Crossing the Finish Line

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Submitted by Jeff

All that to say . . . we are here.

We will be putting pictures up of everything but I wanted to give some quick accounts of our final leg.

We stared out a little after 7am. I had to revamp the Trip-tick so that we crossed the border at the right place. In the rush of heading out the door my cell phone decided to stay an extra night or so. We got to see the Grand Coulee Dam (pix enroute). Then I got to meet a nice Washington State Police officer. Apperently, unlike New York State (and many others) there isn't a 10mph cushion in Washington. If it says 60mph . . . that you had better drive 60mph max! Luckily I wasn't "rewarded" with any penalty other than a minor scolding.

We had a very uneventful bording crossing as well. Apparently when we went to the border in Buffalo last Friday we were cleared for this and every other crossing . . . God is good.

We pulled into town about quarter to 2. We went to the schools and through some other miraculous meetings with teachers and admin-type people, the kids are all ready for school on Monday . . . did I say God is good.

Amy and I are getting settle in what feels like a dream. Thanks for sharing the journey. We well post more news as we continue to find our way.

Whew!

Beautiful Mountains

submitted by Amy

I only bought one book at Worthington, MN - good thing (Thanks for the advice P.). I finished it before we left and got to enjoy the views. I took tons of pictures. It smelled like Christmas with all the pine trees . We'll post some pics later. Another fun thing - Jeff played veggie tales for the kids and Seth sang at the top of his lungs. Great.

Amy

Another Day as Planned

Click Image to enlarge.
Submitted by Jeff

It is a great feeling to have another leg of our trip behind us. The rest of Montana was very beautiful. The crossing over to Idaho was like a dream. And we were thankful for the new transmission . . . the hills are amazing.

Thanks for joining us for the journey! Tomorrow . . . BC!

J

On The Road Again

Submitted by Jeff

Ok now.

About noon (central time) Jessi, Chloe and I walked about 1.4 miles to the repair shop from the hotel. I drove back to the hotel and loaded up. I took time to take the radio/tape player apart to extract about 54 cents that Seth had decided place in there. We went through the drive thru at the local BK and we were on the road by 1:45pm. Less than 11 hours later we made it to Billings, MT. With the time change we got there a little after 11:30pm. I am tired. But happy to be here.

Has anyone ever been to Wall Drugs?? What's the deal??

ZZZZzzzz

Scenery Pics

A barn I was trying to take a picture of - then we broke down right there and I had plenty of time to take the picture. MN.

Wisconsin - still not huge changes from NY but lovely.

This is in Indiana - Jeff likes the motorcycle:).

Some pretty scenery

This looks like a chapter change picture doesn't it? It's at the border of NY and PA.

Yet One More Day

Submitted by Jeff

Well, we just spent about an hour in the conference room watching TV. We were waiting to see if the van was going to be done. We checked out of our room (it is booked for tonight). The plan was if the van was completed we were going to hit the road and run to Rapid City. I had booked a new room just in case we didn't get the van. We would get the news in plenty of time to cancel our booking without paying anything.

The good news is. Our van has a new transmission. But they need to order another sensor and it won't be in until late morning tomorrow. And here we are again.

The plan. Get the van and get on the road around noon tomorrow. We head towards Billings, Montana. The next day we head to Spokane, Washington. Then the final day we go on to Westbank, BC. At least that is the plan. Who knows if that will be the way it plays out. (The answer would be God).

So you know where we will be for the next 18 hours or so. (Anyone want to go swimming?)

Relaxing

submitted by Amy

I'm about to take the kids swimming - that's been fun. I'm tired of nothing going as planned and had to get over that before I could enjoy. It's really been a great weekend overall. There was an awesome rain around dinner time last night - it poured and was beautiful. We all grabbed coffee or cocoa and cozied up in our room to watch. Fun home makeover shows and old movies. Off to the pool.

longer stay

submitted by Caleb

Surprising as it sounds, I'm actually glad our car broke down - we got to stay longer at a hotel. I like being able to swim because the water is heated. Also we went out to dinner more often. We've gone to Pizza Hut one day and Perkins and Ground Round the other days. It was fun.

A new hotel

submitted by Jessi.

Well we are at another hotel. It's not as big as the last one but it allows dogs and has a pool, hot tub and jacuzzi. The pool is really warm (94) so I go in the hot tub first so the pool will be refreshing when I get in. We went to a lot of fun places to eat. Our car broke down so we are just waiting for it to be fixed.

