After the month of lazing around in July came the Road Trip. My mom and I left August 1st, teary-eyed after passing by our good old Muldrew house, and headed east. My mom bought a Sebring convertible at the end of June to take across the country. The benifits- it's a Sebring convertible, and we could avoid paying the PST. The downside- we had to drive it across the country. Anyway, we were able to cruise with the top down for part of every day except one. So that was sweet. Day one of the Road Trip we drove from Red Deer to Mossbank, Saskatchewan. We stopped in Swift Current for tea with my great aunt, which was very nice. And then yeah, Mossbank, Saskatchewan. My grandparents live in Mossbank, and my cousins live on a farm just outside of it. We stayed at my grandparents house for the long weekend. While we were there we got to finally do all the touristy things around there that we had never done. We drove to Regina to see my cousin compete in a Tough Truck race, it was neat. I had never been to a Monster Truck show before, so it was a new experience. There were monster trucks and tough trucks and these sweet motorcross bikes. We also drove to Moose Jaw to see the tunnels there used for smuggling alcohol during prohibition and also used for working chinese immigrants. Yeah, those were really cool. One has no idea that Moose Jaw was known as the City of Sin, or Little Chicago.
After we left Mossbank our next stop was Winnipeg. We ate at this awesome restaurant there overlooking the Red River. It was very wonderful.I drove a good chunk of the way that day and the next day, which turned to mean that I drove all the way across Manitoba! Our next stop was Thunder Bay, Ontario. We decided to go north, above the great lakes instead of south through the states. Driving in Ontario was hard because the highways are all two lane and the speed limit is 80 or 90. We ate at this irish pub which was freezing and ended up being insanely slow. My mom was not impressed and we ended up only having to pay for our drinks (coke fyi). And then we walked to the Boston Pizza for dessert. We were most worried about this next day- the trip from Thunder Bay to Sault St. Marie, but it turned out to be our shortest day! We ate at this cute italian restaurant in the mall and then walked around the mall a bit until I ran into Eloise from Continentals! It was crazy. Very cool though, we sat and chatted for a while- caught up, it was nice. The next day, was our last day. It proved to be the longest. A twelve hour day in fact. We drove from Sault Saint Marie to the ferry that goes across Lake Huron then drove on to Kitchener.
We stayed a week in my dad's appartment in Kitchener. It was a rather uneventful time... at first. We went to the blues festival downtown the first night, we rented a movie one night- it was supposed to be a comedy but it really wasn't, I don't think my parents liked it, but I did. Anyway, yes uneventful until Thursday. Ah the dreaded Thursday. The day the lights went out. You have perhaps heard of the most massive power outtage since the 60s? Yeah. It happened Thursday and yes we were affected by it. Our power was out for about 12 hours. It wasn't that bad though, because a good chunk of that was at night and we were sleeping. We lit some candles (very carefully) and had a nice quiet evening. Well... my mom and I did. My dad's boss was away and so my dad had been the acting CAO for the City of Kitchener. So he had to run the Emergency Operations Centre. We barely saw him for the next few days. Friday was supposed to be his only day off for the entire summer- because it was our moving day. But with this emergency he sure didn't get to take it off. He was in at 6 am! The movers didn't come. neither did Rogers Cable. You know, we had a lot of trouble with this move. I'm kind of tired, so I won't go into it right now. Anyway, the movers came on Saturday and Rogers came on Tuesday, our fridge came Saturday and our stove came Tuesday, and the movers came again Tuesday to bring us the rest of our stuff, since not all of it showed up the first time. But NOW, we have all our stuff (we think), fridge, stove, internet and t.v. and we bought a barbeque today. At Zellers.
I've been sorting through all the junk that I used to store in my walk-in closet. I no longer have a walk-in closet, luckily there is this thing called Ikea. So I ordered a storage unit/desk from Ikea and I can't wait for it to come so I can put all my newly sorted junk in it.
As for Waterloo- oh here, just to clear up any confusion- our new house is in Waterloo, my dad's appartment was in Kitchener, they are two cities that are attached. Waterloo has about 100 000 people in it and Kitchener has about 200 000. My dad works for the City of Kitchener. I will be attending the University of Waterloo. Ok, anyway. As for Waterloo- it is a very nice city and I like it. I like our new house a lot, and the neighbourhood seems very nice. I haven't seen too much of the city yet but I hear lots of good things about it and I am excited about going to the university. I've met a couple people already through a bible study for college kids at my dad's church. One of the people I met is taking me to the butterfly conservation in Cambridge tomorrow! So I am excited about that. The church has been very welcoming, and I am going to be singing on a worship team which is cool.
Anyway, I just ran out of space. Well, there you go, a crappily written piece updating you for the months of July and August. Goodnight Cleveland! Dress warm this October!