Putting my car out there and...

...In a different Country?

Canada is a different country, maybe not a foreign one per se, but a different country none the less. I add the question mark to the title because, on our road trip we didn't expect a trip the Maple Leaf Country.

On our last day on the road trip Babs offered to start the drive out and drive until we closer to our final destination. This was a'okay with me because my hands hurt that morning so I figured I'd pop some advil, take a nap and we'd be driving onwards through Ohio and PA and then NY in no time.

Wrong! Oh Austin (our GPS) what did you do?!?!?

I have no idea how many minutes our hours later it was but I felt a slightly panicked poking on my arm and then heard the words I never expected to hear "Hey Jen, are we supposed to b driving through Canada?!?!"

Um, NO!!!

Well, my type A, easily panicked self kicked into over drive. OMG! Canadian border, OMG, I don't know where my passport is, I wasn't expecting to need it on my drive across the US, OMG, I don't have any of the kitty's paperwork with me, can they even come across the border? What if they want to search my car??!?! Not because I have anything illegal in it, but it already took me 3 days to pack up all the boxes in it and then a whole day to pack the car so it all fit! WHAT DO WE DO?!?!?!

Luckily Babs was there to calm me down and remind me it would all be okay. I took a deep breath and realized that I did in fact know where my passport was (because apparently you need one to get in to Canada these days) and luckily it was in the cab of the car and not the trunk.

So we got into the country no problem. We stopped to get gas and this is where things got even more hairy. The gas station had some "glitch" in there system that caused an additional 100 dollars to be charged to my account. I have this habit of checking my account online on my blackberry pretty much after every purchase because I want to make sure all is well. Thank God I did this time because within 5 minutes of the "glitch" I was on the phone with the gas station and fighting with them because they claimed it was a bank error and they could not do anything about it.

So, I guess this was a lesson in sticking up for myself when I know something is wrong, and putting myself out there and getting thing taken care of. I went back into the gas station, and maybe it wasn't my most mature moment, but I basically gave the guy at the counter hell, called my bank and got the charge reversed because I was unemployed and moving cross country, and 100 bucks was not something I could even consider trying to part with for something that wasn't my fault or my purchase. So for the most part this situation was handled and was done. An hour later we were back on the road.

By this point I think both Babs and myself were tired and just done with the road trip, the US border and the remaining drive through NY could not come fast enough. But as tired as we were we continued to try and make the best of it.

Once I realized that we were going to be driving through Buffalo, and Babs had never had real New York Wings, and the Canadian/US border was only 1.5 miles from Anchor Bar (the original Buffalo Wing) I realized well if nothing else at least we could get great wings!

MMMM.... but first we had to get through the border!!

More on that in another post

Putting my car out there 2

So I resume my previous post.

After 2 crazy days hitting up places full of super fun things to do and see, our third day on the road set Babette, myself and the kitties off to Wichita Kansas, and the old adage about there being nothing to see in the middle of the country is true. There was not a whole lot to look at between Denver and Wichita.

But that doesn't mean that we didn't have a great time getting there. We stopped a long the way and found a Russel Stover factory store, and spent prolly too much money on for sure too many calories. Worth every penny, and every hour in the gym! LOL , so that was a hoot. It was on our way to Wichita though that we discovered the GPS we were using might not be as good as we had thought. It kept directing us to places that didn't exist. We wanted Ribs in KS, and we thought we'd never get them.

When we stopped for lunch we "put the kitties out" in the world. By that I mean, we had lunch outside and brought the cat carriers outside and let Baby kitty out on her leash to explore, so they got some fresh air. And we did end up getting some great pictures of the sun on our drive.

We were staying with some of my very best friends from LA's parents (also check out their band www.intercepttheband.com) in Wichita, and while there wasn't much to see along the way, we actually had a very excellent evening in KS in the form of good ole fashion mid-west hospitality. the family showed us a great evening and even provided us with the Ribs we had so craved. It was easy to see where my friends get their warmth and love from, their family showed us nothing less. I want to put a note of thanks again in this blog! Much love to the whole group!

The original plan from KS was to head to Indianapolis, but the friends we had planned to stay with were no longer going to be in town and while there are some fun things to see in Indianapolis after talking with our KS hosts, we decided the next stop on our journey should be the St. Louis Arch! I had been before, but it was a quick trip and I don't remember being as in awe of it the first time round as I was the second time.

We once again dropped the kitties off at the hotel and headed towards our destination. It was amazing, it's HUGE, it is so much bigger than I had remembered it. When we arrived we were in luck because not only could we get to the top of the Arch (last time I couldn't go) but we could go at was basically sunset and there was a baseball game going on right below us. It was just a great view of the city, the game and the sunset. Perfect really. It was sort of symbolic too, standing in the "Gateway to the West" watching the sunset in the west and looking eastward to what is a whole new chapter in my life. Strange how the timing worked out.

The next day we were back in the car again and headed to one of my best friends in the whole wide world's house in Grand Rapids Michigan. Not a whole lot to see in Michigan, but any excuse to see one of my bff's is a good one! And, while I'm not necessarily a super religious person by any means, I absolutely believe that I was supposed to be in Grand Rapids that Sunday morning. You see, bff and Babs are both very good Baptists, and as it turns out the church bff goes to is the same church Babs' sister recommended she go to while we were in town. The sermon was all about "dislocation and relocation" and how for awhile any change in location will feel like dislocation but over time it becomes relocation, and about the transition can change you in good ways if you let it, and how relocation means the chance to rebuild. Boy, if there was anything I needed to hear on cross country road trip to re-start my adult life, it was that. I didn't say anything then, but the sermon actually moved me to tears, it home and made me realize that yes, I was in fact moving in the right direction.

The right direction in the metaphorical sense... maybe not in the literal sense...but more on that another night LOL