Small glint of light
Streaks across the universe;
Thoughts dispell in awe.
- Pleione
The lights are turned down, everyone is in bed, asleep... As we are all on the same floor with intersecting rooms, I listen to heavy breathing, light snoring, sleep talking, night mares and the occasional fart. As I make my last waking trip to the bathroom I check on all my loved ones, cover them for warmth and look at the faces soft and relaxed in sleep.
I close my book and roll over to look at the night sky and observe the stars and moon... During summer nights I watched bats fly swiftly catching the bloody mosquitoes. On a clear night I can almost see the constellations. On a cloudy night I see the shadows of the trees and little sky. No matter how I am feeling I allow myself to feel small, inconsequential, almost invisible. At the same time I realize that the night is the same everywhere, no matter what time zone, the same moon and stars look down on the East and the West. I will miss the opportunity to watch the night from the window behind me and beside me when I finally have a bedroom.
Life seemed so simple when I was small and I wished on a star every night... At 8 years old I wished for a million dollars every night (it never came true)... At 28 years old I wished for my baby's health (she was a beautiful infant as she is a beautiful teen)... At 44 years old I wish for peace and happiness in my girls future (I await anxiously for this)...
I hope they will never know how much sacrifice it takes to be a parent or how many nights I have cried for them, their worries, their sorrow, their dreams... I wish that they never experience the griefand loss that I have felt, I wish for them a life of success, security and unconditional love. I look at the stars and thank the universe for our health and home and I hope that one day my girls will truly appreciate what they have had as children and know that no matter what, all I have ever wanted is what is best for them.
Every mother wants to give every thing to her child... We want to withhold their pain, take them everywhere they want to go, give them every physical thing they wish for... Yet we know if we give them all they ask for they will not learn or grow. It takes all my strength to say no when it is not safe or to hold consistently to that path even when it is not popular.
One day I pray they will be parents who love and care for their children with all of their heart but will not have to experience the anguish... but, I don't think that is possible ... I think every parent suffers heart break as they parent their child. Some days I can't wait for the moment to come when this awful stage ends and then I am sad that it is over so quickly. I think of how that baby crying endlessly at night kept me up and I just wished she would stop. Now I wish she would let me hold her while she cries and pat her back, hushing softly that everything will be OK. I remember wishing she would learn to walk, then telling her to slow down...
I loved those moments where my daughter thought I was smart, beautiful and admired me. I hope that one day we will meet somewhere in the middle again, but in the meantime I will remember the words from a poem that one of my girls read to me and reminds me of when I feel down...The irony is the words she reads to me are exactly how I feel about her...
My Mother...
My wonderful mother
Never grows old,
Her smile is like sunshine
Her heart is of gold;
Her eyes are like stars,
They shine so you see
I love my mother,
She's precious to me!
Next time I shall continue on my journey... For now I needed to take a moment to reflect on my life as the moon reflects on the water at night.... G'night all!
We were cautiously optimistic as we left Swift Current and continued on. What would happen next? We all hoped that we could just go on and have a good trip. We would find someplace to stop later in the evening and then our ‘re-worked’ itinerary proposed we drive all the way through Manitoba in one day. None of us got too comfy because we didn’t really believe we were going to get far before trouble hit us again. However, we managed to drive for a few hours before we had to find a Tim Horton’s for dinner. We had all developed a liking for the chili and whole wheat bun, the only part that differed was our drink orders. Green tea for Len, XL coffee for me and usually chocolate milk for the girls. We were very happy with the Timmy gift cards we had received as gifts!
At one point we drove for quite sometime without seeing any gas stations, truck stops or anywhere to stop and fuel up and pee. Finally we found a place near the edge of Saskatchewan called “Stan’s Truck Stop”. It was your basic truck stop, gas station, convenience store and restaurant. Now, you would think out in the middle of the prairie where they rely on the traveler for business and there is NOTHING for at least 10 miles in any direction, you would get good service… right?
Hmmm… let me tell you a story about a man name Mohammed. Mohammed works at the ESSO station attached to Stan’s truck stop. Now I am sure Mohammed is a great guy… however… we did not see eye to eye on a few things. OK I am going to back up a bit. We pulled into the station (which was always a bit of a challenge, since as you recall I am driving a loaded pickup up with canopy and a 8’ x 16’ cargo trailer with 16,000+ lbs) . Anyway… I find the diesel pump and pull up, Len fuels us up and I take the girls inside to ‘use the facilities’.
