In my last post, I was telling you about the recent major shift in our lives. After spending many years in British Columbia, a few weeks ago we made the jump into the Unknown and moved to Quebec, where I'm from originally.
As promised, here's the first part of my account of our (long!) journey across Canada.
Getting Ready
As I was mentioning before, we didn't have a great deal of time to prepare for this sudden turn of events. Thankfully, as we didn't have much stuff, it wasn't too difficult to go through it and decide what stayed and what came with.
When we first thought of going east, we of course wondered how the animals would fare on such a major adventure. Kylo had traveled with us on a couple of occasions and there were no problems with him. DaPuss, on the other hand, was an unknown element - to say the least - as she was pretty freaked out when we recently moved from the Kootenays to the Okanagan. In an attempt to make the journey somewhat smoother, we bought Puss a little harness. As it turned out, she quickly learned how to sneak out of it (don't ask me how she did it, little furry Houdini that she is!), but it still proved helpful in locating her sometimes. (Way easier to spot a fur ball with a long leash trailing behind. lol) The day before we left, we tried the new harness on, see how she'd do with it.
She barely noticed having it on! lol
In the past, when Don and I traveled, we ate only fruits which simplified things a LOT. However, this time around circumstances determined otherwise; the freezer was full of savory goodies which we brought on the trip. I did manage to have a D day so we could also have some sweet snacks for the road: Heathy's Super Granola Bars from her Just Desserts ebook as well as her Chocolate Chip Granola Bars and the Sweet Seed Crackers published in one of the early issues of Purely Delicious magazine. The morning before heading off, I also whipped up a batch of my House Dressing, Ranch Dressing and Oh My This Is A Tuna!, as well as a raw soup for that evening.
Raw On The Road - General Notes~ As I was just saying, we had lots of goodies in the freezer which turned out to be a blessing. We packed our cooler with various crackers (Onion Bread, Just Like Ritz and the Raw Cheeze Itz), Matthew Kenney's basil coconut wraps, a batch of plain fermented cheeze, Rawvolution's Burgers, and Kristen Suzanne's Gourmet Italian Quiche Tarts. Since they were still frozen, they also conveniently served as natural ice packs. ;-)
~ You'll notice that most of the time, we didn't have breakfast or lunch per se. Instead, we grazed throughout the morning and afternoon on lots of fruits, granola bars, seed crackers, and a trail mix that Don had prepared with various nuts, seeds and dried fruits.
~ We had kept the Vitamix handy and we did use it on a few occasions, plugging it in electrical outlets in public bathrooms or at campsites.~ Some condiments and food items we took along that proved helpful: sea salt, seasoning salt, wheat-free tamari, miso, pepper, dried tarragon, oregano and dill, cinnamon, nutritional yeast, apple cider vinegar, agave, honey and maple syrup, various teas (I harvested a bunch of herbs on the property that I dried in the sun before leaving), Krakus (a coffee substitute), fresh garlic, olive oil, hemp oil, almond butter, chia seeds, almonds, cashews and raisins.
~ I also brought some quinoa which I had pre-rinsed and dehydrated for convenience. We occasionally eat it cooked as we're not fans of sprouted quinoa, finding it has a bitter taste that we don't care for. According to Wikipedia, quinoa is technically a seed, not a grain, and "contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source." The fact that it's alkaline, ready in only 15 minutes of cooking and is light and easy to digest are other factors that make quinoa a relatively good and healthy choice for us when we feel like something warm and sustaining.
The Journey East -Day One
Amazingly, we managed to fit everything we wanted to take on top of and inside the car; mostly raw food equipment, clothes, my knitting stuff and a few boxes of raw specialty foods. Well, almost... We had to leave a few gallon jars that I used for kombucha tea and sprouting behind. No biggie.
As you know, cats are notorious for being psychic; as we were all ready to go, not surprisingly, Puss was nowhere to be found. She could probably feel that something big and challenging was afoot. This gave us the opportunity to take one last stroll along the lovely Shuswap River before hitting the road. Puss showed up when we returned and our journey began in earnest.
Due to our late start and our running some errands in Vernon, we didn't get very far that day. Poor Puss was so traumatized during the car ride that she'd get into panting fits. We spent our first night at what we've nicknamed 'the campground from Hell', just outside Revelstoke. We paid $30 for a basic spot with no services, and soon found out that train tracks were virtually next to the site. (EEK!)
Our original intention was to unload the car every evening and sleep in the back of the minivan, but that turned out to be way too labor intensive. We had a tent as well, so it seemed much more convenient to sleep in it. Between the sound of trains passing almost every 30 minutes and the highway traffic, needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night.
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Raw on the Road - Day 1
Dinner: Cream of Zucchini Soup that I'd made that morning, salad with my House Dressing, asparagus, and Tuna Salad on crackers.
