Arrived in Niagara Falls!

After waking up at 5 AM yesterday morning to the sound of booming thunder and flashing lights, with a pounding headache, I was not off to a good start. I managed to finally fall asleep again only to be woken up to my alarm at 6AM signaling it was time to get up for breakfast. This was the only hotel of the 3 we stayed at that offered a continental breakfast, so we were going to take advantage of that. I finally managed to get downstairs and make myself a bowl of oatmeal, and pour a cup of coffee, then made it back to the room to put them both down untouched while I tried to make the nausea stop. I was able to swallow a few spoons of oatmeal before crawling back into bad, squeezing my eyes shut, hoping the pounding headache and accompanying nausea would go away. It didn't. I was not well. Headaches always make me feel nauseous, but this is the first time it's actually made me throw up. Not a nice picture, I know. So we didn't actually leave the hotel until around 9, or 9:30 in the morning. Rather than the 7 or 8 we were aiming for.
But you know, when you consider the time difference: 9AM in Wisconsin is really 7AM in BC, so were actually doing alright. That was our third early morning, following several days of extreme heat and dehydration in the car, little sleep, lots of "excitement" and emotions in Kamloops, etc. etc. etc. I think we did alright.

Yesterday may have been the longest drive day of my life. I slept off and on in the car until noon or so. The hour of 4PM seemed to drag on for days. We stumbled in at 9:30PM EST, and sat here dazed for two hours before crawling into bed. I think we were both pretty out of it.

But you know what? Most importantly, we made it! We are now in Niagara Falls. We are at our new temporary home, with Ian's parents, until we find jobs and an appartment.

I can't quite wrap my head around it yet. It still feels like we're visiting, although we drove ourselves here this time, rather than being picked up at the airport. I guess it will feel different when we're settled in our own place. Maybe it will take a few days to adjust. I still have no idea what to expect. This feels so weird.

Photographs smotographs, who needs photographs?

I saw fireflies tonight! I don't think I've ever seen a firefly before! Oddly enough, they're apparently a bit like fairies and when you return for photographic proof, they disappear.

The moon is red. It's awesome. Tried to take a picture of that too, but it just looks so tiny and insignificant.

Today was not a good picture day. Every time I tried to take a picture, it seems it didn't turn out. I tried to capture the Mississippi River as we raced over it, but alas, the picture is pathetic.

This morning I was scanning the sky for tornados. All I saw was some awesome fork lightning and one heck of an ominous rain cloud. At first I thought it might be a huge tornado from a distance, because of the angle of the rain falling. It seemed to have a curve to it. It wasn't. I think I'm glad. Besides, I like lightning, so I'm happy with that. However, again, no pictures.

Thunderstorms in the morning kept us a bit cooler at the start. It wasn't until 1 or so that I started feeling really hot. Luckily I planned ahead this time and filled the cooler bag with ice from the hotel before we left, two bottles of water, a can of Sprite, and two Red Bulls for Ian. We savoured the water throughout the day, and I dipped paper towel into the melting ice water to hold on our necks. I wiped it down my arms, my face, my legs, and tucked it in the front of my dress. It was fantastic.

Ian drove all day. He did a great job. But I'm still exhausted and I feel one heck of a headache coming on. I can't imagine how he must be feeling!

Looking forward to arriving tomorrow and I think it will be some time before I want to do another road trip!

West to East Day 2

The morning started bright and sunny, and a wonderful temperature in the Gas City, Medicine Hat. I drove to Regina, Saskatchewan today. I must say, the first hour was great. The second hour was okay. The third hour I was bored. Bored silly. I have never been so bored while actually driving. It's not that the prairies aren't pretty, because they are, but it's just that it's straight. Then there's a little hill. Then there's a sign warning of a slight bend in the road. Then it's straight. Repeat for 11 hours. That was much of our day!

We stopped in Moose Jaw for lunch and to take the requisite picture standing under the giant moose. The pictures are on the cameras and I'm too tired to post them tonight. Besides, everyone who's been there has a picture under the giant moose so I'm sure you can figure out what it looks like. Replace the person/people in any said picture with Ian and myself. Done.

