About Us


The Open Road Project exists to spread kindness and meet the needs of strangers. We travel in a 1979 GMC Vanguard named Lily. These are our stories.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Nations Capital

Sorry for slacking in regards to posting, we have been really busy for the past few days. As we look back at what we have done thus far, it’s hard to believe we only left on Friday!

After we rolled out of Kingston, we ran into some small motor troubles which slowed our vehicle to a max speed of 60-70km. (We just fixed the RV in Quebec City and found that our problem was no ones fault, but it’s cool to now see how our slow down helped us to meet a lot of really cool people) We made the slow trek to Ottawa and arrived in our nations capital in the early afternoon.


We have had a running joke that Lily demands respect wherever she goes, and that she will receive it. As we drove along the Rideau Canal with our vuvuzela honking out the window, she was getting some serious respect. It’s actually one of our favourite things turning heads and making people smile while driving this rig around. As we pulled in front of the parliament buildings, we parked in the most prime parking spot available, usually exclusive to tour busses. Once we took a survey of the area, we started to unpack our magical music closet and make sweet music for the masses. 


Since we all know something about music, we chose to pack our magical closet with musical instruments. As the afternoon wore on, we jammed with people who were passing with instruments and chatted with others about where we were from and what we were up to.

After playing songs for about an hour, Jordan had the wonderful idea to rock only percussion and get some real funky beats bouncing around Parliament.We brought a huge bag of shakers, tambourines and other percussive instruments, placed them out front and invited people to jam with us. We also have a snare drum, cajon (box drum) and a djembe with us so needless to say we were rocking.

This is when the real fun started to happen. As the sounds of our drums reverberated off of the buildings, kids and adults of all ages came out and grabbed instruments and jammed with us. This was also when the change started rolling into our guitar case. By the end of it all, we had an amazing time and had made a tasty $62.24. This cash will be used to buy coffees and other small things for people that we meet.


All in all, we had a very successful stop in Ottawa, and even though we didn’t take a tour, swim in the Rideau or talk to our buddy Stephen, we had a fantastic time.

On our way out, we had a wonderful dinner with Dylans friend from school Amelioooooo Johnston. It was a great lasagna, and we are again so thankful for all the hospitality that we have been shown. Next stop, Montreal!

Jeremy

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