OK, I’m going to do my best to sum up our entire trip - in fairly decent detail.

Thursday, October 4th; We left Calgary around 10:30am, which was definitely much later than Jo and I planned for and was due to a hail storm the night before which prevented us from loading up the last minute things. We made a quick pit-stop at Tim Horton’s for a bite to eat and of course, my beloved Iced Capp. Within the first hour of our trip down the Trans-Canada highway, we had to stop 3 times to adjust the roof pouch because the wind kept whipping the long straps all over the place. We made it all the way to Brandon, Manitoba around 11pm, which is where we stayed for the night. We actually wanted to shoot for Winnipeg but I was just so exhausted and ready for a break. We found a decent motel just off from the highway and got the room for a decent price. We “omitted” the fact that we had our cats with us but they did so well that I didn’t feel too bad about not telling them. HAHA.

Friday, October 5th; We are up and about by 5:30am. Quick showers and loading up the cats was completed by 6:00am. While Jo was checking out, I hopped onto one of the computer terminals to send my dad a quick email about where we’d arrived the night before. For some odd reason our room didn’t have a phone, at all. We are on the road by 6:40am, after a quick stop at Tim Horton’s again, which really became our life saver. LOL. We decided to skip stopping for lunch and just snacked on our granola bars and gatorade. We made it to a small town in Ontario that night, around 9pm. We stopped earlier for the night, than the night before due to the rain. After passing 4 signs warning of “Moose” and getting annoyed with the windy mountainish roads, we figured it was best.

Saturday, October 6th; We are up and ready to roll by 7am, which was a little later than we wanted to head out but we waited until the sky brightened up a bit. We were headed for Saute Saint Marie(ish) but after getting within an hour and a half from there, we found ourselves staring at a “Road closed” sign. No detour was provided, so to the atlas we went. We found a road that would take us back to the Trans-Canada but essentially, took us about an hour out of the way. We were going up the mountains, down the moutains and around the mountains. At one point we were crusing along a river and I swear, Jo could just about reach his hand out of the window and touch the water. No guardrails or anything. I was absolutely terrified. We found ourselves in a hotel just outside of North Bay, Ontario. Needless to say, I got rather tickled about that and I think some of you know why.

Sunday, October 7th; We head out before 7am, cruise through the rest of Ontario (holy moly, 3 days to get through that dern province - never would have thought that). We hit Quebec and I was ready to finish the trip. I do not know French and the thought of cruising through an entire province with only French signs frightened me. BUT, we made it through. we stayed the night in a hotel about an hour away from the New Brunswick border. At this point, my hands are so blistered and sore.

Monday, October 8th; We head out, destination North Sydney, Novia Scotia - for the ferry. We truck along through New Brunswick and I have to tell you, through the little villages in the valleys.. it’s GORGEOUS. There were several small towns that I could imagine myself living in but I must say, I am happy where I’m at. We make it to North Sydney around 10pm, after Jo sent me about 20 minutes in the wrong direction (headed to Halifax, Nova Scotia). We were on the waiting list for the ferry but like I mentioned in the previous post, we were too late and missed it for the night. We decided to stay in one last hotel and catch the night crossing the next day. The day crossing would have been fine, if it wasn’t for getting off the ferry during the night and still having to drive 6 hours through Newfoundland. Something I would rather do during the day.

Tuesday, October 9th; We hang out at Marine Atlantic, while we’re waiting on the ferry. We sit on the deck, basking in the sun, sit inside and talk as we’re browsing “Newfoundland tourist information” and I checked my email to make sure everything was on the up and up on my “work”. Just before 10pm, as we’re the first in line for the ferry, we are asked to board - I drive up into the boat and park, we grab pillows and the cats and head up to deck 5 and prepare for sleep. Surprisingly enough, I did not get sick this time.

Wednesday, October 10th; By 7:30am, we are off of the ferry and headed for the nearest gas station to fill up one last time. After about 6 hours of driving, we arrived “in town”. I just can’t even express how happy I was to get here and see everyone.

Jo’s grandmother had no idea we were going to be here this week. She knew we were coming but with her being so sick, his mom decided to tell her we weren’t leaving until next week so she wouldn’t have a chance to worry. I wish I could have taken a picture of the expression on her face when we walked into her room. She just about cried and her face just lit up the room. She was so happy to see us, just as happy as we were to see her.

We slept in today - no stinking alarms ever again. HAHA. It was nice not having to worry about getting up and hitting the road. I refuse to go anywhere that takes longer than an hour to get there. When I go home for a visit, I will have to prepare myself for flying because driving / riding is no longer fun!

Well, now that I’ve written this long post out.. I think I’m going to play with my kitty cats. By the way, they are more spoiled now than ever before. Bella LOVES Jo’s mother (and she loves Bella). She has followed his mother all over the place, after she gave her pieces of turkey! Jynx is started to come around but she’s always been pretty timid. It will take her time to warm up to everyone but she will eventually!

Welp, this is the last entry until we get to Newfoundland. Of course, I may try to sneak on while on the ferry ride but I cannot promise that.

