Home at Last!

We arrived home last night close to 9:30pm.

We slept at a visitor info centre in Maine, and then crossed the border in Calais, Maine into New Brunswick.  We drove to the Bay of Fundy, and wanted to see the Hopewell rocks, but they were closed by the time we got there.  We ended up sleeping at a truck scale just before Sackville, NB, and then drove to the Ferry the next day.  We were scheduled to leave at 7:00pm, and ended up leaving close to 10:30 which worked out fine for us, as we were able to sleep on the Ferry for a bit.  We docked close to 3:30am, and then drove about 5 min to the Visitor info centre just past the Ferry, and slept until about 8:30am.  We were on the road for about 12 hours (including stops) which put us in St. John's for 9:30. The only issue was that we couldn't find our keys to get back in the house, so we had to visit a few friends who were looking after the house and Simone for us to track down our spare set. But we made it!!

All in all it was an awesome trip and I would highly recommend it.  We did fairly well with not losing stuff, I think we had to replace one water bottle, a couple of hats, and four sets of flip flops, as Monte broke two sets of sandals and lost one sandal in the Mud while camping. Mayah just outgrew hers.  We also replaced the dogs dishes as we left ours in Kenora, Ontario.

Now to sort through all the photos!!

"Bill-y Bob" and the homestrech

So we drove into Waterloo planning to stay one night visiting with friends.  They ended up graciously hosting us for three while the van was getting fixed.  It was leaking coolant, and we did two false starts before we were able to leave.  It was wonderful to have a place to stay while we were waiting for it to be fixed and I LOVE their new house. 

When we finally did leave we decided to drive straight to Toronto, visit friends there and go to the Science Centre and ROM and then drive to Niagra Falls, and if we could get through again, drive the rest of the way home through the US. 

That is pretty much what we ended up doing - we hit the ROM first and met up with Ailidh, Ryan and Gray. Monte had the camera while at the ROM so all photo credits there go to him.  We did the Science Centre after, but it mainly consisted of the Harry Potter exhibit as we were all exhausted, and then we met back up with Ailidh and family for a late dinner, and then drove out of Toronto late that evening. 

We ended up sleeping in a parking lot of a park just before Niagra, and then drove to the falls in the morning and did the crazyness that is NIagra Falls - it feels like an amusement park there, and then drove out in the afternoon.  That night we slept at the Verona Beach State Park campground - super cheap it was only 2.95 a night and there were even showers!!

We are driving towards Maine/New Brunswick today, not sure how far we will get, but we have booked the ferry for Sunday evening at 7, so we should be home by Monday if all goes well :).

Oh, and we finally named the Van while in Waterloo - Bill-y Bob - the billy part is because of the numerous bills that we accrued whilst on this trip, and the Bob comes from Mayah and I can't remember why - lol. 

Back in Canada

We are at our friends house in Kitchener Ontario. We have obviously not had internet access for the last few days, thus the lack of posts. I had kept a daily journal so I could remember what day we were where, which I have posted below.

Thursday August 12, 2010

We woke up in the KOA in Butte Montana this morning with the intention of driving to Bismarck North Dakota. We didn’t make it that far though, as we were driving at the edge of a huge storm, and we were also warned against driving at night in North Dakota, as apparently the deer like to jump into headlights without warning. So once it started to get dark (we witnessed a stunning sunset) we started to look for a place to sleep. We pulled over onto a dirt road amongst farmers feilds just after Dickinson ND. We could see lighting on three sides of the van, but weren’t sure if the storm was going to pass us by or not, as we seem to miss it most of the day. North Dakota has a cool landscape of what looks like camel humps and canyons. Quite breathtaking to drive through.

Friday August 13, 2010

We woke up in a farmers field in North Dakota today. No one slept very much because of the huge storm that hit last night, and hung around for at least a couple of hours. It started around 10:30, and we had to pull the kids down from the bed up top as the wind was so strong the pop top was acting like a sail. Once we closed the pop top, the van didn’t move as much, but when I closed my eyes it felt like being on a boat in the ocean, as we were rocking this way or that depending on the gusts of wind. The lighting and thunder was impressive and it topped the storm we had in Saskatchewan on our way to BC.

Kelly was excited to try to get to Minnesota today because we decided to try to catch a Twins game, as the Chicago red sox weren’t going to be in town when we were. He got up, walked the dogs and then poked and prodded the rest of us until we were up and packed and on the road. We drove straight through to Minnesota and managed to get to the game just as they were singing the anthem. We splurged and all bought twins attire :).

Saturday August 14, 2010

We woke up in a truck stop in Wisconsin this morning. It was scorching hot, and we were worried that we would be driving in hot temperatures all day, but so far there has been cloud cover on and off, so it hasn’t been too bad, so far anyway. Today our goal is Chicago, Illinios, and tomorrow we are planning to drive to Detroit’s border crossing, and then visit Jay and Lisa in Kitchener, Ontario.

While driving through Wisconsin we passed all kinds of CHEESE signs, which I was curious about – highway pull-offs selling cheese?? But also all kinds of water slide parks. The kids begged to stop – but we were strong and managed to keep driving – though the cool water was tempting.

We arrived in Chicago around 6pm. Later than we thought, but so it goes. We were all hot and sweaty from driving with the heat on full to keep the van from overheating, and we were on day three on no showers. We found a parking lot close to Memorial Park, and walked to the fountain and the "bean". We all went in the fountain fully clothed (felt amazing) which is why were are all soaking wet in the photo at the bean. I couldn't take more photos at the fountain, as shortly after I took the one photo a security guard informed us that no dogs are allowed in the park, thus one of us had to stand on the sidewalk with the dogs while the other ran in the fountain.

After the park we walked back to the van, changed and went out for deep dish pizza and ribs. Driving out in the evening we had fireworks as the white sox had just won. We tried to find a campsite in Indiana, but after finding one that seemed a bit sketchy we ended up sleeping at a truck scale again. In the morning we let the dogs run off leash and they rolled in something disgusting, so we stopped at the first gas station and used a hose to wash them off as much as possible.

We crossed the border in Detroit, Michigan, and drove to Kitchener where we were able to finally shower and do laundry (Thanks Jay and Lisa!!).

Heading Home

We left Steveston on Tuesday the 10th as planned. We made a quick stop in Abbotsford to visit my cousin and her kids, and then headed to the border. We had from the start tossed around the idea of driving back through the US, as it is slightly quicker. Once we decided that's what we were going to do, we realized that the dogs needed certificates from our vet, not just the rabies tags on their collars. After a few failed attempts at getting the certificates faxed, we decided to just chance it. If they turned us back at the border then we would drive through Canada on the way home.

As we had no troubles crossing the border, we are currently in Butte Montana, camping at a KOA. Last night we slept on a pull out just before Sun Lakes Washington, and we had stopped for dinner earlier at a Diner called Squirrel Tree - which turned out to be amazing homemade food! So far it has felt like driving through the Okanagan, which I wasn't expecting, especially for Washington State. Idaho and Montana it has not been so shocking.

The goal is to get to Chicago (and maybe watch a baseball game) and then head North to Niagra Falls, then Toronto.