3 coffee, 2 red bull, and a pack of cigars

As it turns out, the detour is the adventure.
You know that feeling when the road goes right, you should go right, home is right, but you just go straight because it seems more exciting?
Well, if you’re ever thinking that as you leave Airdrie on the number 2 – you’ll end up in Edmonton.
And your adventure begins.
I’d recommend an outfit adjustment. All too often people view travel as a non-event requiring comfy jeans, or worse, sweats. I’ll advise stilettos, jewellery, sunglasses- you’re always more ready for adventure in such attire. Of course your journey on the number 2 is at least two hours so there’s plenty of time to change in the car (beware of semis, they can see into your vehicle much more efficiently than other vehicles on the road).
Right, East, may have taken you home – but North leads to freedom. There’s nothing quite like a double lane highway, no map and no plan in the middle of the vast bald prairie to give a feeling of complete liberation. It doesn’t even matter that the road leads anywhere, so long as you have some great tunes and a pack of cigars.
And that’s just the driving bit.
Once you arrive there’s a whole other myriad of possibilities – from bliss to brutal beatings, so I recommend using caution and avoiding stopovers at the Strathcona Hotel. I’ve heard it’s sketchy.
You can eat alone in a quaint pub.
You can shop.
You can surprise family.
You can watch people as they watch you –wondering what on earth a lone girl is doing in stilettos and sunglasses late at night in the winter.
You can pretend to be absolutely stark raving mad.
You can be totally and completely lost in the world – anonymous, mysterious, unknown.
And then, when you eventually remember that you live a real life in a real home where you know and are known– you can drink 10 cans of red bull and drive home through the night.
And it will remain your secret adventure. No one need ever know that you went North when you ought to have gone East.