Alaska or Bust - Day 6 & 7

Day 6 – Fargo, ND to Estevan, SK (Canada)

To date, we have traveled through 10 states + Florida. Holy Crap! I’m dumb founded by how much of the United States I have not seen until now (although I was a military brat growing up and traveling) or rather have not remembered seeing until now. We live in a beautiful country people!

As you can imagine, things could get a little boring/stale as you drive all day long for as long as we have been driving. However, we really haven’t let boredom set in. Usually, Brian has some off the wall comments or Abby is doing some randomly cute or annoying thing that has us all laughing or pulling our hair out. But after all these miles, the one thing that has been said that still makes us all chuckle is when we see some huge hay bales for the cattle/horses in the fields, one of us says, “Hey!” and it continues to catch the other off guard and we think the other is just saying “Hi.” When we realize he/she is talking about “Hay”… we start laughing. If you don’t get it, I guess you would have to be in the truck with us. But if you heard it, as Larry the Cable Guy would say, “I don’t care who are – that is funny stuff!”

Today we are leaving the United States and heading into Canada. I’m excited. I’m hoping to get the token “Welcome to Canada” picture that all tourists want to have. I know… very cheesy.

[Writing this last part of the blog entry tonight after we arrived at the hotel and have finally tucked the little ones in bed]… UPDATE FROM THE DAY! This has been the longest, most stressful and exhausting travel day to date. Why you ask? Here are the Cliffnotes version for a brief understanding:

1. The weather – by lunch time there was a fast approaching severe storm with potential tornados. Not having any experience with this gift from Mother Nature, we decided not to chance it. Honestly, I was down right scared when the gas station lady informed me that if/when we saw one, we needed to grab the kids and get out of the truck and find a ditch and crawl into. Holy s*%t is what was running through my mind.

2. We spent $55 getting a hotel room at lunch time to hopefully avoid the storm. We only needed to stay there for only a few hours, but were lucky enough that everyone got their nap in during that time. By the way, it was one of those hotels where it looks desolate on the side of the road, but in a state of fear and worry it just had to do.  However, that also means we paid for two hotels in one day. Might sound like a waste of money, but it was instead – peace of mind.

3. We found out that the Canadian border entry that we wanted to use was closed due to flooding so had to be re-routed . On top of that, we realized that even the borders have closing hours. At this particular entry, their hours are 9am – 10pm. So, because of the lunch time delay, we had to make up some serious time.  That was stressful in itself to get there on time.

4. And when you try to make up time, usually 9 out of 10 times you end up cranking up the speeding notch. We are no exception. However, in North Dakota, when you try and make up time, you end up getting a speeding ticket. I know… crazy, right? Here we are in the middle of nowhere and the Heck Family gets a speeding ticket on a day we are trying to make up some ground.  I'm happy to report that I was not the offender.

On a different note...There have been a few things that Brian and I have done that has made this roadtrip go a bit more smoothly and in all truth, we would probably have gone insane, strangled each other or left a child behind at a previous stop had we not done these:

1. As previously talked about, the kids’ “bed divider.” Everyone has their own side and no one has fallen out of bed. Thank god. At least no yet.
2. Bought big gallon sized jugs of juice and put one in our small cooler and then as we are driving, I can easily fill up their drink cups and it ends up being just plain cheaper.
3. I prepacked all of the kids clothes in 2 gallon zip lock bags to eliminate the picking and choosing each morning and night for clothes.  In each bag was a set of PJs and clothes for the next day for each of the 3 kids.  I have to say that it is one of the best decisions I have made about this trip.  It has just made things so easy.

4.  We made sure we packed somethings that the kids and us could enjoy doing while we stopped at rest areas or in the afternoons once we arrived at our hotel for the night. A soccer ball and also some little trinket toys we found have really done the trick to burn off some energy after spending the day in the car.

Day 6 = 335 miles
Total trip = 2,090 miles

Day 7 – Estevan, SK to Saskatoon, SK (Canada)

We awoke to a beautifully clear day and a cool 65 degrees in southern Canada. Thank goodness because if we have another day like yesterday, I’m going to have an entire head of gray hair and will have chewed off all of my fingernails.

I’ve been the front seat passenger on this road trip since we dropped of the VW Routon in New Orleans. I’m not used to be the non-driver, but if Brian is enjoying/wanting to drive, who am I to change his mind. However, I think secretly he doesn’t want to have to be Abby’s personal attendant. It’s ridiculous how needy she is in the car each morning. I must have to reach back (and often times take my seat belt off and turn around and practically crawl in the back seat) at least 50 times in the first hour of driving each day to give her something, take something from her, or turn something on/off. Combine that with how much whining she does for things… no wonder Brian has driven almost 2500 miles of the trip.

Thomas continues to talk with practically everyone we see and lets them know we are moving to Alaska. He also proceeds to tell them about the toys he has chosen to take with him, who his sisters are, what the weather is outside, blah, blah, blah. He cracks me up. The boy wakes up talking. I’m hoping that is indicative of him learning to read? He is so sincere and innocent with his intentions, except maybe when he is frustrated at Abby for taking his toys. But I can certainly understand that being the older sibling in my family. As kids, my younger sister Jennifer used to drive me crazy too. But I know all too well that one day he too will grow out of that.

Abbigail, in my opinion, has two sides/personalities. She is super sweet and loving (especially to her baby sister). She has a smile that will make you melt. She is energetic, competitive, super smart and very independent. However, she is very persnickety, argumentative, determined to do things on her own time and in her own way (even at bedtime and meal time). At times, she makes me want to pull my hair out. But I love her. I love her for all of her “I’m-almost-two-years-old” attitude.

Oh sweet Marilyn. I can’t believe how wonderful you have been about roadtriping across the country at the ripe old age of 2 months old. I’m not sure how you have been able to nap through Abby’s whining and Thomas’ singing, but kudos to you. You are the 3rd (and final) ray of sunshine in our family and we can’t wait to see your sweet personality shine through. But if Marilyn's coos and smiles are indicative of who she is, she will be as sweet as her big brother and big sister.

On a different note, I’m very surprised with the fact that we have driver almost 2500 miles, 6 days and we have not gotten to any real hills yet. I know the mountains are coming (God knows we will be in some seriously high elevated mountains), but I expected rolling hills and such. Instead, the Dakotas and now Saskatchewan, Canada are flat. Flat as a pancake. The Dakotas had corn. Saskatchewan has fields of beautiful flowers – yellow, blue and purple. But no hills. Huh.  Learned something new.

Day 7 = 285 miles
Total trip = 2,375 miles