I paid for my $68.00 of diesel, drinks and some chocolate bars… $80 later… I ask where the washroom is. The attendant (Mohamed) tells me “the washroom is out of service”. I tell him it has been a long drive and there are three girls who need to use a bathroom. He tells me he can’t help me but I could go to ‘Stan’s Restaurant’ next door to use their washroom. So, I tell Len we will be back in a few minutes, I hand him the bars, drinks and pull the truck forward. The girls and I then proceed to ‘Stan’s’ . The FIRST thing I notice at ‘Stan’s’ is the sign on the door “Washroom’s for paying customer’s only”. The girls tell me, “Mom, we can’t go in.” I say “follow my lead.”
I open the door, followed by two hesitant children. I walk right past the ‘hostess’ to the bathroom door and confidently place my hand on the door and pull. LOCKED! I then walk to the hostess and ask for the key. She says “No, the washroom is for customers only. So if you want to use the washroom you have to buy something.” I tell her (with my embarrassed children watching) “No, I just l spent $80 at the gas station and we need to use the washroom. We have travelled a long way and the gas station washroom is out of service, so he sent us over here and said we could use your washroom. So could I please have the key?!”
She says ‘My mother said that only paying customers can use the washroom, so if you buy a drink then I can give you the key.” (I should mention the woman is at least 30 years old.) At this point Jessica is bouncing from one foot to the other saying “MOM! I really need to pee!” I tell the woman I am not prepared to spend anymore money and to please let us use the key before she pees on the floor (which I was tempted to tell her to do!) At this point there were on lookers and the chef was watching me. I am fuming and starting to swear under my breath “BITCH!”... Now I realize this was NOT my best parenting moment or leading by example, but I was standing up for our principles! So please forgive my language.
I asked her what she suggested we do. I asked if she had children of her own and how would she feel if they needed to pee and couldn’t? She did not waver or care in any way about our predicament. I was livid at this point and my girls were almost laughing because it was so ridiculous and stupid and I was not going to back down. I then spoke very loudly about how rude she was, uncaring and asked for her name. I told her that I would be contacting the local Chamber of Commerce to complain and asked for her name.
As she smirked at me and rolled her eyes she wrote “Thuy” on the card. My parting comment was “You take the word “FRIENDLY” out of the slogan Friendly Manitoba!” I then told the girls to follow me and slammed the door on our way out. We stormed past Len who wondered why we were taking so long and went back to the gas station. I asked the attendant why he sent us there when they wouldn’t let us use the bathroom. He said, “I am sorry, I thought they would.” I was firm but angry and although I didn’t blame him personally, I told him we needed a resolution NOW!
He said “Ma’am, I can’t help you.” I said, “No, Mohamed, you ARE going to help me. We are three girls and we need to PEE NOW!” He told me he did not know what to do. I asked him, where do YOU pee? He said that he just started his shift. I said, “Hmmm, well you are on for 8 hours you must pee somewhere!” He said there is an employee washroom and I told him, fine I will use that. He said, no he was not allowed to let me use it. I said, “Phone your boss now.” So, he did and we finally got to use the washroom! After 20 minutes of fighting we PEED! It was EXQUISITELY painful!
Of course, the joke was on me because my parting line to the wanker at Stan’s was “You take the friendly out of Manitoba” as I drove away I realized she was laughing since we were STILL in Saskatchewan! The fourth dimension, the province of Manitoba is on the horizon... oh what do you hold in store for us?
Summary: Pee when you have the opportunity as you never know when you may have to pee on a floor!
We were happy to see the end of Golden and as we drove up the Golden hill and away from town Rachel said “Look at those statues!” and we all turned to see 6 Big Horn Sheep butts looking at us. We laughed at the first real Big Horn we had seen in years and all we saw were butts and Rachel felt a little silly to think they were statues. (However they WERE very still!)
Everywhere along the highway from Alberta through New Brunswick we saw signs to watch for Moose on the road. Stories are told of moose hitting vehicles and the bodies coming right through the front windshields. However as we journeyed on I knew I did NOT want to see a Moose, at least not close up anyway!
