September 24th-27th

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It's funny, when you start to head home, the need to be there becomes consuming. I packed up and started driving. Instead of driving 6 hours and then camping again en route to Ottawa, I drove straight through, 13 hours. I got there to the warm welcome of Louise, and surprisingly my son and his dad. We had a lovely dinner out and I had a welcome sleep indoors.

Due to the need to reorganize and shop, I didn't leave Ottawa the next day until 2:30. I was able to drive to a camp ground I'd stayed in near the beginning of our trip, Samuel Champlain. I was driving back the way we had come, but now I was alone and I'd seen this landscape already. I was thinking that it would be a long hard and somewhat boring drive. I've been taught repeatedly on this trip that hiking back on the same path is equal to the hike out. Returning to a campground one knows, gives you a sense of security and warm memories from the first time. Driving back the opposite way gives you entirely new vistas that you missed the first time. Driving back in autumn versus early summer is a world of difference. New Brunswick and North Western Ontario are truly incredible when painted by Fall. I have always loved fall best in Saskatchewan: the light, the smell of leaves, the warmth of the sun cutting through the chill in the air. Autumn in the east is riotous. The rolling geography of forest covered hills forms this tapestry of colour that never gets boring. The vision that struck me the most was that every tree stood out to be admired, because the forests are totally mixed so each tree is outlined by the completely different colours of the trees surrounding it. This stunning beauty propelled me through Ontario at a whirling pace. I drove 9 hours the next day to arrive at another park I had been told by Jacob to stay at. Unfortunately, it was already closed for the season, so a couple of hours later I stayed at a motel at Jack Fish Lake, the centre of the lands where the group of seven painted (I was told by the motel owner). It tickled my sense of funny to stay in a town named like our Lake in SK. The next morning, I was up in good time and on the road with eerily rising morning fog and a golden sunrise sparkling at my back. I was mid way through the day when I realized I wasn't going to stop. It would be a 16 hour drive, but once I started I couldn't bear to set up a tent again. I wanted to be home.

Home did not disappoint me. I had swallowed a lot of comments during this trip when others dismissed travelling across the prairies. I knew that my defensive comments and descriptions would do no good. I was vindicated in my own mind when the autumn sun turned the fields to liquid gold, silhouetting the v's of geese in the sky. We really do have an incredible landscape of sky here. The clouds built up as the day progressed but left the horizon line free by evening. The sunset exploded between the land and the cloud turning the underside of the clouds rich oranges and then deepening purples. The colours lasted for hours as I kept driving towards the sunset. The sky faded to black and I made it through the last hour to find the haven of Fishing lake and Butch's arms, I was home. Good night and sweet dreams.

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