Origin Stories: Road Tripping

Recently, someone asked me how I got into road tripping, and I didn’t have a simple answer. The story has so many tributaries, and has evolved a lot over the years. It would be hard to fully define, but there are a number of pivotal periods that laid the pathway. This story is deeply ingrained in my life in general, and is probably the most me part of me. It is amazing to see how God has worked in my life, and this story is inseparable from Him.

This is actually the third time in the past decade that I’ve attempted to write this. It’s never quite right, mostly because the story is still happening…it’s not complete. However, I think it has reached a point of pause that makes telling it now ideal.

Pre 2000: Foundations

My grandparents lived in Scarborough, so we regularly made the 2 hour drive there. It seemed like a very long drive, but I enjoyed watching the scenery go by and came to love the drive itself, even as a kid. Perhaps this was the beginning of my love of long days on the road?

I had a fascination with tents and camping from a young age, even though we didn’t go camping. I don’t know who’s idea it was, but sometime around 5-6 years old, I slept out in the back yard in a small tent with my Dad. As I grew a bit older, I led the charge and would camp in the back yard with some of my siblings. I distinctly remember looking through the camping section of the Canadian Tire catalog, dreaming of one day going on real camping trips of my own.

As a kid, I had a Playmobil ambulance…that I pretended was a camper van. I never thought anything of it, until more recently becoming interested in building a real overlanding vehicle.

We didn’t really travel much when I was young, aside from one trip to Alberta(by air) when I was 5. Generally speaking, we didn’t go far out of southern Ontario. This made it all the more powerful when we went to a cottage near Parry Sound when I was 12. The rocks and windswept pines of the Canadian Shield kept me glued to the window, full of wonder. I was hooked and looked forward with great anticipation to our yearly trips to the cottage.

There isn’t necessarily anything unique about these things, and I’m sure there were other aspects of my childhood that didn’t blossom into anything. So I probably can’t claim being born a road tripper, but it is interesting to see some of the things that stuck with me. I’m sure God was working either way.

2000-2004: Discovery

I really got into cycling as a teenager, partially as a means of exploration and partially for independence. At the age of 13 I was allowed to bike where ever I wanted, which led to exploring all the streets of my small town. There was a bunch of trails by the river that continued out of town and I regularly enjoyed mountain biking out in the bush. Eventually I wanted to bike to the next town over, which was 20km…I did, and completed other rides to a friend’s place in the country, eventually doing up to 60km in one day.

I went from camping in the back yard to camping in the bush at a friend’s farm. In 2004 we camped out by the river for a night. Also the same year, my church cadet group camped in the same bush. These were my first real experiences with tent camping and I enjoyed it immensely.

My family visited the same cottage each summer and I continued to find joy in exploring God’s creation. There was a large wild area across the road that was full of amazing things. There were 2 rock ridges that were high enough to see the lake from. On the other side of the ridges was a river that had been dammed by beavers. There were 3 dams that were quite impressive and together probably held back 5 feet high of water. Thinking back, it was crazy just how much there was to see in that relatively small area. Maybe even providential?

Back then we used paper maps for navigation, and I was always following along on the map as we drove to the cottage. I was intrigued by Algonquin: a massive green space on the map, with very few roads. I had heard it was a place of wilderness camping, and somehow came to believe that Algonquin must be the ultimate way to experience the Canadian Shield that I had fallen in love with. It became a dream to one day camp in Algonquin.

This was also when I got into photography…primarily as a means to capture and show others the wonders I was seeing. Photography has continued as a big motivation for my trips.

Looking back, these feel like some of the best parts of my teenage years. I had a hard time fitting in during this time and wonder if discovering a deep joy in exploring God’s creation came out of that.

2005-2008: Beginnings

Summer of 2005 was pivotal as I got my first car. Less than 2 weeks later, I got some friends together and went on a day trip to Bruce Peninsula. I had wanted to go to Algonquin, but my parents had to hold me back just a bit…citing lack of experience and encouraging me to start smaller. Looking back, I did have a way of wanting to dive all the way into things without much info or experience.

The following summer I drove the car to the cottage, which this year was only an hour away from Algonquin! I went on my first day trip to the park with my younger brother and it was magical. My family had started going to a different cottage each summer and I very much enjoyed driving around, exploring each area.

The end of summer 2006 my brother and I went on my first multi-day road trip, which was really just driving up to French River to do some exploring and then staying with some nearby-ish relatives before driving home. It was a complete failure, as we blew a brake line on arrival at French river…and spent the rest of the trip getting it fixed. I can’t say this daunted me in any way, and as usual the failed adventure makes an interesting story in hindsight.

