I asked #Guelph for everyone’s favourite Halloween displays and turned the recommendations into a drive-able map. (pro-tip: opening the map link on your phone will show you a preview of the route. To turn this into Google’s step-by-step driving directions, click on the list of stops at the top – replace the very first address [repeated twice] to ‘Your Location’ and voila! You now have drive-able directions for the entire route right from your doorstep!). Map originally posted on Guelph This & That.
Personal update:
We recently moved to my wife's hometown of Winnipeg for a combination of reasons. What this means for you - dear reader - is my Guelph map updates will not be as frequent. No more yard sale maps or little library maps, I am afraid.
With that said, I will definitely be sending out Halloween and Christmas Maps every year because I know families put in a lot of effort decorating these houses, and I know many more families enjoy taking their kids out to see them.
I feel incredibly lucky to call Guelph one of my 'hometowns'. I've always said 'Home is a habit, and belonging can be a practice.' You can get better at belonging to places, - choose to make any town feel like your 'hometown' - simply by paying attention to what your community needs and using your goofy hobbies to get there.
During my time in Michigan as a grad student from India, I was known as the 'Local Energy Guy' because that is where I felt I would be most useful to my community. Then in Guelph, over the course of COVID related lockdowns and travel restrictions, I ‘became’ the 'Guelph Maps Guy'. Who knows what purpose will call to me now Winnipeg? Wish me luck! :)
There is no easy way to express the breadth and depth of my feelings, so this will have to suffice. I only hope that you think of our time together just as fondly as I will, and that you will wish us the best for our next stage of life.
- With lots of love, Abhi
(Abhi in Winnipeg)