The move: Canada to California

Alright guys, I’m back with the internet and I’m ready to blog again!

But where do I even start? It’s so difficult to jump right back to where I left off but I guess that is what the plan will be. Keep checking back each week day as this will be my plan – to continue blogging Monday through Friday, beginning with the adventurous road trip from Waterloo Ontario Canada, to sunny Northern California.

If you’ve been following me on twitter and instagram these next few posts may be repetitive for you, but if not — keep on reading.

We estimated our drive to be 40 hours, by the calculations of google maps. What we didn’t know was that it was going to take closer to 60 hours to do the drive, due to the fact we were towing a 17″ u-haul with a trailer on the back, where my car was.uhaul and car We did the drive in 3.5 days rather than the 5-7 days we were initially going for. As you can imagine, we were driving non-stop on the second and third days/nights, swapping seats and getting sleep in the passenger seat.

We said our goodbye’s to the Waterloo apartment that served us many good times and years at that place. packing up

Our plan was to avoid the winter weather altogether since U-Hauls are known for having bald tires and getting trapped in the snow. Instead of taking the i-80 across the USA, which crosses over some wintery states, we opted for the more southerly route i-40 which took us from Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, to Arizona and finally California. 

We aren’t too far from the Michigan boarder crossing, and since it was open 24 hours, we made it in there at 4:00am. Clearly we left Ontario late in the evening. I have to say, it’s pretty intimidating having your whole life packed up in a truck and having the boarder crossing guards decide whether or not to let you have an American visa for a few years. Right then and there they decide whether to turn you around, or let you into their country. When we arrived the boarder crossing was pretty much empty due to the hour we arrived at, so it didn’t take too long for us to have everything done there. Quite honestly, my knees were trembling while I was waiting for them to go through the process with us standing there in front of them. I couldn’t get my legs to stop shaking. The guys working the night shift were making a few funny jokes to us, and broke the ice a little bit. Perhaps he saw a terrified look on my face and decided to take action.

Once leaving the boarder, we thought everything would go smoothly from here. However, the boarder crossing was the only thing that went smoothly throughout the drive. When you look back on it nothing went terribly wrong but at the time we were down in our spirits. Close to 22 hours of being in the vehicle and losing just HOURS of precious driving time (sleeping at rest stops and going to  Walmart to get a sim card for our phones took up way too much time) we  ended up calling it a night when we arrived to Indiana and arrived at the Clarion Hotel in Terre Haute around 9pm the first night. sunset in the uhal

Tons of sleep later we woke up, ate a huge breakfast in the lobby. Scott and I took turns eating solo due to the fact we had Alfie and didn’t think the dog-friendly hotel would enjoy dogs being in the eating areas of their hotel. We were absolutely famished in the morning, and the woman in the kitchen made a funny comment to me when she saw my plate filled to the brim now empty, saying I was small but could pack away the food. Sure can missus. I was starved b’y. big breakfastCome back on Wednesday and I’ll fill you in on the details of day two.

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Sneaking in

I wanted to pop in here because I don’t want to leave my site completely bare while we make this transition into living in the USA.

I finally have snuck a break in my jam packed evenings of packing boxes, purging old stuff, donating things that CAN be donated and saying goodbyes to friends. Taking a moment to blog before I get back at it. So. Many. Boxes.

Trying to be very optimistic about it all, and things are going pretty smoothly. However I can’t help but wonder when we’re going to hit a bump in the road. Hope we won’t.
That moving-talk may be a little boring to you. Let’s talk about something more visually interesting.

Tonight I got my hair done, a last routine checkup at the dentist and after that, we took Alfie to his yearly vet appointment and get appropriate papers for the boarder crossing.Alfie at the vet

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That caught me off guard

I don’t think my social calendar has been booked so tightly in my entire life. As you can imagine, The Guy and I are very busy with the upcoming move to California, so I’ve been trying to book up my days and weekends to visit family and friends one last time before I go.

My co-worker Julie wants me for next Tuesday and Saturday nights — so I wasn’t expecting a surprise party like I had last night when I got back to work. She did that because they knew I can piece together things, and put two and two together fairly well. They had to trick me!

Let me back up a moment here.

The Guy asked to use my car (his isn’t winterized) and I had to ask a co-worker who lives around the corner from me, if I could hitch a ride with her in the morning. I almost regretted it because she likes to arrive 1-2 hours BEFORE work even opens. But I didn’t want to take 2 busses and over 45 minutes of travel to get to work that day.

Considering how nosy I am when it comes to planning secret events or wondering what my co-workers are up to on a daily basis, they’ve definitely pulled the wool over MY eyes last night.

I had no clue about the whole thing and I loved that it was such a surprise. You know how some days it’s a fun day at work and you just chat a lot? Yesterday a few people had their office doors closed and I just thought they were in a bad mood so I didn’t bother them. Much to my dismay, of course: PLANNING A PARTY! Friggen right!

I’ve never had a surprise party before – and now I know what it feels like to be truly surprised.

My bosses daughter, a fav co-worker of mine, (Amy) booked me in to hang out with her after work. I thought she was being pretty smart booking me off a few weeks in advance due to the fact she knew I’d be busy with the move. Little did I know.

We headed to the mall at 4:30 and didn’t get any questions about me sneaking out early since I hitched a ride into work with L at EIGHT A.M! Because low and behold The Guy needed my car for this secret going away party! I was wondering if he was using my car for moving preparations and I mentioned to some co-workers “he better not be having fun with my car tomorrow” (he usually asks to use my car to go skiing/biking). Amy and I took my bosses car and had to be back to the office by 6pm. When we pulled into the parking lot, I parked quickly as I wanted to sneak in the back door to give my boss a good freight, so I literally ran up the hallway but also trying to be quiet.surprise

I stopped dead in my tracks when I passed the board room, and that’s when I saw 3 co-workers sitting across, smiling at me. My face probably dropped and that’s when the tears started flowing and I snuck away to cry for a moment. When I walked into the board room, I noticed the popcorn, the candy, pizza , popcorn and Fossil gifts. All of my favourite things. Jeeze the staff knows how to make someone feel special, and loved.

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