The Purple Dually
A warning light outside North Bay, six hours in a parking lot, a borrowed purple dually and two roof vents lost somewhere on the prairie.
Built for Monday. Living for Friday.
The adventure never goes exactly to plan.
Road trips, camping adventures, questionable decisions, practical lessons, and the stories that make it all worthwhile.
Illustrative photograph · AI-generated
What this is
A travel brand built on what really happens
The Cursed Traveler is about the trips we plan and the trips we actually take: Canadian road trips, trailers and campgrounds, the occasional flight that leaves without us, and travelling with family through all of it.
Some trips are beautiful and uneventful. Others involve warning lights, missing roof vents and boarding passes that never print. We write about both, honestly, with the practical lessons attached, because the unexpected isn’t separate from the adventure. It’s part of it.
Start here for the philosophy, or keep scrolling for the trips.
The Adventures
Where we have been, and how it actually went
Ontario to the Rockies by Trailer: The Route We Drove and What We Would Change
Our outbound route from Ontario to Jasper, the Icefields Parkway and Banff with a large travel trailer, with the changes we would make next time.
Newfoundland and the Maritimes in Four Weeks: An Itinerary Record in Progress
The skeleton of a real month-long trip east: two ferry crossings, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Lunenburg, with the unknowns clearly marked.
The Reality of Travelling With a Trailer
What a trailer actually changes about a trip: pace, routes, fuel, setup, and how many more things can break.
The Difference Between a Planned Itinerary and a Real Road Trip
An itinerary is a hypothesis and the road is the experiment. How to build slack into a plan without losing the plan.
Browse by: Canada · International · Road trips · Camping & trailer · Family travel · Weekend escapes
Illustrative photograph · AI-generated
When things go wrong
The Cursed Chronicles
Missed connections, breakdowns, equipment that gave up and plans that came apart at the worst moment. Every story here really happened, is told honestly, and ends with what we would do differently next time.
The rule is simple: if it didn’t happen, it doesn’t get written.
The Boarding Pass That Never Printed
Three flights, two boarding passes, one closed check-in counter in Guatemala City, and the unplanned detour through Costa Rica that followed.
The Trailer That Bounced Off the Hitch
Supplied as a story premise. No account found in the project files. Waiting for the real details before anything is written.
Itineraries
Plans you can actually use
Each one says whether it is proposed, researched or a trip we personally completed, and what to do when the plan changes.
Planning a Cross-Canada Road Trip: What to Think About Before Leaving
Direction, season, pace, ferries, reservations, provincial towing rules and a contingency budget. What to settle before you leave.
A Bruce Peninsula Weekend: A Researched Plan for Tobermory and the Grotto
A researched three-day plan for Tobermory and the Grotto, including the parking reservation system that catches people out.
How to read an itinerary here
- Proposed planned, not yet travelled
- Researched built from cited sources
- Personally completed a trip we actually took
Gear that works, gear that doesn’t
Equipment, towing and the lessons that cost money
Practical guidance with sources for anything safety-critical, and honest labels on what we have owned, researched or only considered.
What Every Trailer Owner Should Understand About Trip Preparation
Weight, the hitch connection, the walk-around and the roof. With a printable pre-departure checklist drawn from official sources.
What to Consider Before Choosing Camping and Towing Equipment
Ratings before features and problems before products. A decision framework for towing and camping equipment, with sources.
No sponsors, no affiliate links. Every gear page says whether we own the item, researched it or are only considering it.
Why we go
The plan gets you out the door. The road decides the rest.
Quiet evenings, early mornings and the small rituals that make a trip feel like a trip.
Illustrative photograph · AI-generated
Lessons from the road
What travel teaches the people who travel together
Children learn more from watching a parent handle a cancelled plan than from any speech about it. Travel hands every family a steady supply of small crises. Handled well, they turn into patience, problem-solving and the ability to laugh at yourself.
The Journal
Recent writing
The Rituals of Setting Up Camp
Back in, level, water, power, chairs. Why the most repetitive twenty minutes of a trip can also be the most satisfying.
Why We Keep Travelling Even When Things Go Wrong
The cost-benefit analysis never works out on paper, and we keep going anyway. An honest accounting.
Why the Best Travel Stories Often Begin With a Mistake
Nobody gathers around a campfire to hear about the flight that left on time. Why mishaps become the stories that last.
Also from The Cursed Traveler
Collection 01
Eight dress shirts with hidden camp-life patterns and 22 graphic tees, each built on an inside joke from the road: chock’d before coffee, quiet hours, 30 amp, the fire ring. They are concepts in development. Nothing is for sale.
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Trail Notes
A future email list for new stories, itineraries and practical tips. It isn’t open yet. There is no sign-up form on this site, and nothing about you is collected.