Farewell, city life. I don't miss you.

I thought I'd forever be a city girl. I wasn't raised in the city but chose city life after being raised in PMQs (private married quarters). Sounds romantic, doesn't it?

After tiring of bouncing Canada-wide from one city to another for eight years, leaving home at the tender age of 17, I landed in Vancouver and stayed fairly stationary for 25 years. I married, had a good job as a tradesperson in the print industry, but then things started to change for the two of us. We were becoming quite dissatisfied with city life so we set about making our dream of a home in the country a reality.

It's funny how things work when goal setting. Sometimes, a little birdie has to be pushed out of the nest. Uh-huh. I got laid off from my good paying job (yippeee!) in January of that year of major change. When it happened, I told my sweetie that I was going to pack one box per day and come summer, we were outta here. Come May, I had a tidy stash of boxes stacked up against a wall in the dining area of our apartment. So, my man calls me from work and asks me if I'm really serious about doing this (the plan was to move clear across the country to rural Maritimes) and I'm looking at the wall of packed boxes, saying "Duh! Yea, I'm really, really sure." That pretty much sealed the deal.

We packed a container to be shipped, ditched most of our furniture, clung tightly to everything vintage that we (I) collected over the years and prepared to make a cross-country trip in a van stuffed with things I wouldn't dare ship.... namely my computer/peripherals and our two cats (and a vacuum cleaner, cause ya never know when you'll get the urge to do a little cleaning while on the road) and hit the dusty trail. I remember thinking, "Whatever you do, don't look back." In looking forward, I saw only a big, blank slate. gasp! No looking back.

It was exciting and terrifying at the same time. I was very enthusiactic about taking pictures of our entire journey which was great through BC and a portion of Alberta but then things got real flat for a real long time and it was really, really boring. The mountains were fabulous and all photos were taken from the van. There would be no stopping for sight-seeing. This was business. We ate in the van, slept in the van, keeping our hygiene up at road-side gas stations (which was at times a bit scary). We were determined to get there in record time. An aside... those little boxes of baby wipes do wonders when there are no other options.

We were fortunate to spend a day with my sister in Ontario for a much needed shower and rest but with a loaded van and two cats, we had to limit our time there. It was while visiting with her that we found out the house we bought was not exactly our house, meaning we had no place to come 'home' to and our lawyer apparently knew this before we left for parts unknown. When his secretary told us to call while on the road, I raised a red flag and questioned why. All she would say was, "Well, you never know....". It was a red flag I had no time to ponder over since we were in the midst of loading the container that was to be picked up at a given time. But, I'll save that story for my next entry. It certainly was not an uneventful journey but this is life. No?

A whole lotta flat nothingness.

Me and the bearded wonder.

Winnipeg

Somewhere in Northern Ontario. No photos while travelling through Montreal. It was a horrific experience and a miracle we got through in one piece. Montreal drivers are insane!