We drove cautiously from Golden to Stirling, about ½ hour on the other side of Lethbridge, a steady 100km per hour. Cars, trucks and scooters whizzed by but we kept plodding along. Every time I tried to increase speed and thought no one was looking Rachel would remind me “Mom, you are over 80, Mom you are over 90, Mom, stop you are over 100km!!!” I would try to justify my speed, but would ultimately slow down.
As we got closer to Lethbridge I started to get excited… just let us get there! I know there are people, a bonfire, food and beer waiting for us! I NEED beer! The drive was monotonous, the weather got squirrely and my passengers took turns snoozing, but me? NOPE! I have to stay awake! We pulled out of Golden around 3pm and into Uncle Larry’s driveway by 11:30pm… LONG SLOW DAY!
The next few days were restful and fun. We got to see family, visit, nurse a slight hangover and most importantly Len got to spend much needed time with his only brother. As we came to each visit and potential goodbye Len would well up with emotion, joy at the friendship or relation, sadness knowing that he may never see these people again. I however was still so ecstatic at our adventure and the future that I could not get that sad. Not to be heartless but I was happy about the move! We all were really, including Len.
We know that when we see friends again that time will have passed, our connections together have blurred, the reasons that brought us together have changed and our position has been replaced. Can we really ever go back to where we were with a friend? It is kind of like in high school, you are best friends with someone and then the summer or a school parts you, you stay in touch but it is harder and harder and you slowly grow apart. You can never regain what you had and you have and everyone has found new friends or passions to substitute the past. I guess we will face those same changes. If and when we return to visit, our associations will be brief and contact will feel more as if with an acquaintance than with someone who meant so much. As much as we will try to see everyone the connection will be brief, I guess this is part of the circle of life?
We spent Friday night to Tuesday morning in Stirling. This allowed me to take the girls to see my brother and his family. What a great visit! I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. We laughed, commiserated and shared how we had been. Thank you Owen, Susan, Althea and adorable little Gaerhardt for making us so at home! We were just sorry to miss Jesse! While at Larry and Lylia’s, Len was able to see his nieces, brother in law and their families as well as to reconnect with Larry.
Larry spent the whole weekend working on my truck, Buddy! He gave him a complete once over, oil change, tire check, trailer check, new hitch and equalizer bars and anything else he could do to try to make his big ‘little’ brother safe for the journey ahead! By Tuesday morning it was time to leave. It had taken us one week of our trip to get from Nanaimo to Stirling and now we were heading on to Saskatchewan. We were eager to move forward! Hugs, tears and goodbyes were said… and off we went!
Knowing that the roads from the Alberta/Saskatchewan border had just reopened due to massive flooding and road washouts, I was not too sure what to expect. I had never driven further than Lethbridge before so we were starting to head out into unknown territory. I had travelled to Saskatchewan as a kid, and I think I was about 9 years old the last trip. At that time we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Giesbrecht at the Eagle campground not far from the Saskatchewan border.
As we travelled through the day we all felt relaxed and safe. The trip was getting less interesting as we went forward since we now had 2.5 Prairie Provinces to go through. The naps in the truck were getting more frequent and everyone (except me!) was asleep as we crossed the reopened highways, crossed the Saskatchewan Border and passed the campground I had been to as a kid.
I was enjoying the quiet with everyone sleeping and I watched the landscape go by. I always knew that I loved my country, but my god, it is beautiful! Every province had its own beauty and amazing qualities. I could see the original pioneers who travelled across in covered wagons pulled by oxen. I saw the children in my mind as they walked along the wagon train with their heads covered in bonnets and caps. I imagined the mothers giving birth along the road; the father’s facing off terrors of animals and enemies and keeping their family safe. As I watch the hay and long grasses wave in the wind I could see what it took to be what it is today. I was so grateful to have a vehicle, good roads and enough money and food to make my trip. 3 weeks to travel seemed lengthy but it was nothing compared to the long months summer and winter that pioneers trekked across the land. I was feeling great peace and slight melancholy as I imagined the prairie filled with tepee’s and buffalo and the loss that one culture faced to as other cultures took over the land.
By about 2pm I was getting a bit tired. The goal was to get to Moosejaw that night and in the morning explore the Moosejaw tunnels before we hit the road. We had been told about the tunnels that the Chinese had built while working the railroads and in the city. Apparently they did not like the snow and found alternative ways (tunnels) to get around the city to work the laundry, hotels, etc. I was excited to explore this as it was all new information to me. I found it fascinating, particularly since I was reading a book on Vietnam and the tunnels at the time and I found it very relevant.
