Kimler Adventure Pages (http://randsco.com)

You know that you're a parent when the 'strategy' for a 13-hour drive from Edmonton to Vancouver becomes a topic of discussion. In pre-Oop days, we would have simply hopped into the car and driven, with an eye toward an appropriate Vancouver arrival time. Not now.

Driving for 13 hours straight, with a wide-awake, active 21-month-old toddler is not advisable. We needed a plan. Something that would minimize the impact of traveling on our toddler, but also keep parents from going insane and still allow for an appropriate Vancouver arrival time.

We thought about an extremely early morning departure, waking at 2 AM and dropping a still-sleeping Alex into the car seat. Or driving all night, leaving when Alex was due to go to bed (8 PM), with the idea that she would sleep nearly the whole way. Ultimately, it was the latter idea that won. Parental sleep would be sacrificed (been there, done that), to keep things easy on the Oop. This plan also provided for minimal disturbance on excited Vancouver grandparents, first on our list of holiday visitors, with a rush-hour arrival time.

There is only one thing wrong with the plan - an itchy accelerator foot.

We were all packed and ready to go by 3 PM. Yard care had been taken delegated. Lamps had been set on timers. House plants had been rounded up and watered. Tuxedo, our cat, had a benefactor named Paul, that would visit daily, letting him out of the house "to do his thing" (which is fertilizing the garden and napping in the cool shade of bushes for several hours) letting him back in later, to eat food and drink water (to make more fertilizer) and nap in one of several favorite places. Bags were packed and nearly all of the large plastic items deemed necessary for the survival of a modern-day toddler, were stowed in the family sports car (a mini van).

We were ready to go.

Even Alex was ready (she put on her sandals and announced "car ride", standing at the Oop containment field, eyeing the open door of the sports car).

So ... in the end, the strategized plans were tossed out the window, arrival-time etiquette discarded and we left for Vancouver at 3:30 PM, with a wide-awake toddler, several hours before her normal bedtime.

Another factor that contributed to the decision - Alex had a cold. She had a fever (less than yesterday, but it still required attention). This meant drugs and she seemed quite content to suck on the south end of a syringe filled with "Kids Cold & Flu" medicine ... stuff that lowers her fever and puts her to sleep, allowing her to get the rest that she needs.

So ... we got double-duty out of her medication. We weren't just helping her tiny immune system in fighting a cold, we were also buying ourselves the equivalent of driving bliss.

The trip began on a warm, sunny Alberta day. Outside temperatures were a warmish 28°C (83°F), enough to justify turning on the A/C in the sports car (remember ... we're in Canada ). The Oop was busy looking out the window, sitting in her forward-facing car seat, enjoying the sight of passing traffic and identifying vehicles she could see. "Truck," she would say, then a little later, "truck." Soon, she would spot another truck and then another. (For some reason, she didn't see many cars).

Things came to a head a couple of hours out of Edmonton. We were traveling on a nice 4-lane, divided highway called "The Yellowhead", just making our way out of Edson, on our way to Hinton, the gateway to Jasper National Park. Alex had been enjoying the company of one of her favorite books "Polly Pelican" (who says 'snip, snap' a lot). Integrated with the thick cardboard cover is a movable, plastic purple pelican head that can make a "snapping" sound.

After an near endless number of "SNAPS", we heard the book fall to the floor and seconds later, Alex said, "book" ... followed a moment later with a more pleading tone ... "boook!" We picked up the book and handed it back to her, thinking she had inadvertently dropped it. Moments later, "plop" goes the book on the floor and Alex began the whole, "book" routine again. Parents aren't the brightest creatures and it took us a several "lost book" episodes, before we realized that we had become a toddler plaything.

A battle of wills began.

As parent's, we have several tools that insures a victory in this battle. First, our sense of time is less fleeting than that of our relatively new toddler. What might seem "ages" to Alex, is less than 10 actual minutes to us longer-lived, long-in-the-tooth parents. Second, we have a very strong desire to squelch this whole "if I don't get what I want, I'm gonna cry and make your life miserable" toddler antic. You can cry Alex and for 10 minutes, you can make our teeth chatter and our eyeballs roll backwards with all that screeching noise, but you can rest assured that such activity will NOT get you what you want, because we do NOT want this to become part of our everyday lives.

Though the battle of wills was waged on three closely-separated occasions (once with the "Polly Pelican" book, once with her sippy cup and once with her "nappy" - a soft sleeping blanket) ... we're happy to report that each battle was short-lived. It was also the prelude to sleep, as we could tell that she was getting tired.

So, we pulled over in Hinton, just prior to entering Jasper National Park, stopping at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Nothing quiets a fussy, feverish toddler quite like batter-fried chicken and greasy french fried potatoes! Alex contentedly munched on her greasy food, smearing much of it across the smooth complexion of her rosy cheeks, gulping intermittently at the apple juice in her sippy cup. She was busy, out of the car and eating ketchup dipped french fries ... smiling at all the other people in the greasy spoon. She was happy.

Back into the car and with a quick dose of Children's Tylenol Cold & Flu and soon she was sucking her thumb and staring at the insides of her eyelids. It was 7:30 PM, Alberta time and our sick little girl was fast asleep in her car seat, getting the rest she needed so badly and in turn, giving her parents the rest THEY needed too.

The weather turned as we headed west. We were driving into a low pressure system and cloudy skies soon began to sprinkle rain onto the windshield. Not enough to clear the bugs, but enough that wipers were needed every few minutes ... smearing dead bug parts across the window.

Alex missed the beautiful drive through Jasper National Park and (on the British Columbia side) Mount Robson Provincial Park and the upper reaches of the North Thompson river valley. Mom and Dad didn't, however, and both enjoyed spectacular views of the Canadian Rockies.

Each time we make this drive, we do two things. First, we lament that we're just buzzing through and that we should take the time to explore the Rockies on foot (backpacking). Second, we keep a tally of the wild animals we see. On this trip, we saw two black bears, a timber wolf, a number of deer and a moose.

We are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful area. The North American West provides stunning views, wilderness, an abundance of wildlife and recreational opportunities.

We alternated drivers, while Alex slept and we drove through the night, past Jasper, Blue River, Kamloops, Merritt and Hope ... on our way through (now driving rain) to Vancouver. We arrived safely just before 4:00 AM Alberta time (3:00 AM British Columbia Time). We awakened an eager set of grandparents, with hello's and hugs all around, before promptly falling into a long-awaited bed.

The Oop-driving strategy worked. With the single exception of the Polly Pelican episode, Alex was a wonderful traveler.