The Big Move

Sunday, March 25th - we left Austin in the afternoon.  We were pulling a little U-Haul trailer behind our RV(named Gibby), because, honestly... as much as I love my Class B Winnebago - there just wasn’t enough room for us, precious cargo, 2 cats, 2 cat crates, cat food, litter, litter box and clothes for 2 weeks.  

I’ve never driven a vehicle towing anything - and I am still getting used to the size of the RV so I have been nervous about this aspect for a couple of weeks now.  I have to admit that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought.  I guess this is just one of many new “firsts” in store for me!  

Texarkana was the first stop - about a 7 hour drive.  Everything went fairly smoothly, until we started looking for Purrcy when we stopped to get gas.  We knew he had not gotten out the door but we couldn’t find him anywhere.  David finally found him, in a place he had been once before, behind a drawer.  So, we removed the drawer and eventually he came back out.  Zooka (aka Krazy Kat) spent part of the trip in the litter box, which fortunately neither of them had used yet.  But still... ew...  cats are weird. 

Texas gave us a beautiful farewell of bluebonnets and other native wildflowers.  It is truly a strange feeling to be leaving a place you have lived for 60 years.  I know I will be back to visit, but it will never be quite the same. We spent the night at the Cracker Barrel, because they offer free overnight parking to RVs and trucks.  Not exactly scenic, but we weren’t there long. 

Monday, March 26th - ate breakfast at the Cracker Barrel - which was actually pretty tasty. 

Got a little bit of a later start than planned, but we were on the road by 9:00.  Reminder*** turn on hot water heater before going to breakfast. Or in this case - let David shower first and by the time I get in - plenty of hot water :) 

Monty the Mountie has been traveling with us.  He was a gift from one of my besties, Julie!

  Four states in one day! Texas - just a little bit before we hit the border.  Arkansas - drove through a good portion of it and enjoyed quite a few redbud trees along the highway acting like it is already springtime. Missouri - we went through David’s family’s original stomping grounds - Portageville where Emmy was born, East Prairie where Pearl lived in her early years, Sikeston where we still have cousins and other family.  At the turn off from I 55 to I 57 - we even saw someone who had missed the exit and stopped - yep - backing down the freeway... reminiscent of John A days.  Is that a Missouri thing or what???  Illinois - stopped for the night in a town called Mount Vernon.  It sprinkled a little bit and there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow so we replaced the windshield wipers,

(and I use “we” loosely, as Dave reminds me that I have problems with personal pronouns). Once that was done - we headed to, yet another Cracker Barrel.  I was feeling a little bit hypocritical staying there, because I had read some unsavory things about them so it was somewhat reassuring to see a HUGE sign by the front door that said they were working very hard to improve their discriminatory image and even posted a phone number if you felt you had been treated unfairly.  

Turning in earlier tonight and hope tomorrow’s drive is not too rainy. 

Tuesday, March 27th

Another yummy breakfast at Cracker Barrel, however I think 2 in a row may be my limit.  Fortunately it was not raining too hard today... just a lot of drizzle. Three states today- Indiana - oy - their roads are terrible. Went through another of David’s family’s stomping grounds in Anderson. On through Ohio and then into Michigan.  Spending the night at the Harbortown RV “Resort”.  

Resort is an interesting term to use, but in all fairness - it had everything we needed. Water, electric hookups and dump for the black/grey water.  

Wednesday, March 28th

 We got up early today to get a head start - expecting long wait times to export the RV out of the US and import into Canada.  

We put the cats in their crates and straightened up everything in the RV, got all our paperwork in order and took off.  David spent incredible amounts of time in the past 5 weeks getting the cars updated on all the recalls, making sure the cat’s paperwork was up to date, itemizing all the items we have with us as well as the “goods to follow”. Tons of forms and phone calls and research.  Turns out we breezed through in about 30 minutes.  They didn’t even look inside the RV or care about the cats. All they asked about were guns and knives and mace... which we promptly answered NO... we have none of the above! 

Drove to Kingston, Ontario and spent the night at Walmart! My first time in Ontario! 

Thursday, March 29th

 David drove the whole 3 hour drive to Montréal.  We got our keys to our new place - called The M, appropriate, eh?  

We brought multiple loads of stuff up to the 12th floor including the mattress out of Gibby.  We unloaded the cats, too.  Zooka stayed in the crate sulking for a while but Purrcy was out in a flash - checking it all out.  We left the apartment and drove to a storage facility where we put the rest of the load of things we brought in the U-Haul.  Returning the U-Haul was an adventure.  Of course we couldn’t drop it at any locations near us - we had to drive to another part of town, where the construction re-routed us through an insane loop, then we missed a turn and had to do another insane loop... in 4:30 traffic.  We finally made it in time, dropped the U-Haul and then went to look for a place to park Gibby.  We headed back to the area near the storage facility and Google directed us through a fantastic route through the railroad yard- where there was NO traffic.  Well, apparently the reason there was no traffic is because it is against the law to drive through the private train yard property.  If we had read the signs, instead of following Google Maps, we might have figured it out BEFORE the nice police officer pulled us over. I’m sticking to my “Canadians are super nice people” theory because the policeman gave us a warning instead of the $150 fine!  Sheesh...did we feel like newbies, but VERY lucky ones.  We finally dropped Gibby at the Walmart and took the metro back to our new place. We ate dinner and pretty much crashed.  Another busy day planned for tomorrow!