We will be leaving around 4am in the morning, so I am going to go to bed really early. This means I will be packing up my computer in the next hour or so.

The next time I post, I will be in Newfoundland (if not in the Gulf of St Lawrence).

Until then!!

We are almost finished with everything and boy am I ever happy about that. We woke up extra early this morning to finish up a few things and it has paid off. The only thing left to do is label the boxes and pack up the truck.

We decided we are not going to take a few things - large TV, computer desks and various home decor like my two silk trees. There is just no room for any of that in my truck and we cannot afford to pay $800+ for a uhaul truck. Anything that can fit into my truck comfortably will go and the things that cannot will be donate this afternoon.

I am still very worried about the cats. I had made the decision to place them both into a fostering no-kill organization here in Calgary but neither of those places are accepting anymore cats at this time. I absolutely refuse to put them in a regular shelter because it would devastate not only my cats, but me too. I do not want my cats living in a cage for x amount of time to only be “put down”. Jo has an aunt here that we are waiting to hear from and if she decides in the end that she does not want them, they will be going with us but I have no idea how we will make this work (not the cats, just everything in the truck in general). I did not realize how much crap we accumulated in the six months we have been in Calgary.

You know, I really need to work on minimizing our load. The load we are moving that is. I know some of this stuff is junk, so I think I am going to go back through some of these boxes and do away with some of it. I know I have a box of handbags that I could easily downsize. The same goes for the box Jo has packed up with all of his books and computer games. I think I will just maybe try to shrink my handbags down to half or maybe even a third. I know there are a few that I will likely never use again and at least one that still has tags that I have not used yet. I mean, if I have not used it in 6 months, will I? I doubt it, so what is the point in keeping it stored away.

I probably need to go back through some of these clothes too. I know I threw in a coat that I will probably never wear again. It is just way too bulky for me. I know it will be a lot colder in Newfoundland this winter but really, I think my the coat I had with me there last winter will be fine. Jo said I should ditch some of my shoes too. I have several pairs of flip flops which is due to my needing them in every color. HAHA.

What I am hoping to accomplish with this is taking our 4 large boxes down to one and our plastic containers down to 2. We still have to think about where our computer chairs will go and our desks. Of course, we also need room for Jynx (and Bella if Jo’s cousin does not want her) and other things like our George Foreman grill, my Kitchen Aid mixer and the deep fryer. Oh, and we cannot forget about the air conditioner. No way am I getting rid of that sucker.

Wow, I think I just gave myself twice the work to do.

The excitement is building. In just a few days, we will be hitting the road (the long, long road) to Newfoundland from Alberta. A part of me is a little nervous about the drive. I guess that is normal though, for such a long trip .. or any trip really. We have our route all mapped out, including our stops. I am really excited about our stay in Ottawa (with some of Jo’s relatives). It should be really nice, plus we will save a little bit of money since we will not need a hotel that night.

We still have not found a place for Bella, so maybe that will go my way and I will be able to bring both of my babies. I mean, we did get the OK, right? If all else fails, we will just have them placed in a kennel (though it will be a fairly decent drive away) until we get moved into our own place. I would really hate for the cats to cause a big stink. I do not mean a stink from the litter box (though I guess you could argue that one too). I mean from the messes that they make. Bella goes through these little fits where she runs around like she is absolutely insane. I know she is still a kitten and all, and I know she is only playing but still. Plus, like I said, I really do not think Karen thought about it through and through when she told us to bring them.

I think I will go soak my legs in some hot water now. They are getting all achy again!

The weather here in Calgary is going to be so nice over the next few days. The temperatures will be dipping down into the 30’s (Fahrenheit) but will crawl up to about 60ºF. This is my kind of weather, the kind that I love. The sun will be shinning and there will be very few clouds.

Knowing my luck though, that will all change in the next day or two. As I have mentioned before, the weather here in Calgary flip flops a lot. I mean, just last week it was snowing. I will enjoy it while it lasts though.

I also hope the weather will be nice for our drive to Newfoundland. I will not mind a little shower here and there but I really hope our drive will be free of any kind of bad weather. As it stands right now, it looks like we will be spending our second night in Ottawa with some of Jo’s relatives. It should be really nice. These are relatives he has not seen in over 10 years and relatives that I have never even met.

I guess I should be calling it a night soon though. I really need to lay off of the caffeine again. It really makes me feel, well … gross.

I finally got to sleep around 3am or so. Ick. Then I was back up by 8:30ish. Ick again. Now I am about to sort clothes and do a couple of loads of laundry before I start packing things away. I guess I will start putting away various other things too, like my mixer, deep fryer and George Foreman. We haven’t been using any of those in the last couple of weeks, so we can get by without using them until we get to Newfoundland. I think I am just going to go ahead and ship some of our clothes, shoes, my handbags (except for the one I am using) and some of our housewares on to Jo’s mom’s. That way, like I said in a previous entry, we can lighten up our load.

