Homeward Bound


I rode my bike one block to Montreal's Gare Centrale and departed at 9:40 this morning for Oshawa.

The last time I was at the Gare Centrale, my wife and I dropped our daughter off there to catch a train to Ottawa. She was a graduate student then at Carleton University. My wife and I had found a good fare to Montreal, so flew there then drove a rental car to Ottawa. On our way back to Montreal, our daughter decided to join us and take the train home.

We walked for a while and had a nice lunch in Montreal, dropped our daughter off at the train station, drove to the airport, turned in our rental car then proceeded to US Customs and airline checkin. When the customs agent asked to see my wife's passport, she opened her purse and saw our daughter's wallet there where she had put it for safekeeping while we walked around. Panic ensued. We had dropped our daughter off without her money or identification in a huge foreign city.

Worried that she'd have realized the problem sooner than us, led us to think she might try to get to the airport before we left, so we were afraid to go back. We headed to Travelers Aid at the airport and asked for assistance. They called VIA Rail and confirmed that she had indeed boarded her train. VIA Rail called a cell phone on the train and we were connected to our daughter. She had a small day pack with her in which she had a few dollars. Though she had less than half the fare from Montreal to Ottawa, VIA Rail had accepted all she had in exchange for a ticket.

Still facing the problem of getting our daughter's wallet to her, Travelers Aid directed us to Purolator Courier Service ion the lower level of the airport. We shipped our daughter's wallet to her via insured courier service and she had it the next day.

Then to our amazement, we were able to board our flight on time.

As I've said repeatedly on this website, the world is full of incredibly compassionate people who are more than willing to come to the assistance of those who need help. Traveling is not risky. On the other hand, I've said that risk is an essential component of adventure. So, then, what is an adventure? To me, an adventure is an activity that anybody could do, but most wouldn't do because of perceived risk. Most people would not undertake a bicycle ride like this because they wouldn't believe they could do so.

I am an adventurer. I have all my life faced perceived risks and found that I could deal with them through careful planning and a little help from the world around me. As the train from Montreal to Oshawa crossed over the Trent-Severn Waterway near Kingston, Ontario, it dawned on me that adventure started for me with canoeing out from Muldrew Lake, Ontario as a kid. Me and my friend Dennis would foray up the lake and portage into the unknown. Once, we canoed to the Severn River. Camping out in the wilderness wasn't anything anybody couldn't do, but we were the ones who did it. In middle school, I wrote Jacques Cousteau expressing interest in his adventures. He responded by inviting me onto the Calypso and I went. Hundreds of subsequent canoe, bicycle, kayak, helicopter, cross-country ski and hiking trips have caused me to be identified as an adventurer. I am constantly looking for new ways to expand my horizons.

We all need to make the most of our lives, or we'll wither away.

Posted: Tue - July 1, 2003 at 10:52 AM      

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