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| 5 mins into the Epic Journey |
The thing is that we actually didn't take the full five days - we gunned it and made it in 2 and a half. (no speeding).
We started the trip early at about 6am leaving our house in the far south of the city of Calgary and of course we had to go back not once but twice to double check and grab last minute forgotten items...we then stopped at our local Starbucks to grab coffee and a chai (a must need for early mornings in our family) and finally set off at about 7am.
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| Where is Dora?! |
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| The Front of the Moose - on purpose! |
I remember seeing that moose as a child but thinking that it was much bigger than it actually was. We lined up the kids for the obligatory tourist picture and my oldest commented that the moose had gigantic testicles!! (the funny part is that I remembered noticing that as a kid too - why exactly does a plaster moose need them? - especially when it is missing its penis)
We got back on the road and headed to Regina. By the time we entered the city it was only 3 o'clock and the thought of staying in a hotel and waiting until the kids fell asleep at 10pm (at the earliest) was more petrifying than just continuing on. I called the hotel to cancel our reservation and we continued on to Manitoba.
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| Cute little grain elevators in Saskatchewan. |
We made a quick pit stop for a pee and a bag of chips in a small town 2 hours out of Brandon. The kids had the DVD player on by this point and we were listening to episode after episode of Ninjago. I am not a huge fan of media for my kids but in this case the quiet was worth it. We powered through to Brandon Manitoba and stopped for our final break at the Quiznos on the highway.
I know that I have said before that we are vegetarians, but more of the problem with food is actually the cheese. Both my oldest son and I are allergic to dairy and so most vegetarian options are out fr us when travelling. We decided to just get turkey subs for the kids so there would be some protien and I grilled the clerks on what was vegan and what wasn't. I think that they may have thought that I was speaking a completely different language. By this time my husband had really had it and we had been driving for over 15 hours. I told the clerks as much and tried to get the kids fed and to the bathroom with as little drama as possible. There may have been some tears and some sharp words exchanged.... But this being the one time people were showing signs of stress we decided to put the kids jammies on and make a reservation in a hotel in Winnipeg.
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| 15 hours in the van and he is still smiling. |
It got dark rather soon after we started driving again and the kids were really unhappy that we had turned the DVD player off and rudely expected them to go to sleep. (sleep?! What is that?!)
In classic kid fashion both the littles fell asleep an hour outside of Winnipeg and I bribed the oldest to be quiet with a "surprise" for the trip in the morning. We pulled in, took the dog for a pee, my husband took the bags and the dog and the oldest and put him to bed and came back down to help carry child #3 while I carried #2.
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| We made it!!! |
We work really well as a team in instinces like that. (any other time - not so much).
Stay tuned for the second part of this blog - Winnipeg to Sault Ste. Marie.
***update - since it was a crazy trip there and an even crazier trip back - the second day is all blurry so not sure when I will be able to blog about it***
2 comments:
Dryden is in Ontario, I think you must mean Brandon, Mb.
Thank you for pointing that out for me. We drove for so many hours on that trip, going to and from ontario and alberta in 2.5 days each. The cities all seemed to meld together at some point. :) I have corrected it.
Thanks again!
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