An Ode To Simon-One-Feather

Many a time, we have been present when somebody has asked our mother where her children have inherited their wanderlust from. With an exaggerated eye roll and a dramatic, extended sigh, she often replies: "Have you met their father?"

The most important adventure of our lives took place some twenty years before we were even born. In the early sixties, our dad, a young punk equipped with an education degree and not much else, did something considered completely radical for his time. He up and left his close-knit but poor community in Cape Breton Island and headed for the Canadian North, where he spent several years working, living, and playing on First Nation territory. It has been through his epic story-telling that has both intrigued and influenced us to continously seek travel experiences and cross-cultural exchanges of our own.

As youngsters, along with our older siblings, we were frequently lined up on the chesterfield where we were forced to watch our father's slide shows and were given a lesson in geography. When you grow up hearing about dog sledding across the Northern Frontier, having grizzly bears interrupt your picnic lunches, chasing bear cubs up a tree for photo ops, teaching alpine skiing with a future olympic champion, drinking sherry brandy by the fire on cold nights to keep warm, and rolling in the snow in minus 30 degree weather before proceeding to jump into natural hot springs, you come to expect nothing less than to someday be experiencing life's most extraordinary moments yourself.

So while our mother Annie-Pants lies awake at night, wondering where she went wrong with her globe-trotting children, we continue to be inspired by Simon-One-Feather. Long before the discovery channel and self-help books, he has taught and shown us by example to not be afraid to take the road less travelled.

(Simon- One- Feather at 60 below in the Yukon (Wayyyy back in the day))

( July 2012:  A 70- year old Simon in Europe when most "dependers" his age are buying walkers and checking into nursing homes.)