Social media can be an unpleasant digital playground and a “sewer” for some users. This isn’t to say that social media doesn’t have its virtues. Good moments do occur, and can lead to positive, memorable experiences that last a lifetime.

Here’s an example.

Global News reporter Séan O’Shea posted this on X on Oct. 5, “Starting our Guess Where Ontario trip.” There was a photo of a nicely designed travel package from Guess Where Trips, which said on the front, “Guess where you’ll go?”

I didn’t know where O’Shea was going. (He told me later that it was “fantastic.”) I also didn’t have the foggiest idea what this trip was all about.

Guess Where Trips, as I found out, is a fairly new company. It was launched in Jan. 2020 by Jess Off. She came up with this idea “after creating a scavenger-style road trip as a gift for her parents.” The business began on her living room floor, “armed with a laptop and a printer” and “six months pregnant with her first son at the time.”

How does it work? “Our trips include a ‘Before You Go’ package and four surprise stops,” according to its website. “Each stop is packed with a new destination, specific recommendations, maps, travel tips, and fun facts.” You select a day trip (or take a quiz to find something appealing), get your package either in the mail within 2-6 business days or electronically with a PDF version – and, as they put it, “hit the road!”

The trips can be taken at any time of year, although there are better days and more appropriate seasons associated with each one. There are routes in Canada and the U.S. Estimated driving times for the trip and each stop (excluding breaks or tour deviations) are included. Recommendations for everything from food to hiking trails can be found in the travel package. There are travel and weather updates on the main website. Additional items, including gift cards, travel journal, tote bags and a road trip game pack, can be purchased at an additional cost.

The mail version for Ontario-based day trips, which comes with separate booklets, is $65. The PDF version, which is emailed within minutes of ordering, is $39.

My wife and I were intrigued by this unique concept. We chose the Small Town Charm Trail, one of its best sellers, and opted for the PDF version. Since we didn’t know anyone who had ever gone on a Guess Where Trip, and had no idea what we were exactly doing, this seemed like the wisest strategy. We would go on this adventure with our son during Thanksgiving weekend in Canada.

I’m not going to spoil the entire trip. This isn’t a travel column, and it would be unfair to completely lift the veil of the element of surprise.

Suffice to say, this day trip was extremely well done. We were fortunate to go on a beautiful day with great weather. The travel route, including recommendations and surprise stops, was very well thought out and the directions were easy to follow. We visited several small towns and communities that none of us had ever seen before. (The main destination was one that we had visited many times.) We even met other people on the same Guess Where Trip that day.

What I am going to reveal are two interesting sites with local history that we saw on this memorable trip. One of them was in the travel package, while the other happened to be on the route. Both are worth seeing if you get a chance.

The first destination is Oasis in the Centre, a project constructed in the Wilmot Township Millenium Park in Wilmot, Ont. It officially opened on Oct. 2, 2000 to mark the township’s 150th anniversary.

There’s a sitting wall “built with fieldstone contributed by Wilmot Township families,” according to the official plaque, “that marks the site of the original 1850 Township Hall. A magnificent traditional bronze statue, “Leap of Faith,” created by Wilmot Township resident Ruth Abernethy, can also be seen. She’s a talented sculptor who has made other equally magnificent figures, including: Glenn Gould (CBC Studios, Toronto), Oscar Peterson (National Arts Centre, Ottawa), Big Ben and Ian Millar (Stewart Park, Perth, Ont.) and Queen Elizabeth II (Ontario Legislature, Toronto). The Wilmot statue shows two young people holding hands and about to leap from the stone archway. “They face the future with confidence, courage and spirit,” the plaque reads, “as did those who came before.”

Indeed, this park is a fascinating example of a modern oasis located in the middle of a small rural community.

The second destination is Broken Rail Brewing in St. Marys, Ont. The brewery is situated in what used to be St. Marys Junction Railway Station, a small station that was, according to its website, “built for the Grand Trunk Railway back in 1858.” Much of its original charm has been retained, along with a caboose resting on a small bit of old railway track.

The most interesting part of Broken Rail Brewing, however, was the station’s historical connection to the brilliant American inventor Thomas Edison.

That’s right. The 16-year-old Edison briefly worked as a telegraph operator and controller for Grand Trunk in Stratford and St. Marys. He grew up in Port Huron, Michigan, which is only a hop, skip and jump away from the Canada-US border. This old train station “is believed to be the only remaining structure in Canada in which the famous inventor…worked while employed with the Grand Trunk,” the Town of St. Marys website noted. Of interest, “the desk which Edison is purported to have worked at was removed from the Station and relocated to the Edison Institute in Dearborn, Michigan” in 1933.

Here are some other interesting facts.

According to a Dec. 3, 2019 piece in the Stratford Beacon Herald, Edison invented a “repeater telegraph that automatically sent an all-clear signal down the single line of track to St. Marys every 20 minutes.” Alas, there was one small problem that later occurred, “falling asleep at the switch, Edison nearly caused a collision in 1864.” Yikes!

Nancy Musselman, program coordinator for Thomas Edison Night at Stratford’s Queen’s Inn, told Beacon Herald reporter Galen Simmons that the inventor “still had to be held accountable, so Edison and his manager had to go to the head office for the Grand Trunk Railway in Toronto to answer to this.” Edison apparently “thought he was going to go to jail, so he slipped out the back door…came back to Stratford, packed his clothes and eventually made his way back to the United States.”

That’s unfortunate. The good news? Edison’s reputation in Canada has been repaired since he snuck out of Ontario more than 160 years ago!

I would highly recommend Guess Where Trips for a day trip adventure or a gift for family and friends. We will definitely use them again. Who knows what statues and famous people from history we may encounter on our next trip to…guess where?

Michael Taube, a long-time newspaper columnist and political commentator, was a speechwriter for former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper.