Month: March 2010

The van is all cleaned up, emptied, and even shampooed, and now we’ve posted it on craigslist and the other main sites. The worst part was taking off our personalized rambling three stickers.

We liked travelling in the van, but for most of our trip, it was a bit too cold to totally enjoy it. A van this size works well if you can spend lots of time outdoors. Often, after a day of driving, I didn’t want to spend my evening in the van and then sleep there, too.

It would be fun to keep it for weekend trips and all, but it’s an expensive toy. I think it will sell pretty quickly and then we’ll be back in our old red Kia that we started the trip with. The absolute worst part will be that we won’t be able to go to VW camp-outs anymore.

I am still happy that we took our trip in the off-season. We were a bit cold at times, but we had so many opportunities that we wouldn’t have had otherwise like playing with the dolphins in Marineland, Florida, or watching a rehearsal of The Very Hungry Caterpillar puppet show in Nova Scotia. We got to visit Mesa Verde and spend time at one of the cliff dwellings with just the three of us and a wonderful guide.

As well, most of the dangerous things in the south were hibernating – snakes, alligators, tarantulas, scorpions, etc.

I’ve been going through a mourning process now that our trip is over. I just can’t believe that it’s true! Is that denial? Maybe we’ll make a lot of money and then we can go to Europe. I’m dreaming of Costa Rica and Ireland and France and all the beaches that we visited…

I don’t feel any urge to settle down!

This morning Morgane had new ideas for inventions. She wants to make a book that you can eat in the library if you get hungry. She also wants to make a sandwich you can read if you get bored.

I found a game of Junior Monopoly at the thrift store and bought it, not realizing that it was missing the game board. When we realized it was missing, we set about making our own. It was so much fun that I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the traditional game! Stink-opoly is much better.You can buy Morgane Land or Ghis’s Office or The Bath.

Ghis and Morgane are gone to Drummondville today to drop off the van and bring back our red car. That will be a change! We are putting the van up for sale. It’s a little hard to let it go, but not so bad. If we need something like this again, we’ll buy one again.

I haven’t taken my camera out lately, so I don’t have any pictures to post. I am enjoying these days in Westmount, although we are itching to get established in Sherbooke.

No news yet about the job I really want. But I am busy for the moment writing about our trip. We visited so many places and met so many people that I don’t even know how to begin to explain it to people who ask us how the trip went. I guess I’ll just say, “Wait for the book.”

We are trying to build our life in Sherbrooke and are one step closer to getting Morgane into the alternative elementary school there. Soon she’ll be on the waiting list and then it will just depend on how much space they have.

The Westmount Library is so nice – I just went there to write for a couple of hours.

We found a place to live in Sherbrooke, at least temporarily. It’s Ghis’s favourite Bed & Breakfast which is closing at the end of the month. They have been trying to sell it for some time. They have agreed to let us live there since it will be empty anyway.

So we have a bit of time to pass before we can go to the B&B so we decided to come to Montreal and our old downstairs neighbour, Martin, said we could stay with him.

Martin was away though, so we took advantage of the time to visit our friends, Denis and Martine and their kids, out in the country near Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.

Morgane had fun playing with the kids and the cat. We ate really well – many BBQs on their nice, new BBQ, despite the cold weather. We had some laughs playing silly Wii games and cards at night.

This morning we said good-bye and are now in Westmount. This weekend I am going to a PWAC writing workshop just walking distance from here. It’s on the business of writing. Very practical!

Morgane has several playdates lined up with old friends and is already over at the neighbours’ house eating dinner. Ghis and I are getting massages tomorrow at our old spot and I am planning on hitting the library to do some writing.

Today we stopped at the library and I picked some free New Yorker magazines from the magazine recycling shelf and they are not even very old! It’s good to be here.

I have put my resume in for a couple of jobs in Lennoxville, right near Sherbrooke. I am really hoping to get the job at Bishop’s University teaching spring and summer immersion classes. Cross your fingers for me!

We stayed for a few days with Ghis’s sister, Louise, in Drummondville. It was nice to have lots of healthy food around.Morgane and I had fun in the backyard with the remaining snow and some food colouring.

Louise has two black cats that also keep Morgane entertained. We have been playing with our Wii again including the new games that Louise bought while we were away. Now we can compete at dancing – you have to try to dance like the person on the screen and you can compete with others.

I find it a little depressing after being outside so much, but spring is coming. It’s cold at night, but nice enough to go walking during the day.

