Our Trip Home - Part I

Wow I can’t believe how long it’s been since we’ve updated this thing. Well no fear fair reader we are updating it… NOW.

We left our wonderful Decatur, Georgia condo for the last time on Sunday, December 14. Well I guess we didn’t leave for the last time as we still own it. Our renter has since moved in but we haven’t heard from the manager nor seen January’s rent. So that’s concerning.

But that’s an aside. We left on Sunday, December 14 in the not so early morning. We had to be in Edmonton, Alberta by Saturday, December 20 to see my brother get hitched. We figured that would be plenty of time to drive 2400 miles.

The first day’s drive went quite well. Car was loaded beautifully (although we had so much stuff you couldn’t see out of the back window).

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We drove all the way to St. Louis before stopping for dinner. As we ate the weather took a turn for the worse. Soon a monsoon was outside the restaurant. We decided to keep going anyway. BIG mistake. A few miles north of St. Louis the monsoon turned into ice rain. The roads became very slick and I was barely able to control the car as it slid left and right for 40 miles.

But being an extremely skilled driver I was able to drive us safely until we finally found a hotel.

But being… well… me and me being stupid we found the hotel but I miss judged how to get to the hotel and ended up back on the freeway going back the way we just came from. We had to slip slide 10 miles before reaching an exit and then had to slip slide the 10 miles back to the hotel. <>

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The next morning broke and when I went outside to start the car I noticed it was cold.

Oh so cold.

And it didn’t warm up again the rest of our trip. We hit some frigid, frigid temperatures. It was -40 in North Dakota when we drove through. (Celsius or Fahrenheit doesn’t matter at -40 as they are the same and both are cold).

Day 2 included more driving.

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So much driving.

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Through the barren wasteland that is the Northern States.

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We quickly learned along our drive that the bottle of windshield washer fluid that somehow found its way into our trunk did not contain anti-freeze and had frozen in the lines after I dutifully filled our tank to the brim in preparation for our trip.

Who needs to see anyway?

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Day 2 ended somewhere in North Dakota in another hotel on another freezing cold night.

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Day 3 took us into Canada!

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The border guards were NOT happy to see us. For some reason they didn’t believe that we weren’t i) moving to Canada or ii) leaving a bunch of stuff in Canada. They took us to a special room and searched through our stuff. They did such a thorough search that they uncovered stuff we didn’t even know we had in the car.

Like the previous owner’s purchase contract and registration. They asked to see our registration and asked where the car was licensed a couple of times.

They had Nicole take out her computer and show them the contracts for our new jobs to prove we weren’t moving to Canada.

They were trying to catch us in a lie. But we weren’t lying so they didn’t catch us in a lie.

So there border guards.

Moral of the story? Canadian border guards are grumpy.

It must be the cold.

They eventually believed our story and let us cross into my motherland.

After they let us go we only drove a block before we pulled over so I could re-pack the car they messed up.

Packing is a skill that not everyone understands.

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They took the time to ruin my packing but couldn’t figure out how to fix it! Jerks.

Our plan for Day 3 was to drive to Regina and get a room for the night. We drove to Regina.

We got on the ring road.

We soon found ourselves past Regina.

It really was that quick.

“Oh! Regina. We can stop for the night!”

“Wait… what happened to Regina?”

So we drove to Saskatoon and froze half to death walking from the hotel to the nearest restaurant.

I don't like Saskatoon.

Never have.

Never will.

The restaurant in Saskatoon was ridiculous.

Crazy.

You order food and they bring you a surprise soup. Nowhere on the menu did it say your meal comes with a giant bowl of soup. But it did.

After the soup came a platter of food.

So. Much. Food.

And after eating the food you’re expected to brave -40 weather to walk back to the hotel? I think not.

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Day 4 was Canadian driving. More accurately Saskatchewan driving.

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That was fun.