Somewhere in here I began to enjoy driving the twisty roads around Dundas and I often went for late night drives to de-stress during my university years. I also discovered a calm spot by the Hamilton harbor where I would often go to sit and pray. In a way these are two big aspects of road tripping that I gravitate toward: the calm of driving and the peace of a quiet spot.

2007 was a big year. I managed to convince a group of friends to go camping in Algonquin! We were terribly unorganized and ran out of some food items part way through, necessitating a trip to Huntsville for supplies(and coffee). It was an amazing trip: hiking, canoeing, talking by the campfire, and stargazing.

I’ve been on some sort of multi-day trip every year since 2007. My group of friends did go on one more trip to Algonquin, but it was hard to get everyone together, so I shifted to bringing one of my younger brothers along. 2008 was the first year camping with just me and a brother, which meant I was the only adult and 100% in charge of planning and execution. It was also the furthest I had ever driven from home…600km.

Sometime during this period I started dreaming of driving across Canada to see the mountains in Banff and Jasper. I no longer remember what led to that desire: it was something people did? So, before I had even been out of Ontario, I was already dreaming of a much bigger trip.

2009-2012: Road Tripping

I graduated from university in 2009 and dove into road tripping. That summer I went on my first out of province trip to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. That was followed by some shorter trips, resulting in an out-of-province trip every year during this period. Nova Scotia, PEI and Quebec…along with some Ontario. Two of my younger brothers alternated going with me. At this point these were all reasonable 1-1.5 week trips to normal touristy places.

My cross country dreams continued to grow, and each summer I tried to make it happen. By now, I had somewhat randomly decided that it needed to be a 4 week trip. In 2009 I made my biggest push, as my boss was ok with the idea, but I needed to bring at least one other person with me, as I didn’t have enough money to cover the cost on my own. I tried to convince my parents to let me take my younger brother(16 years old) with me, but they didn’t think it was a good idea…with good reason. At that point in 2009 I hadn’t even left Ontario yet and the longest trip I had been on was 4 days. I was very disappointed, but managed to convince them to let my brother go with me on that first trip to Cape Breton. The Maritimes kept me busy for the next few years, but I was always scheming for a trip out west.

During this time, I also began discovering a love of backroads and the wild, authentic feel of getting off the beaten path. A housemate introduced me to some of the more epic backroads like the Dempster Highway. At the time I was also into sports cars and in 2011 got an Acura RSX…which was a lot of fun, but not ideal for rough backroads. Still, I had looked at initial plans to drive the Dempster some day.

There was a fair bit of turmoil in the background during these years. Having just graduated, I had got a software job, lost it, spent 2 months unemployed, worked in landscaping for 7 months, then got another software job that was less than ideal but better than landscaping. I struggled a lot with all this and my relationship with God was suffering. While it hadn’t yet connected with my road tripper story, cracks were beginning to form. My travelling still flourished during this tough time and became something of a foundation that I found joy and hope in.

2013: Once in a lifetime

I don’t remember the timing, but I again asked my boss about taking a 4 week trip, and in early 2013 it was given a green light! It was to be my longest and farthest trip ever. It was impossible to get one of my brothers to take that much time off, so it was to be my first solo trip.

The trip plan had grown over the years and along with Jasper and Banff, included driving the Cassiar Highway through northern BC and seeing a bit of Yukon. This included some backroads that would be hard on my little Acura. The winter before I had bought an old Jeep Cherokee as a winter vehicle. It was notoriously unreliable so I didn’t take it on my big trip, but I was certainly wishing for a more reliable rough-road-capable vehicle. The Acura survived the rough roads, but this is the beginning of a side story that continues later on.

The trip was everything I had imagined. Long term road tripping was amazing and after four weeks I wasn’t tired of it. The back roads had been especially awesome. Solo road tripping proved to be very enjoyable. I didn’t struggle with travelling alone…although I do find I’m more social with strangers when solo. Life on the road is simpler, and without the struggles of normal life, I found it easier to be close to God. Most of my travels from this point would continue to be solo.

Returning home, life was hard for various reasons. I had just moved to a new city, my job wasn’t turning out to be what I thought it should be, I was in debt(not because of the trip), and struggling spiritually. Most of these problems had existed before, but coming back from 4 weeks of heaven-on-earth, life seemed hopeless. It didn’t help that I had gone into the trip with the idea that this was a one time thing…not likely to ever happen again.

