Day 4... Ontario vs Manitoba

First, I would like to share with you what seems to be the theme for our GPS for the past 2 days. Drive 700 kilometers, then turn right!! hehehehe

Our day started out early as we are trying to stick by the advice of the truck driver who took our furniture to Saskatchewan and told us to stick to daylight if we were going to do this drive in the winter. Sundown and the twilight can take much longer when you are driving the twisting and winding roads along the rocky shores of Lake Superior. This, combined with huge signs that say "WATCH OUT FOR THE MOOSE AND DEER AT NIGHT" can make it seem as though the rocky wall on the right is either a Moose, a deer, a female deer... (hehehehe) but i digress.

Pine Trees. Lots and lots and lots of pine trees. Every so often, the scent of pine seeps through the vents and you look around at these endless rolling hills full of pine trees with 3 to 4 inches of snow on each of their branches surrounded by pristine, untouched white snow and you can't help but feel like you're in the middle of a post card. Ontario is beautiful. I know Neil said it last night, but this is something you have to experience for yourself. I could use a thousand words to describe what we've seen in the last couple of days, but I don't think it does justice to how you feel when you realize this is where you live. We would have had to stop every 5 minutes to take a picture in order to capture every moment we went around a bend and said "wow". Maybe I'm a little melancholic for having just left Ontario, but I cannot emphasize this enough - If you live in Ontario, drive up here!!

2010 kilometers. That's how long it took to drive from Toronto to the end of Ontario. Yesterday, we were wondering what today's drive would be like and I asked Neil if the rolling hills and rocks ended as soon as we crossed the border between Ontario and Manitoba. He looked at me and said "I'm sure it's not as though you're on the hills with twists and turns and then suddenly, boom! it's flat. Who knows? We'll see tomorrow!" As it turns out, the answer to my question is, YES. You cross into Manitoba and you immediately go into a 401-look-a-like highway and it's all flat as far as the eye can see!!! It's soooo weird!! It's as though someone said, well - the hills have ended... new province name please!! hahahahaha

And so here we are. In Winnipeg (aka. the Peg!). Officially in the Central Standard Time zone. One hour behind most of Ontario. We drove for about an hour from the border and noticed a few things. First, the highway is weird. Cars merge onto the highway from every which way. From the left mostly! It's kinda freaky. That will take some getting used to. Second, we are glad La Mama got us the GPS. After that first right turn after 700 kilometers, we went through the Peg and it's twisty, and and down streets that go north for 1/2 a block and then west for another 1/2 a block and so on and so forth. We're pretty sure a few Winnipegers cursed at us and our Ontario plates tonight! And that's pretty much all for Manitoba first impressions. We checked into our hotel and ordered room service and realized how close we are to our new home from here. Only a 5 hour drive to our new life!! eeeeeek!! hehehehe

We'll take a quick look at the Peg in the morning and then we'll make our way home. We'll have to come back another day to explore a little more.

So for now here are the main differences between Ontario and Manitoba.

Ontario: Hills, twisty and winding roads, lakes, pine trees.
vs.
Manitoba: dark, flatter and they have weird names and logos for the beer and liquor store!

Okay, to be fair, we've only been here for a couple of hours, so i guess we can't make a final decision based on just this. We'll make better comparison after a few visits.

Tomorrow as I said. We get to our little house on the prairies. We haven't set up cable and internet yet, so you might not hear from us on the blog for a couple of days. We will take lots of pictures catch up with you guys as soon as we get connected!

Meanwhile, know that we are missing all of you already and we will keep you posted as often as possible.

Nighty night from two temporary Manitobans!

Vero & Neil.

P.S.: This one is for Cristoven. We made it to your home town!!!! Max the Moose says hello!!



Oh, and of course, Killer's daily photo:

Here he is waiting to be transported to his hotel room on the luggage carrier at the end of the day.

Day 3... the long haul to Thunder Bay

So here are the GPS directions for the day. Get on to highway 17, drive 700 kms and hang a left.

Other interesting things from today: Ontario is big. Very big. So hugely big that we are spending a third night here. This time in Thunder Bay. Again in a Comfort Inn. I think we should just buy some stock in the company since we spend so much time here.

Things that have been lost so far on this trip: Patience with a Philips FM tuner for our IPods. Veronica ended up having to hold the wire running from the tuner to the IPod a certain way to get it to play properly for the better part of the day. One crutch, colour silver. Somewhere between Sault Ste. Marie and Parry Sound. Not sure where we left it, but now she is one-crutch girl whether she likes it or not.