We pulled into a rest stop that had a nice big turnaround for the truck and trailer. I kicked everyone out of the truck, put my seat into recline, bunched a coat into a pillow under my head and zonked out for about 45 minutes. When I woke up I used the lovely blue port a pottie to refresh myself and got everyone together to get started driving again. We waved goodbye to a 5th wheel and truck and to a motorcyclist and started to drive away…. We would be in Moosejaw in a few hours!
Uh oh! As I pulled onto the highway I heard a sound that seemed to come from the trailer. I pulled to the side and Len got out… something was wrong with the front axle on the trailer. (OK we are NOT mechanics but the smoke and burning wheel hub was enough to indicate we had a problem!) I hesitantly pulled a huge U turn and drove the wrong way down the highway to get back to the rest stop. As I drove I had de je vous of the old Steve Martin, John Candy movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”… I guess I had the flashback since a semi truck was in the same lane headed straight towards us! “YOUR’E GOING THE WRONG WAY!”
You may have surmised since I am writing this that I successfully executed the turn and re-entered the rest area. I then discovered that you can also use a GPS aka “Maggie” to locate commonly used travel points of interest. Our point of interest was a mechanic or tow truck driver! We had just passed a small community that did not have much near by and didn’t think it would make sense to call there for help. So I contacted a mobile mechanic in Swift Current, Sask. We only had to wait an hour or so for him to arrive with his truck and trailer and he informed us that we had a broken axel on the trailer and he could do a temporary repair but we would have to take it into the shop upon arrival in Swift Current.
The day had turned dark and we were seeing lightning in the distance, no problem, this happens on the prairies. However when the mechanic arrived and asked us to watch for any ‘cloud tunnelling’ or being circled by lightning while he fixed the truck, I did get a bit apprehensive. The rain began to pour down in sheets and when lightning struck followed by thunder in about .02 of a second we all jumped in our vehicles to wait it out. Sure, all we needed was to be hit by lightning!
After the rain slowed and lightning pulled back, the mechanic managed to repair the damage enough to give us a temporary axel to drive to Swift Current. He followed along behind us to ensure we were safe and took us into a small motel in town. We were to meet him in the morning so he could attempt to repair the trailer. We were excited because although it was 9pm at night (we still had to have dinner) we were right next to the pool and could watch Jess from our room with the door open. Oh yes, this is OUR trip right? Internet … down… pool… closed! This was the third pool closed (in high season) for repairs!
We spent the whole next day at the mechanics, I napped in the truck between visiting with his wife in the dirty old shop, sitting on the broken down furniture, surrounded by a big shop dog and a multitude of new kittens, surrounded by chair smokers and the “F” bomb. Nice! The good news arrived when the mechanic told us it would take 2 weeks to get the part in for the cargo trailer as it had to be ordered from the states. TWO WEEKS? YEAH RIGHT! I guess he saw my grief stricken face and while Len and I went for a walk to determine what to do the mechanic began to come up with a way to weld us a new part that he built.
I was so glad when we came back that we had a crafty guy working on the truck. What had our walk discovered? We could NOT put the trailer on the train to send ahead (we walked all over and could not find an office to talk to someone at the train station) and so Len’s other option was “hold a yard sale in the parking lot, sell all we own and the trailer and continue on.” NO!!!! I had already sold or given away almost everything I owned and treasured. Al l I had really kept were a few personal belongings, photos, memories, some of the kids’ extra special items from their rooms… I was devastated… this was not going to be the journey we hoped for!
We walked back dejectedly to the shop and were prepared to tell the mechanic to forget it, this was the plan when he told us he had it all worked out, he could fix it and get us on the road by mid to late afternoon! WOW! What a great guy! He had his wife order us lunch and drive me to pick the kids up from the motel. I was SO excited! He put aside all other work and prioritized us… THANK YOU!!!
A couple of hours later and we were on our way again, $1500 poorer but we still had our belongings, had met some lovely people and as they say…. “We’re on the road again!....” More of the trials and tribulations of the Sherman journey to come…..
There is more to say than I could possibly tell to explain the events that have occurred in the past two weeks. OK not QUITE two weeks, however as of 3pm tomorrow - we will have been away for that long and we are not even 1/2 way through our journey!