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About 60 km east of Vegreville all hell broke lose with our car. I was driving along minding my own business when the back of our car tried to pass the front of our car. The back was sliding left and right and back left again. We were all over the road. We became more concerned when we realized that it seemed we were the only ones having such a tough time on the road. I fought the car the rest of the way to Edmonton.

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Nicole lost years off her life with her fretting and worrying about “losing control” and “crashing” and “being killed” but I told her I am a superior driver and wouldn’t allow her to be more than “maimed”.

Turns out we have crappy tires. And the road from Vegreville to Edmonton is crappy. And our car was very heavy in the back. Those things combined made for some difficult driving.

So word of advice: don’t drive from Atlanta to Edmonton on summer tires in the dead of winter.

Unless you like a challenge.

We stopped to check the car out in a little town called Mundare, Alberta. It's Nicole's favourite Albertan town because its the home of Mundare Sausage.

And this monument.

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We made it to Edmonton that day.

Exhausted. Worn out. But we had arrived.

Our Trip Home - Part the Second

And the next day was wedding rehearsal!

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And then Friday was decorating!

And Saturday was my little brother’s wedding!

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It was a nice wedding. A beautiful ceremony at which the groomsmen a groomsman cried like babies a baby and the bridesmaids stood stoic. I say if you don’t cry at a wedding you shouldn’t be there.

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The reception was fun too.

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Great food. I don’t dance or drink so the rest of the reception activities were meh. But it seemed like people had fun despite the frigid, frigid temperatures.

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At least we only had 10 minutes of outdoor pictures. (it was -40 and I was wearing a suit which was, apparently, constructed with tissue paper). At least one of the other groomsmen rebuked the pain in my back as it seized up from the cold.

(It didn’t help by the way. But it’s the thought that counts!)

The wedding was on the 20th and Nicole’s Dad joined us.

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While he was away from Portland the snowstorm of the century hit the Pacific Northwest. He was then stuck with us for another three days due to the Portland airport being closed.

We had a great Christmas this year. It was a lot of fun.

Christmas Eve found six of us at church where we were able to see old friends and experience the strangest Christmas Eve service in the history of mankind. Let’s just say it involved a lot of pantomiming and climaxed with a blow up saxophone, lip synching angels wearing short dresses and an angel ripping his robes off to reveal a black suit complete with skinny black tie before breaking into song…

Good times. Good times.

It’s a family tradition after Christmas Eve service to go home (actually we do it at my sister’s home now) and have a “Birthday Party for Jesus”.

Complete with cake.

And the singing of Happy Birthday.

With a candle.

He doesn’t blow it out.

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It was only the 6 of us (out of the normal 13) for both Christmas Eve and Christmas day as my brother was at his chick’s wife’s family’s and my sister and her kids were at her husband’s family’s.

On Christmas day we opened stockings, played Wii and then had a fondue. It was a great day and I think we should do it every year.

We had “Christmas” on Boxing Day. So we opened gifts on December 26th with all 13 people and had our big, delicious Christmas dinner on the day after Christmas. Then we had our annual Croquinole tournament, which my Father and I, of course, won.

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Handily.

It wasn’t even close.

It was like grown men playing against children.

Who had no fingers.

Poor, poor fingerless children.

We ate too much.

We had too much fun.

It was a normal Christmas with my family.

Actually that’s a normal day with my family.

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Our time in E’Town came to a close and we were soon loaded up and on our way to Washougal, Washington.

What a drive.

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What a horrible drive.

We still had summer tires and this time we were driving through the MOUNTAINS in the dead of winter.

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Smart?

Sure.

The problem with driving from Edmonton to the Pacific Northwest is that unless you leave in the middle of the night you’re going to get into the mountains at night.

When it’s dark.

Do you know what lives in the mountains?

Animals.

Scary, scary animals.