Things learned so far on this trip. Ontario is beautiful. I know everyone says to drive that to the west coast of Canada, its better to go through the States. Having driven along the shore of Lake Superior for the better part of today, I say that everyone should make this drive at least once. For example, here's a couple of pictures along the way. Note the relation of the direction of the road to the Sun in the pictures.


.

Other things learned on this trip: If the music on the radio is not Veronica's, she instantly falls asleep. Like low-grade narcolepsy asleep. We were listening to HER IPod, which Dan and Rachel kindly provided the music. While she was flipping through songs she landed on The Cowboy Junkies cover of Sweet Jane. I asked her to let it play because I like that song. Two seconds later her eyes were shut. If I want a conscious navigator, its nothing but Miley Cyrus, Madonna and Cher the whole way.

For Dad, here's the damn goose from Wawa.

I got a little tired today, so I turned the wheel over for a few hours...

And here we are 695.5 kms later, still waiting for our left turn on to Arthur St. W

Signing off for some tired travellers,
Neil

Day 2... northbound!

Our trip today started in Parry Sound where the snow had started to fall. But don't worry La Mama, Ron and Roseann, the further north we went, the dryer the road got as you can see behind our travel companion (courtesy of La Mama), whose name according to Neil is "Killer". Now i ask you, how can you give such a sweet little doggy a name like that? hahahaha

One of the things that Neil and I (and our friend Valerie) said we would do on this trip would be to take in the scenery and pay attention to our surroundings. And today we did just that.

We stopped on the side of the road on Highway 69 (just before Sudbury) to take a couple of pictures of the ice that has formed on the rocks along the highway. This one is a little small compared to some other ones we went by, but as much as we wanted to take these pictures we were also trying to be safe when we did pull over. Here a a couple of the best ones we took today.



We stopped in Sudbury for lunch and proceeded on towards Sault Ste. Marie. On our way there we were able to take the "photo of the day" when we drove through Spanish, Ontario!!! I mean, how could i resist? These pics are priceless. Take a look! hehehehehe




Last, but not least, as we drove through Highway 17, the sun started to set as we drove by Blind River in the North Shore area. Unfortunately, our camera did not do justice to the colours we were seeing, but we managed to capture some of it. Picture this - blue-ish ice on the water, green pine trees, white snow and pink and orange layers of sunset in the horizon. Breathtaking!! This country is so beautiful!



So, all in all... a good day! The weather cooperated. (Knock on wood). We made it to Sault Ste. Marie on time and had a great day today :)

Tomorrow we drive to Thunder Bay! Will let you know how that goes by the end of the day! :)

TTYL my peeps!

Veronica :)

And we're back. And on the road.

Wow, been a little while since we have posted here to let you know how things are going. We've been a little busy. Plus it's tough to post from an empty house with no internet. We had the obvious big news over the holidays, then I had to fly back to Saskatchewan. Just under two weeks later, I had to fly to BC for two more weeks. From there I swung a flight back to Toronto. Meanwhile, Veronica has been wrapping up things at her office and putting in all the hard work organizing the move.

Our household belongings left for our Saskatchewan home on the 25th and will actually be getting there ahead of us. Big thanks to my friend James who will be there to oversee the delivery of our stuff.

We are officially on the road, but not without our hiccups along the way. No one ever said this would be easy. We are camped out in our hotel just outside of Parry Sound. Tomorrow, bright and early, we head for Sault Ste. Marie. Another short hop before some longer hauls later this week.

I want to thank everyone who came out on Saturday for Veronica's birthday and to see her off. I would say us, but it seems everyone has said goodbye to me several times already, so Saturday was all about Veronica. It was great to see everyone one last time before we headed out.

Another big thanks to everyone who helped us out over the last 5 months as we have gone through this and a big thanks to everyone who looked out for Veronica while I have been away.

Signing off from the road,
Neil

... and even MORE news!!

So, as i explained in our previous post. This Christmas was a very exiting one for our clan!
On the night before the night before Christmas (dec 23rd, hehehe), Neil's brother and his wife announced they are expecting a baby!!
The very first grandchild on both sides of their families!

I'm suprised all of us made it in one piece through the holidays seeing as i thought i would jump out of my skin with some much good news!!

Last week, Mom and Dad-to-be when to get the very first picture of my soon-to-be niece or nephew and I thought i would share that with you all.


So... who do you think he/she looks like? hehehe.

Neil and I are so happy for you three. We love you.

Vero & Neil

So..... we have news!

