My Road Trip to Canada & The Exorcist

On our homeschool adventure today, we dreamed aloud of the places that we would travel if we could:

Ireland and Scotland are our top two places to visit!

That somehow lead us talking about other places to travel, and Canada came into the conversation. Memories flooded of the summer after my 8th grade year when my daddy loaded us up and we took a road trip. Yep, from our tiny town of Maxton, NC, all the way to Canada.

When we FINALLY made it, we stayed a whole of three hours. Yes, this is a true story. I do write fiction, but this, my friends, is real. My daddy was frustrated when he discovered everyone around us was speaking French!

I can clearly see us walking around in an underground, shiny mall that I honestly thought looked like something from a sci-fi world. The clothes on the mannequins didn’t look like my yard sale finds. My daddy quickly realized we were out of place and we made our way back to the surface.

As we walked down the street back to the car, he gave me just a few minutes to run into a small used book store, as if it were planted on that very street just for me to walk into it. A few minutes later, out I walked with a gently used copy of The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty in hand. I think by this point my mom might have been so frazzled she didn’t even question my book choice.

That trip holds a lot of silly memories for me. Like accidentally cracking my mom’s nose while we slept. Hell’s Angels in the Motel 6. Stopping in New York only to eat at a Western Sizzler when there were so many wonderful, city foods to try! Salt and pepper shaker stops at each state to finish up my momma’s collection. And through all the memories, this one hit me today to tell my children about how I carried away a book I probably wouldn’t have been allowed to read at 12 otherwise. Thank you, Canada, and all of those 1980s French speaking people.

I love how I can pass these memories on to my children. Wonder what they will say about me to their children one day? Wonder if my grandchildren will walk into bookstores and Snap pictures of their grandmother’s book on the shelf, worn and crinkled with age? Wonder how many homeschool adventures they will take? What places they will travel to? I wonder …

Hugs,

Jen

Follow me and share the love:

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jenlowrywrites/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/jenlowrywrites

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/jenlowrywrites/

Website: www.jenlowrywrites.com

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/jen-lowry-writes

Sweet Potato & Co Etsy Shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/JenLowryWrites

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQiNlUBqsnL3vnpFL97EqQ