Moving this weekend

[saskswan 1]

So we are off to Caravan from Northern Saskatchewan to Katy Texas this weekend. We have a 10 year old and a 8 month old we will try to keep entertained as we trek! lol

We are taking what we can in our two minivans and will transport the rest this summer. It should be an interesting journey. I think we are going through Portal so I will post how it went entering on our K3/K4's! My husband usually makes the trip in 2 1/2 days - we are planning to take 4 days or so.

Wish us luck!

[cdneh 3,112]

Good luck and have a great trip! I don't know how far that is in miles...but it seems a distance!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

That is a heck of a drive! Best wishes to the four of you for safe travels and an easy border crossing. Enjoy the change os weather from Winter to Spring.

[MrsCat 6]

Safe travels and best wishes!

[BradnKim 0]

Congratulations on the beginning of your new life! Happy travel

So we are off to Caravan from Northern Saskatchewan to Katy Texas this weekend. We have a 10 year old and a 8 month old we will try to keep entertained as we trek! lol

We are taking what we can in our two minivans and will transport the rest this summer. It should be an interesting journey. I think we are going through Portal so I will post how it went entering on our K3/K4's! My husband usually makes the trip in 2 1/2 days - we are planning to take 4 days or so.

Wish us luck!

[chimcham 18]

Good Luck!!

[Flames9_RN 358]

Have a safe trip

[OBX 51]

Have a safe journey - enjoy the ride. Best of luck in your new home.

[trailmix 77]

So we are off to Caravan from Northern Saskatchewan to Katy Texas this weekend. We have a 10 year old and a 8 month old we will try to keep entertained as we trek! lol

We are taking what we can in our two minivans and will transport the rest this summer. It should be an interesting journey. I think we are going through Portal so I will post how it went entering on our K3/K4's! My husband usually makes the trip in 2 1/2 days - we are planning to take 4 days or so.

Wish us luck!

Well have a wonderful trip, pop in when you get there and let us know how your trip was

[KiminON 0]

have a safe trip! and enjoy it along the way. you will be passing through some neat spots.

[Jasman0717 8]

Ugh, that's quite a drive. Have a safe trip

[Carlawarla 1]

Have a safe but adventurous journey!

[saskswan 1]

We are finally moving!!! We planned to leave on Friday morning (Feb. 20th) that ended up postponed to Saturday because of some issues with health insurance etc. And this has been such a hilarious series of unfortunate events I had to share…

We finally get the van loaded (after the guys had to pull everything out of the van to find Hayley’s Birth Certificate that we needed for the border)… We meet my mom for Lunch and head out…. Approx. 1:30.. 20 minutes out of Meadow Lake I realize I forgot my Camera – John races back for it while I continue with the kids…

About 10 minutes out of Saskatoon I notice John’s Van catch a pothole in the road… He pulls over a couple minutes later he is having low tire pressure warnings in his van. We go to Canadian tire they fix it – by the time he drives over to where the kids and I are – it’s low again so he takes it back. Guess what – his rim is bent and they don’t have one that will fit his Van. They seal it and hope it makes the journey. Off we go again…

We get to Regina that night and the “pet friendly” hotel charges a $15 per night per pet fee… so they $100 room cost us $150. We get up and hit the road about 8:30. Three of us all sick with colds! We drive until I phone John and tell him I need to stop at the next town for Gas….. about two minutes later my engine light comes on…. We pull in at the gas station… fill up – restart the van….. now the engine light is on and there is a distinct noise…. I can’t even explain the noise it was so weird! John runs back in to the station and gets some numbers of mechanics to call. He gets one to come out to look at it.. he tells us he thinks it’s the transmission but he can’t work on it for two days…. Tells us to “limp it” to Estevan. We drive about 3 minutes down the road and John stops gets out and says – we aren’t going anywhere – it started slipping 3 & 4th gear. It’s only -44 in the wind so what the heck… lets stand outside and tinker on the van right! John takes it to Canadian tire (with the kids) and I go looking for a hotel. I find one and come back and take the kids to Tim Horton’s.. We waited for 45 minutes. John calls – It’s definitely the transmission (they used their computers) and they can’t fix it. So we go back to the hotel….. The next morning John takes the Van to the local Dodge dealership (at 8:00 am) at 8:20 he calls and tells me they have it in the bay and they are looking at it. Unsure of the cause (the transmission fluid is black). They decide to drain the fluid and flush it. They drain it and find filings….. it’s shot. So they had to rebuild it. Turns out the Torque converter failed and forced Engine oil into the transmission fluid.. blah blah blah This cost about $2500.00 and took until 9:00 Wednesday to fix. So we spent my Birthday in Weyburn… By the way Meadow Lake Restaurants could battle Weyburns in worlds worst places to eat! Even Dairy Queen managed to forget our ice cream on our banana splits!

We finally get on the road yesterday and manage to cross the boarder in 1 hour or so! North Portal had no idea what to do but they did what they thought they needed to do pretty quickly. It was amazing! We drove until Kenmare, ND and had lunch. Then we drove until Carrington and got some gas (I filled my van from empty for $32.00) Amazing huh! We then drove to Jamestown and had dinner (I’m in America and I am not suppose to say Supper!) and after dinner we left and drove to Fargo… The hotel we wanted decided 2 days ago to no longer accept pets so we had to change to another hotel. OMG – Sleeze motel move over! We walk in the room and it smells like Urine! The dogs go nuts running all over sniffing and sniffing.. I didn’t want them to sleep on the floor! It was 10:00 pm and we wanted an early start so we stayed.. at least the sheets were clean!!!

This morning we get on the road… The roads were horrible. Blowing snow and drifts. I kept thinking where the heck are the plows! Well about 10 miles out of Fargo I see this sign saying Christine to S. Dakota travel not advised… Well Little did I know that Christine was the town we came to about 2 minutes later looking for a place to have breakfast – but the café on the GPS didn’t even exist! (6 miles off the highway on very poor roads!) We managed to drive another 45 minutes before we finally give up (the visability was horrible and the drifts were terrible! Turns out they pulled the plows off the road because it had gotten to zero visibility). We pull off at a small town (Mooreton). The Café owner was great – she even let Lily use her grandchildren’s walker. She helped us find a hotel in Wahpeton (about 12 miles away). We drive here slowly and get to the hotel when John’s Engine light comes on in his van! At this point I’m ready to just go jump on the next bus! We checked in and they kindly let us have the room early. John found a mechanic to look at his van and he left. We went shopping at Walmart because we are running out of clothes (we packed for a 5 day journey, not a 7 – 8 day adventure). We meet back at the hotel both John and I got stuck at the same intersection….. we both got out and luckily his warning light is just an issue with ice build up on a sensor or a wire. All fixed!

Now we sit and wait – hopefully the storm ends soon, the hotel has finally cleaned the parking lot but we have a 2 ft high pile of snow behind our vehicles…. So lets all hope we can get out tomorrow! This has been one of the weirdest trips ever, at the rate we are going we drive 1 day – rest 3! Ha, ha, ha! For once the border services / immigration were the easy part!!!!

Hugs to all!

Gail

[cdneh 3,112]

Oh wow...such an epic journey! I was wondering yesterday how it had gone!

That reads like a novel...the car troubles, the weather...I'm glad to hear you are somewhere safe to wait it out!

[R and F 34]

You will love Texas, it is hot, windy and dry.