So we've been kind of busy since our last post!!!

This Christmas was full of surprises for our families. You all recall Neil writing from the Regina airport on Christmas Eve as he waited for his plane to come home... or "back to where his from". :) What he didn't say in his port is what he was planning on doing the moment he got off the plane.



On Christmas morning, at around 11am Neil got down on one knee at the Canadian arrivals area at Pearson Airport and asked me to marry him! Oh... and i said YES, by the way! :)

It was a perfect proposal as, unbeknownst to me of course, both his family and mine knew it would happen that morning and they were all hiding in various parts of the airport!


I, of course, had NO IDEA and was confused when, after saying yes (or i believe i said "of course") i heard clapping and cheering and woo-ing coming from everywhere. It took me a few minutes to realize that the people i was looking at in the second floor of the airport were Neil's parents, his brother Ryan and my sister-in-law Melissa! Then, to top it all off, i turned around and saw my mother, my sister Virginia and my brother in law Charles running towards me after having said goodbye to them at Virginia's house only 20 minutes earlier!!


It was perfect... did i say that already? hehehehe .. not only were both our families present, but i should also say there is a Tim Hortons' right next to the arrivals gate and we then proceeded to cheer to our engagement with Timmy's coffee!! And, as most of you know, I am a Timmy's addict, so again, i have to say that it was PERFECT!! hehehehe :)

Neil and I are so happy and our family and friends couldn't be happier for us!! I mean, how many people get to have video and photos of the moment of their proposal?!!! Both my brothers in-law and my father in-law captured a lot of this very special moment and we wanted to share it with you all.


The perfect moment ....

Of course I will marry you!



See! Tim Horton's on one side...

...... wait a minute... is that the 'PROPOSE HERE" sign?


And of course... the ring!

Going back to where I'm from

Well. I'm sitting Regina international airport typing this on my itouch.

I mentioned to one of my coworkers that I was going home for Christmas, but he corrected me. He told me that I was going back to visit, Saskatchewan is now my home. I guess he is right. Slowly but surely, this place is becoming my home. Mine and Vero's home. It's a whole different life out here. The pickup truck is king, everybody knows everybody else, a trip to the store means at least a couple of hours in the car, but this place is starting to grow on me. I used to joke before I moved out here that I wasn't going to miss 401 traffic, and by god, I don't. In fact, on the trip up to the airport, I probably saw one car every 10 minutes. The nice thing about the roads out here is that the speed limit is 100 km per hour everywhere. Makes the distances between towns seem a little shorter.

Well I still have about three hours before I can checkin for my flight, but I just wanted to say that I am looking forward to getting back to visit and spending time with everyone.

Merry Christmas,
Neil

ps I remembered to buy gum for the flight home, so hopefully I can hear when i get off the plane.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

Well folks! Sorry we haven't posted for a few days.
Neil has been working really long shifts (13.5 hour days) and i've been off work, but trying to get everything ready for Christmas!
Those of you who know me well are aware that i love, love Christmas!
I especially enjoy spending Christmas eve with my side of the family, enjoying awesome dishes prepared lovingly by my mother and sharing, laughing and eating until the wee hours of the morning and then heading out to Neil's side of the family on Christmas Day and doing it all over again with the rest of our peeps!
This year will be a little different as Neil won't be flying home until Christmas morning, but it will be just as sweet as we try to spend time with as many of the people who love us and whom we love right back! Who knows what next Christmas will look like, with Neil and I in another Province, but the one thing we know for sure is that we will pay special attention to all the precious, unique and great moments we will have with family and friends for what is left of this year and the Holiday season.
There are a lot of changes in the horizon not only for us but for a lot of the people around us and we look forward to wrapping up 2009 with both the good and the bad moments that we all have experienced. No one know what next year will hold, but if you ask me, 2010 is already looking great!
Our wish to all of you who read these words this Holiday Season is for each and everyone of you to have a very happy, healthy and amazing Christmas and may the New Year bring you and all the people in your lives all the blessing you wish for and deserve.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Joyeux Noel et Bonne Annee!
Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo!

Vero & Neil :)

90 days so far...

Ninety days... wow.
That's how many days it's been since Neil and I have resided at the same address.

On September 18th, we left our apartment (our AWESOME apartment) together to drive him to Quebec for his training in the hopes of a better, more promising job opportunity!
The good, actually, the GREAT news is that not only did Neil succeed at obtaining this opportunity, he totally NAILED it by getting an award for TOP MARKS in his class, thereby making all of us who love him so, so proud!!

