Settling In

Since arriving in Cleveland, we've been busy with all sorts of things as far as getting settled in and starting on the massive transformation that will change Nate & Marlys' home into Michael & Cindy's home. We haven't had much luck with wireless internet until tonight, but we should be able to give less hurried posts from here on out. I will spare you the details of all the cleaning and sorting we've done today and show you some pictures instead (since I know that's what you really want, anyway).

World's largest tepee in Medicine Hat Alberta

Rainbow Bridge, New York viewed from Niagara Falls, Ontario

American Falls in the rain on Sunday

The view from our room on the 8th floor of the Imperial Hotel

Double rainbow and Skylon Tower, viewed from our hotel room

Porter, ready to go

Skylon Tower

Tim Horton's viewed from Skylon Tower

Horseshoe Falls

American Falls

Porter enjoying the view from Skylon Tower

Seren enjoying the view from Skylon Tower

Maid of the Mist

Maid of the Mist sailing into Horseshoe Falls

Horseshoe Falls

Walking through the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens

"Stephen's Tea Roses"

Cleveland (Day 6)

OK, this will be a quick one. As mentioned previously, we changed our route for reasons of clock and wallet. We made good time yesterday, traveling all the way from Eau Claire to Cleveland in about 14 hours, about 12 of which were spent actually driving. There were no major complications, but Chicago traffic is absolutely miserable and I found myself desperately missing Sitka's "bad traffic" - a 20-car lineup at the traffic circle that might take three minutes to clear. Also, Indiana really needs to figure out a better way to label the I94/I80/I90 interchange, because I managed to miss my correct route for the second time in a decade.

Some quick housekeeping items:

1. Yup, this is a morning post. We got in late last night and didn't want to write. Sue us.
2. We're not traveling with a full car any more, but we are still hitting the road again today. We're off to Niagara Falls with my parents and sister and one of her dogs (the blind one).
3. Since we're headed to Niagara Falls, don't expect much in the way of travel stories (it's only 3 1/2 hours away), but there should be a lot of pictures. Also, Seren will probably post some time in the next few days to share some of the pictures she's taken and to tell the world her impressions of the drive.
4. We'll be back in Canada for the next three days. Previously-stated rules for communication are back in effect.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin?? (Day 5)

You may have noticed, if you are an avid reader of this blog, that we failed to post yesterday. Such, sometimes, is life. Especially when the motel's wifi is weak and it's already very late.

Our initial plan was to drive all the way across Canada from Prince Rupert to Niagara Falls without once entering the US. Last night, however, we took harsh stock of our situation and decided that we needed to change our plans. This was exactly the reason that I insisted on bringing along something like twelve state/province/region/national maps when we left the house.

All along, our goal was to meet up with my family at The Falls and to have a couple of days of vacation. Unfortunately, that very scenic day of travel through Alberta put us farther behind schedule than we really wanted to be, and looking ahead to driving through "northern" Ontario, we feared that road conditions and travel speeds would be similar to driving the Alaska Highway (i.e., great if you have a decent amount of money and unlimited time, but painfully frustrating if you're on a budget and a schedule). It was decided that we would cut 5 hours of drive time (which equates to more like 8 hours of travel time when you factor in small children and a dog) from the trip by taking a right at Brandon, MB.

Now, to backtrack...

DAY FOUR
Here's what happened on Day Four: we drove 1020 kilometers. That's roughly akin to driving from downtown Boston to downtown Cleveland, except we did it across the prairies of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Our goal was to run from Calgary to Regina doing a sort of Tour of the Capitols, but we were doing really well on time and comfort and decided to push onward. We found ourselves spending the night in Moosomin, SK, which is totally worth the visit if you like disgusting tap water and feed stores.

Along the way, I learned that Seren is a better civil engineer than the person tasked with that work in Regina (a long story that I really wish never to remember again).

Also, Petey P told the first joke that he heard once he moved to Alberta:

You know the best part about living in Alberta? You can watch your dog run away for three days!

