This past year has been an interesting year, and I mean interesting in all the connotations of the word. My wife and I moved from Halifax to Saskatoon. We both said goodbye to family back east and have been making new friends here in Saskatchewan. We have left jobs, started new jobs and sold a house. And we sadly had to say goodbye to our Chewy only days after arriving in our new city.  The year has been exhilarating, scary, heartbreaking, heartwarming and a thousand other adjectives. It’s been like no other year of my life.

With all of that life chaos, it left much less time for travel than in previous years.  2016 was a travel year of weekend road trips, tacking a day or two onto work trips and carving out some interesting experiences around the margins. With the context of my life this past year, it’s not surprising that a theme running through these memories is emotion – sometimes subtle, sometimes raw and powerful. As you’ll read, it’s been a year of tears, some shed in sadness, some in happiness, some from simply being overwhelmed in this crazy year. In no particular order, here are my ten favourite experiences and memories from my travels in 2016. In honour of #6 below, I’ve titled each with a Tragically Hip lyric evocative of the moment.

1. “From thin and wicked prairie winds come in / It’s warm and it’s safe here …”

February 2016, a Sunday morning, and I was climbing out of a cab at the Saskatoon airport. I was in Saskatoon to meet some people and spend time in the city before making a final decision on accepting a job at the University of Saskatchewan. As I got out of the cab, Halifax artist Joel Plaskett’s song “On a Dime” was playing over speakers in the drop off lane. I immediately started to tear up. The song is about leaving the past behind and heading toward an uncertain future. Between opening the cab door and wheeling my bag into the airport, I knew my mind was made up. Saskatoon was going to be my new hometown. It was a great decision.

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