We slept near Cobourg and stopped in Brighton for breakfast. It’s a friendly small town that I liked a lot.

Then we ploughed ahead and drove past Kingston and into the Province of Quebec.

We drove through Montreal without getting stuck in too much traffic. Then we continued on to Drummondville and arrived at Ghis’s sister Louise’s house in time for dinner

The next morning, we dropped Morgane off at her Mami Celine’s house (Ghis’s mom) and we went to Sherbrooke to start looking for a place to live.

Oh, and as soon as we arrived, Ghis went to the market and bought some squeaky fresh cheese curds (they do squeak when you chew them) and some maple taffy and maple butter. Yum! As we licked our sticky fingers, it started to sink in. Our trip is over!

Still it won’t feel totally over until we have established ourselves again.

We woke up and Morgane and I hung out at Chandra’s while Ghis went to have breakfast with Martin, our old Montreal neighbour!

We walked along Queen St. in the Beaches area to find some lunch and the sunshine was beautiful. Morgane chatted a lot with salesclerks in stores, especially at The Body Shop where she told a guy that she wanted to be an actor or else a creator. She sure is good at making friends.

We walked by Lake Ontario – Morgane played in the park with Ghis and I walked Carmanah in the off-leash dog area.

We had dinner at a great cheese place called Taste that offers only local products.

At night we went to Ryan and Sarah’s house for my first house concert. Joel Fafard played some great guitar for a houseful of great people. There were some writers, like Sarah, from my UBC creative writing program there. I also met many artists including a puppeteer.

We left halfway through the concert so we could drive out of Toronto. This gave us a headstart on our drive and helped us find cheaper hotels.

Almost back in Quebec…

I would have liked to explore London a bit, but I got an email announcing that we had tickets to go to the taping of The Hour on CBC. If you don’t know, this is Canada’s only late-night talk show. George Stroumboulopoulos has interviewed so many famous people and Bono called him the best interviewer.

We got into Toronto and wandered the CBC buiding. There was a little museum where I found out that Mr. Rogers, Mr. Dressup and The Friendly Giant were all recruited to TV by a CBC producer. Then, since no kids were allowed at the taping, I went in alone.

I was dressed in a mix of this and that – whatever cold-weather clothes I could gather that weren’t in the laundry already, so I wondered about my decision to go on TV! I got a seat where I could almost reach out and touch George’s chair. The studio had huge medieval doors. It all felt a bit surreal.

The guest of the day was Chubby Checker and it was interesting to hear him speak. He can’t be young, but he still has a real spark in his eyes. He says he wanted to be a star since he was four years old. He’s just glad it came true. He also says all the dances that exist today are based on his four basic movements: the twist, the pony, and I forget the names of the other two (but one is similar to the Jackson crotch grab. He says dancing has always been about exploring sexuality and that doesn’t really change either.

George gave Stephen Harper a hard time for shutting down parliament for so long. At the end of the show, I got someone to take my picture.

Then we met our friend Chandra and ate some great Thai food before crashing at her place. Thanks, Chandra! And if you want to watch The Hour and see the back of my head, I’m wearing a blue shirt and sitting right behind George and you can watch Wednesday’s episode on CBC’s website.

After Iowa, we drove through Illinois passing close enough to Chicago to see a distant skyline. We didn’t want to take the time to explore the big city so we continued on into Indiana and slept there.

In the morning, I didn’t feel like just driving all day again, so we stopped in Michigan for some fresh air and to get a peek at Lake Michigan. It was cold but beautiful. The water was a gorgeous colour and there were sand dunes to climb. Carmanah even ran a little!

Then we went to Kalamazoo! Seriously. This is a great Michigan town – tons of interesting stuff to see, great stores and restaurants and an outdoor shopping street with no traffic. Actually the good part of the street had traffic, but really wide sidewalks with art on display. We ate lunch there and then headed for the border near Sarnia, Ontario.

As we approached the border, we were stopped at a toll booth. We had to pay $3 to cross the bridge to go to Canada. But we didn’t have any cash! The lady said we’d have to turn around and go back to town. In the end, Morgane saved the day – we borrowed her change that she had in her little purse and crossed the bridge.

The Canadian customs official was super nice – very human, not military-like and it made us feel like we were home again. We slept in London, Ontario, and this morning the news on the TV was much less morbid than it is in the US. No more billboards offering medical services or assistance with suing someone. We saw our first Tim Hortons. Small changes that make the difference between Canada and the States.