Yukon had especially been imprinted on my mind. I had driven up the Alaska highway and saw a bit of Kluane for a total of 4 nights. There was so much more to see and it felt completely different compared with the rest of Canada. But I had used my once-in-a-lifetime trip, and Yukon is a minimum of 5 days of long driving away from Ontario…even a 2 week trip would be spent mostly getting there and back.

In many ways, this trip was the most pivotal moment in my road tripping career…but probably for the wrong reasons. Life was hard, and my trips offered some kind of escape…especially the longer ones. Life on the road was simpler, easier, more enjoyable.

2014-2016: Waiting

At this point I feel like the various stories of my life converge. Winter of 2013-14 was a very low point. I was struggling with most aspects of life, giving into sin, and becoming bitter toward God. My big trip had been amazing, but led to a downwards spiral afterward…although I had been struggling before. It is interesting that the 2013 trip became one of several triggers that brought me to a rock bottom that God would use to draw me back to Him.

My church pastor came alongside and helped a lot, including having me live in their basement for 1.5 years to help get out of debt. I got involved in a program to work on some of my other issues, and as I grew closer to God, He worked and my job situation got a little better and overall life improved. I still had a long way to go and a lot to learn. In retrospect, the rest of the story is amazing, as God has blessed me with so much more than I could ever deserve.

I did still go on some trips during this time, mostly in Ontario, along with a bigger trip to Newfoundland…still in the Acura.

I was obsessed with the idea of returning to Yukon and was regularly working on trip plans, trying to figure out how to cram everything into the shortest time possible. There was a sense that if it was to happen, it had to be long enough to completely see everything…because it was so far away and I probably only had one shot at it. I tried to cram it into a 5-6 week plan, then a 2 month plan, and eventually the ideal plan was 3 months. Impossible…

I didn’t have an answer for the long trip time, but there was another piece of the puzzle. My old, unreliable Jeep had been hanging on by a thread the winter of 2013-14, and in fall of 2014 it was bad enough that it couldn’t be fixed anymore and went to the scrapyard. There was a short lived plan to buy another old Jeep…I was held back from that one in the name of continuing to get out of debt. As my finances leveled out, the idea of a Jeep remained, and I began to think about getting a nicer one as a full time vehicle that would then be reliable enough for road tripping. Due to how well Jeeps hold their value, that eventually became a desire for a brand new Jeep. The Jeep was an integral part of the Yukon plan: there were roads I wanted to travel that needed 4×4. Although this dream was perhaps more achievable than 3 months off, it was still unrealistic, as I wasn’t making much money at the time. Another impossible desire…

Given the way the rest of my life was going at the time, there’s a sense that these plans were largely motivated by trying to find satisfaction on my own in things that ultimately couldn’t last. Meanwhile I was slowly learning to find joy in God…and ultimately He had great things in store if I was willing to wait for His timing.

2016-2018: Red Jeeps

Near the end of 2016 I got my first brand new Jeep Wrangler! It was kind of an interesting story. I had been planning and talking about buying a Jeep, so when a big project came up at work, my boss said if it went well, they would help get me a Jeep. In the end it was just a pay raise that was big enough to cover the payments on a new Jeep…but considering raises that size were very rare at this company, it was amazing. It was as though God was involved. If it had been advertised as just a pay raise, there still could have been a question of whether it was the right time to buy a new vehicle, but the way it was put forth, I got a Jeep and only found out it was just a pay raise after it happened.

Then the unthinkable happened. The following summer, on my first big trip to Labrador with my 9 month old Jeep…I was in a head on collision, completely destroying the thing that I had been sort of idolizing for the previous 3 years. It was quite the adventure getting everything figured out and getting home from remote Labrador…a huge story of God’s care and provision in my life.

The aftermath was an exercise in patience and trust. Insurance took their time figuring out the claim, although they did pay out full price in the end. The wait wasn’t over though, as Jeep was in transition to a new model year, so I couldn’t order the same thing from the factory…and it was hard to find exactly the same thing on a dealer lot. I was being picky too…partially because my jeep was mostly a base model and too many extra options would be too expensive. Also, it simply had to be red. I think my salesman might have been getting a little frustrated, but eventually he did find me a great match!

