On the Coquihalla Highway

This will be our longest day of driving, and our last, and this the 7th and last diary post too. (Seven being a perfect number and all.) We decided to drive the Water Valley (near Calgary) to Tsawwassen (near Vancouver) stretch in a day; we two old horses are smelling the taste of home (sweet home)!

In terms of All That Belongs, yesterday was a great day. We drove from Red Deer to Linden for an early afternoon coffee and reading. There were fourteen of us around a long table at Country Cousins restaurant, enjoying pie and conversation. I grew up in Linden and remain connected to a few people there, as well as in nearby Three Hills. Eunice, my longest friend (with mutual Linden origins) and a dedicatee of the novel, drove down from the Edmonton area.

We went around the circle and everyone introduced themselves and said why they were there — connections in other words. This was fun, for the memories it provoked. Then I talked about the book a little and read a few pages, and of course I just happened to have some along to sign and sell.

In the evening, I was privileged to participate in the Flywheel reading series at Pages on Kensington in Calgary. A good crowd assembled. I was impressed with the energy in the room. I think it’s wonderful when bookstores partner with writers in this way. The other readers were Kate Flaherty, Laura Swart, Jacqueline Turner, and fellow Turnstone author, Su Croll, with her new book of poetry, Cold Metal Stairs, about her father and lewy body dementia.

Then it was on to my brother John’s, where we stayed early in the trip. We talked till midnight or so and in the morning Barb sent us off with a hearty breakfast of bacon and Ruehrei, which is a kind of scrambled egg but with flour in it. Like cut-up pancake. We all grew up with it. She said her mom paired Ruehrei with sardines, but even as a child she thought this a bad match!

Now here we are, curving through rock and pines, and soon we’ll emerge to Hope and the Fraser Valley, and we’ll stop for a sandwich, and then drive the final kilometres. My heart and mind are full of gratitude for the past two weeks, and also for all of you who have read along.