The Drive...

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anais Nin
Our journey started on the 6th day of December. A perfect time of year for road travel. Freezing cold and constant threats of snowstorms! Hey I said I wanted some adventure in my life! We loaded up the truck with all our clothes and ten year old son Sam , two cats and one German Shepherd dog. This was gonna be fun!!



It took the whole day just to get to Sault Ste. Marie about ten hours. We hit two snowstorms I thought at one time this is it...we're finished. Thank goodness for the snow plow that night we just followed right behind him. I really loved the part that if we lost control and went over the guard rail we would be right in Lake Superior. It took us a total of three days to get out of Ontario. Lake Superior is such a huge lake it took two days to go around. The prairies are flat and I felt very calm . By the time we arrived at Brandon , Manitoba the temperature had gone down to -45! I kept saying " Why do people live here?" Every night everything we owned was frozen solid. Toothpaste, shampoo even the oranges were like coconuts. When morning came our truck had died and we had to call for a tow truck to jump it! That day we bought an extension cord to plug in the truck for that night.

Ray and Samuel pose in the freezing temps for a picture!

Our first hotel stop. Kachina finally clued in that if she didn't hid behind the toliet she could sleep in comfort with Sam. By the end of the trip she was a champ just enjoying herself like a queen on all the hotel beds!

Come out Kachina!! A bit stressed out from the first ten hours of being in a crate.

Pilot was awesome the whole journey. Just an amazing , intelligent dog. I think she liked the fact she had her own bed in the back seat of the truck beside Sam. No more dog crates in the back of the pick-up for her.

Acoya had to have been the worst hotel guest. We would arrive at the hotel so tired and hungry. By the time we all went to bed he would start to HOWL! It was 3am and I thought if he doesn't stop howling I will have to kill him (just kidding). I put him in the crate in the bathroom and turned on the fan. This drowned out the howling but the next night the new hotel had no fan! The howling began and then thank goodness I remembered what my cousin does to put her parrot to sleep. Every night they put a blanket over his cage. So I put Acoya in his crate and placed a blanket over it and like magic he went to sleep! It worked every night.

Beautiful Banff and was it cold!

Totally Canadian eh? Doesn't this look like one of those cheesy pics for a Tim Horton's ad? Maybe I should write a story about this road trip and send it in. I think we hit every Tim Horton's on the trip!

Only in green British Columbia will you find these roadside garbage disposals. So cool.

Me, Pilot and Sam pose in the Interior of British Columbia.

The desert of British Columbia ...Osoyoos. A very Spanish themed town. Very lovely.

Ray egging me on as I was gripping the truck door in fear going over this steep mountain. I would say this was the worst part of the trip. I think it was great that there is no guard rails so if you slip see ya! But they did have these run offs up the side of the mountain. Yeah that was reassuring to me! Never want to do this again!

It was even a bit intense for Pilot here too!

These were the mountains we were going down!

Six days later we made it all in one piece to Duncan!! yay! It was really a beautiful, incredible drive and yes I would do it again...well I will have to think about going down that mountain again! Great memories for me and my family!

Life begins when you stop pleasing others and just please yourself...