional than decorative. I’ll leave it at that. It was nice to see how proud the hat maker was of her creations, though. I’m always happy to see people feeling pride in their work. Though, I didn’t particularly want to touch those hats.
[Lana] I’m just glad I wasn’t around for the gathering of supplies… P.U.!
[John] Ugh. Could you imagine?
[Lana] Objet de Roadkill!
[John] Not too long later, as we arrived in Gravenhurst, we needed coffee so we stopped at Oliver's Coffee and even bought ourselves a coffee house mug. This is the sort of coffee shop we love, where the servers know the local regulars well and where community groups meet up.
[Lana] Nothing beats a local coffee joint that actually serves tasty coffee and all the locals know it. Small town folks can be so incredibly friendly.
[John] We didn't sit inside, as we knew we didn't want to hit traffic when we reached the city, so we pushed on towards home.
Approaching city limits, we stopped in Sutton at the Southpaw Trading Post but didn't find much of interest. We’d been at this shop before, but on this day it felt like the place had changed and was more of a boutique than the shop we remembered.
A few short minutes south of there, in Baldwin, we saw a little antiques shop and decided to pull in.
[Lana] If you ever happen to be in the area and want to stop in at this shop, you are going to have to keep a careful eye out. The shop just looks like an old-fashioned house. They don’t have a big sign advertising themselves - I just happened to catch a small sandwich board with “antiques" painted on it. It would be a shame to miss it as it is certainly worth the stop.
[John] We actually did turn around to come back to it as Lana caught it so quickly as we drove by. So yes, pay close attention when going by that area. Walking into the Cobblestone Country Shop, we were so happy we had stopped. This shop is packed full and we ended up buying a couple of small treasures here - not antiques, mind you, but little pieces that spoke to us - then drove another few short minutes to Antiques on 48. It’s funny how we love to check out antique shops and yet we don’t purchase antiques and really have neither the budget nor the physical space for new items – we just so enjoy exploring the shops and looking at all of the treasures.
We've talked about Antiques on 48 before - this has become a standard stop for us when on this particular road and though we didn't buy anything, it was a really nice stop as always.
[John] From there, we went straight home without further stops. As we reached the city, the stress immediately crept in and I could feel my shoulders reaching up for my ears. It felt as though we had crossed a barrier that existed between calm and normal life; making me realize changes are needed so calm could be normal life. Driving stress was noticeable and our leisurely ride became a sprint to home so we could chill.
Walking into our familiar space, we quickly realized we were not ready to be home. We weren't done our trip yet and didn't want to be home. So, after freshening up we went back out and hit the mall to buy those Raptors treats we had promised to send up to Thunder Bay.
[Lana] It wasn’t exactly what we wanted, being in a mall, but at least we weren’t home yet. Sometimes you have to take joy in the little things. Plus, we were looking at hats… I loves me a cool hat.
[John] There is no way that anyone in the world would believe that you love hats. No way at all. You’ve never uttered one expression of love towards any hat. Ever. I mean, really… we’re supposed to believe that you love hats?
[Lana] I’m pretty sure the proof is in the pudding… and I’m not even eating any pudding. Which is a good thing because then I would have eaten the proof. Hey… is that where the expression “I’ll eat my hat,” comes from? Just throw it in a little pudding and chow down?
[John] This could go on for a while… welcome to my life, friends. I do hope you enjoy it and choose to stay with us for a long time – pudding hats or not. *smh*
Walking through the mall, while not skipping through the aisles, we were certainly happy we hadn't yet settled in at home. We needed this last moment before officially returning to reality. Clearly, I need to jump on board with Lana's desire to live like Bruce Banner.
[John] After purchasing what we needed for our Thunder Bay family, we returned home and re-established ourselves within our quarters for a quiet night, and then spent the next couple of days getting re-organized before a full return to regularly scheduled programming.
2,299.7km return trip.
And return, we do plan to accomplish.
This was such a wonderful experience and we want to do it again - but next time with a camper, fishing rods, and some extra weeks tacked on.
[Lana] I’m ready… are you?
[John] Thank you, everyone, for joining us on this journey. It’s taken a year for us to finish telling you about it and we have some more little pieces to share about it, but we love that you’ve stayed with us through each part.
More [mis]adventures to come, so stay tuned!
Let us know what you’ve been up to… what have your COVID-19 adventures looked like? What sort of virtual and distanced experiences have you taken in? Let us know!
Thanks again, friends. Until next time, be well…
