This summer the family took a 2 1/2 week whirlwind  trek across Canada from Ottawa to Victoria in an old awesome 81 Westfalia Vanagon .  We drove for about 8 hrs a day, sometimes more before finding a site to park for the night.  It wasn’t practical to book a place to stay in advance because we really had no idea how far we could go in a day, so we took a chance, night after night.

There was so much to see and understand while traveling across this great country.  Aside from stunning beauty of the landscape there was also sharp contrast visible in the economy of small town Canada.  We had traveled this same route in 2009 and it was shocking to see the difference.  Our last trip showed us struggling but still viable small businesses trying to make a living in their chosen part of Canada.  There were the mom and pop shops and the young entrepreneurs with energy and hope to make it and there were the fast moving growth of big box stores filling the outskirts of many slightly larger towns and cities.  Fast forward 6 years and change was very stark.  Small town/villages often had half of the businesses closed up on their main street.  We traveled the TransCanada Highway all the way this time and it was clear our economy is hurting.

I began to be fascinated by all the empty houses, motels, garages and corner stores that looked as if the owner just walked away.  No one to buy it and upgrade because there was no business.  Most cars just drive on through as they stop at Shell or Petro Can or any other big name gas station and every Tim’s was backed up and overflowing with business.  We fell to the same mindset and also stopped at these places only adding to the hurt.

On our way home we found a cute little campground that was run by a mom and her son.  They had a beautiful little acreage with a pool and good shower and bathroom facility that you needed a key to get in to.  The only drawback is they only took cash, very strange in today’s world of paypal, credit and debit cards.  We did however scrape up enough cash to stay there and complimented their tenacity.  I feel however after them saying it was a tough summer that they won’t be in operation next year.

Some empty businesses that clearly fell on hard times long before they closed up shop.

 

 

On a much happier note the beauty and wildness of the trip even along the Trans Canada was riveting.