Leaving the Nest

Date: July 2003 - Dec 2003
Start: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
Car: 1993 Pontiac Grand Am - red
Strating Milage: 205500 Kms
Lead Roles: Joanne - the author
Jamie - the sister

We packed the car with everything we thought we could need to be gone from home for 6 months. Two person tent, sleeping bags, pillows, coolers, flashlights, toilet paper, road maps for all of the USA, a load of CD's, a few books, Lonely planet guide books, a duffle bag of clothes each. It was enough to fill the trunk and the whole backseat. Bought a cheap CD player from Wal-Mart for the car, and got it ready to go. The red beast was ready, packed up and waiting for us to rev it into gear. With that, we gave the parents a hug and said "see ya in 6 months". Drove to town to get some gas and then headed south. No real destination, no planned route. Just drove, looking for fun, a vague plan hoping for adventure. The general idea was to drive through the states. we didn't know to which ones and even once mentioned doing them all. We did know that the west coast would be first. We felt like we were in a different land just south of Medicine Hat, which is only 6 hrs south of home. Giant Windmills started appearing on the horizon, like some sort of alien experiment to harness earths resourses. Hills on an otherwise flat earth filled with rows upon rows of these giants. Frank Slide, a site of mush devestation. Some of the old town still exists. It is amazing to stand across the way from the mountain and see exactly how much of it was brought down in the slide.