CONCLUSION

In 1981, Joel Garreau plublished his flawed but fascinating book "The Nine Nations of North America." In it, he posed the thesis that the conventional political map of the North American continent, featuring the three large countries of Mexico, the United States, and Canada, was an absurdity and was obsolete. Instead, Garreau divided the continent into nine separate and distinguishable entities based on common aspects of geography, economic activity and ethnicity. I remember reading the book back in the day and finding the ideas contained therein interesting, but in a quirky and unrealistic way.

Travelling, however, has been a great teacher and I found myself thinking back to Garreau's book several times on this trip. Certainly, the commonly-held notions of what constitutes Canada or the United States seemed to be held up for examination on this trip. We saw the most incredible changes in topography on our journey, all of which have been recounted in the entries above. But we also witnessed the often not-so-subtle differences in people. Most of the trip was in the United States. We know that, generally, there is a mythology about what an American is, what he believes in, how he thinks, how he acts, and how he lives his life. It is the myth that is propogated in popular culture, particularly in TV shows and movies, but also in music and literature. The American is supposed to be a singular creature, and an American in one part of the country is supposed to be identical to his or her brother or sister in a different part of the country. Canada's mythological citizen is less well-defined, perhaps in no small way because Canada is a relatively young country compared to the US. Nevertheless, there is arguably a mythological creature known as the "typical" Canadian out there as well.

Our trip seems to contradict this belief. The people we encountered on this trip were as diverse as people from separate countries, even separate continents. North America is an enormous entity, of course, and the way it has been settled, used, abused, and developed follows only a very general set of commonalities. We know, without any doubt, that a person in Montana or Wyoming is NOT like a person in Chicago, or Winnipeg, or even in North or South Dakota, except for the obvious things like general appearance, or language, or religion.

And the stereotypical idea that we eastern North Americans have about "the West" is inaccurate as well. Most people here in Southern Ontario see the middle of the continent as one giant billiard table, completely flat, going on forever under an impossible sky, dry and brown and treeless until one runs head first into mountains in the "far West."  Rubbish ! The land follows this pattern for part of the way, but then morphs into a veritable jigsaw puzzle of landscapes, waterways,  and the creatures and plants that inhabit them.

Perhaps Joel Garreau was on to something in his now 30 year-old book. Perhaps if we are to truly understand our fellow Canadians or Americans, we should think of them more as neighbours rather than brothers or sisters.  Would a separation into smaller and more numerous nations make things go smoother on the continent? Noone knows for sure, and noone will probably ever know. To suggest separation, as we know so well in Canada, is a sure-fire bet to have your thoughts and ideas condemned as either heresy or idiocy. But it is certainly food for thought.

Our previous road trips have revealed all this to us before. But, for some reason, this road trip has driven the idea of the separate nations to new levels of understanding. The only thing I can say for sure is that more road trips are necessary to bring the "Nine Nations" concept to even more clarity. Perhaps there is need for even more than nine separate nations. Time will tell.

As always, the trip was made more rewarding and enjoyable because Lou and I did it together and shared our observations and thoughts. Thanks to our newly-acquired GPS, navigating the Empty Quarter, the Breadbasket, and the Foundry was mostly easy and seamless, and allowed more time for using our senses to what surrounded us. It was a great trip !