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Sunday, 25 July 2004 – Edmonton. So, we are in Canada and the adventure has begun. Sort of. We consciously decided not to pack everything we needed. Like soap, detergent, razor blades, batteries, film, a cooler, food, etc. You may be saying to yourself, “What??” But, really, we have rhyme to our reason. We already packed so many bags and suitcases that we thought we were out of our minds… We always pride ourselves on not packing much – two overhead-bin-sized rolling bags for two people for two weeks sort of thing. But, there’s no getting around luggage when you’re staying for a month. So, we packed our camping gear (which was the biggest of the bags), and then it overflowed into the rolling bags, so our clothes (enough for 6-8 days?) overflowed into another small bag. Let me just say again, that’s *four* checked bags. Unheard of. And, when you go somewhere for a week, you can pack small bottles of shampoo – those trial size thingies – and other toiletries. But, when you’re going for a month, you have to have full-size versions. So, you can see that we had to go to the store when we got here. We went first to Costco. We had planned on doing this, so I looked up the Costco in Edmonton closest to where we were staying (there are 3 Costcos in Edmonton), and we had directions before we got here. We got some food and water (bag of apples, blocks of cheese, economy-sized boxes of crackers, more trail mix than you can shake a stick at). For those of you watching at home, this is not an Atkins approved trip. We got some film, two beach towels – because I’m going to swim in the Arctic Ocean – a couple of books, shampoo… We were looking for a cooler to put all this mess in (the food, not the shampoo), and the Costco folks told us to go to Wal-Mart. Hmm… Ok, we weren’t planning that trip. But, we went there anyway. At Wal-mart, we got ramen noodles (a lot of them – for camping and nights where no restaurant is open or there is no restaurant where we are), sun-screen, razor blades, soap, detergent, some tea, Neosporin, Bug Spray, paper towels… I tried to talk Stuart into some Simpsons soda (yes, there’s Lisa Lemon Lime), but he declined. Shucks. So, now we’re just impulse buying, basically. With our car completely full of stuff, we are all set… right? But, the next morning, as we set off on our first drive to Dawson Creek, we just had to stop at Chapters (the Canadian version of Borders or Barnes and Noble), and get just a couple more books. Oh, and go to the attached Starbucks. A Latte for the road… |
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All materials © 2004 Lea Ann Mawler & Stuart Mawler
