Growing up in Edmonton, I loved the familiarity of it. It was home, it was comfortable, and for a long time, it was enough. But once I started traveling, something shifted. I realized the world was far biggerâand that staying put simply because it was familiar wasnât going to work for me.
Travel didnât make me dislike Edmonton. It just made me curious about everything else.
My first real attempt at leaving came in my early 20s, when I moved to Calgary to work in a bar. That experience taught me something important early on: not every move is forward progress. The routineâsleep late, eat cheap, work nightsâfelt like drifting, not building. And that discomfort turned out to be useful. It pushed me back to school and forced me to think long-term instead of week-to-week.
Thatâs where my travel mindset really started to form.
I learned that movement alone isnât the goalâintentional movement is. You donât travel just to escape; you travel to test things. Places. Lifestyles. Versions of yourself. Some fit. Some donât. And thatâs okay.
When I later returned to Calgary in 2006 with a real career and a stable paycheck, I missed another lesson entirely. Instead of exploring the cityâor taking advantage of how close I was to places like BanffâI spent most weekends driving back to Edmonton. Comfort won again. Looking back, that was a missed opportunity.
Thatâs when it finally clicked for me:
If you donât intentionally experience where you are, youâre just passing timeâno matter how far youâve traveled.
That mindset is what drives how I travel now. Slow travel. Staying longer. Living locally. Paying attention. Choosing experiences over routines that feel safe but stagnant. I donât believe in rushing through places anymore. I believe in letting them reveal whether they fitâor whether itâs time to move on.
Edmonton gave me roots. Travel taught me not to cling to them.
Here are the before-and-after photos of the guysâsome of whom Iâve known for over 35 years.
Time did its thing.
And yes, Iâd like to point out that I still have hair, unlike that married crew. đ€
Make of that what you will.
We grew up watching the Edmonton Oilers win five Stanley Cups in seven years. At the time, it felt normalâalmost expected.
Looking back, that early dominance absolutely screwed us.
They havenât won a championship since, and weâve watched almost every game along the way. Thatâs 35 years of mostly losing hockey, punctuated by just enough hope to keep us emotionally invested.
Then came 2006 and 2024âboth trips to the Finals, both ending in Game 7 losses, just to remind us that joy is temporary and fandom is pain. Add another loss in the final in 2025 to the pain.
Honestly, it feels intentional that they’re messing with us at this point.
And yetâŠ
Go Oilers Go!! 
Since the Edmonton Oilers have sucked for so long, weâve had to entertain ourselves in other ways over the years.
Desperation breeds creativity.
Here are the three Oilers-themed songs I created while in Mexicoâbecause apparently thatâs where peak hockey content happens now for me. The first one somehow became our goal song, which still makes me laugh every time.
Rock bottom has its perks in the other two attempts! 
I spent a lot of time walking through the Edmonton River Valley in 2018â2019, during the period when I was seriously considering moving back home.
Those walks did a lot of the thinking for me.
I thought I could adapt, but then the Universe reminded me of who I had become.
I thought I was cool!
I am the only one who does! 
I put in a lot of miles going up and down that river, with my longest walk clocking in at over 10 miles (16 km). Those werenât casual strollsâthey were thinking walks. The kind where decisions quietly sort themselves out one step at a time.
Below are a few of my favorite walks pulled from my Strava historyâproof that sometimes the best clarity comes from just putting one foot in front of the other, over and over again.
It was cold AF some daysâbut also unbelievably beautiful.
The kind of cold where your body has no choice but to work overtime just to stay warm, which honestly made it a great workout. Nature plus suffering equals cardio, apparently.
Here are some of my favorite walks, all filmed in the Edmonton River Valley and posted on my YouTube channel:
NorthAmericanDarrell – YouTube
If nothing else, theyâre proof that you donât need perfect weather to get outsideâyou just need a decent jacket and questionable judgment, and good company. 