I think I will also be working up a theme for October (for breast cancer awareness) before I leave. I am unsure about how long the trip is going to be but I figured it would be at least 4 days, like we had when driving here to Calgary. Of course, I have to factor in a 7-8 hour ferry ride across the Gulf of St Lawrence (between North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Port aux Basques, Newfoundland). I did not get seasick the last time but I think that was because of the gravol. I guess I will be adding gravol to the shopping list!

Welp, I guess I should get cracking on my chores.

I cannot believe how fast things are moving for us. Just yesterday we were talking about heading back to Newfoundland on October 11th. Now we are moving the date up. We will be leaving before October 1st. We figured this would be the best idea because if we stayed through any part of October, we would have to pay October’s rent. There really is no point in that. It does not appear that Jo will be compensated for the time he lost through work after his back injury. So he is just going to go to a few sessions of physiotherapy when we get settled in. You know, just to make sure he is fully recovered.

We plan to pack everything between tomorrow and Tuesday. I am really nervous about the cat thing though. I do not think it has really hit me yet, that they will not be going with us. It would only be by some miracle that we could take them but miracles do not happen for us, so I will not be counting on that. I love Jynx and Bella as if they were my children. I know that must sound crazy to some of you but they really do mean so much to me. I just want to be sure they are in great hands. I want to make sure that they have a future, which is why I refuse to put them in any place that may potentially put them down. I just could not live with myself if I did that. I am just trying to hold myself together here.

Last night, we decided to do a “game night” since the Calgary Flames were on! We ordered pizza and wings (thankfully not hot wings) and watched the game. Good times! The Flames won 4 - 2 and “my” man Iginla had a hattrick!! I can’t wait to see the game in person, Jo’s promised to take me! :]

In other news, Jo had his interview yesterday and decided to turn down the job because the pay was way too low and nowhere near what was quoted when he first spoke to them! By that, I mean nearly $10 off! I don’t blame him for not taking it at all! He’s in a position right now, where he can pick and choose because he’s already got a full time job. This was just a second job with full time hours and benefits!

We spoke to our landlord this morning and we’ll be able to move in tomorrow! They’ve painted it already (it’s a khaki kind of color.. or no, sort of like the color of an iced cappuccino) and today, they’re doing all of the cleaning! I’ll just be happy to get moved and settled in, kick back and relax for a bit! We’ve seriously been “on the go” for the last couple of weeks! The drive up was exhausting, my arms are still aching! Where we’re staying, it’s about a 20 minute commute into downtown, so if we have to make our way to get something that isn’t right here, we spend about an hour going and coming. That’s if traffic is moving steady and not slowing down during rush hours! It’s gorgeous here though! Brian and Jill’s condo is lovely!

Tonight we’re going to grill out (or in, not really sure about that haha) and they’re wanting to go to the neighborhood pub! That should be interesting, considering I’ll be the only one not drinking! I’ve been crowned the designated driver for the night, which is all good because then everyone can just let loose and have a good time and not worry about the drive back! Brian laid out of work today, which I think is mostly due to wanting to hang out with Jo and possibly since Jill is also off today through Sunday! I’m sure we’re all going to have a great time tonight!

That pretty much sums everything up! I miss the catlets! We’ll be able to bring them home sometime Sunday! We just wanted to get moved in without hauling them all over the place. Jill’s also allergic to cats, so between that and us not wanting to burden them with the cats, we decided to place them in a kennel for a few days!

I’m going to get though, I need to fold some laundry and make the bed! I like to keep things tidy! :]

Well, it will be starting tomorrow. Haha!! I wasn’t going to update again before leaving but I’m anxious and have a little time to kill! The cats are at the vet, they’re getting their shots again! Crazy, but all of the apartments and customs said we had to have their records that were no more than 30 days old and they got their shots last in December 2006! We’re also scheduled to talk to the vet at 3pm about the tranquilizer deal because my dad decided, last minute, that he did not want to take them to the airport for us. Lame!! So, the cats will be taking this journey with us!! I just wanted them to be comfortable and somehow I don’t think they’re going to be, riding in the car for 3-4 days! There’s nothing that can be done about that at this point though. My sister, mom and I are having some tension the last couple of days. It’s a long story and personal to my sister, so out of respect for her, I will not go into it here! My sister wouldn’t be able to do this anyway because of the kids and her work. Mama wouldn’t either because of my grandmother and her work. There’s just no one else that I would be able to put this on and be comfortable with it, so.. that’s that!

The truck is completely loaded and by completely, I really mean weighed down and bulging! I don’t think there’s anything else that we can cram into it! We still have to load the cooler and cats (in their kennels) though, that’s all the room we have left! We didn’t get to take as much as we wanted but we’re taking enough to get us by until we can get other things shipped up to us!

I guess I should primp myself. We’ll be headed back to the vet and then my mom’s! I doubt I’ll be back online at all before leaving so be well everyone! I will catch back up when I get settled in a new city.. a new country (though same continent).. and new home!

In closing I’d like to add… *sings* Oh the road again.. just can’t wait to get on the road again.. lol