Finally escaped Canada

Some thoughts on travelling in the last post for a while.

This weekend, I finally escaped after three years of trying. My family had been pretty active travellers before 2020, normally going on a at least two vacations per year. But the pandemic forced us to stay in Canada for three straight winters.

I know… There are much bigger problems to complain about. But for me, crossing the Peace Bridge into Buffalo on Sunday was therapeutic. I felt like a prisoner escaping.

Many people have gone years without leaving their country. Some spend their whole life without leaving it. I’m generally pretty happy in Canada so it’s not that I dread living here. But psychologically, I had a really hard time being told I couldn’t leave simply based on a personal medical choice I made. Finally leaving Canada felt like I was closing a chapter on this era.

And we are definitely catching up.

Danielle and I have planned a 30-day road trip. After two long days of driving, we settled in Charlotte, North Carolina. The kids’ reward for their patiences is two days at a massive indoor water park before we take on the second half of our journey to Florida. In Florida, we are visiting family, visiting a few main attractions and going on a Caribbean cruise.

We’ve stopped at a few rest stops, purchased groceries and stayed at two hotels and I have not seen a single person wear a mask in three days. I haven’t heard any commercials or seen any signs warning me to “get boosted”.

When telling people our plans lately many have asked how we pull off going on a 30-day vacation.

First, If anyone didn’t know, Danielle and I retired from full time careers before the age of 30. Check out the whole story in our book here. So we are not constrained by how long we can leave.

Second, I am very good at capitalizing on credit card bonuses and because we haven’t travelled in three years, I have accumulated enough points to pay for almost all our hotel stays for this vacation (about 12 nights).

Lastly, we avoid eating out as much as we can. I only choose hotels that offer free breakfasts where the kids eat as much as they can. This means we only need a light lunch on the road. I also try as much as I can to find hotels with kitchens. Last night, I was able to prepare a healthy chicken, rice and veggie dinner. I made it twice and will microwave it tomorrow night for the whole family at our next hotel (the water park).

The kids don’t mind and they don’t expect to be eating the over-expensive resort food every night like the other kids. That’s because they have come to realize that most kids are only on vacation for a weekend or a week and not an entire month.

So our food budget will likely be the same as any other month. Our only big expenses are going to be the 7-day cruise we booked last year during a promotion (under $2,000 CAD all expenses in for the 5 of us), a couple days at Great Wolf Lodge in North Carolina (a fraction of the cost of Niagara falls) and visiting Legoland. Gas in most states is currently the equivalent of $0.98 CAD / litre so that helps as well.

Anyways, the Substack will be a little more quiet for the next month.

Merry Christmas! And thanks to everyone who has followed this growing newsletter. Next year, it will just get better. I have a number of very big stories to release on top of my upcoming book.

BTW: The Substack has a new URL. It’s now simply www.RejeanVenne.ca

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