After leaving Hope on the true first day we had a great drive and a bit of a lazy day... we meandered up the Coquihalla Highway and through Kamloops with the intent to proceed to Golden for the night. I had in my pre-planning way set up a rough itinerary of what we would do and where we would go each day. Day one - Golden, BC! We accomplished that goal.... but not quite as intended!
We headed along past Salmon Arm and stopped at a station to check the engine oil level, anti-freeze for the radiator, and general engine maintenance, We were being very careful about paying attention to all of the fluid levels. Len was channeling his inner mechanic in preparation for his future as a red neck! I must say he was very sexy - leaning over that truck, dipping his stick in and pulling it out! Dirty but fun! I teased him and told him that he might just deserve that man room by the time we reached NB.
We all laughed and enjoyed the drive. We were very impressed at how Buddy (our truck) pulled that cargo trailer and seemed to head up those long mountain hills with little to no trouble. We were feeling pretty fine about that purchase and Buddy was a welcome member of our family!
Just outside of Revelstoke there was a pullout where lots of motor homes and truckers stopped to rest and use the facilities. I was getting a bit tired so I asked everyone to let me take a short nap, just 10-20 minutes so that I could drive the last hour or so and then rest for the night. The girls were pooped out from the travel and preparation so they just crashed in the back seat. Len went for a walk and took some pictures. All was well.
After about 30 minutes, I woke up, used the port a pottie and went out to find Len and let him know I was ready to continue. I was feeling quite proud of myself for acknowledging my fatigue and getting into the habit early of resting when required. Yes we were in for an amazing trip!
About 10 minutes down the road I realized that although I had been watching all of the gauges carefully I had not looked at the fuel gauge after my rest and should have filled up the diesel in Revelstoke. Len made a comment to me about the importance of being more careful and how it was my job to keep track of these things. I agreed but also said that it was not really a problem since we had fuel in the tidy tank in the back of the truck. Len gently reminded me that the canopy and truck bed were overflowing with items to move and we could barely open the tail gate without things falling out so how could we possibly empty the whole truck on the side of the road and get to the fuel tank???
I (being the calm person I am) said let me try since we don't actually have any choice I don't think we can make it back to Revelstoke and we could drain the tidy tank into the fuel tank then drive on to Golden, fuel up and stop for the night. It really is not a big deal so let's just do it, ok? (Such a good thing I am so relaxed.)
We pulled out some stuff from the back of the truck and I found some hedge clippers that allowed me to squish in the truck, lean way back and FLIP the lever with the hedge clippers, let the tank drain and re-FLIP the lever, no problem! Right? Um, well, yes it WAS a problem! The fuel worked fine, but while I did that Len lifted the hood and checked everything else out. We were overheating and the reserve tank was dry...
The cap was really hard to open so although I thought it had been checked, I guess it hadn't. Len my muscular man was finally able to open it and that is when we noticed it was dry... We called the towing company as we were afraid to continue on - Day one and a break down? What are the odds? The upside is we were happy to think that at least it happened early and nothing else could go wrong from here right?
The towing company was very helpful, they knew that it would be an hour and a half before they could get to us so suggested a few ways to keep things running and get into town for repairs. We followed their advice and used 16 water bottles to fill the reserve tank to the radiator and Len made 2 more trips down a very steep and treed hill past the dirt and mud to a mountain creek and filled up the bottles and returned to fill the tank. He was such a trooper and even though he slipped and fell, he thought it wasn't safe for us to go help. So the girls and I stayed out of his way and tried to help in anyway we could. Poor Len, his aching body was being worked hard!
We then drove to the nearest gas station located at Roger's Pass. I was so glad to get there as we were overheating again. I ran into the station and looked at the store which had two huge rooms, one for tourist paraphernalia and anther for convenience store items and roadside vehicle repair. The size of the store was nothing in compare to the empty shelves. I could not believe that the store was spread over two rooms and half the shelves were empty! They had NO antifreeze and only four chocolate bar choices! I mention the chocolate bars since I knew it would be at least an hour until dinner when we hit Golden and a bite to eat would hold us over.
As mentioned there was not any anti freeze but the attendant (who mentioned his boss was on the verge of bankruptcy so we were lucky they even HAD diesel!) got us a couple of jugs of water to help refill the truck. After a short stop we moved on and had barely driven 5 minutes down the road when we overheated again, the truck BURPED up all the water and the little coolant we had and we were hooped!
