Mountaineering

Well we made it across the prairies last night and into the mountains! Yay mountains! I'm going to have to post pictures of the prairies for you to believe how flat it is up here... makes Kansas look like foothills. It's like this:
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So glad to be into the Rockies. So instead of taking 2 days to get through, we're going to make it in one day and we should be to Vancouver tonight! Next time I write should be from my new home. Wish us luck!

Where did all the hills go?

Hello from Regina!

We decided not to drive the entire way across the plains yesterday and opted instead for a good bed at a nice hotel in Regina. This is the first real city we've hit since leaving Toronto... Sudbury might have been as big but we skirted around the edge and didn't see. We stopped in Wawa, ON Saturday night and slept in a cute little old hotel run by an old lady. Sunday brought us the rest of the way through the Canadian shield (terrain much like Little Rock, Arkansas) and to Katy's friend's cottage in Kenora on the Lake of the Woods. We stayed for a day and had a great time. Monday evening, though, someone broke into the basement of our friends' cottage and took Katy's computer and my camera. Really lousy way to end that stint of the trip... but what can you do? We filed a police report and took off Tuesday morning later than expected, which is why we only made it to Regina last night. Now we're off to Banff to camp with our friend, Aaron. After that, it's a half day drive to Kamloops and a half day to Vancouver!!! Almost there... and thank GOD because gas is ridiculous! Anyway, we're alive and happy and we're having a blast making this drive. We'll report more (with pictures) later! Bye, all!

mike (& katy)

So we got packed up and left Ottawa without incident. It was sad saying goodbye to Thomas and the family but I'll see them again before too long. Time for me to go out into the world and do good things. We drove to Toronto tonight and will leave here Saturday morning to continue our journey. If you're curious where we're headed, you can check out our route on MapQuest here. It's going to be a dandy of a trip! Ok, I'm tired. Off to bed.

And awaaaaay we go!

Hi folks,

Well, it's 2:30am Thursday morning and we just finished packing everything. We go to get our truck at 9am and then load it and go. Time for a grand adventure! It's been tough saying goodbye to so many wonderful people here but now it's time to spend our last night in this dump of an apartment and venture West to meet new wonderful people! Keep an eye out over the next week, as I will try to post anytime I come across an internet spot. No promises, though. Tomorrow we head to Toronto and Saturday morning we leave Toronto for the open road. I'll post a route before going. Ok, time to catch a quick nap before we get up and load a truck. Goodnight, all...

Moving on up...

Hi everyone,

It's been quite some time since I've sat and just written on my blog. Sorry, faithful readers. Life sometimes gets in the way of reporting on life, you know? So Katy and I are in the midst of the great Westward migration. Yesterday we had our moving sale and made almost $100 from selling our extra kitchen stuff, household goods, small appliances, furniture, art, etc. I sold my first painting... for $20. Woohoo! Big money! really, though, the couple who bought it seemed really happy to have it and that thrilled me. We have been having pretty good days. It's a very, very, very stressful move but we both realize that it's the move stressing us out and not as much each other. Living in a 250 sq ft one-room apartment with someone is a good test of your relationship, but it is not all that fun at times. We're pretty good about keeping separate schedules and getting out of the house as much as we can. It's the days we spend too much time together in this cramped little box that we get at each others' throats the worst. this apartment is really killing us... literally, I think. We came home a couple of weeks ago and found water in the bathroom floor that was coming from the upstairs neighbors' kitchen sink. The wall has been saturated with water and our apartment smells like mold and mildew now. We keep a box fan in the bathroom window and that helps, but it's so hard wanting to be here still when we have a brand new apartment rented already in Vancouver! So it goes. It's the things like this that teach you patience in life, right? So we're making the best of our time seeing friends and wrapping up loose ends. Our friend, Morgan, threw us a really nice going away party last night that lasted until 3 this morning. I haven't partied until 3am in a long time. Listen to the old guy, eh? We had dinner with Thomas and the family yesterday... gonna miss them more than anything. I hate leaving them the same way I hated leaving home the first time. I'll miss our Sunday dinners and the random stop-ins. I'll miss seeing Suzy and the kids when they drop by school. I'll miss watching Peter, Nicholas and Steven grow up. I'll miss having Thomas to talk to. It's gonna hurt leaving them. Such is life. So today I've got a few things to do at school and Katy is going to continue packing. I'm gonna call Mom here in a few minutes because we haven't talked to each other in so long. Life is good and continually rolling towards Thursday, when we will pick up our rental truck, drop the cats off at a boarding place, load the truck and go. I'll write more about our route later and I hope to find internet spots so I can post along the way. Alright... coffee's done. Bye for now!

More Peter and the gang...

Well, I went to Steven's middle school graduation last week but had to leave before he was done with the ceremony so all of the pictures I have are of his brothers. Go figure.