It was a mere 10 years ago that I found myself in my 1970 Volkswagen bus with my brother; Jill and Fat Matt. We had driven from Edmonton toward the great Pacific Northwest. After our first gas stop my bus wouldn’t start. So Jill and I got out and Fat Matt got into the driver’s seat of MY bus. Jill and I pushed the bus. Fat Matt started the bus without too much difficulty after it got up to speed.

I hopped into the second row of seats.

The row WITHOUT seatbelts and Jill got into the passenger seat.

It was dark.

We were listening to the Insyderz.

I was fiddling with the map and a flashlight (bent over at my waist looking at the floor) while Jill was resting his elbow next to the passenger window dozing.

All of a sudden I hear Fat Matt say “Woah!”

I feel the bus go left, then right as I feel a warm fluid hit my face. Soon I was tumbling into the seat in front of me as the bus slid on its side down the highway.

The next thing I remember is yelling out “Are you OK? Is everyone OK?”

Jill says “Yes”

Fat Matt says “Yes”

I walk out the FRONT WINDSHIELD with Jill to a row of cars facing us. We were in the wrong lane and the bus was on its side. I turn around and Fat Matt is still in the bus.

I go back in with some guy and say “Fat Matt why are you still in your seat?”

“I can’t undo my seat belt.”

So some guy and I undo his seat belt and we re-exit by whence we came.

The front window.

Long story short. Everyone is ok except Fat Matt needs to stay in the hospital for observation over night as his girth caused the steering wheel to bend in half and his knee broke the key off in the ignition.

Ouch.

Serves him right.

The warm fluid?

Moose innards.

Mostly moose manure.

That nobody told me was covering my face and clothes for three hours.

So anyway for some reason I don’t like driving in the mountains in the dark.

Because you never know when a depressed meese is going commit suicide by jumping in front of your car.

So we left Edmonton, not in the middle of the night, and slip-slided through Leduc, Red Deer, Airdrie and Calgary before arriving in the Mountains.

In the dark.

And we saw plenty of beasts.

Plenty of beasts.

And Nicole was scared.

But we survived and actually crossed over to the US that first day of driving.

The US border guards hardly gave us a second look as they waved us through.

Moral of the story: US border guards are lazy.

Must be the heat.

And we stopped for the night a short drive away from the bustling metropolis of Washougal, WA where we arrived around 3 pm the next day.

We drove, in total, 6 days covering 3380.38 miles. We saw 16.5 road kills. One of them was being literally scraped off the road by a road maintenance crew as we drove by. It was flat as a pancake. It reminded me of a cartoon.

But it was oh so real.

The 0.5 road kill was interesting. We were driving on a divided highway. We were in the driving lane (as opposed to the passing lane – something that Americans don’t understand – you drive in the right lane and PASS in the left lane. Upon completion of your pass you move back into the right lane. Not complicated. So learn how to do it. Oh. And cruise control is your friend).

Anyway we were in the driving lane and on the right shoulder was a road maintenance truck.

As I was moving to the left lane to give the guy room I noticed the road maintenance guy sprint from the median across traffic to his truck. I immediately slowed down and stayed in the left lane. As we passed his truck going somewhat slowly on our left by a huge snow bank was a deer struggling to stand up. It was thrashing about standing on its front legs with its hind quarters flat on the ground.

So sad. We’re hoping that it had just slid down the snow bank and was slipping on ice but imagine in reality it had just been clipped by a big truck or something. So that was the half of the 16.5 road kills. The others included animals ranging from deer to dogs and skunks etc.

Our Trip Home - The Final Chapter

The day we arrived in Washougal was New Year’s Eve and we partied like it was 2008!

Playing the Wii with Nicole’s Granny who is visiting from Romania and her parents.

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We watched the fireworks that all the neighbours were shooting off and we watched the Times Square ball drop.

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And it was 2009.

And we went to bed.

Our time in the Northwest has been spent doing a lot of running around getting ready for our move. We were able to spend some time with some friends. (Let’s be honest they are Nicole’s friends. They just tolerate me because they have to.)

