Winter Run

I can look back on December and see how crazy we really were.

4000km cross country with winter breathing in our face.

A Dodge Ram, packed tight with only our most prized possessions, left just enough room for us and our daughter. Sitting cross legged made room for the cat and dog.

Big rigs littered the ditches through Grand Prairie, their size and false bravado no match for the winter squalls no weather forecaster could predict.

Saskatchewan at midnight. No traffic to break the steady snow, no tracks to lead us through.

Manitoba...hoar frost and 30 below. The trees were blinding in the cold winter sun.

Ontario greeted us warmly. Still signs of green grass and quiet lakeshore beaches. -40, a month away, we had almost convinced ourselves we had driven through winter.

Natasha Head