The down side? We've now been apart for 90 days and we still have another 50 or 60 days to go before we can share the same address again. Don't get me wrong, we are thankful to even have the opportunity to start a brand new life in another Province, and for the excitement of figuring everything out as we go along, good AND bad... we want it all!! But we'll both feel better once we're doing all of it... in the same time zone!!! :)

Our friend Valerie, as well as a few other of our friends often ask us how we're making it through this separation? Having only seen each other 16 out of the last 90 days and only another 8 days in the next almost 60 days, i gotta tell you .... IT KINDA SUCKS!!!! ...(Trying to keep it PG 13 here!).
I won't even try to sugar coat it or b.s. my way through any other answer... IT JUST PLAIN SUCKS....
Although we have an AMAZINGLY, SPECTACULAR support group of ridiculously awesome family and friends, without whom we could not have survived even the first WEEK, let alone all this time.......... today, on this 90th day, we're hoping time starts moving a little faster so we can be together again! :)

For now, we are thankful that Neil will be coming home for Christmas!!! He will literally be the best Christmas present i receive as I will be picking him up at the airport on Christmas day morning!! Thank you Santa!!!
Oh yeah and Santa?... can you make it February already?

Looking forward to Christmas y'all!
Veronica

Picture Time

Finally, got something to get my pictures from the camera to my computer.

Here's my plane! (Well not MY plane, but the first one I was ever on)















Inside the airport:




















And some pics from the drive down:







Here's me driving.

















Just feeding the stereotype about the province.













Yup, lots of the drive looked like this.












The area is swimming in oil, so these are scattered everywhere in the fields.









That's it for pictures for right now. I'll be taking more during our travels and posting here for your viewing pleasure.

Going to try and stay in tomorrow, gonna be -50C with the windchill!
G'nite,
Neil

Week One

Well, here I am one week into my new job. Have a few days off now. Mostly going to be looking for a more permanent home.

Things are nice and slow right now which is ok I guess. Really get to take our time trying to learn the job. Get experience now for when it starts to pick up as the seasons change.

So I have relocated temporarily. I am out of Estevan, and just south of the town of Oungre temporarily. A rather nomadic lifestyle until I can nail down something more permanent. Borrowing a neighbours wi-fi (with permission) to make this post, and to look for a place to rent.

The people that I have met/work with all seem to be very nice and they are offering to help in anyway they can.

Certainly a different feeling from when I was staying in Quebec. Its a whole set of different worries, but not the stress of testing. Second, it's a little more lonely as I don't have people right next door or across the hall to hangout with. I do miss everyone and I am looking forward to getting home for Christmas.

Just trying to stay awake long enough to make this post. It was my turn for my body to give up. I have been sitting on the sofa and pretty much unable to keep my eyes open.

I will be taking more pictures tomorrow hopefully, and I will stop in to a store somewhere and get an SD card reader in the hopes that it's just the card slot on my computer that's messed up. Then I can post a couple of photos from the drive down.

Btw, another weather update. It was a little bit warmer today, -14 or so. Not bad, but tomorrow the wind is supposed to pick up and it will be back to -40 windchills. Can you hear me shouting, "hooray" from two provinces away?

signing off,
Neil the Nomad

Warped Anniversary...

So, today is December 10. Unbelievable.
Today marks one year since I slipped on some ice and ended up in crutches.... for A YEAR!! :S

At the time, I remember speaking to my employer and not being able to fathom being away from work for more than a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, as most of you who are reading this blog know, that was not to be the case.

It's been a very challenging year, with visits to the hospital, I.V. antibiotics, home care, X-Rays (while using Andre and Neil as crutches), MRI's in Buffalo (thanks to Virginia and Charles) and physiotherapy. There was also the non-conventional therapy such as the Tea House therapy, 4 or 5 different TV series (Alias and Weeds Rock!), all the movies The Movie Network had to offer, every Oprah and Ellen episodes of 2009, every new and old TV series available on any and every channel, day-time and night-time nurses, tons of Starbucks and of course, lots and lots of spoiling from Neil, family and friends!!
Today however, I'm down to only one crutch, I can drive myself everywhere, I'm back at work and we will be moving to another province in a little while.... so, things are looking up!!!! :)

I'm very lucky to have received the love and support of a lot of people in this past year. And i guess if i have to mark this day in any way, it would be to thank all of those who have helped me in any way. So, to all you who've been there for me throughout this experience (you know who you are), THANK YOU. I could not have done it without you.

