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.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Sailing on the Bluenose

When we woke up Sunday morning, we went to check out this church, Deep Water, which met in the local movie theatre. A few more small world moments occured during the walk over. As we were walking down the busy street, we heard someone say from behind us, "Excuse me, are you guys The Open Road Project?" Well that felt pretty cool. It was Keira! (Blair's friend who had offered to make us dinner while we were in Halifax) She remembered our faces from this here blog, so it was really neat that we were crossing paths and got to meet! She was running some errands, but we made dinner plans and then found the theatre. That was when we randomly saw Jenni, a girl who went to high school with Dylan, Jordan and I. We had planned on meeting up, but due to our lack of internet connection, hadn't set anything up. Somehow everything always works out!

After church, we decided to take a day trip to Lunenburg to visit the beloved Bluenose. For our readers who aren't Canadian (or who could care less about history), the Bluenose is the ship that is stamped onto every Candian 10 cent coin.


Although our visit to Lunenburg was not incredibly eventful, our experiences with the hitchhikers we picked up during the hour-long drive were enough to make the trip worthwhile. First we picked up Andre, a sweet dude who had just moved to Lunenburg. He ended up being our tour guide and although he hadn't lived there long, he showed us everything worth seeing. We went to the Bluenose, which was currently being restored and living under a giant dome. It would have been nice to board the ship or see it in the water, but we quickly realized that none of our adventurous plans for sailing on the Bluenose would become a reality. Then we checked out a wooden boat builders shop, which was neat to see, especially for Calvin who builds wooden boats himself.


Soon after Andre came aboard, we picked up another hitcher, Brad. He was without a doubt the most interesting person we met during our two week trip. We had an awesome time listening to his stories and philosophies. He left us with two things, the first being a four day supply of the seaweed that sustains him in an old ziploc freezer bag, the second being a challenge to turn Lily into a solar/ pedal powered vehicle.

We also met a lovely lady, Susan, at a small cafe on the main drag. Since she was closing up, and told us she had about two hours of close up to do, we offered to help her tidy the shop and do the dishes. However to our dismay, the only thing she let us do was have a free coffee and the best peanut butter nanaimo bars known to mankind. She said that was the way we could help her recover from a bad day, so how could we refuse? Thanks so much for your kindness Susan!

Next time you find yourself in Lunenburg, check it out!
We made it back to Halifax in time to have a lovely dinner with our new friend Keira whom we had met only that morning. Dinner was on the table, wow. Sometimes I feel like people are more kind to us than we are to them. That's also why I love the road so much, there are so many things we can learn from the people around us if we just take the time and effort to ask questions and get to know people.

We had a great night with Keira and her friend Pam who dropped in later to meet the "dudes from Ontario." Although we didn't make it any further east than Halifax, we were more than happy with the outcome.

So after our relaxing long weekend, we all felt it was time to break a sweat and get some work done.

Dylan doing what he does.

1 comment:

  1. Calvin! (and adventurous friends)

    It's been great reading updates on the fun adventures you're taking on, interesting people you encounter, and semi-illegal antics you're up to. I love it.

    I also love that Lily "commanded respect" in Ottawa. That is AMAZING. This city needs a powerful woman like Lily to show it who's boss. love it.

    I hope God is blowing your mind and continues to open your eyes to sweet things on the road. Big blessings on you and the open road crew. I hope today you get a double dose of adventure, just for your birthday!

    Lots of love,
    Jon (and Charlotte of course)

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