We now called Classic Towing ... AGAIN... and they said not to go any further they would send the truck - in an hour to an hour and a half! We were 100km away from Golden ... We needed a truck that would pull both the truck and the trailer so needed the big ass truck with flat deck and towing hitch. The kids were good, we were all a little frustrated but not much we could do so we made the best of it. A few games of Go Fish and photo taking consumed our time.
The truck eventually showed and a nice guy named Brad drove us into town (about 40 minutes to hook up and another hour to town) we got to the motel at about 10:15pm and ordered dinner by 10:30pm.... late night but we met our goal... we were in Golden!
The next day we extended our check out until 2pm as we waited for the truck to get repaired and Len and I swam with Jess in the pool. I had a blast doing my imitation of "a white whale sliding down the water slide" SPLASH! I had fun and screamed a lot so it is a good thing no one else was there. Lucky for them anyway, eh?
The truck was fixed, so we got a ride down to pick it up and we were glad the trailer was already at the TOP of Golden hill and we would not have to pull up there since it was such a steep incline. The mechanics showed us a few small repairs on the leaks and suggested that we get a new intake manifold once we were done our trip but they had epoxy'ed it to hold together. He also suggested we leave the reserve cap at half mast to allow "prevent the kettle from boiling" so to speak. We followed the shop's advice...
We drove up the hill and guess what? If you guessed, did you overheat? You would be right! We immediately tried to pull over past the campers and big rigs... We called the shop... again... and they said ok bring it in. Well, for what we paid we did not get far! Of course now it is about 3pm on a Wednesday the day before Canada Day when the shop would be closed... I will admit we were starting to get discouraged! We went to the shop to learn - not to our surprise - that no one would even look at the truck until Friday and if parts were needed we were lucky if they would arrive by Monday and now we are looking at potentially needing to have the head gasket replaced! OUCH! We are looking at close to a week in Golden and thousands of dollars in repair... We were still not even out of BC!
We found a room with a lovely little kitchen and the girls and I went grocery shopping. The only good thing Rachel could see is that there was internet and she would have plenty of time to do her hair since we were not going anywhere!
We spent Canada Day finding free pancake breakfasts and lunchtime BBQ's, checking out the museum and anything else including fireworks to fill our time! Much to our surprise we had a surprise call from Len's family - niece Angela was working on some way to get us to Stirling for the weekend (Alberta) to spend with the family. They were willing to go so far as bring a flat deck for the truck and another truck to tow the cargo trailer! We were overwhelmed with the generosity! Meanwhile Len's other niece Sherry and her boyfriend popped in to see how they could help. They had planned on surprising us in Stirling but came by to see if anyone wanted a ride!
To summarize, Jess headed off with Sherry and Chris. Rachel, Len and I stayed over since we could not locate anyone to help us get our truck/trailer out of the compound since it was a holiday. Good news! The truck was ready by 10:30 am on Friday and had been tested and was ready to go! We were so excited! It wasn't the head gasket and was way cheaper!
Len and I raced over to the repair shop and went for a test drive. The truck was so happy! YAY BUDDY! We could be on the road by noon and at Uncle Larry's just after dinner! Ecstatic would describe our emotions! Technically we would remain on schedule!
You might have guessed that this didn't happen? It was apparent by now that anything that COULD go wrong, just might! I mentioned to Len that the truck looked as though the cab and canopy were getting wider apart.... The mechanic noticed too... Yup, the truck frame was twisting from the weight and if we went any further it might SPLIT IN HALF while we were driving! AAAAHHHH! Would this ever end? I mean Golden is a lovely town and the people were truly exceptional! We just wanted to LEAVE!
Four hours and $500 more later we were on our way, Len, Rachel and I. We traveled in our overloaded truck and trailer that should maybe have carried 10,000 lbs but with us and everything we owned in the world... weighed over 16,000 lbs!
We were never more grateful to pull into Stirling, AB and be surrounded by loving family, a huge fire and LOTS of beer! Yes we had left one province and entered the next! It only took us 5 days to make at trip that takes most people 15 hours... but we were there, alive, well and still smiling!
The next update with our further adventures coming soon!
