Fifteen years ago this week, I packed up my life and moved 4061 km west.
My move from Toronto to Kelowna was fraught with uncertainty. There was just one thing I knew for sure. I wanted to live closer to nature and follow my dream.
I had two consulting clients who had committed to work with me. It was enough to get started, but I’d have to find more if my life and business were to become sustainable.
My real dream had nothing to do with consulting. It was to live closer to nature where I would have more time and opportunity for landscape photography. I loaded my trusty CR-V with my clothing, photography gear and my loyal mostly border collie mutt, Brandy.
All of my other belongings filed one meager slice in the tractor trailer I would soon be racing across the country. I pulled away from the quaint apartment that had been my home on June 22, 2005. By June 27, my brother Paul’s birthday, I was headed for the mountains. It had been stinking hot the three days it took to get out of Ontario and through the prairies. I lived from one Tim Horton’s Iced Cappuccino to the next, and I hate coffee!
There was little time for photography along the way. It was too hot to leave Brandy in the car and the movers had called to say they would be at my new place in Kelowna one day ahead of schedule. Each time I stopped for the night, I emptied the CR-V to avoid worrying about theft through the night.
There’s no photos of me or Brandy from this drive across Canada. Selfies weren’t a thing back then. Plus, Brandy would lose her marbles and melt to the ground whenever a camera pointed in her direction.
Like this.
It didn’t matter. I was only interested in one thing…
Getting into the mountains.
Want to read more stories like this? Here’s a link to a collection of Memoir & Stories.