My Birthday at the hotel

submitted by Drew.

It was fun swimming and getting snacks for Jessi and Caleb.(He and dad went shopping for fun snacks for the late night movie.)I also liked the cinnamon dippers that we had at the restaurant but then we figured out that it wasn't my birthday. (We had celebrated a day early as we got the date wrong.) Then on my real birthday I got balloons.

Some Fun Photos

Here are some pics of our stay in Worthington. We have a few choices of how we spend our day.
1. Watch TV-being that we don't usually have cable . . . this is a real treat for us.
2. Go swimming-again we don't have a pool so this has been a gift as well.
3. Do laundry-yes, we found a laundry mat across the road . . . a necessary evil.
4. Sleep-always a gift.
5. Walk the dog-again . . . a necessary evil.

Most of all we hang as a family with no real responsiblity. A real vacation. I guess God's plans are higher than ours.

Hopefully our van will be done this evening. If not. Tomorrow we will be on the road again.

Patiently waiting.
Jeff

Not quite to Rapid City

Submitted by Jeff

Well, as in life, things don't go as planned. And this trip has been no exception.

We have decided . . . um . . . really it was decided for us . . . to spend the weekend in the city of Worthington, Mn. And it looks like we get to buy a new transmission for the van. So we got a great suite right off the highway. There is a pool and there are restaurants within walking distance. We have cable and we have lot of family time. Which is what we need sometimes.

So, Monday we get the scoop on the van and hopefully all will be fixed on Tuesday (lucky for us transmissions are delivered on Tuesdays:).

Learning to wait . . . still

Jeff

Seth's thoughts

According to Jessi and Drew who apparently speak for Seth :) - he liked the trains and the snacks. "That's basically Seth!" said Drew. Seth speaking for himself said he liked the syrup. It may have to do with the fact that he just finished breakfast.

Caleb's thoughts

The hotel that we went to was humungous. Everything about it was big. The rooms were big, the beds were big, even the tortillas for breakfast were big. The name of the hotel was Residence Inn. Even though we took Chloe in, she was quite quiet for the most part. She only barked once- a muffled bark when the elevator had someone in it for the first time. At the moment we are leaving but first having a quick breakfast of waffles, bagels, eggs, french toast and some people had other things. I hope the rest of the trip is this good.

Jessi's thoughts

The first part of the trip was very hot. I drew a picture to occupy myself. The second part of the trip was a little better because Dad fixed the air conditioning. (Aside: He jerry -rigged a switch but it was too much for it so it lasted into the evening then we had smoke :) so he detached it.) The third part of the trip we went through Chicago and I saw 12 el trains and one real train. We had to stop for it. I have seen 15 trains in all my life. We went through 5 states. The best part of the trip was when we were driving in Indiana and we looked at Michigan.

Drew's thoughts

I thought the trip was fine. I watched some movies. But you know what my favorite part was - counting the trains. Seth kept thinking more trains were coming. Actually my favorite thing was . . . I don't know. Everything was fun. I liked playing connect four, and watching the bright - you know - the city lights at night, and OOOOH . . I liked watching the flame that came out of that chimney. (Aside: we saw a factory with a chimney fire that reached quite high into the sky. Very cool for Drew.)

Our Progress

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Submitted by Jeff

Here is quick view (thanks to Google Maps) of our progress so far. We had a later start to the day yesterday than we had planned. We only put in just over 500 miles. We are going to shoot for a little more today.

Rapid City, here we come!

Thanks for keeping track!

Capturing Beauty

Submitted by Amy

Well, I decided to join the family in this writing thing now that: the details are covered, we've left, and I can get my thoughts organized. I decided to look for beauty on the way and try to capture it on camera so I can paint a series of ' across America' at some point. I'm going to paint the focal point of the picture realistically in style then make the rest colorized and stylized to match how I feel about it. We'll see if I ever do it but. . . it gives me a reason to be observant as we drive instead of just reading or sleeping :). So far - lots of blurry pics of rolling hills and trees in the quick blink of NY and PA that we went through. Then I have those almost pics of lone trees in the midst of the flat, colorless fields in the west of Ohio. I'm afraid Indiana looked much like Ohio so I picked up my book and it was down hill from there - only figuratively as the land was still quite flat. We are in Illinois now - at a lovely hotel suite with a fireplace and kitchen. Who knew such lovely spaces hide in those tall cement buildings? I was all for the coupon book from the rest stop idea but got persuaded out of it by my husbands new employer who found the hotel, gave us directions, phone number, and explained why it was a better option . . . very nice. So, we'll enjoy a complimentary hot breakfast tomorrow, an early morning swim (24 hr pool :)) and beds for the whole family. They even let us bring in the dog. I'm sure the incredible landscapes are just waiting for us tomorrow.

