21 Days Before Departure

The Mission:

Leave our life, leave our family, leave our friends, and leave our hometown. Drive, camp, hike, play, discover, stargaze, daydream, enjoy. Arrive to no job, no home, a few friends, some family, new opportunities, new experiences, a new hometown.

The Particulars:

Beginning: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Ending: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Distance: 3,364.42 Km, as the crow flies

When: June 23, 2012 until…….. we arrive

Who: Benjamin J. McNamee, Haifa M. Staiti, Zaid B. McNamee, Owen M. McNamee

Home: In the day a 2011 Honda Civic. At night a tent

Our trusty home on the road.

What to Expect:

Over the three weeks before we leave, and the 6 or so weeks we plan to spend on the road this will be the place where we share our stories, our experiences, and our discoveries. Both Haifa and I will be providing updates and so many of the stories may be repeated, each in our own voices and providing our own perspectives. I expect that her introduction to our voyage will be posted shortly.

Why We Are Doing This:

As I write this I am beginning to understand just how crazy this life change is. Leaving home with our 2 year old and 3 month old children and spend 6 weeks visiting Canada and the USA on the way to a new home. As of this writing, we have yet to find either a home or work in Toronto, although we do have some glimmers of prospects in both departments. As an over thinker and someone who finds comfort in having a plan and following the rational path the craziness of this move is terrifying. But, along with the terror comes so much peace. For the first time in my life I am not taking the easy route, I am not choosing the simple; I am choosing the scary, the risky, and the exciting. For the first time in my life I am living the life that I want to live.

When I chose to begin a PhD in economics I did it for the wrong reasons, and just recently had the courage to admit this to myself. I began a PhD for two reasons: to boast and because it was the easier and simpler route than when compared to leaving the ivory tower and entering the real world. After, not unsurprisingly, finding myself unsatisfied with my life as an academic, and after witnessing the birth of my eldest Son, I finally found the courage to not only gain personal insight but to also act on them. This voyage, this journey of discovery, is an extension of this courage to follow the right path for me and my family, regardless of the ease of the journey.

This will not be an easy goodbye. We all love the city of Vancouver and consider it a beautiful and wonderful place to live. We will be very sad to see it go. Vancouver is the place where I was born; it is the place where both of my sons were born; it is the place that I met and married Haifa; it is the place where she became a Canadian; it will be forever one of our hometowns.

More than Vancouver, it will be very difficult to say goodbye to my family. Every Sunday we have dinner at my parents’ house. When we arrive Zaid runs in, without saying hello or taking his coat and shoes off, and makes a bee-line to the bucket of cars and trucks waiting for him to play with under the coffee table. His “Unc’s” come running down the stairs and he greets them with an excited smile and a “Hi Unc.” He provides the same greeting to his Granny and Dud-Dud, albeit with a very carefully thought out explanation of the exact vehicle he happens to be holding. Dad spends much of the time in the Kitchen, cooking something wonderful from Bon Appetit, Mark Bittman, or his own head. As my brother Sox works on his homework at his desk, Mum, Haifa and I sit in the living room, chatting about dance, work, Zaid, life over beer, wine, and crudités. Shortly before dinner, my sister, Zaid’s Auntie Rachel, will come home from a long day of dance, exhausted but always with a smile for her nephew. We all sit down for a wonderful meal, usually followed by Oranges and cookies, or a freshly made Rhubarb Crisp with whipped cream. These evenings aren't only full of laughter and smiles, the usual petty arguments and idiosyncrasies of family will make many appearances. But I will still miss this evenings dearly. The thought of moving my children away from their grandparents fills me with sadness and is the one result of this move that I will regret having brought about.

History and the Outline of the trip:

My parents moved their family out to Toronto when I was 4 and back again when I was 8 or 9. We spent all summer driving across Canada in an early 1980’s model Volkswagen Rabbit, that didn't fit the five of us. We camped, we toured, we saw and discovered Canada. The only memory of these trips that I have is riding in a speedboat on Lake Winnipeg (or Lake Manitoba) on the way back to Vancouver. However, hearing the stories from my parents, and looking at the picture albums of the trip I know that this was a wonderful experience. One photo in particular has stuck in my mind all these years. It is a picture of my Auntie Gillian stomping all over her freshly made sandcastle on a beach in the Okanagan, a huge smile on her face. I cannot wait to share a similar experience with my children and wife and to rediscover this country again.

With two young children we are deliberately not planning a whole lot of the trip. That being said, we do have a general route mapped out and a list of “musts.” We have booked the traditional McNamee family campground of Haynes Point for the nights of June 24 and 25. We then have the following list of “Musts” in geographic order:

Rocky Mountains

Calgary

Dinosaur Provincial Park

Winnipeg

Oshkosh Airshow

Chicago – including a Cubs game at Wrigley

Henry Ford and Automotive Hall Of Fame

This gives a general trip overview as follows:

Vancouver-Osoyoos-Banff-Calgary-Winnipeg-Duluth-Chicago-Detroit-Toronto

If anyone has any advice on what to see or where to stay in or between any of these cities please leave us a note and let us know.

Well, this is my introduction. I do hope all of you enjoy this blog. To those reading from Vancouver, we will all miss you so very much. To those reading in Toronto: We are all very excited to see you in due time. To those reading elsewhere: We continue to miss you and look forward to the day when our paths cross again, may it come sooner rather than later.

The Lobster