When we heard that, we looked at each other, looked at the VERY long view over the hills, and just started laughing. Good times on the road.

DAY FIVE
As previously mentioned, we re-evaluated our plans last night. We decided that it would be better to cruise through the US and use cheaper fuel and cheaper hotels for our last two days on the road, especially as we'd be retracing the route that we drove when we first moved to Alaska.

We started by driving to Brandon, MB and getting breakfast at A&W. (Side note: every third restaurant in Canada is A&W or SUBWAY. Seriously, not even Tim Horton's [mmmmmtimbits] is as common.) Canadians should not make fried chicken that well, especially not for breakfast. Of even greater importance, we had poutine for the first time. It was all that I dreamed and imagined that it would be. More need not be said. You will never understand if you have not partaken.

From Brandon, we drove south to cross the border into North Dakota. There's a blur in my mind in which Grand Forks and Fargo exist, but I was too busy listening to Sherman Alexie reading a modern-day classic to let much of that register. We crossed all of Minnesota in one go because we're just hard core like that and I'm posting this from Eau Claire, WI.

Interjection on city driving: I was born and bred (as a driver, at least) driving the multi-lane highways of a large city. Driving in three dimensions, with ramps and tunnels and changing lanes and merges and whatnot was what I knew from the start. I could shove my car through the smallest gaps in traffic to get exactly where I needed to go and nothing bothered me. 


Spending two years driving on an island where nobody really gets that worked up over anything else on the road was bad preparation for driving in Minneapolis. Really, I don't know where all of those people were going at 9:30pm, but they were not "Minnesota nice" and I really don't find any big city nostalgia creeping in.


SUMMATION
The kids are turning out to be road warriors like their parents. Spending an insane number of hours together in the car on consecutive days forces a bond between family members that just doesn't develop under less-constrained circumstances. Seren is being a great big sister, helping her brother when she can, amusing herself, and taking on more and more responsibility. Porter is fighting boredom to the best of his ability and doing very well with his toilet training. Even their parents are mostly amicable the majority of the time.

Here's the route we've followed to this point, with tomorrow in as the last leg: http://goo.gl/maps/rZ95 Please be so kind as to note that today's leg was actually 150 km longer than yesterday's, and that tomorrow will be similarly long.

Also, awesome tidbit about Canada: the border between BC and Alberta, where it doesn't follow a longitude line, follows the continental divide. That's so cool. Way to go, Canada - rivers aren't awesome enough for you, you need the tips of the mountain range. Much respect.

Calgary, Alberta (Day 3)

It's late. It's really late. We only put in 50 more kilometers today than yesterday, but somehow it ended up taking us 50% longer to travel that distance. As you might have already concluded, we had a few setbacks today,  but let's start at the beginning and, more importantly, with some pictures.

From Sitka to Prince Rupert on the M/V Matanuska

M/V Matanuska (at 2am)

Kids in the cabin, snuggling up before crashing.

3-berth cabin.

Seren using her camera.

At the on-board play area.

Petersburg

Some guy fishing in Petersburg.

Another fisherman.

Zonked.

Rainbow!

Waiting to go down to the car deck.

Yes, but where does it end?

At the playground in Wrangell.

"Do I look like a movie star?"

Narrow channel.

At last!

Beautiful British Columbia

Mudflats.

The Canadian Rockies, Alberta

Glaciers in the Ice Fields.

Mountain goat!

Gravel slides left behind from glaciers that have long since melted.

Off-road trolley?

More glaciers.

It's true, we've encountered some pretty breathtaking views along the way, but as mentioned before, we've had our share of setbacks. Porter is toilet-training while we are on the road and he is doing a super job. The only trouble is that he still has a sensitive stomach from all those allergies and we've had to deal with not one but two cases of spontaneous diarrhea. We've made several wrong turns, resulting in an hour or so of back-tracking (total), and there are frequent pit stops with two little ones in tow. Over all, though, it's been a pleasant drive. We've managed boredom and frustration with remarkable ease and the kids are enjoying all of the scenery and wildlife along the way.

