What I learned from a car trip across Canada with my soulmate!
Yes, you read that right. After I met my soulmate at the airport I spilled my lifeline coffee onto him, I moved across Canada. If you would like the backstory, please read the blog titled, “Do you believe in soulmates?”
Three months to the date I met my soulmate, we drove across Canada together.
Remember, I was a poor newly graduated student, so I did not have much in way of possessions or money. I had to come up with ways to get across the country in my little 2006 Toyota Corolla. How was I going to move with the zero dollars that I currently had in my bank account?
This is how it went down…
I was crying in the parking lot after he left me to fly home to Edmonton, Alberta. Yes, it was dramatic I know! It was an incredible week to say the least and completely changed my life. I was not going to live without him, especially since I had just found him.
We decided, or more likely, I decided, to move to Edmonton and move in with him. I found out later that he could not believe I would do that! He was a little anxious to say the least, though he played it off as being totally cool with it. Ever had a conversation like that with someone? Please tell me you have, because I can laugh about it now.
So, I was crying in the parking lot and then realized how am I going to move? How am I going to make this work? I need a job. I need the money to move. I need my car, so we are going to have to drive it across Canada. How fast can I make this move? So many questions, where are the answers? Where is a miracle? It grows on trees I hear!
I had my first epiphany! I remembered I had a total of $2000.00 in my TFSA. Okay, I have two thousand dollars to move across the country. I have to go there and find a job though. So I guess I am flying to Edmonton. The best weekend would be Thanksgiving, as I could take time off work. Plus he wanted me to meet his family. Two birds with one stone they say.
There goes my two thousand dollars. Now I am crying and laughing in my car in the parking lot. Then I’m hiccupping. I must look like a maniac if someone walks by.
I drive back to my little apartment in Stony Creek. I feel a little defeated, but with all my inspirational quotes and affirmations on post-it notes in my apartment, I begin to read them. I am encouraged. I have my second epiphany of the night. If love is the most important thing in life to me, why would I need any of the stuff in my apartment? I will sell everything to have enough money to move across the country. So I did!
When my family, especially my Mom, found out I was going to sell everything to make this work, she drew the line on selling our family jewellery. She told me she would help with the move by paying for a moving van with some things I could keep. I kept the jewellery, which I still have to this day. This was one solution that presented itself to me along this journey.
I looked around my apartment and started to inventory the biggest items I could sell. I had a couch, bed, desk, dresser, bookshelves and hockey equipment. I did not own a TV, shucks, because that would have got me some moola!
I took pictures and put the items on kijiji to sell. I told my co-workers and friends. They all knew my story and were both shocked at what I was doing, but happy for me as well.
All the big items went fast. I found myself in the first few weeks sleeping on a blow up mattress. It was okay, I was dreaming about prince charming so it made for a good sleep. 😉 I only had to sleep on it for another two months anyway.
I continued to sell everything I could. If it was something I could not sell and I was not going to keep, I donated it to different organizations or to friends that needed things. It was a fulfilling and humbling experience to go from having a few things and building your life after graduating, to selling or giving it all away. To me, this was running towards a new adventure in life. I had to trust that it was going to work out. Love always works out, because love is pure and high energy.
Every time I thought about what I was doing this for, as I would get countless questions from people on why or how I felt about this move I thought about the quote by Rumi.
“Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being. If not, leave this gathering. Half-heartedness doesn’t reach into majesty.”
Oh, I was gambling alright!
As we were skyping daily, I found out the love of my life did not have money to help me. He really wanted to, but I learned that the cash he used to take me to a special dinner the week we met, was the cash he was using to pay his truck payment. He thought it was more important to be a gentleman and spoil me than to make his truck payment. Wow, I did really get a good catch! However, we now needed to figure out how to make back a truck payment and still get me to Edmonton.
Fear not! Solutions were on their way.
Every time I sold something, I kept the cash. I would take any extra shifts at work I could. I even got a bonus cheque! That was unexpected. I cashed it immediately and put it in the ‘gas money’ pile for the trip. I estimated how long a drive it would be and how much gas it would take. We planned on both driving so we could continuously drive and save money by not staying at a hotel. I also had the ‘food money’ pile and the ‘we need some money to live when I get there’ pile.
I found a job! I made calls to ads looking for work. I did an interview the first weekend I was in Edmonton, during Canadian Thanksgiving. It went so well, I decided it was a good fit. The trick, they wanted me back in November to meet people before I planned on moving in December. What money pile was I getting the money from to fly to Edmonton again before I move?
