I’m very excited to announce the arrival of Canada Road Trip, a digital story and teacher resource that traces a cross-country road trip in 1967. This is the first of a number of collaborations that will mark a new approach for Ancestry Project in the second half of 2017. Interested in a collaboration? Get in touch (email address at end of this post).

Canada Road Trip, like all the resources on the site, is free throughout 2017, but more importantly it will permanently be available FREE. To access the materials as a download you simply have to register. The materials are built around a 4-part audio recording narrated by Thane Ladner. The audio is available to stream or download, and teacher’s PDF guide and student worksheets are available.

I’d like to thank my collaborator, Thane Ladner, for his participation and perspective. We both traveled cross-country (at separate times) and this story is a result of our shared experience. As we wrote in our introduction to the teacher/student handouts:

“Travelling by car involves meeting people, even if ever so briefly. You could be gassing up or stopping at a roadside picnic site, talking to the cashier in a grocery store. So many opportunities for a chat. Chance plays a large role in the experience.”

Indeed, meeting people may be more significant in the overall experience than getting acquainted with new places. The perspective of “the road” is perhaps most connected to the real people and various forms of culture that populate the road.

We have decided that this work will be available under a creative commons license. Not-for-profits, trainers and educators are free to use or distribute the work so long as the creative credit remains intact and the product is free. A number of images used in this project came from Pixabay, the free CC0 photos website. In the same spirit of social collaboration, we present our work, Canada Road Trip

This is a shared story in more ways than one. Road trips are a ritual of youth and modern travel. A place like Canada offers magnificent opportunities for road trips, be they regional or national in scope. So many Canadians have traveled cross-country. It’s both a classic iconic and deeply personal experience.

I hope you enjoy the recordings. If you’re a teacher or educator we welcome you to contribute to the website, media and PDF. Send your comments and suggestions to me at mike / ancestryproject.ca. Thanks!

Mike Simpson, July 1, 2017