Amy

The Trip is on!

Submitted by Jeff

I just wanted to let you know that we got the work permit around 11:30 this morning with hardly a hitch. We now are tieing up lose ends and heading for the border.

whew!
Jeff

An Update

Submitted by Jeff

I just wanted to update you all. We just got the paper work (last night via email) that we will be able to take to the border. We will be applying for a Foreign Worker permit which is a temporary way to get us in the country while we still wait for our more permanent working visa that is still in process.

The plan, as much as we have planned so far, is that we will go to the border in Buffalo tomorrow morning first thing. We will hand in all of our paperwork and pray that we get accepted. Once we do we will return to our current home and finish sorting and packing the loose ends. I have some family coming into see us that evening. Then we leave early Friday morning for the our long trip to British Columbia.

Much of our stuff will have to stay here until we get our visas or our house sells. When the time comes, we have friends lined up who will load the moving truck (if visas come) or put stuff in storage (if the house sells before visas come) . . . whatever the case may be.

But at least we will see some light at then end of the tunnel.

whew
Jeff

My Friend and I

Submitted by Seth (sort of . . . age 6)

I am just along for the ride. I am enjoying hanging out with my family. I really enjoy my friend, Chloe, our dog. As long as she comes with us I can go anywhere.

Fun times!
Seth

The Green Box

Submitted by Drew (age soon to be 8)

The green box has a bunch of toys and notebooks and games and pencils and crayons and other arts stuff. We have all this stuff in the box to keep us occupied on our trip to Canada.

I am looking forward to playing with the stuff in the green box. It's going to be fun playing Uno. In the notebooks we can draw different creatures and also write what we see on our trip . . . like maybe we are going to see fireflies.

Any more thoughts on the green box?
Not so far.

Drew

All Mixed Up!

Submitted by Caleb (age 12)

I wanted to share some of my thoughts about our move.

If you come from a family that has been traveling for a while now you think you know what you are about to feel. But because you are used to it you don't feel anything.

Example
The first time you move you will feel discouraged about leaving your old friends but you are encouraged by being able to make more friends where you are going. That could leave you sort of confused. You feel bad and good at the same time. When you are used to it you think you know what you expect. You don't get the feeling of confusion . . . which then leaves you with and different confusion.

Are you confused yet?
Caleb

Funny Times

Submitted by Jessi (age 10)

It's funny how many times we have said goodbye to our friends. Because we don't know when our visas are coming we end up say goodbye a lot. One of our friends keeps counting how many times we say goodbye and think we are going to be gone that week. He says he is up to 13 I think.

Maybe this will be the week. Or, maybe there will be a 14th?!?

More news later
Jessi

Falke Log Star-Date 0917007

Submitted by Jeff

Here is the first entry of a type of travel log . . . or blog. My family and I are moving to Westbank, British Columbia from Jamestown, New York. We are Americans applying for visas to live and work in Canada. We want to remember our trip in years to come. But we thought it would be great to have you join us in the journey.

Those of you who know us have known of our struggles waiting for Canadian visas. The short version of the story is that they have been delayed many times. It looks like, however, we maybe able to travel to Canada this week under a work permit while we wait for the more permanent resident visas.

Why the delay? We were told that the country as been deluged with requests for visas. The process should only take 6 weeks. It has been 3 months . . . and we are still waiting.

At the moment we are waiting for a phone call from the immigration lawyer to get our paperwork together. The plan is that she will call today or tomorrow. Once our ducks are in a row we will travel up to Buffalo on Wednesday and try and cross the boarder there. We have been told that we have a 80-90% chance of getting approved. Once we get approved we can go at anytime.

The good news is we can go I and can work. It looks like the kids will be able to go to school. We can get settled and start our life there as we wait for the ever illusive visa.

The down side . . . we can't move our stuff until the visas are approved. Amy can't work to help with the income which will be important as we haven't sold our house in Jamestown yet. It will all come together. Patience is the biggest lesson we are learning through all of this. We are where we are suppose to be. Patience comes . . . but it takes a long time. I guess that is why they call it patience.

Well, watch for updates. We are hoping to keep up to date at different hotels and other wifi hotspots along the way.

Thanks for coming with us
Jeff