Speaking of wildlife, just today (yesterday?) we saw several black bears, some white-tail deer, moose, a coyote, caribou, mountain goats, and a rabbit. It's almost always too fast to get a picture, but Seren really enjoys seeing the animals that she is learning about in her books.

That's all for tonight. It's after 3am here and we need to get out on the road early in the morning. We're hoping to reach Regina tomorrow night, but we'll have to see how the day goes.

Prince George (Day 2)

You may note that we have missed posting about Day 1. This is a sort of placeholder post, actually. We are safely (and exhaustedly) in Prince George, BC, having traveled from Sitka to Prince Rupert on the M/V Matanuska. We landed at about 11:30am BC time, were through Customs by noon, and got into the hotel room at about 11:15pm. There will be a post including pictures from the ferry and the car as well as a post including pictures and thoughts from Seren, but those will both come on a day when we're less exhausted. It's been a long day, but there've been some highlights.

1. Porter made it the entire day wearing underwear with only one accident (too long between towns and he peed himself, but it was a long day with a lot of fluids and he did a great job).
2. We saw a ton of wildlife. In order, a black bear, a moose, a deer, two more meese, and then, as dusk settled in, a lot more deer. Also, a beautiful old pickup truck for sale that I really wanted to stop for and I'm considering changing our return itinerary in order to go past it again...

Now, time for sleeping, as we'll lose an hour to the time zones tomorrow. It's been a good trip so far, and everyone's holding up well and having a great time!

incommunicado/it begins!

We're headed to the ferry terminal!

For the next day and a half or so, we'll be unable to check email or other internet stuff and will also be largely without cell phone service. Midday Tuesday, we'll plug back into the world.

Some guidelines for communicating with us until we're in Cleveland:

• If it's 28 May or 29 May, text us. We won't check email, the blog, or much else reliably until the evening of the 29th.
• If it's after the 29th, email unless it's urgent.
• If it is urgent, consider how urgent it actually is. If it's not the end of the world, text us.
• If it's the end of the world, go ahead and call, but don't forget that we're using AT&T in Canada and we may come looking for cord blood from one of your children in order to pay our phone bill.

Finally, and it cannot be said enough times, we're headed to the ferry terminal! It's starting!

ETD 30h

I hate all this lead up to a big trip. I think I like this part even less than all the loads of dirty laundry and unpacking that have to be done when we come back. It's the waiting, really. I hate all the hours spent planning, and packing, and cleaning, and checking, and re-checking, and calling credit card companies, and notifying the post office, and everything else we have been doing for the last two weeks just so we can get on the road to the ferry terminal 30 hours from now.

30 hours from now.

Oh, that's the part I like best. Five minutes after we're all on the ferry, standing in our cabin and setting our things down, that's when relief will wash over me. No more worrying, no more calls, no more chasing down loose ends, just the five of us and the adventure before us. Anything left undone will no longer matter. The only schedule we'll have to keep involves scenery and pit-stops. Our days will be filled with lively conversation, listening to music, reading and listening to books, taking pictures, and sharing the thrill of the road with all of you. And I absolutely cannot wait to get started.

There are things I'm not looking forward to, of course. I could do without a hot, humid summer in Cleveland. I'll miss Sitka, especially in June when we'll miss the start of the Farmer's Market and on the 4th of July. I'll miss the salmonberries, too. I'm also not looking forward to all the work that lays ahead, what with cleaning out Nate's house and sorting the contents. A man collects a lot of memories in 82 years and it will not be easy sifting through all the physical remnants of that life and deciding the fate of each item. I don't anticipate the feelings of loss once we get there. His laughter and wisdom will be missed especially when disputes arise. He was, after all, the Great Mediator of the family. But even these things are part of the journey and all worth the time, effort, and money we are putting into this trip.

Well, we're mostly packed now. Nika is excited to go. The kids are ready for the ferry ride. Most of the loose ends have been tied, trimmed, or tucked under the rug. Just 30 more hours to go.