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Consultants have their summer vacation destinations decided for them. This makes life easier. No poring over websites to compare cruises with RVing, yurts with BNBs. No need to read the reviews and decide which are genuine. Wherever our clients call home, off we go, at least now the pandemic is over.

Hence my time, and my colleague Nancy Collins’ time, in Dresden.

For the geographically challenged, of which I am one, Dresden is near Chatham. For the more geographically challenged, Chatham is between London and Windsor. Both are close to Highway 401 as it makes its way southwest towards the US border at Detroit.

For the economically challenged, of which I am one, Dresden is agricultural. It has a canning plant, Conagra, that makes Aylmer’s tomato products. Besides tomatoes, area crops include seed corn, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, cucumbers, pumpkins, green peas, field peppers and sugar beets. It is the breadbasket of Canada.

For the historically challenged, of which I am one, Dresden was a destination in the mid-1800s for American slaves seeking a better life. Among them was Josiah Henson, who was “the driving force behind the Dawn Settlement (located close to Dresden), a model community for former slaves….Its goal was to employ and educate former slaves, and a focal point of the settlement was the British-American Institute, an industrial school.” Henson “…was also involved in the Underground Railroad, and he served as a model for the title character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851–52)”. He is the first Black man to be featured on a Canadian stamp.

Today, you can visit the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History, which “… recognizes the accomplishments of Josiah Henson through interpretive videos, interactive exhibits, numerous artifacts and tours that reflect the Black experience in Canada. The two-hectare (five-acre) site consists of the Josiah Henson Interpretive Centre, with its Underground Railroad Freedom Gallery and North Star Theatre, plus three historical buildings – including the Josiah Henson house – two cemeteries, a sawmill and numerous artifacts that have been preserved as a legacy to these early pioneers.” 

For the cuisinely challenged, of which I am not one, given I currently go around 230 (pounds that is), Dresden is the home of the Union Block Bakery. Situated in a former shoe store on a corner on main street, Union Block is the creation of Kathy Kiar, an accountant who found culinary religion in the form of a café of her own, serving great sandwiches and even better desserts, in part by relying heavily on local suppliers. On our last visit, Nancy opted for the Bakery’s special offering of six pastries for $12.99, because just one butter tart, or one fudge brownie, or other taste treat, wouldn’t be nearly enough for the long drive home.

For the accommodation challenged, of which I was one, there is the Hub & Spoke BnB, also right in the downtown. If you have ever stayed at the Retro, an upscale hotel in downtown Chatham, the Hub & Spoke will look very familiar, with good reason. The owner of H&S, Matt Lessard, also a builder, was involved in the renovation of the historic building that produced the Retro. He put those lessons to work converting a storefront into two very visitor-friendly suites for anyone spending time in Dresden. A beautiful example of repurposing existing space.

Just caution, BIG IDEAS readers: when you are searching for information about Dresden, be sure to specify Dresden ONTARIO. On one of our sojourns, Nancy was checking on places to eat and googled “Dresden”. She was amazed with the number and variety of options, that is, until she realized that they were all located in Dresden GERMANY.

Besides going to Dresden, summer gave me the opportunity to watch more educational videos about the Universe and our expanding knowledge of its origin and current state. 

Of all the themes being explored in these videos, the predominant one is the search for life beyond Earth. This is due in large measure to the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope last year. JWST can identify planets revolving around stars, as well as the characteristics of those planets’ atmospheres, in spite of the miniscule size of a planet compared with a star, and their distance from JWST. While this won’t allow scientists to determine whether life exists, the composition of their atmospheres will provide powerful hints.

Meanwhile, it is possible life exists within our solar system. Of the planets, Mars is a candidate and maybe Venus. More likely are the moons Europa and Enceladus that revolve around Jupiter and Saturn respectively and which are believed to contain liquid water oceans under their frozen exteriors.

Latecomers to flying, millions of years after birds and even dinosaurs, humans first got off the ground in balloons, then gliders. Adding engines for propulsion, we finally stayed aloft, at least for short periods, seconds actually, in the early 1900s. Over the 100-odd years since, we have managed not just to stay aloft but to exit our planet, reaching all the other large bodies within our solar system and sending five space craft beyond it. 

If other aspects of our world seem to be in disarray, we can take some solace in such a fantastic accomplishment. Having done so much so quickly, can the discovery of life, some kind of life, somewhere, be far behind?