After selling our first trailer and buying another one, we are finally ready to leave Fair Havens a week late. God knew that we needed that time together, and we really enjoyed our week at camp! Thanks to everyone at Fair Havens that accommodated us, and gave us a great week!
We left on Monday afternoon as planned, at about 2:30pm (after waiting for our first trailer to get picked-up and paid for, and saying all of our goodbyes for about the fifth time). We didn’t get far that day, (Lively, Ontario, just past Sudbury) but we at least made it off FH property this time! As the weather was rainy, we decided to stay at a Motel that night instead of camp. I had noticed that afternoon that the trailer hubs were running a bit hot, so the next morning we drove 2 blocks to a grocery store and Tim Horton's so Jocelyn and the kids could eat breakfast and shop for the day’s food while I set out to grease the bearings. Of course, this being “traveling” and me being a Hoffman, it wasn’t that easy. As I got set to pump some grease into the first hub, I noticed that the lug-nuts on that wheel had worked loose, causing damage to the wheel studs and the tire rim. So, it was a good thing we had stopped when we did, or the whole wheel would have eventually worked itself free and come off entirely, which would have been bad.
Anticipating the Hoffman curse to strike at some point, I had at least packed the tools last, where I could easily access them. Getting the parts off was easy; replacing them proved more difficult. Thankfully, there was not apparent damage to the bearings or hub itself, just to the rim and wheel studs. But, being a small town, no-one had the parts we needed, so we were given directions to a place back in Sudbury that would “definitely have what we needed.” They didn’t. And when I say “we were given directions,” I mean we were given bad directions. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Our taking the long, scenic route had nothing to do with my listening skills. Nothing.
At least this place was able to direct us to another shop that did have the parts we needed, and we returned to our trailer, still parked in the grocery store parking lot, and put it all back together. After greasing the hubs as originally planned, and tightening ALL the lug-nuts, we were finally on the road by about 4pm. During all of this, Jocelyn and I are starting to feel quite sick, and Kai is developing a cough. Resisting the temptation to just stay there in Lively another night, we put in a couple of hours on the road, and stay at a very forgettable town (quite literally, we can’t remember where!)
Suava enjoys a sprinkle-donut at one of our stops.
Up at the crack of dawn, we’re on the road by 11am (dawn comes late around here.) Feeling sicker by the minute, we make it only as far as White River, about an hour past Wawa. With the sunshine still coming in liquid form, we decide against camping again, and opt for a cheap motel.
Thursday is a blur of driving, diaper-changing, medication, gas stops, and a play-stop in a Thunder Bay McDonalds that has a Playhouse, where we let the kids run wild for an hour or so. I’m pretty sure that they expect you to buy food at McDonalds when you bring your kids into their Playhouse, but we opted for soup and wraps at the coffee shop next door instead. After the play-stop, the kids are all wound up, and the parents are exhausted and feeling terrible, so we only make it another hour or so before stopping for the night.
Friday we decide that we need to make it to our friends Tim and Amy’s place in Minnedosa, MB, so we can just relax and recover for a few days. So, with several stops for gas, coffee, and to let the kids out, we made it here at about 11pm. It took about two hours to get the kids calmed down and in bed after discovering that we weren’t in another motel, but were in a house with more than one room! And there are toys here! And stairs! (Having never lived in a house with stairs, Suava has spent much of her time here just walking up the stairs and then hopping down them. She’s going to love Grand-mummy and Grand-daddy’s place!) It’s been a huge blessing to be here, and we are slowly getting over whatever bug we have. We even got to watch a parade, which was a hit with the kids. It turns out that Minnedosa is in the midst of a town festival, and we happened to be driving to the grocery store when we got trapped by the parade, so we got the kids out and watched it go by. Suava especially liked the floats that threw candy to her!
We're disappointed that we are unable to spend any time with Tim and Amy, as they are on vacation out east right now, but we are very grateful that they allowed us to use their house anyway! It's a huge blessing to have somewhere to rest, recuperate and play with the kids. Our thanks to Tim and Amy!
Though our pleasures have been diminished by being sick, the trip thus far has also had its highlights. Traveling through northern Ontario is definitely the most beautiful part of the drive, until we hit the Rockies. So it’s been nice to take it in small chunks and see it in the daylight, instead of driving through the night. This section is also the most hilly until the Rockies, so it was a good test for the truck, and the truck handled it well. (By “well” I mean that on the uphills, we were able to keep up with the loaded transport trucks and VW vans!)
We plan to rest here for a few days (as demonstrated by Kai and Suava below) and get back on the road on Tuesday.
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