92-year-old CAA Member recreates hitchhiking adventure with his son after 50 years

Fifty years ago, Andrew Lumsden set off on a hitchhiking trip across Canada with his 10-year-old son, Gavin. 

The idea wasn’t Andrew’s. It came from his wife, Elisabeth. 

In 1976, she suggested the pair shoulder their backpacks and head west to Vancouver from Ottawa, meeting strangers and collecting memories along the way. What started as a bold family experiment became one of the defining experiences of Gavin’s childhood. 

This summer, Andrew and Gavin decided to do it again. 

Now 92, Andrew joined his 60-year-old son for a nearly three-week journey through Atlantic Canada in June. While planes, trains, ferries and taxis occasionally helped them along the way, the heart of the trip remained hitchhiking across Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. 

Along the way, they documented their travels through a Facebook blog called the Two Thumbs Up Tour. 

For Andrew, the journey was never really about the thousands of kilometres travelled. 

“It was very enjoyable. It was an incredible experience,” he says. “Most of all, it was the people that we met.” 

Fifty years ago, Andrew’s goal was simple: Bring his 10-year-old son home safely. This summer, Gavin joked that the responsibility had shifted. As they stood on highway ramps waiting for rides across Atlantic Canada, his job was to make sure his 92-year-old father made it home in one piece. 

A father-son adventure 50 years in the making 

Andrew’s path to Canada began long before either journey. Born in Argentina to British parents, he spent his childhood on the Pampas before moving to England as a teenager. After studying at the London School of Economics, he applied for a job in Canada and immigrated in 1958. Living in different countries helped shape his outlook on life. “I’ve lived in three quite different cultures. I think that immediately makes you open to new experiences,” Andrew says. 

That willingness to embrace the unfamiliar became a family trait for Andrew and Elisabeth and the three children they raised together. 

Looking back, Gavin, the Ottawa station manager for RogersTV, now realizes the original 1976 trip influenced much more than he understood as a 10-year-old. 

“Only in the time since did I gradually realize, wow, what a seminal trip that was,” says the longtime community volunteer. “It shaped who I became.” 

The adventure attracted national attention at the time. Father and son later appeared on journalist June Callwood’s television program In Touch, where a young Gavin ended up stealing much of the spotlight. 

As the 50th anniversary approached, old photographs resurfaced, memories returned, and the milestone felt worth celebrating. They decided to finish exploring the part of Canada they had missed the first time. 

Why hitchhiking was the only way to travel 

Many travellers would have rented a car, but that would have defeated the purpose. The heart of both journeys was always hitchhiking. 

Standing on highway ramps with homemade signs, waiting for rides and accepting the uncertainty of where each day might lead created opportunities they could never have planned. 

“If you’re in a car and stay at a hotel, your chances of meeting a local person are somewhat limited,” says Gavin. 

Instead, every ride became a conversation. 

Drivers shared stories about their communities, families, careers and lives. Some drove the pair well beyond their destinations. Others altered their own plans entirely. 

One fisherman on Prince Edward Island added roughly 80 kilometres to his own journey to ensure Andrew and Gavin reached a friend’s harbour. A Nova Scotia woman arranged for a neighbour to rescue them after rain stranded them near Halifax. Another driver insisted on taking them all the way to St. Andrews, N.B., despite heading somewhere else. 

“It turned out that every single person that gave us a ride was interesting,” Andrew says. “And they were interested in us.” 

The kindness of strangers across Atlantic Canada

 The generosity they encountered became the defining theme of the trip. 

Andrew was struck by the friendliness everywhere they went, particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick. 

In St. Andrews, he remembers seeing a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) cruiser sitting unattended with its windows down while an officer grabbed a coffee. 

The moment reflected something he felt throughout the Maritimes: Trust. 

“You can’t step off the sidewalk anywhere,” he says of Newfoundland. “Cars just stop.” 

The father and son were continually surprised by people willing to help complete strangers. 

Many of those strangers later followed their online posts, checking the blog each morning to see where they had landed next. 

One woman told Gavin she started every day by looking for updates. “I never imagined we’d have that impact,” he says. 

The trip reinforced something both men already believed: Most people are kinder than we think. 

How a lifelong CAA Member travels with confidence 

Andrew has been a CAA Member for decades, dating back to the early years of his driving life in Canada. As far as he’s concerned, owning a vehicle and having a CAA Membership simply go together. 

“If you have a car, you have CAA Membership,” he says. 

Over the years, he’s come to rely on the peace of mind it provides. Most recently, CAA helped him replace a dead battery. Whether travelling close to home or farther afield, that reliability has kept him renewing his Membership year after year. 

The spirit behind the Two Thumbs Up Tour 

Ask Andrew and Gavin what lesson families should take from the Two Thumbs Up Tour and both arrive at the same answer: Say yes more often. 

Over nearly three weeks on the road, that attitude connected them with generous strangers and the family and friends who followed their adventure from home. 

One of the Lumsden family’s favourite sayings is a twist on the famous expression: When you come to a fork in the road, take it. 

“When life presents you with an opportunity, you need to dive in,” Gavin says. 

For a father and son who have now completed two unforgettable hitchhiking adventures separated by half a century, that willingness to embrace the unexpected has led to new roads, new friendships and lasting memories.