Ahhh... here we are packing, excited for our upcoming roadtrip from Thunder Bay, ON to Fredericton, NB (about 2,600 km). We decided that we would leave on Wednesday December 13, in the evening so we could drive through the night. The original plan had been to leave a week earlier, but because the roofers continued to not show up when they were supposed to, we moved back our departure date. After they didn't show up on Wednesday, we decided to just go and hope they showed up and did a good job despite our absence.I quickly realized that trying to pack with a nearly 3-year old and a nearly 7-month old was futile. Jon had to finish off some necessary jobs in the addition. So, we decided to just put the kids to bed. I stayed up and packed the bags and then packed the truck while Jon slept so he could drive through the night. At 2:30 am on the 14th, we woke the kids, loaded them in with lots of snuggly blankets and headed for NB!
Okay, this isn't NB.... it's actually Sault Ste Marie, 7 hours from Thunder Bay. At around 8:15 am, the truck started making bad engine noises. Because we were in the middle of a provinical park, we had no cell service so continued on, slowly & loudly. We made it to a service center at the north gate of the park where our fears about the truck were confirmed. We got a tow from the service station to just outside Sault Ste Marie where the son of the service station owner had a little shop (it looked a little shady from outside, but the owner was really great). The truck that towed us was an extended cab so I sat in the back between the kids. We left our truck at the shop and the tow truck driver offered to drive us into the Soo where we could figure out what to do (rent a vehicle to drive to NB, get a hotel room & wait for the truck to be fixed, etc.). In the end we decided to rent a car for a couple of days and check into the local Super 8. The kids were exhausted (as were we...)After much deliberating and calls to NB, we decided that Lin (Jon's mum) would drive my sister's van/SUV up to pick us up and we would leave the truck in the Soo while we decided whether or not it was worth it to fix. We decided that we would then fly back to Thunder Bay from Fredericton. When we went to book our tickets, however, we discovered that the flights/prices that had been available the day before were no longer available and our best option was to drive from Fredericton to Montreal, fly from Montreal to Toronto, and then from Toronto to TBay. Yuck!
We really like roadtrips so were disappointed that this one didn't work out. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect was that we were not be able to visit our dear friends Joy, Charles, Hannah & Andrew in Brighton, ON. We had planned to spend a couple of nights with them, but because we were delayed in the Soo it was no longer an option. On the way back to Thunder Bay, we were going to see our friends Tara, Andrew, Emma & Caleb who moved from Thunder Bay to the Soo over the holidays. We realized that we would also not be able to see them either. Another disappointment.
In spite of it all, the kids were troopers & kept smiling. 
No comments:
Post a Comment