One step forward, two steps back.
Overall I was saving money for the trip. My work cheques were going to rent and food, and I used my TFSA money to travel to Edmonton twice. Oh yeah, the bank wanted money for my student loans. You have to start paying those off too. Nothing like a nice conversation on the phone with the bank, explaining, “Well if you want that money, where on the street would you like me to give you my new address, corner of broke with no roof?” I’m being sarcastic. I did tell them I would be on the street though if I had to pay monthly what they were asking. There was a fleeting moment in time where I was wondering how much money an exotic dancer could make…. I scratched that one when I told my soulmate via skype. He said he wouldn’t share. Awwwww.
Finally, we are on the day he will arrive. December 9th, 2012. My grandmother, mother and father are at a hotel, they drove to Toronto to meet him. Seeing as I am moving in with him on the other side of the country and no one in my family has met him yet, it seemed prudent.
I picked him up from the airport. We seem to be at the airport a lot right now. (I briefly thought about our wedding being at an airport, but we eloped instead.) I introduced him to my family. He played it cool, as usual. Everything went well. Now we just drive across the Northern Canadian landscape in the winter. All good right?
December 10th, 2012. It is around 11 in the morning by the time that we have my little red Toyota packed and my parents have taken a few things from the apartment and packed up a little trailer. The trailer was to be sent to us later with some additional things my mother had saved since my childhood that she wanted to finally give to me. (Excerpt: just over a half a year later, a 10 by 10 foot pod was delivered to our driveway; we had a house now, and filled top to bottom with stuff! That is another story with a bottle of Jack Daniels and a lot of laughs.)
We are starting our trip with about $1300 cash. I also have a ton of gas cards, all gifts from friends or co-workers that they gave to me when I was finishing work at my various jobs. I want to cry! When people know how much you want something, it is amazing how much we help each other out. It made me realize how much of a community we truly are on this planet.
So we decide to go to Tim Hortons first, for much needed coffee and food before we begin this epic trip. I go to a box we have in the back seat for some CD’s, so we can listen to some music on our road trip. I find that I have a box full of booze, and no CD’s. I realized my Dad had accidentally put the wrong box in the car for us. Needless to say, the two CD’s I did have in the car were Dance Mix ’93 and Michael Buble’s Christmas CD.
My knight in shining armor is driving. We head straight North, because we know we have to get around Lake Superior and head west. I am not sure where we are after only a few hours of driving, somewhere past Barrie, Ontario. All I know is that we hit a snow storm.
So after listening to the radio, and a repeat of Michael Buble’s Christmas CD (which I love and could listen to for days on end), we are in a snow storm. My soul-mate is willing to drive through it. Nuts! Then he tells me some snow is no issue for Albertans. We are continuing on the highway to the point that now we cannot see more than a foot ahead of us, and there are no more cars around us. There is so much snow, you feel like you are in the Millenium Falcon heading into hyperspace. We can’t even see the sides of the highway. That is when we decided should stay somewhere to sleep. Even for a few hours. Seeing as we need gas money to cross the country, we decide to take money from the food pile to sleep at a hotel for a few hours.
We finally, slowly and safely, get off the highway and find a motel. The Cardinal. A motel is fine. We only need a few hours rest right? As we walk towards our room, we see families living in a few rooms, smoke everywhere and a lot of booze. We have a key with a keychain that is probably from the 1950’s in my hand. I open the room door and we find the most hideous room. The bathroom is unclean and the beds look nasty. =My partner in crime refuses to get under the covers. The room smells like smoke. He even goes so far as to suggest sleeping in the car in the parking lot. I suggest we can sleep for a few hours and get out of dodge!
We rise a few hours later with scratchy throats, and red eyes. We enter the bathroom to find hairs all over. My hubby refuses to use the bathroom and goes outside to urinate. I squat for some relief.
We notice the roads are not fully plowed yet, but considering our options, we head out anyway. It is an adventure after all. We find a gas station and a convenience store open. I suggest a healthy breakfast of dark chocolate covered almonds and coffee, as they are on sale! Yippee!
We decide we have to change the CD’s out. So dance mix ’93 begins. I’m super chipper and my hubby is…okay. This is when I’m realizing a few other things about him, like how stubborn he actually is. It also seems I am the morning person between the two of us.
After more hours of driving we get to Thunder Bay. We are super hungry and decide to splurge on a late lunch, or early dinner. Depends how you look at it. We decide on a steak house, because it advertised a midday deal. Sweet! That works for us.
