In no particular order:
1.) I’ve learned that the past decade plus of being mostly alone has not prepared me well for a cross-country trip with my parents.
2.) Canada is big. I mean, really big. Folks from the US have no appreciation of just how big our neighbor to the North (or the West depending on location) really is. Let me tell you folks, it is big. I thought that where I grew up was big because we had to travel 45 minutes to go to a shopping mall. I have met more people in the last week that going to shop at a Wal-Mart means staying at a hotel overnight.
3.) Swimming pools with water slides are really big in the plains of Canada.
4.) I am not used to eating 3 meals a day. If I fit into my pants by the end of this trip I will be utterly amazed.
5.) Pizza with scotch is good!
6.) Mountain Dew in Canada is caffeine free. Sort of defeats the purpose in my opinion.
7.) Driving to Alaska is very cool. However, I wish that I could fly back….
8.) Hotel heating and cooling is inexplicably incomprehensible.
9.) I now know where I get my lack of patience.
10.) Wildlife is much bigger in the wild.
11.) I do get hit on more in areas of a higher guy/girl ratio like Alaska, the Yukon or Iowa State University.
12.) Sometimes yelling does work quite well, especially if you don’t do it very often.
13.) Scotch enjoyed with sour cream and chives Pringles is also pretty good!
14.) Just because a hotel comes with a breakfast and costs more than $150 a night in the middle or nowhere doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to hear the guy in the room next to you fart in his sleep.
15.) Driving in a train tunnel is nerve wreaking.
16.) The Alaska Marine Highway rocks!
17.) Wolverines are badasses. Don’t mess with a wolverine.
18.) It’s nice when you have one parent who is nearly deaf and another who really doesn’t care what kind of music you listen to when you are driving late at night and suddenly are overcome with a penchant for some industrial.
19.) South Dakota’s offical state motto should be, “South Dakota, not nearly as boring as North Dakota.” (I know, like I can speak, I’m from Iowa for God’s sake!)
Sarah Jane Humke 