Well - a bit of a gap since the last post. We have stuck to our plan, and are currently in the greater Ottawa area, at Larissa's brother's house.

Day nine, Dec 21 (Thurs.) - Sudbury, ON to Deep River, ON - 293 km: Stop at Larissa's home town to spend a couple of days with Grandma and Papa!

Day ten, Dec 22 (Fri.) - Deep River, ON - We ran some XMAS preparation errands while the kids played at Papa's house.

Day eleven, Dec 23 (Sat.) - Deep River, ON - Stay and visit - Larissa worked 5 hours at a Henna gig while Andre took the kids to walk on the beaches. Larissa had a whopping 5 customers in 5 hours! Ah well, you never know until you try.

Day twelve, Dec 24 (Sun.) - Deep River, ON to Ottawa, ON - 188 km: We stopped on the way at Stitsville to visit some friends. Then on to Ottawa for Christmas!!

Day thirteen, Dec 25 (Mon.) - Ottawa, ON - A wonderful Christmas with 5 kids full of excitement!

Day thirteen, Dec 26 (Tues.) - Ottawa, ON - Short trip to the Museum of Civilization - great place!

Tomorrow we plan to hit the Science museum, and maybe some more errands. Then pack for leaving on Thursday.

Current Plan

Day fourteen, Dec 27 (Wed.) - Ottawa, ON to Montmagny, QC - 507 km:Day fifteen, Dec 28 (Thurs.) - Montmagny, QC to Fredericton, NB - 518km: Home!

Home stretch #1

Day eight, Dec 20 (Wed.) - Sault Ste Maire, ON to Sudbury, ON - 307 km
Stop and visit Science North - http://sciencenorth.on.ca/science-north.html

We are nearing Deep River, with one short leg tomorrow.

First, last night was had a few incidents. We got to Sault Ste Marie, and checked into the Best Western. Larissa was specific about needing a room with 2 queen beds, internet access, and Treehouse on TV. When we got settled, and orderd dinner from a local Chinese restaurant, we realized the internet connection wasn't working. We called the front desk and were told that we could move to a room with 2 doubles, and the internet would work there. After Larissa got through to the General Manager, she was more than willing to suggest other options. We were happily moved to a family suite with a separate room for the kids with bunk beds! And a king sized bed for mom and dad.

Our drive today was short as well - we made it to Sudbury, and had a quick exploration of Science North. The kids had fun - you could spend a lot of time there - tons of stuff. Hope got to hold a Giant African snail, and the kids got to pet a huge African millipede as well. The kids played dress up, and there was a whole butterfly room as well.






Current Plan
Day nine, Dec 21 (Thurs.) - Sudbury, ON to Deep River, ON - 293 km: Stop at Larissa's home town to spend a couple of days with Grandma and Papa!
Day ten, Dec 22 (Fri.) - Deep River, ON - Stay and visit
Day eleven, Dec 23 (Sat.) - Deep River, ON - Stay and visit - Larissa works.
Day twelve, Dec 24 (Sun.) - Deep River, ON to Ottawa, ON - 188 km: Christmas!!
Day thirteen, Dec 25 (Mon.) - Ottawa, ON - Stay and visit.
Day thirteen, Dec 26 (Tues.) - Ottawa, ON - Stay and visit.
Day fourteen, Dec 27 (Wed.) - Ottawa, ON to Montmagny, QC - 507 km:
Day fifteen, Dec 28 (Thurs.) - Montmagny, QC to Fredericton, NB - 518km: Home!

Northern Ontario

Day seven, Dec 19 (Tues.) - Marathon, ON to Sault Ste Marie, ON - 404 km:


We stopped and had lunch with Larissa's aunt, uncle and neice. We also said a quick hello to Larissa's cousin as well. About an hour north of Sault Ste Marie we stopped for a cold walk on the beach of Lake Superior.

Reinders Adventure across Canada

(Andre) Well - here we are joining last year's technology with a blog. We would like to share our moving adventure - moving from Calgary, AB to Fredericton, NB. City of 1 million to a city of just over one hundred thousand - almost 5,000 km away.

The house contents went on a moving van, the cats went on a plane, and we went into the minivan !

