Castlegar B.C. (1971)

Although Istanbul, Turkey was understood to be the jumping off point when travelling the overland route across Asia, each of us started our journey the moment we left everything behind and set off to see the world.

For Dennis and I, the journey began in Castlegar in the West Kootenays of British Columbia. Last stop—lunch at my grandmother’s place.

With much fanfare we climbed into our VW Beetle, waved to Mom, Dad and Grandma standing on the front step and drove away. I barely made it to the end of the street before I broke into tears. It would be 10 years before we would return to Canada (we would build a boat in New Zealand, become liveaboards and sail the islands of the Pacific) and I would never see my grandmother again.