Looking back on all this, I’m still blown away. God could have seen fit to let me learn more of a lesson by not letting things work out so well…but instead His grace abounded and I was right back with another brand new, red Jeep. His hand was involved in both the first Jeep and the replacement.  Honestly, I’m not sure why He allowed this all to work so well…aside from to show His love for me.

Why Red? First, for some reason(advertising?), in my mind the basic form of a Jeep is red…any other color would be missing something essential. I can’t really explain that one, it just is. Second, red is the complimentary color to green. As a landscape photographer, that means the red Jeep adds some perfect color balance to photos in my usual habitat.

In 2018 I started taking full advantage of the Jeep’s capabilities, exploring rougher remote roads, but that feels like a side story at this point.

2019: Farther

Step one: get a reliable Jeep. Check.

Step two: get three months off work. Check…wait, what?

Somehow, only 6 years after the impossible dream was born, it actually happened in full. Looking back now it seems almost absurd. Another thing that I’m sure God was involved in allowing.

So in 2019, I went on my 3 month road trip to Yukon(with side trips to NWT, BC and Alaska). It was absolutely amazing in every way and will remain my favorite trip for a long time, if not forever. Three months is a very long time and I became quite comfortable with life on the road, despite the occasional trials of camping in the far north.(like snow in August!)

This trip was another major pivot for various reasons.

Up to this point I had been tent camping on all my trips. That works well when there are campgrounds, but becomes less ideal in the wilderness. It also becomes annoying on long trips to constantly have to take down and put up a tent. In Yukon, pickup trucks with slide in campers were very popular, and I was quite jealous. This trip began a thought process toward building a camper vehicle of some sort.

It feels odd that I don’t have more to say here despite it being the most amazing thing I have ever done. In the context of this post, I’m not sure of the full effects and conclusion of Farther…in a way it’s a story that’s not over yet. Similar to 2013, I struggled with going back to normal life after 3 months on the road and went through a bit of a dark time. Yet, while on the trip itself, I felt so loved by God and now can look back on it as a pillar of God’s undeserved love in my life.

2020-2024: Changes | Next?

I started writing this post with a pretty good idea of how it would conclude, but that’s complicated because it’s a continuing story. A lot has changed in the past 4 years.

After 3 months in Yukon, coming back to normal life was devastating. That was partly because life had changed: my job was in the beginning of a downwards spiral and other spheres of my life weren’t the same as I had left them. The previous 5 years had been purpose driven by a strong desire to return to Yukon. With that dream completed, I didn’t have a plan for what came next. Was it all downhill from here? I quickly transitioned to plans of getting a truck camper and doing the ultimate road trip to South America. Was I again idolizing the good times on the road and looking for escape and ultimate satisfaction in something that couldn’t last? Probably…

Then covid came, put a bit of a pause on everything, and kicked off a bunch of changes. My software job continued on a downward trend, making me look for a new one. That led to getting a new job that was amazing in every way! I also moved into a new apartment, after renting a room for 6 years. All that to say, I came out of covid having been blessed with a day to day life that was so much improved from before! The way things came together and timing of switching jobs was clearly of God. He was working wonders and drawing me to Himself, even as I was sometimes more focused on other things.

This time of prosperity has allowed me to forge ahead in building my ultimate camper Jeep, including a 4 week trip across the USA to pick up a camper top. Looking back on this story, it’s crazy how things have changed. My first 4 week trip was seen as a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and now longer trips are becoming almost routine.

Meanwhile, as opportunities abound, I’ve felt much more content with life in general. My relationship with God has continued to slowly grow, and I’ve had some major victories over sin this past year. It’s complicated to say I’m learning contentment when God has made it really easy to be content, but there has been a definite shift.

All that to say, I’m not driven by the same desperation to escape on big trips as before. I still absolutely love long journeys and there will be more coming. I’m not sure what the next big trip is, and I’m ok with that. The idea of a South America trip is still in play, but it will happen or it won’t…and I’ll be ok either way. I am very much enjoying researching and building my camper jeep, and very much looking forward to using it too! Maybe a return to Yukon…? Over the years, I’ve always had a next big thing in mind, now I’m a little more open to whatever comes.

In my first attempt at writing this history(10 years ago), I wasn’t sure what the point was, and didn’t have a conclusion. I think the real point is that as much as it seems I’ve pushed over the years to make this story happen, God is the one driving the narrative. Holding back when needed, enlarging when ideas were too small, and using the things I’m most passionate about to draw me closer to Himself. 

So at this point I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m sure God has a plan for the continuation of the story…and His plan is better than anything we could imagine.