(Larissa) My First Entry To The Blog - I will do my entries in this nifty colour, so you can tell my thoughts from Andre's! I’m typing this as we drive along the good old Highway 17, bound for Thunder Bay, and then on to Marathon, ON today. And a marathon indeed, as this is our longest day planned in the car. A total of 630km, however the speed limit is a tad lower than what we are used to cruising at out on the open prairies. The weather “bubble” I have created for our journey has held up well – we travel at the moment in beautiful sunshine, with snow capped pine trees lining the wet, but clean, winding roads of Northwestern Ontario. The kids have held up amazingly – with mom and dad only having a few tense “snapping” moments at them at various truck stops along the way. But, being cooped up for hours on end listening to mom and dad singing Peter, Paul and Mary tunes is enough to drive any 2 year old into running around a restaurant wishing everyone “Merry Christmas HO HO HO!” Generally the kids are met with gentle understanding, with very few disgruntled looks (except from us!). By the way, my own personal title for our adventure is the:
Cross Canada Christmas Cruise!

Day one, Dec 13 - Calgary, AB to Medicine Hat, AB - 298 km:
We left at about 5 pm after the moving van was packed up. The best feeling was relaxing in the hotel - knowing that while we had a long drive ahead - all the late nights and packing was done! We had a gift certificate for the hotel (because of our complaints from the last time we stayed) and got the same room - what a coincidence. They had fixed about half of the issues we raised - oh well - better than nothing.

(Larissa) Moving day was a busy one for us – no kidding. I stayed up the entire night finishing the kitchen and preparing for the daunting task of packing over 37 large pieces of framed art. I was still packing the art into crates when the movers did arrive in a timely fashion at 8am, but they just worked around me till I was finished. The efforts of packing were exhausting, and made the drive across country look like a piece of cake! For those of you who were wondering when my emotional “survival” wall was going to crack – it happened as I was saying “goodbye” to the house. Even typing this now, brings fresh tears to my eyes – although it is a mixture of emotions I am feeling. Excitement for our new adventure, sadness for leaving all that is familiar to us, grief for the beautiful and nurturing friends we have left in Calgary, pride in my incredible family who are so willing to trust in each other for this incredible opportunity of change. You know, packing a house is a funny thing – at the end of it all, you end up with a tape gun in your hand, a box cutter in your pocket, and a cold Tim Horton’s sitting on the empty kitchen counter. Then you notice you left your bra hanging out on a doorknob to dry, so it just gets tossed into the van! LOL.

Day two, Dec 14 - Medicine Hat, AB to Lumsden, SK - 466 km:
Great weather for driving until just outside of Lumsden, really foggy! Hmmm, Regina was really foggy when we drove out to Calgary 10 years ago! The Swift Current Tim Hortons was our lunch stop, and Andre turned the wrong way onto the one way street as we left - I got a few stares but no accidents ;)

(Larissa) It was so nice to get out of the fog, and into the lovely home of Jan and Ian! We all had such a great visit on the farm, and thank you both for your warm hospitality and generosity to all of us. We are thinking of changing our name to Reinders-White as we feel such a part of the family!

Day three, Dec 15:
Relaxed in Lumsden and visited friends. The weather was iffy and we were glad not to be on the road. We decided that we were hauling too much and so put our duvets and sleeping bags on the bus to Fredericton.

(Larissa) Thoughts on our travels from Lumsden SK to Winnipeg MB: The winter winds in the prairies are incredible. 70 km/hr winds whipped the dry snow across the road in front of us, making it look like we were on water. Anytime there was a tree (note tree, not trees) it made an amazing break in the wind, and the road was clear and dry for a spell. We understand now, why the farmers plant wind breaks! As we were driving, I had to look twice, as I thought my eyes caught “Lilliput” sized road signs in the ditch next to the road. As we were warmed by the rising sun, my vision improved, and lo and behold, I HAD seen little tiny road signs in the ditch. Of course, what at first seemed like an oddity makes perfect sense, as these are directions / cautions for folks riding skidoos! Another note for travelers in the prairies during galeforce winds. When you see the signs for “deer warnings” we realized that these are images not of deer bounding gleefully across the highway, but rather images of terrified deer being blown out of control from their winter hiding spots across 4 lanes of speeding traffic. Of course, this is just a theory, as all the deer had been blown across the road prior to our passing.

We have long giggled at, and in turn, been frustrated by driving behind SK vehicles in AB and BC. They whip along at 130 km / hr on the straightaways, and then grind to a pokey 60 km/hr as they navigate any slight bend in the road. Well, now we know why. We have learned that in SK, a 5 degree bend in the road warrants a giant “curve ahead” sign on the side of the road. We had a hard time keeping the van under control as we laughed and laughed at each successive “corner” warning we came upon as we drove East toward MB. There were only a few of them, but each was worth a guffaw! Andre's particular observation is that the signage allows the driver time to untie the steering wheel from the mirror, in case they have chosen to drive the car "auto pilot" style down the miles of unending straight roads!

