On the Road Again

The open road, the long and winding road, that ribbon of highway; call it whatever you want, but there's something about a roadtrip that speaks to the soul of a wanderer. Maybe its the unknown, the blank canvas waiting for the first bold strokes, the story waiting to be written. Maybe its the hope for something better than what you're leaving behind, a clean break from the past as you drive toward undiscovered memories and experiences. Whatever it is, its calling to us.

We're on the road this weekend, we being the St Vital Minor Bantam Victorias hockey team and family members, heading from our home confines of Winnipeg, going south and eastward through North Dakota and Minnesota en route to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where we'll put down roots for a few days while the boys play 4 games in the Altoona, WI Bantam Hockey Tournament, a round-robin series against Wisconsin teams. Its a 10 hour bus ride, depending on border wait times and stops for food and adult beverages, and we got underway well before sunrise, leaving home at 5:30 am, the bus pulling away just after 6.

Iphones, ipads, headphones and pillows line the aisleway, various forms of distractions for a captive audience, video displays await chosen movies to occupy and inspire the kids (and adults) anything to pass the hours.

Our boys have just finished their regular season, a disappointing year of 3-21-0-2. The losses may have become commonplace, but the growth and effort can't be overlooked, and as we pause this weekend before beginning playoffs next week, we know that the boys are better than their record suggests, and that anything can happen in the 'second season.'

It's one of the reasons we're loaded on this chartered bus rolling across the northern prairie today, the tournament has been scheduled since back in early November, a fun-filled weekend for team bonding and friendship strengthening around the pool, in the bumper cars and batting cages of the hotel's waterpark and amusement centre, the games at the rink an afterthought or excuse for the more important life-long memories that will be forged and cemented.

Theres an honesty about this land we're passing through, a reality that is rooted in a slower pace with a deep integrity, in the faces not afraid of hard work and sometimes difficult challenges to survive and thrive. You can see it out the window as we speed past. It's in the solemn church steeples and grain silos that dot the fields and forests and farmland out here, where winter can be a bitter mistress that will test your resolve and your courage but promises a sweet reward come spring and summertime; the contrast striking to the casual observer. Nature tests us and yet we continue to push forward, like the sapling growing wild on the shoulder of the interstate, bucking the winds and heavy snows, setting our roots deeper, determined to take hold and grow. A true survivor.

At 3-23-0-2 the boys understand that resolve, they've already faced a long winter of being pushed and pulled by their opposing 'winds' sometimes coming out on top, most times not, but they haven't cowered and withered away in the face of adversity. We'll see how well this group of saplings compares to their southern brethren in the next few days, whether they have the right combination of experience and talent to compete or not.

We're on the road today and maybe theres something better down this highway for the boys than what they left behind, but even if they don't win a single game, they will all be richer for the experiences and memories in ways that count for so much more than wins and losses. And that, is what builds true character and real growth, which is what we've been helping them find all along.