Hometown: Lethbridge, AB

Occupation: Computer Technician / Sign Maker

To most, the idea of covering a quarter of the earth’s circumference by vehicle might seem daunting. Doing it on a $500 budget in a $500 car probably sounds downright stupid. It may be for that reason that in the past few months I’ve been asked “WHY?” more than just a few times. I have to admit I’ve even started to wonder that same, simple, yet profoundly perplexing question myself. To find the answer it is perhaps best to explain how this all started.

Over the past six years, I have unsuccessfully tried to plan a trip across the country I live in. (You guessed it; Canada) Now when I say “unsuccessfully tried” it could be taken in a negative sense. However, it hasn’t so much been unsuccessful as it has been interrupted so many times that I figured it just might not be possible. As much as it could be amusing to travel the country on my lonesome I planned to take some friends along. The problem is that the people I planned the trip with have all had something, or should I say “someone,” in common.

The first attempt was with a good friend from Australia named Brit. (Short for Britny and yes I know it’s an odd name for a guy but take it up with the Aussies) We arranged to travel to Nova Scotia and PEI since neither of us had been there and he was scheduled to return back to Australia in a few months. About two weeks before we were supposed to leave he gave me a call to tell me that he was getting married and had to cancel on our travel plans. He went back to Australia and I haven’t seen or heard from him since.

The second attempt was two years later with another buddy named Jeff. He knew that I wanted to explore the eastern provinces of Canada and just so happened to even have relatives that we could stay with in Nova Scotia. We were both broke at the time so we decided to save money for tickets and to leave in the fall by air. Problem is he was dating a girl named Brittany and things were starting to get serious. When September arrived I received a call from Jeff letting me know that he was going to propose and that he needed to use his ticket money for the engagement ring. It wasn’t like I was about to try to convince him to buy her a toy dispenser version so again I cancelled my plans.

At that point I hadn’t given up entirely it just was no longer a priority to travel within my home country. For the next couple of years I had opportunity to travel outside of Canada a few times. I went to the UK and Italy with my sister and then Mexico on my own. It was the day before I left for Mexico that I met up with my long-time friend Ryan. It came up in conversation that neither of us had experienced the typical road trip that most kids do when they finish school. Rather than take time off we had both finished our schooling early and went straight into working full-time jobs. Since I had already been through much of the United States and portions of Canada I suggested that Nova Scotia and PEI be our destination. (Specifically the Confederation Bridge) We brainstormed ways of coordinating the trip and decided we would try to find a cheap car and set a minimal budget so that we could both afford to go at our leisure without having sources of income. We figured that with our skill-sets we could make up any additional finances by working on our way across the country. At the time Ryan was single. However, come spring I received the half expected phone call from him telling me that he was dating a prior girlfriend again and this time he was ready to get married. So needless to say we ditched our initial notes and he starting saving his money for a ring. Even more bizarre than the fact that this was the third time my Canada travel plans were cancelled for my friends marriages is that the girl Ryan married happened to be named (you guessed it) Brittany!

Taking it as somewhat of an absurd coincidence, I decided that it was time for me to stop planning any cross-Canada trips and to settle down for a while. However, by that time most of my friends knew the story of the many Brittany’s getting in the way of my travel arrangements. Jordan got in touch with me and asked if I would still be interested in at least discussing the fabled Canada 500 project. I was somewhat leery given the track record, but since Jordan’s sister was one of the Brittany’s that married my travel buddies I decided it would be worth throwing the idea around one last time. (I figured it was unlikely that he would end up marrying someone with the same name as his sister)

After a few muddled emails and a three-week visit from Jordan we had come up with some finalized ideas for the trip and a resolve to make it happen. We set aside a long day of brainstorming and sketching that resulted in a basis for much of what you will find on our website.

That is how I, and by extension you, arrived at this point. Since it is easy to take what we have available for granted I hope you enjoy following our long overdue journey. It is sure to be riddled with at least a few interesting stories and hopefully many amazing pictures of what is right outside our backdoor if we choose to take the time to see it.

- Dan