We were lucky enough to be hit by another Pacific Northwest Snowstorm. We went out and played in the snow.

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Nicole, her Granny and Mum built the saddest looking snowman ever.

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I shoveled the huge driveway just for fun. I had nothing else to do and it made me feel like I accomplished something (it wasn’t necessary as all the snow was melted by the next morning).

Nicole tried to go sledding despite my assurances that it wouldn’t work. The snow was way too sticky to slide with any speed so I ended up having to push her down the hill.

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We had fun. <>

We’re now down to a couple of days to go.

We’re not ready.

>Oh well.

At least we know we’ll soon be in a warm place where we can finally spend some time together. (Note sarcasm as we’ve been lucky enough to spend almost a year together 24/7)

That’s our trip thus far.

We’ll see y’all on the other side of the world.

A magical place where it’s always tomorrow and it’s already summer.

I am formulating a post but am not feeling all that well (back) and Granny lives in the computer room so its difficult to find the time to sit and really write. I promise a post before long.

We are getting excited/nervous about our move to the South Pacific and can't believe that its only a week away. A lot to do. When we get there we don't have any teaching duties for about a month so we will be having meetings, preparing and I'll be learning the best way to boss Swell around... 'cause I'm the boss of her... remember.

2009

Happy New Year to all our friends and family.

Expect many an update over the next few days as I find time to write about our road trip, Christmas, brother's wedding and our year to come.

We had a fun night of dinner, Wii, fireworks, and watching CNN.

Wishing everyone a stupendous 2009!

Rented!?

I'll try to keep a long story short. We think we've rented our place. Nothing is signed but we have a deposit cheque and a cheque for the first rent payment.

The guy renting it currently lives in our building. He is moving down from the sixth floor to our unit as the unit he is currently renting is "for sale" (now that is probably a story related to the economy).

He is, however, looking for a place to buy and may break the lease. In our lease he must give us 60 days notice so we should be able to fill it while he is still leasing the unit. He can't afford our place on his teacher's salary and hasn't found anything in a year so he may stay for the entire year he has signed on for.

He wants to take over on December 15th! We leave on the 14th. This is awesome. So although we went down a hundred bucks on his monthly payment he is giving us an extra half month that we weren't expecting and is interested in some of our furniture. We will find out how much of it he (or, interestingly his sister slash realtor) wants in the next few days.

Swell had a good cry as she said goodbye to our couch and her sheep chairs.

We also found out today that we are departing Portland, Oregon for our new home on January 12th at 6 pm.

Its getting close!

We're happy to have found a tenant and really looking forward to our time on the road (3380.38 miles) and with our families.

Today is the Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Lil' Nicles

I can admit when I'm wrong

I was backing up my computer the other day so that I could make more room for important things like movies, music and pictures. While copying and deleting things (successfully making more room that I promptly filled again) I began to read some of our old posts from our old blog. I came across the following which was written on March 15, 2006.

"So I was at Starbucks today (which sucked because I don't like coffee and I don't like the trendy, silly corporate behemoth that Starbucks is), anyhoo... I was sitting at my little table working on my thesis when next to me sat some silly middle aged men who have discovered how to make millions.

Now they didn't say to me this idea is copy-written and they were speaking in public place very loudly so you can take their idea and make millions if you get it done before them!

Here is the idea...wait for it...it's a doozy. You have to realize that they were very excited about it and were thinking they will make millions and millions. They were talking about all the contacts they have in industry and how great their lives are and how many people they know and talking and talking.

Their idea... it's a good one. I can't believe it hasn't been done yet. It's like the next wheel. It will change the world forever and one day you'll look back and say: "I remember when Matthew told me about this. I wish I could've invested in this thing because those guys who came up with it must be billionaires."


