The comedian Jim Gaffigan’s wife once said “camping is a tradition in our family.” In response he said, “camping is a tradition in everyone’s family, until we invented the house.” (1) I think the same is true about travelling, that everyone’s family has travelled; it’s why we currently live where we live, in many cases very far from where our ancestors lived.

I have a lot of stories about how my family got to where they got to, whether to make a living in a new place or just for fun.

My great-aunt has told me many stories of my ancestors. (2) One of my favourite is the story of when my MacBean ancestors left Moose Factory for Winnipeg in 1893. They had to make a trip by canoe to Fort Albany to catch a train. The family went with two big canoes, one of which had the supplies. When they went over some rapids, the supply canoe over-turned and the supplies were lost. A few of the men went back with one of the canoes while the rest of the party remained. She was told that the kids were crying because they had no food, and had to wait for the second canoe to come back. Eventually it did and they were on their way. The next part of the trip was by train. She was told that there were stoves on the train to cook on, and the family was not used to the smells of garlic and other spices being used by the Eastern European families also travelling to Winnipeg. Although the timeframe isn’t right, I like to imagine my Hudson’s Bay ancestors were crossing paths with my Polish ancestors.

My great-grandparents liked to travel a lot. My great-grandfather had tricked out a van into an RV. I recently discovered the subreddits r/VanLife (3) and r/vandwellers (4) and he would have fit right in. He was ahead of his time! They made numerous trips across the country. My great-grandma’s sister lived in California so many of the trips they made were to visit her and her family. Often times they would bring their grandchildren with them.

They also were fortunate enough to travel by plane to England to visit my great-grandfather’s family there. My mother remembers seeing them off at the airport, as it was quite a big deal. During this trip my great-grandmother had to have her gall bladder out.

Even after my great-grandad died, my great-grandmother still travelled well into her nineties, including continuing to visit her sister in California and a few trips to Hawaii. She went snorkeling in her eighties, which I hope to be well enough to do at that age!

My grandparents also loved travelling. They did lots of road trips, eventually buying a motor home that they took all the way down to California to visit another aunt for her 80th birthday. They met a lot of interesting people on their trips -one story I remember my grandad telling me is when they met a family who brought their pony on vacation with them. Apparently the pony was a pet -it was even allowed in the house!

My parents continued the travelling tradition and I was fortunate as a child to see much of Canada. We drove with our trailer from Winnipeg to Victoria and from Winnipeg to Ottawa and saw many sights along the way. We had a great big van which was quite spacious, allowing the six of us to travel comfortably. One winter we had a big snowstorm that covered most of the van.

We parked the trailer for a few Summers at a campground, and in 1996 our trailer made its last cross-country trips, one to Alberta for a family reunion, and one to Montreal, where we had just moved. Not long after it was sold.

My parents still like to travel, from weekend drives to flights out of the country, and I’m trying to take my kids to all the places I saw when I was their age. When I was younger, I don’t think I ever appreciated how fortunate I was to be able to see so much of Canada, and now I get to show my kids just how beautiful it is.

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1) Jim Gaffigan, “Camping, waking up, and bacon,” YouTube (https://youtu.be/UahqgK60vuk: accessed 17 Sept 2021).

2) S.R., interview, “Conversations with S.R. et al.”, 2016-present, author’s files.

3) “VanLife,” Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/VanLife/ : accessed 17 Sept 2021).

4) “vandwellers,” Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/ : accessed 17 Sept 2021).

5) Bert and his van, digital image, 1973, author’s files.

6) Bert in London, digital image, 1969, author’s files.

7) Ethel snorkelling, digital image, c. 1982, author’s files.

8) Marge and Gil in their Motorhome, 2001, author’s files.

9) Our van buried in the snow, digital image, c. 1988, author’s files.

10) Jennifer sitting in front of the trailer , digital image, 1996, author’s files.