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The Journey East -Day Two
We got up early the next morning and headed towards Alberta, where we had arranged to get together with Don's sister, Sandy and her family. Sandy and Bruce sold their house in Calgary last year, partly on Don's recommendation in light of the ongoing financial crisis. Instead of reinvesting in real estate, they decided to go nomad and purchase an RV. They spent 6 months traveling around the States over the fall and winter, then came back to Alberta in the spring. We were looking forward to connecting with them before leaving Western Canada.
After some initial complaining and panting, Puss eventually calmed down a bit. She left her hidden spot in the back of the car to get closer to Kylo. It seemed to give her some comfort to be next to her big buddy. She was still very much in shock by our new routine, though, and as you can see, was pretty out of it.
We were blessed with gorgeous weather when driving through the Rockies (and for most of the whole trip actually) so we could enjoy their beauty one last time before saying goodbye to BC.
Throughout the journey, we encountered lots of wildlife along the way: a fox, swans flying in V formation, a goose, 2 turtles (right on the road as we were having our walk one evening), deer, and oh yes, a pair of wolves in a field in the Prairies. As we were driving that day, Don noticed a coyote strangely on the side of the road, so he immediately slowed down and pulled over. Amazingly, the coyote didn't run away, but instead came a little closer (perhaps two or three feet away!) We must have stayed there for at least five minutes, staring at each other through the window. It was a truly magical moment!
Sandy had found us a campsite at the Ghost Lake Recreational Area, near Cochrane where their own RV is parked for the summer. Being a weekday, we had the place virtually to ourselves and the caretaker gave us the best spot in the whole campground! What a radical difference from the previous day's nightmare! We arrived at our 'Hilton of the woods' soon after lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon setting up. To our great surprise, Puss seemed so relaxed (no doubt due to the fact we were the only campers in sight!) that we decided to let her wander at will.
Mmmm... Nothing better than a nice juicy slice of watermelon on a hot summer day!
Sandy and Bruce joined us later for dinner. As always, it's such a pleasure to spend time with them; they are both such beautiful and caring spirits. A couple of years ago, Sandy, her daughter Jaime and I had so much fun in the kitchen! I actually wrote a series of posts about it if you'd like to take a peak.
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Raw on the Road - Day 2
Dinner: Salad with my House Dressing, Heathy's Pasta Primavera tossed in Ranch Dressing and Cafe Gratitude's Almond Joy for dessert.
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The Journey East - Day Three
The next day, we had a bit of an 'open house' (or should I say 'open tent'? lol). Sandy arrived around 2pm with Diana Stoevelaar, the 'raw lady' behind the Calgary Raw Vegan Network. She and her partner Manu are spreading the good word about raw by organizing a number of events such as food prep classes, conferences, and monthly potlucks. Diana and I first met during my Calgary visit in January 2007 and instantly connected. We share a special bond that is difficult to explain rationally. Even though we've only met a few times, we feel completely at ease in each other's presence and have many little things in common. We've concluded that we must be soul sisters. ;-)
While Don was talking with Sandy, Bruce and Jaime (who has recently made a surprise return from a 2 year trip to New-Zealand, Nepal and India), Diana and I were busy exchanging raw tips at the picnic table. Diana was thrilled to sample the many raw goodies I had brought. For my part, I got to try two of her divine green smoothies. Mmmmmm... Seriously yummy stuff! She also spoiled me with cute little cookie cutters in sun, flower and butterfly shapes (yay!) and a bag of her delicious and crisp Rainbow Flax Crackers.
The afternoon flew right by and it was soon time to start working on the evening meal. Bruce had brought along their 'house on wheels', as it looked like rain was in the air, so I took over their little kitchen. We ended up being 7 for dinner, but even though I hadn't planned a menu, the meal came together smoothly and effortlessly. I also whipped up a batch of almond milk to be used for dessert that night and for making chia pudding.
*~*~*Raw on the Road - Day 3
Dinner: I made two different soups: a Tomato and Herbs and my new Zucchini and Lovage Soup. The main course was Rawvolution's Burgers which I'd broken up in little pieces, served on Onion Bread with a dollop of Ranch Dressing, along with a mixed green salad.
I still had a couple of containers of young coconut in the freezer when we left, so I made Heathy's yummy Butterscotch Shake for dessert.
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Sandy's son, Evan, and her grandson, Bodhi, dropped by to see us for a few hours and stayed for dinner. This little guy wolfed down his raw soups in no time!
As you may remember, Jaime is really artistic and has a great eye for photography. When she came to visit Don and I in Winlaw a couple of years ago, she took several food pics for my first ebook and did a little photo shoot of us. (That's where that pic in the sidebar came from!) Naturally, she's the one who shot the photos that day, including the following of 'the Boyz'.
Kylo, who took the whole traveling thing in stride.
He's such a great wolfie!
He's such a great wolfie!
Don, the man behind the wheel
Jaime graciously accepted to do a few food photos for GLiving who would like to feature some of my recipes. I was so excited when I received them a couple of days ago; they look so professional and appetizing! Woot Woot! THANKS Jaime!
OK, I think I better stop here for now.
Back soon with more of our rawdventures... ;-)