In Regina we switched drivers and Ian drove to Winnipeg. A few hours out of Regina I started feeling really car sick. I was trying to nap in the car when suddenly I felt like I couldn't breath, and I realized how hot it had gotten. Earlier in the day the sun was hot, and it felt hot on your skin, burning hot. But okay! I can handle that hot. Suddenly the air was so thick and heavy, even with the window wide open, that I couldn't seem to catch my breath. And I was thirsty! I took a sip of my water, only to realize it was hot. Like tea. But just water. And it wasn't satisfying my thirst at all. In fact, the warm water in my throat was making me feel worse and I suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous! I warned Ian to drive carefully - I might suddenly need to pull over. We were just about in Brandon, and when we got there I thought, it's not toooo much further to Winnipeg, certainly a bit longer and I'll be okay. Besides, we drove through it before I noticed really. Then, probably ten minutes or so out of Brandon I realized I really needed water. I was still feeling horribly nauseous and sooooo unbearably hot!! This stretch of highway seems to go forever without a single gas station/shop that sells cold drinks. Finally I asked for the TomTom and looked at where we were on the map. It indicated a "town" coming up, you know when the area is shaded brown? So we figured that was a good bet. The town was Sidney, Manitoba. We finally turned in, it's just off the highway a bit. No gas station. Luckily, there's a corner store. It happens to double as the Post Office, Library, Coffee Shop, etc. There were two little girls playing outside with water guns. The thought crossed my mind to ask them to shoot me. Instead, I went in and got two bottles (one for Ian of course!) of blissfully ice cold water. I've never been so happy to have cold water in my life. I paced by the car for a few minutes, willing the nausea to pass, and it did very quickly once I drank some water. I put the bottle down my shirt, held it to my neck, my cheeks, put it down my shirt again. It felt absolutely wonderful! My bottle was warm in about 20 minutes. Then Ian let me use his. That's love. I really have the most wonderful husband in the world.

The rest of the way to Winnipeg I watched these huge cumulonimbus clouds puffing up in the sky. It clouded over quite a bit and we even got a few drops of rain. I was willing those clouds to dump some rain on us and cool me down. I was begging them, silently. About half an hour after arriving in Winnipeg they had collected together and resulted in a thunderstorm. We went for a walk, and at the first clap of thunder I heard I think I cheered. It was a bit late, but I do love a good storm. Sadly, I never did see any lightning. We didn't go far because it did start to rain, and we hadn't had dinner yet. About ten minutes after we got back to the hotel, the clouds released a torrential downpour. We would have been soaked. I happened to notice on the Weather Network tonight that there was a tornado warning for Winnipeg, and one reportedly touched down in the North East apparently. I'm a bit sorry we missed that! (Just a bit!)
Tomorrow's supposed to be even hotter and I'm very scared I'll be car sick all day. We're driving south, into the states, and I'm really nervous about driving in these big cities. The love of my life says he'll drive all day if he has to. He says it's okay.

Could I be any luckier?

making mountains out of no hills

I'm trying not to focus on the leaving friends and family part. There have been a few tears shed. My head hurts, my stomach feels like it's in knots, my eyes are still red, and my face is breaking out big time. But I'm trying not to think about it.

Instead, let me tell you about our first day on the road.

Ian drove to Salmon Arm, then I drove to Canmore, then he drove the rest of the way to Medicine Hat. I drove from Salmon Arm to Canmore because he's never been through the mountains here. He was impressed. At least, I figure he must have been impressed because he killed the battery in his own camera, and then took a ton of mountain pictures with mine.

It's also Ian's first time in Alberta, and the first song we heard on the radio after we entered Alberta was by the band that "brought us together". It must be a sign!

As we were driving away from the mountains I felt incredibly sad to see them disappearing behind us. I kept looking for them off in the distance. At one point, looking east into the horizon I was sure I could see rocky mountainous peaks poking through the clouds. You know how around Vancouver and the Fraser Valley you can see the mountains just barely behind the smog on hot summer days? It was a bit like that, but I was just hallucinating mountains I guess.

Here are a few shots from the day.

Enough excitement already!

We've been in Kamloops for only four days, today is the fifth, and I think I've had enough excitement. When visiting with one of my grandmother's the other day she had a small stroke! So we convinced her to let us take her to the emergency room, thank goodness, and thank goodness she's okay!! But I think that's enough excitement for one trip.