The idea - that was talked about for hours and hours and said great idea about over and over is -


to create a company that allows you to pay for things via your... I can't believe the ingenuity of this idea...

this company would be set up in such a way that you could pay for your goods and services with your cell phone! Your cell phone. You would call up some phone center load your cell phone with money and somehow the cashier would take that information and you'll have your purchase purchased. Their motto: "When you just don't feel safe carrying your cash."

I saw this sign at the parking lot across the street from our house the other day:



I don't know who is behind this program but if its you men I overheard in Starbucks I apologize profusely.

I still think its a stupid idea though.

Discovery Health Channel Tonight

If you have discovery health channel watch Mystery Diagnosis tonight at 10:00 pm.

Swell received the following email regarding tonight's episode. This is the same disease she has but the woman featured probably has it worse.

Hello everyone!

On Dec. 1, Discovery Health channel will devote an episode of their program MYSTERY DIAGNOSIS to the story of my being diagnosed with HAE - a 40 year journey.

Please check your local cable company to see if Discovery Health is available in your area and please be sure to check your local listings for the time the show airs in your area.

(I believe it will be repeated on Dec. 2 and 5 also.)

I always tell my friends to remember that this is a tv show, not a documentary - the most accurate and patient-oriented HAE-related medical information available anywhere is on the HAEA website www.haea.org, of course.

Please invite all your friends and family to watch together! Thanks!

Janet Long

December!

I can't believe its already December. This year has just flown by.

Our condo has been listed for rent in various realty places but we haven't had any interest so far. It was just listed a couple of days before Thanksgiving so we're not concerned. I'm sure we'll get more interest now that Thanksgiving is over.

We are offering it for rent furnished but don't expect anyone to want our furniture.

Because we are leaving for good in two weeks we are trying to determine what to do with all of our stuff. We already have a small storage unit but its pretty full.

We're slowly realizing that its probably not worth the money to put much of our furniture in storage. We'd end up paying as much in storage as it would cost to buy new stuff. We're seriously considering getting rid of the bulk of our furniture. Our realtor has expressed interest in some of it (to use as staging furniture) so we may sell it to her. We're also considering how much it would cost to store things for a year and then during our long break next winter flying back to Atlanta and loading it into a truck and move it to Washington.

Its tough trying to determine what should make the move with us. It is especially hard because we need clothes for cold weather for over Christmas and we need clothes for hot weather for when we move.

Swell's parents came for a visit a few weeks ago and we gave them two suitcases full of hot weather clothes that we'll pick up when we visit them in a month.

I have a bunch of books and everyday I decide to leave a few more behind. I'm also considering bringing some notes from public health school because I may take a certification exam sometime next year... we'll see.

Both Swell and I have loaded our iPods with hundreds of CDs as we won't be bringing the CDs with us. I'm currently loading my iPod with movies. That is a long slow process but it will be nice to have 15 or 20 movies on my iPod for traveling purposes.

We've just found out that we're wanted in Fiji the second week of January. This is sad as Swell's good friend is moving back to Washington from Maui right around the time we're leaving Washington to move. They will miss each other by a day or two.

The students arrive in Fiji on Jan. 19th for orientation and we need to be there at least a few days before them so that we can get oriented to both our jobs and our new city/country.

I'm having some serious difficulties getting a physical done for the paperwork we need for our work visas. HIV/STD testing is required and those tests run over $300. I'm not keen on spending that much money (plus office visit, plus x-rays, plus, plus, plus) but I guess I'll have to. I've been shopping around and may end up at Swell's doctor's as they seemed pretty reasonable if we understood the charges correctly.

Learning how much HIV/STD tests cost was interesting to me. As a public health person I wish that these tests were much cheaper. Pretty hard to convince an uninsured person to get tested if they have to go broke doing it. I know there are clinics and charities that offer free/cheap testing but still.

Thats our lives. We really aren't doing much other than packing and stressing out.

My back has been really sore for the past month so I'm looking forward to moving to a warmer climate where I think I'll have less back problems.

Well this is getting boring and too "Dear Diary" so thats it.