Marathon

So now that the moving truck was gone, and the house cleaned out, we figured we could just sit back and enjoy the drive down to California.  After all, the hard work was done, right?  Little did we know what lay in store for us…

We left Edmonton around 5pm on Friday and decided to stay overnight in Calgary, get a good rest and then split the remainder of the drive over the next couple of days.  In total, it’s about 2800 km from Edmonton to Anaheim where we’d be staying before we headed to Temecula.  So we figured that from Calgary, we could drive 13 hour days for the next 2 days and we’d be there.  Unfortunately, no one told that to the people at border crossing…

When we got to the border, we waited in line about 45 minutes, and just before it was our turn, I think Christine’s exact words to me were, “I don’t think this should take more than 5 minutes, right?”

Mistake #1: Not doing our homework on importing a vehicle to the US

You’d think that a Canadian vehicle that was actually manufactured in the US wouldn’t have any issues.  However, after waiting at the crossing for well over an hour, we were told that since there was no verification that the vehicle met US DoT regulations, we had to go through an additional process which involved us having to wait for an additional 2 HOURS in Coutts.  If you’ve ever been to Coutts, you’ll agree that killing 2 hours with 3 small children, in a full out blizzard is no easy task.  We figured this was a good time to give the boys free reign on their DS’s and iPhones.  Also, I figured I might as well take the boys to get a bite to eat.

Mistake #2: Picking a bad time to try something new

I would say that between Christine and I, I’m definitely the more adventurous one.  Enter Zestos, THE restaurant in Coutts.  (Aside: You know a town is small when you go into the bathroom and there is a sign there telling you that this is the only public restroom in town open 6 days a week, so please keep it clean.)  Since eating out for our family usually consists of pizza or anything with the letters “Mc” in it, I figured it’s time to start broadening their horizons.  So after facing much resistance from Christine, I finally prevailed and took the kids in to get something to eat. To make a long story short, Dylan, Ty and I ended up eating and the food was decent (Jayke decided he didn’t like anything on the menu and went back to the car).  Unfortunately, a ways after we left the border, Ty started complaining of stomach pain and we were really worried.  This culminated with him throwing up into a rubbermaid container which was the only thing in the vehicle we could find.  This happened, not once, or twice, but I think I lost track after the 5th time.  The evidence seemed to point to Zestos which made me feel like a pretty big heel, and even worse, made it appear that I should have listened to Christine and not gone into that restaurant.

So moving on…we agreed that after losing over 4 hours at the border, we should just drive through the night and take turns sleeping so we could still reach our destination by Sunday night.

Mistake #3: Moving down in winter

Driving conditions were pretty bad and the fact that it was cold and snowing on the drive didn’t help.  Road conditions were pretty bad through the mountains in Montana so that didn’t help.  Also, I regularly checked the odometer and outside temp gauge, and at one point, we had travelled about 1500km south and the temperature was almost exactly the same as it was in Edmonton.  So why were we doing this again?

Mistake #4: Being too ambitious

Things were actually going not too badly.  We had driven through Saturday night and had gone through Montana, Idaho and were now most of the way through Utah.  Unfortunately, that’s when Jayke’s stomach started hurting.  In case you think that was a result of me taking him to eat at Zestos, let me remind you that he didn’t actually eat anything there.  This was just probably car sickness.  Before we could get to him with the rubbermaid now known as the “barf bin”, he threw up in the car.  Now imagine us being stopped at a gas station, me trying to clear barf off the seats with paper towel from the gas station bathroom (you know, the kind of paper towel that doesn’t actually absorb any liquid), Christine undressing Jayke outside where the winds were gusting up to what felt like 90 km/h, it’s still below zero degrees, and we’re hoping the dog (Charley) doesn’t jump out and make a run for it.  This wasn’t exactly how I pictured it going when I signed up for this.

Enough of the sob story though.  In the end, we did make it to Anaheim, and there were some other memorable moments on this trip:

- Driving through the mountain range in Montana was absolutely breathtaking even in the middle of the night.  With the full moon, we could see enough to be in awe of God’s creation.  Christine actually said that was where she would want to live if it wasn’t for the weather.  Guess you can’t win ‘em all.

- The mountains in Arizona/Nevada were also amazing.

- The boys got fingerprinted and had their mug shots taken at the border (the guard was humoring them, but made it memorable nonetheless)

- Stopping for supper in Barstow, we got to eat in perhaps the only train station in the world to be converted to a McDonalds.  A real treat for Ty who loves anything that rides on rails.

- Driving 26 hours straight stopping only for food, bathroom breaks and gas is something we won’t forget, and hopefully never repeat again.

- Finding out that California is home to the town with the strangest name possibly in North America – Zzyzx (go ahead and Google map it if you don’t believe me)

Here are a few pics of the trip.

Comments
5,343 Responses to “Marathon”
  1. Ryan & Lisa says:

    We’re so glad to hear that you’ve arrived despite the hiccups along the way! We miss you already! We’re praying that you will be able to settle into California life quickly. :-)

  2. Phil says:

    Thanks guys, we miss you as well. It has felt more like a holiday than a move so far, but reality will hit soon enough. Hopefully you’ll be able to come down and visit us. We’d love to have you!

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