We Made It!!!!

OMG!!!! I didn't think I would ever be saying this but we are finally in Edmonton! Contrary to what most people think, we will NOT be moving back because if I ever have to go through an ordeal like this again it will only be from the inside of a pine box!

Jeff arrived in Abbotsford safe and sound at 10:30am on Friday June 27th. Annabel was soooo excited to see her daddy again and didn't want to leave his side the whole time we waited for his baggage. It was touching to see their reunion.
Of course MY reunion was even more touching...and I'll just leave it at that ;-)

Packing up the truck started off the BIG MOVE....and it really set the tone for the rest of the trip. We called UHAUL the day before to find out what time we could have the truck. 12pm! Alright, I thought, its later than I wanted but we can work with that. Well we thought maybe we could see about getting the truck sooner so the next morning we called them again to see about the possibilities. We were then told we couldn't have it until 3pm. Now a brief move across town isn't really affected too much by a 3 hour delay but when you have a 14 hour drive ahead of you and people waiting to help with loading, it really does throw a wrench into plans.
Anyway, we got the truck back to the house by 3:30pm and Tammy and Quin came over to help out. Soon after our neighbor, Rick, joined in and even with the extra help we weren't able to finish before 7pm when we were due at Auntie Grace's house for Jeff's B-day dinner.

Dinner was a nice break though. Grace made her famous ham and scalloped potatoes and packed up the left overs with some wonderful homemade buns for a picnic on the road--great idea! Jeff was loaded up with gifts and cards and cake and then we had to get back to the work of packing. So after tearful goodbyes to mom and Aunts and Uncle we headed back.

We worked hard and didn't get to bed that night till about 2:30am and didn't sleep well on top of it because we kept thinking about all that still needed to be done before we could hit the road. up at 5am for more loading and cleaning! We managed to FINALLY get away around 10:30am (5 hours later than we had planned).The weather was beautiful--until it heated up. Jeff had A/C in the moving truck which was good since he was carrying the cats (poor things, by the way!) but Annabel and I were in the Sunrunner and I tell you...it was HOT!!! We had the roof turned back (not totally off) to create more airflow but in the meantime I got a lovely burn with a seatbelt mark across my chest.
Annabel was my photographer and, despite having to stare at the back of the moving truck for 14 hours, she managed to snap off a few good pics of the beautiful mountains near the Jasper area (I can't wait to camp there!!!).

Tammy and Quin and Dusty came along with us as part of their vacation and I was able to pawn off one of the dogs to their A/C'd vehicle after a while. Was nice to have them come with us even though it wasn't much of a vacation for them I'm sure!

We rolled in to Edmonton around 2am and decided to stop at the 24 hour Walmart to pick up another couple of blow-up mattresses since the beds were buried pretty far in the back of the truck and no one was interested in trying to find them. I was surprised at how busy Walmart was! Who knew so many people shop at 2am????!!! Getting through the checkout was my first taste of my new home. The cashier commented on what a great sleep we would have on these mattresses and then asked where we were camping. We then told her that we actually just moved here from Vancouver. And this is her response to that--"That's my home town....Turn around and go back home NOW! I hate it here! You're gonna hate it here! Why would you move to this sh*t hole? Just leave and go back now!" Hmmmm, what do you say to that? I just smiled and shook my head. Welcome to Edmonton, I thought.

We got to our "transition home"--very small and actually a sorta bad area of town, oh well, its temporary--and all we wanted was to fall into bed. we managed to find enough bedding in the back of the truck and went to work on getting the mattresses blown up. Tammy and Quin used the motorized airpump to get their mattress up and then started on Dusty's but the motor had other plans. It apparently wasn't charged enough to get through it. Dusty was actually already asleep on a pile of blankets so he didn't seem to miss any mattress. So i took the pump and managed to get Annabel's blown up but there was nothing at all left for me and Jeff. we slept on the basement concrete while the motor recharged and around 5am we woke up and blew up the mattress for another 3 hours of sleep.

Jeff and I then spent the next 3 full days unloading the entire 26' truck in 30 degree weather! Fortunately Quin was able to help with the massive sofa bed which we acquired from mom cuz there was no way I would have been able to help with that. I'm amazed we were able to do as much as we did. I don't really remember much of the unload. i think I have chosen to block out much of those 3 days as a defense mechanism. I may need therapy down the road for PTSD but for right now i'm happy to forget.

So here we are, in transition. We are not in love with our temporary home. The neighbors on either side are nice but the girl across from us has been using our only parking stall to store her broken down Jimmy. Jeff has been very patient for the last 5 days and even offered to help get it running so she could move it somewhere else. He told her he'd help her out at 6:30pm yesterday....she wasn't home till after 9pm. So our patience has run out and she now has till the end of today to get it gone or we'll have it towed--at the advice of everyone we have met in the complex so far.
(pictures to come)
We went to look at the new place on Monday and its nice and will be totally worth the wait. Its not huge either but seriously there are only 3 of us. We don't need huge. its a nicer neighborhood and close to shopping and parks. I still need to check out schools in the area but I'm not worried. I'm REALLY looking forward to getting into that place. Oh, and Jeff and I will NOT be doing that move ourselves. We will be hiring for that one. Its just too soon for me to attempt that again. The pain is too fresh.

And what do I think of Edmonton? So far so good. Its dirtier though. People don't seem to care about throwing trash on the ground and trying to recycle anything is a big effort--no recycling bins at the dumpster. Haven't checked out the shopping yet but we're pretty broke from the move so we'll get at that later on. Too tired to shop yet! Did I just say that?

I'm watching the morning news on Global and I have to admit I miss Steve Darling and Mark Madriga!