Three adults, one seven-and-a-half-year-old, nine days, eight different hotels and a 4,000 km drive… what could go wrong?!

Actually, the trip from Chatham all the way out to western Manitoba could have been worse, despite getting off to a bit of a ragged start.

As Donald was working until 4 p.m. the day we were leaving, I booked our first hotel of the trip in Gaylord, Mich., but of course, thanks to a series of minor familial inconveniences which will go unremarked upon, we – including my sister Roseanne and her grandson Kamron – ended up leaving a bit later than anticipated.

It was almost 11 by the time we rolled into Gaylord, but were able to rally ourselves early the next morning for the longest drive of that portion of trip and even managed a quick stop in Mackinac before driving all the way to Grand Rapids, Minn., where we stayed at an old motel that had clearly been gentrified.

Once again, we arrived late, but found a spacious and cozy room, with an unexpected bonus – and a note that read: “Grand Rapids is a vibrant little city! Rest assured, we want you to have a great night’s sleep, so we are providing you with these complimentary earplugs …”

Thankfully, I was able to doze off to the sounds of a very happy and loud neighbour in another room and in our room, everybody else was already asleep by then.

The next morning we enjoyed freshly made crepes before hitting the road for Winnipeg – and our only........

© Sarnia Observer