We had a great dinner and we talked about our experience at The Cardinal. We decided that if any other storms come our way, we will spend a little more money and find a decent hotel, like The Holiday Inn or The Best Western.
Here is hoping we don’t get any more winter storms. I do have to be in Edmonton in four days for my new job.
We continue from Thunder Bay towards a small town on the border of Ontario and Winnipeg, Kenora. Once again, we start getting heavy snowfall. The snow turns into the Millenium Falcon experience again. We are listening to Dance Mix ’93 and trying to get off the highway so we can find another place to stay within the last ten hours.
All of a sudden, on an empty street lined with lighted trees and the most tranquil fluffy snow coming down, we see a deer! It is standing in the middle of this empty street and staring right at us. The two of us in my little red Toyota Corolla, dance mix music on and this beautiful, large, elegant deer that will not move out of the way. We are in a staredwown, western style. We are eyeing each other. Nothing is happening. A few minutes go by and I suggest that maybe we drive around the deer. As I make that suggestion, the deer finally walks away to reveal a Holiday Inn a few yards up the road. What luck we have.
The Holiday Inn is like the Fairmont for us, considering the experience we just had. The room is nice and clean, and there is a complimentary breakfast buffet for us in the morning. Win, win and win!
After a restful and much needed sleep, we are eating breakfast in the morning and planning the rest of our trip. We are on the border of Manitoba and have to drive through Saskatchewan to get to Edmonton. Our estimate is another full days drive.
It is December 11th, 2012 when we leave Kenora. We arrive at my new home around four in the morning on December 12th, 2012. I never drove. We went from Kenora to Edmonton with stops only for food, bathroom breaks and gas. We ate baby bell cheese and dark chocolate covered almonds. Drank water and coffee and listened to either Dance Mix ’93 or Michael Buble’s Christmas CD.
At one point, right before leaving Ontario and setting out across the last two provinces before Alberta, my soulmate needed to pee. He had to go badly enough that he stopped by the side of the road, since a gas station was nowhere to be found. It was late, dark, cold and snowing. We are parked along the side of the road and it is super quiet. He gets out and walks around to the back of the vehicle, but he left the driver’s door ajar. I see him in the side mirror and realize he is shaking his hips back and forth. Is he dancing? I asked him when he got back into the car. He replied, “It is my techno pee, we are listening to Dance Mix ‘93”. We both started laughing.
When we arrived at Llodyminster, a city that straddles both Saskatchewan and Alberta, it was around two o’clock in the morning. I thought it best we get a hotel and rest before the last few hours to Edmonton. I could tell my driver was tired. He was blasting cold air, staring out the window and now singing along to Michael Buble. He really doesn’t like Michael Buble. He is obviously doing everything to force himself to stay awake.
My Toyota does not have dual climate control. I am wrapped in blankets, chattering teeth and lolling my head up and down, because I’m about to fall asleep. He is insistent he can drive us home safely. He tells me he has, “precious cargo” he has to get home safely. Awwwww.
We decide some coffee will do it. So we approach a Tim Hortons in Saskatchewan. We realize it is closed. A Tim Hortons that is closed, that is ridiculous. Low and behold however, a few blocks ahead is another Tim Hortons. We see someone waving at us from the 24 hour drive thru. Is this real? I am rubbing my eyes as we approach the drive thru. The guy on the other end asks us what we want and we order. As we drive up for our drinks, the employee tells us that we are in Alberta and the Alberta Timmy’s is open, but the Saskatchewan one is closed.
I realize I’m in Alberta, my new home! I made it! I perk right up!
The next two hour drive to my new condo with my new love is like a kid in a candy store. I am staring out the window at all the fields, land and homes as we drive by on a silent road. This is surreal. It seems like we are the only two people on the planet. He has perked up too. We are almost to the finish line!
As we drive into my new underground parking spot, it is around four in the morning. It is a Wednesday, and no one is around. We leave everything in the car and grab our pillows from the backseat. We walk up the steps to the second floor. The door opens and I take a relieving step and sigh as I enter the condo. We bee-line it for the bed and both fall into it, into each other’s arms and fall fast asleep.
I do hope you enjoyed this story. Road trips are one of my favorite adventures, after I had such a great time driving across Canada. It is so much fun getting to know the person you are with, and enjoying the people and places you see along the way.
My wish for anyone who reads this story is that you have a great adventure of your own. Maybe it is a road trip? I hope when you get to the final days of your life, you know that you had fun and you would not have it any other way.
“Sometimes all you need is a good friend and a full tank of gas.” – thewanderlustwithin.com
