We made it!!!

What a drive it was! How would you travel 2500km with five children aged ten years and under?  Colouring books, cheerios, Trail mix, apples, children's radio cd's and even a few kids videos on the tablet. That was our method. That and a few Tim Horton's stops for us! :-)  We left our friends in Northern Ontario at 5:40 on Friday morning. The early start is great because then the kids all fall back to sleep and we have a chance to put in a few good hours of driving in peace.  We started in the rain and then, as we left the rain behind us we saw a baby black bear cross the road.
Leading up over Lake Superior was beautiful!!! The lake is so large- it has the same surface area as Austria!  When we reached Thunder Bay we found a spot on the Lake so the kids could dip their feet in while we got lunch ready.

Since things were going well we set our goal for Dryden and then as far as we could before finding a cheap motel.
After a nice chili and soup dinner at the Tim Horton's in Dryden, the kids put their pyjamas on and brushed their teeth....and Josiah took his first steps!!! Not at the Hurley's or at the Ford's but in a parking lot!
We pushed on and decided to stop near Winnipeg but we had a terrible time trying to find a motel! We looked for well over an hour- it was after midnight and we had been driving for nearly 20 hours. We found a couple of funeral homes that looked like motels and a few more expensive chain motels, but nothing cheap and non-descript. How can that be? We were on the Trans-Canada Highway leading into a Provincial capital!!! Maybe we should set one up along the route! :-) Finally we took the first one that we found on the NW side of the city.
Then I tried to chat with the desk clerk, hoping that he wouldn't ask me how many children we have because I didn't want to have to pay for two rooms instead of one. He didn't ask and we had a short but good night.

The next day we headed out, but not quite so early and so we had more stops that morning.  We were all a little travel weary but we managed, after lunch at A&W and the kids first sampling of root beer, to make it to Irma in time to watch grain being stored and the setting of the sun. We were all very happy to have arrived! We were also thankful that we didn't have a third day of driving as we had first planned.  Now we begin our short little stint of farm life here in Alberta.

We want to say a big Thank You now to my parents- Don & Betty Weatherhead- who insisted that we borrow their new 7 seater van for our trip. After so many km and with so many more to come it is nice to know that we have warranty to rely on. We are grateful for their generosity especially as we couldn't have this family adventure as easily without it!