It was 2005 I think. My then brother in law was getting married in Prince Rupert, BC. Way up north and on the west coast. I mean we live way up north too but you can’t just head west from here and drive straight across the three provinces, there are no roads going that direction. You have to drive south to get west.
The quickest route is 2756 kilometres. But we took the long way. I had just two kids at the time, two and four years old and my husband and I loaded them up in the minivan and off we went.
I had been researching our route for weeks. Which highway to take, where to stop, where to overnight and had it all mapped out.
We decided no fast food on this trip. Not one single McDonald’s stop or anything even similar. So we bought a cooler that plugged into the cigarette lighter and it would keep stuff cool without having to worry about ice. We loaded it up with sandwich meat, cheese, bread, fruit etc.
So all the way through Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC, whenever our stomachs were growling I’d reach in there and slap a sandwich together or sometimes we’d pull over in a small town at a playground or somewhere the kids could get out and run around. Supper meals we’d stop somewhere nice to eat.
The highlight of that trip for me was either Revelstoke or Salmon Arm, BC. Right in the Rocky Mountains. But we carried on west, right to Kamloops and then headed north to Prince George, then northwest til we ended up at the Pacific Ocean, in the rainy city of Prince Rupert.
This was the trip where we ended up doing an impromptu overnight even further north after the wedding, to Hyder, Alaska.
The drive home took about 4 days.
bloom.planted.north 
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