Besides that we've done some cleaning and some shopping, visited with quite a bit of family, cuddled babies, checked out my other grandmother's new computer skills, eaten pachos, hiked a bit, and taken a ton of photos.

My cousin's wedding is this morning, then a reception this afternoon.

Then tomorrow we're back on the road.

I'm not ready for this.

En Route

Well, the first leg of the trip is underway. The boxes are gone, the car was loaded up, and we drove to Kamloops. We will be here for four days, enjoying time with good friends and family, and attending the wedding of one of my cousins on Saturday. I am looking forward to seeing everyone here, but am not looking forward to four days of "goodbyes." That's emotionally draining. However, I am looking forward with optimism now, I have hope that there are wonderful things awaiting us in Ontario. I heard Tim McGraw's "Where the Green Grass Grows" on the radio in the car yesterday, and it actually made my eyes water and my throat tighten up! I had to stop singing along! It was just the silliest thing, but these emotions well up out of nowhere. I am so happy to be sharing my life with Ian, and it really feels like it's beginning now. When we got married there was really no change in our day to day lives. This feels like it. This is a new beginning together.

All our boxes are packed!

This is our lives in boxes.


This is supposed to fit in our car.

All packed up and ready to go. Waiting for the moving truck. Packed the cutlery. Had to eat my oatmeal with a dough hook, while balancing on an air mattress. Ian had a beater. It was good. It's hard to eat when you're laughing.

Then we're going to clean this place as fast as we can and make another quick trip to the Salvation Army. We donated a whole truck load of stuff to them yesterday.

Still not feeling excited. Maybe because there's too much to do? Still not sure if we're leaving today or tomorrow morning, but I think we've decided we can't sleep here another night. Our air mattress was cold, and uncomfortable, and doesn't seem to be filling with air properly. It's holding the air in alright, but took forever to fill. Friends of ours have generously offered their spare bedroom for the night and if we stay in Vancouver we just might have to take them up on that offer. My only issue is that we'd have to load the car, unload when we get there, load again, then drive to Kamloops. Then we'll repeat that every day next week on our road trip east.

Had a lovely brunch with said generous friends yesterday at our favourite diner! Had my last half Romero with Home Fries, and shared a peanut butter and raspberry milk shake with Ian. Delicious!!! Brings back a lot of memories of my first year here.

Then we spent an hour driving around trying to find a car wash after a bird, or ten, left ten lovely gifts on our windshield. There was an hour line up at the local car wash, so we drove south to where we thought there was one, and there wasn't. Then we knew there was one at Granville and 41st so we went there, but it's closed Sundays apparently. So we drove down to Marine Drive because we know there's a coin wash at 70th and Marine, but alas, it was a big dirt lot when we arrived! We continued our trek east and found one on Marine at Fraser, where we then sat for twenty minutes longer because the car in front of us was trying to use a code that didn't work. The oh so efficient attendant ran back and forth three times trying to figure out why it wouldn't work.

When we dismantled our bed yesterday we discovered that the vertical slat boards (it's an Ikea bed) have spots of mold on the edges!! We're not sure if the boards we keep over that also have mold on them, and we're not sure what to do about it. I guess we can try to wash it and dry it when we arrive in Ontario. Or just throw them out and replace them. I do NOT want to bring mold into my "new home!" No wonder we haven't been well here! There must be mold on everything! I'm re-thinking keeping the mattress too! Do you think it can be cleaned??

Followed up that exciting day with a voyage to Langley for dinner with my cousins and their significant others (whom I adore, just for the record!) I feel very lucky that I've been able to spend so much time with these cousins in the past several years. Not many other people in my family get to see them very often. I will miss being close to them! Being close to family at all actually.

Now it's 9AM and I'm sitting on an air matress with my bum on the floor, balancing my lap top against my knee. I've eaten my oatmeal with my hook, I'm drinking my coffee from a cup I will donate this afternoon. I'm waiting for Ian to get out of the shower. I've already had a phone call from a wonderful friend checking on my sanity. I can't wait to leave this apartment. I can't imagine leaving these people...