I am currently sitting in Swift Current Sask, waiting for more repairs… My fault really, I was feeling good about our trip and we were driving along the highway. We left Alberta yesterday and Larry’s parting comment was…. “You are good to go! I don’t anticipate any more problems along the way. Done everything I can for the truck and trailer….” I am thinking Larry jinxed us! Thanks Larry! You NEVER say never!
The journey started out promising… we spent all of the last day loading up, realizing there was not enough room for much of what had been saved to the last minute, things I just did not want to part with! Trudi ran to the bus depot the morning of the move to get a list on what it cost to send boxes out and it did not seem to crazy so that was the plan! Off I sent Debra to get boxes, Trudi got the rates, Karen and Roslyn and I went through last minute packing, sorting, giving away, donating to the crazies across the street (who think they hit the frickin’ mother load!) Karen was trying to throw everything in the garbage and Roslyn packed our suitcase… we went from a large Rubbermaid bin to a small overnight bag for two of us! She was great… we just realized later that poor Len had one shirt, 2 t shirts and just the pants on his bum! OOPS!
I was so appreciative of my friends as I would never have made it out that day. Talk about crazy! People coming and going, saying goodbye, helping, picking up stuff… Paul the sweetheart that he is brought us a beautiful flat of cedar and arbutus saplings to plant trees in our new yard that reminded us of home. Sorry! No room!
Of course I could not only concentrate on packing and get the last load into the trailer and truck bed but also had to do banking, get a prescription filled, a few quick errands, speak at the final assembly of the year as PAC chair and … hmmm.. something else…. Oh ya EAT! Thanks Roslyn for making me stop to breathe and eat. (If you don’t tell anyone I will admit that I was a little tense that day!)Sadly the last assembly and my presentation were a bit weak… it was hard to say what I felt and to put across the importance of a PAC in the school to parents… Well I tried, I did my part and I worked with an amazing group of people. Many of whom will remain friends for life. I truly hope others come forward to help the kids and school…
I then rushed out of the assembly on to more errands, final goodbyes and had to have Elaine drop Jess off at home for me so that I could get my butt and the family on the ferry for 5pm! I wanted to be in the line up about 3pm since I was concerned the line up may be crazy. So I rushed frantically starting to work up a sweat a tad jittery and … yes… manic! Of course I am always easy to get along with and never tense in a way others can notice (at least that is what I think!) however, I apologize for snapping at Iona but really it was a bit of a rough time and I admit I was not at my most patient. My apologies Iona!
Meanwhile as the whole move was progressing my poor daughter Rachel was torn between going and the sadness she felt at missing her boyfriend and friends. There was a lot of crying that day! Weeping, wailing and my god the mascara companies could NOT keep up! My heart felt for her, her first love, her first loss, they have great hopes for the future and they may materialize, but if not, then she has loved and lost which was better than to have never loved at all. (Or so they say!)
We made it to the ferry with plenty of time to spare. We were first in line which allowed Rachel time to pull herself together. Len and I had a moment to relax and calm down after a month of heartfelt goodbyes. Pulling onto the ferry we felt we were on our way. As we sat on the boat, watching Nanaimo drift into the distance we knew that we would be back, or would we? With all that life has to offer and all that can go wrong or change maybe we wouldn’t be back… I know that these were thoughts that had haunted Len as he said goodbye to his friends and family. I know in my heart he will be back, but he has to believe it to.
About 10 minutes after we had been on the ferry Len’s eyes started to flutter, his head nodded and he drifted away. I was tired but not ready to relax… and then my phone knocked, I had a text. Brandi’s long awaited baby had arrived! She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, 8 lbs 8 ozs! I had to wake Len up to tell him as I could not contain my excitement! Congratulations Brandi, James and beautiful little boy… we can’t wait to see you. IF WE EVER GET THERE! We are grandparents again and know that you will be the most wonderful and loving parents.
We drove off the ferry and off to meet Paula and Steve for dinner… they later helped us top up the oil and get us on our way. We drove to Hope BC for our first night on our journey and as we parked the truck and trailer so it wouldn’t be stolen, we all congratulated ourselves on a good first day!
Do stay tuned as we have been gone since June 28th and now it is July 8th we have managed to get almost across 4 provinces and met many kind mechanics along the way! Yes we are doing OUR part to help advance the economy in the small towns of Canada…. More to come…