A big ring road took us efficiently around the city of Regina. Our general theory on ring roads: Effective ways by which to reduce the economic growth of the city that they bypass – for those of you with kids, please refer to the premise of the movie “Cars”. In any case, we have been in Regina before, so were thankful for the chance to save time by winging around the outer edges!

In MB, they are still working on the whole theory behind a ring road. We hit Portage la Prairie, and chose the bypass option, however, due to construction, the ring road only led us back into town, where we had a leisurely 5 minute stop for 2 trains crossing the TransCanada Highway.

Day four, Dec 16 - Lumsden, SK to Winnipeg, MB - 603 km:
Long day of driving, but we left early - wasn't too bad. Stayed in Winnipeg and visited a Henna friend of Larissa's at a great East Indian restaurant. YUM!! Larissa had some beautiful henna applied by Kim (see photo). The driving was not bad really, some icy spots and windy though. The Holiday Inn was superb :) The DVD player in the van has been wonderful! Here is a photo of Pembina Hwy. in Winnipeg looking south from the hotel room. In Winnipeg they like to give streets more than one name, like the Pembina Hwy. which is also called Hwy. 42. When you look at a map, say when you are lost, and the map says to take Jubilee to Pembina, and you are driving along Jubilee, and you see a sign for Hwy. 42 - but wait - you don't know that Hwy 42 = Pembina so the whole process is just a guess. :(

(Larissa) Winnipeg: Oh what fun we had in Winnipeg! Everything from navigational issues, to a delicious East Indian feast with Kim & Doug, to my first treat of being hennaed by Kim – after dinner, over home made chai, when Andre had taken the kids back to the hotel room. It was wonderful! Kim has sent me some pics that she took while we were at the restaurant - hope you enjoy them!


Day five, Dec 17 - Winnipeg, MB to Dryden, ON - 356 km:
Short day, thought we would be nice to the kids (and ourselves). Planning a long trip tomorrow. Stopped in Kenora and went to the supermarket for buns and deli meat and cheese for sandwich lunches - looks like that could be a rough town. Larissa's henna drew some interesting looks. The Best Western was OK - the restaurant was awful - waited an hour for cold soggy fries and marginal burger. I suggested to Larissa that fast food would have been better. Yuck! The photos show the kids comfy in front of the TV and the offending food. It was here I decided to switch to using the digital camera (instead of the film one) to be able to better share our adventure.

(Larissa) Dryden: After an early morning swim in the Holiday Inn in Winnipeg, we launched our Venture back onto the highway pointing east. Our destination was Dryden, ON, with a stop in Kenora for a run around. This part of Ontario is rugged and tough – Kenora particularly felt a little too rough for us, and we only walked the mall and picked up some food provisions. I had fun making our family "Van-wiches" on my lap in the front seat of the car. Thankfully, Andre was kind enough to be the sous-chef, and did not speed away down the road while I was slapping mayo on the buns! We are still in the Central Time Zone. We will lose another hour tomorrow, when we get closer to Thunder Bay. Our stay at the Best Western in Dryden was okay, but the restaurant was horrid! I think Andre summarized the experience well enough, that I don’t need to continue to relive such an ordeal again! LOL. My henna has darkened nicely (Thanks again Kim!) - especially considering I only left the paste on for a few hours, that I washed it off, and have abused it with 2 swims in 2 different pools over the last 24 hours!

Day six, Dec 18 - Dryden, ON to Marathon, ON - 630 km

(Larissa) Writing from Marathon, ON: Well, this was the biggest travel day so far. A marathon itself so to speak! We left Dryden before sunrise and before breakfast, rolling out at 7am! We arrived in Marathon, 630 km later, at around 6:00pm (and this included the hour time change, plus all the various stops needed for sanity and sustenance along the way). The scenery, as we start our 2 day trip around Lake Superior is stunning! Our "bubble" of wonderful weather holds, as we had dry roads and sunshine all day long. Sorry for those of you on our route who were hoping for a white Christmas! Maybe next year. The roads are fun to drive on in this weather – up, down and all around – kind of like the sea to sky highway in BC. We would be crawling at a snail’s pace however, if the roads were snowy. Hey everyone: How do you spell fun? "Reinders’ Acrobats", that’s how! Here are some pictures to show you how we unwind our kids, after 11 hours of travel, a quick dinner and some vanilla ice cream. There is no pool here in Marathon for me to have them kick / swim their sillies out, so jumping the gap between the bed will have to do!!