Kisses to all from the now One-crutched girl,

Veronica :)

Day 4 - Nobody warned me about this...

Sitting here watching Corner Gas and I just realized something. I don't remember that show ever being set during the winter. You know why? No one voluntarily goes outside at -40! That's why.

I have been greeted by -40 windchills every morning this week. No sign of it letting up until at least next week. That's when they say the El Nino winds will be back and bring some warmer weather. Well, at least warmer in a relative way. I never thought I would look forward to -10.

Sorry to harp on the weather, but it really is the most startling thing I have noticed (other than the flatness). My whole evening revolves around trying to get food, but still be back in time to get a spot in the parking lot to make sure that I get a space to plug in my car. There are a lot of oil workers and construction workers staying here and their trucks take up a lot of room outside.

I also learned not to pump gas without a glove on. Fingers stuck to the handle.

Oh, and by the way Vero, I don't think you are relaxed. I think it might just be the exhaustion. The last few months have really been a marathon.

Freezing various body parts off in Sask.
Neil

Day Three - Am I "TOO" relaxed?

So, after seeing Neil off this past Sunday, I can't help but wonder: Am I too relaxed?

I don't know if it's that I'm relaxed per say, what I do know however, is that I can't seem to stay awake! I had taken yesterday and today off (originally because we thought we would both be driving to Saskatchewan after Neil's training) and I thought I would get a whole lot of things done, but nope... not a chance!!!

I guess after all the running around in the weeks leading to Neil's graduation and having slept only 2 hours before taking him to the airport, something had to give! Now that Neil is on the job, I don't know what to do with myself because there is nothing else to prepare for or get done.... for now.
After giving up our apartment, packing our belongings, putting all of our possessions in storage, booking flights for Neil, filling out passport applications, making arrangements to rent a car, finding cheap, yet clean and nice hotel rooms, the only thing that is left now is pin-pointing a date for Neil to come back to Toronto one last time so we may finally leave together to Saskatchewan!! We'll be making more decisions regarding a date once we get more information from his employer. Which means that I can't do anything until that happens. And THAT, Ladies and gentlemen, is the reason i don't know what to do with myself!!! hehehehe!!

I guess I don't know what to do if I have nothing to do!! And, apparently, sleeping and being ridiculously relaxed is what happens to me when I have nothing to do! Those of you who know me well, know that i don't DO naps cause they don't agree with me, but I seem to have finally gotten over that issue! ;)

I go back to work tomorrow, so wish me luck! I forget...is it rude to fall asleep while speaking to a customer at work? I guess I'll find out tomorrow!

Nighty night y'all.... Veronica
......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Day Two - from Saskatchewan

Well I guess I better check in from Saskatchewan. Specifically the Uptown Inn Motel, only 1 and 1/2 blocks off 4th street, in lovely Estevan Saskatchewan.

Impressions so far: It's cold.

First Flight: take off was fine, just a little uncomfortable for the ears, but otherwise okay. The trip itself was fine, but oh my lord, my ears on the landing. That pretty much sucked. My ears still feel funny even a full day after I landed. How long is it supposed to take?

Did I mention it's cold here?

Regina Airport: Small. I just left Pearson 3 hours earlier, so I had a good frame of reference.

The drive out to Estevan: It's flat. Very flat. The jokes are true. I headed south out of Regina and didn't have to turn the steering wheel left or right for at least 45 minutes. It's so flat here, they have dotted lines on the curves. You can really see that far ahead.

It's supposed to be -30C tonight. Have I mentioned the incredibly low temperatures they are having here right now?

The land of the block heater: Plugging in my car is now my reality if I want to be able to get to work in the morning.

I did snap some pictures on my drive down, however, my laptop does not want to recognize my SD card, so pics will follow soon.

Signing off from the rectangular province,
Neil

Day One -

So, this is it! The day we've been waiting for. We've worked so hard for this! The big payout of Neil getting his new job and the beginning of our new adventure.
Although we didn't picture this day with each of us in a different Province, we know it's only for a short while until we're both in what we will soon be calling HOME.

This is the very first time either of us has had a BLOG so bear with us as we navigate through this! :) For now we thought we would each give our view on what the next few weeks will look like for each of us, kinda like a "HE SAID- SHE SAID" type deal. We hope you enjoy coming back and reading not only our funnest adventures, but maybe share on even the most mundane, everyday, run of the mill situations we encounter in the days, weeks, months and years to come!!!

Welcome, to Neil and Veronica's adventures moving from Toronto to the Prairies.