Road Trip to Canada Day 4.

April 11th, 2009

I guess this part of the story should be called “road trip to back home.” This was the last day in Canada for us. We got up in the morning and headed out. Here’s a photo I love of a windmill just out in the middle of nowhere. Well, at least it seemed out in the middle of nowhere to me, surrounded by flat country and fields. It’s so funny how much it looked like where I live.

THIS PHOTO was taken just for my friend Abby because it made me laugh so hard when I read it and she’s a lover of signs.

Speaking of signs, it was very strange to me how HUGE the stop signs were in some spots. The one on the top is probably the average size that we have here, and the one on the bottom is what they were in the area of Canada where we were. Usually it didn’t have two of them, just the one giant sign, so I’m not sure why there were two at this intersection but it made for a good comparison so I took a photo just for you!

I had intentions of going to mapquest and mapping out the route back home the same way we had come into Canada and writing them down, but I forgot to do it. Yes, I had the directions printed off from home to Canada, but when it comes to going back the opposite way I get confused and apparently so does Thea because neither one of us knows how it happened but we got LOST. Yes, there’s another calamity for you folks. (That’s just for you Sandie)

We literally drove around out in the back roads country area for an hour. We had no map and both of us had forgotten to bring our GPS, so let me tell you we were so pissed at ourselves at that point. I tried to just be cool and not let it bother me, but it was hard to do that since it was my own dumbass fault, ya know? However, this did make me smile. TWICE. Yes, because we were lost and drove in a several mile radius CIRCLE we drove past this man TWICE. But, on the bright side of things, it made me smile twice and the second time I was ready with the camera. haha It’s hard to tell because I wasn’t as ready as I should have been but, the man is vacuuming his front yard. Not kidding. I seriously wanted to stop the car and ask him if he’d pose for a photo and maybe ask him what the hell he was doing, but the second time only confirmed it for me that it was, indeed, a Shop-Vac and he was, indeed, vacuuming the lawn. I don’t get it, but hey, it’s not my job to judge, okay?

Anyway, we wound up, twice again, in Chatham (where we had been to the Paper Pickle). However, it was not by the same route we had taken the day before, just a straight shot from our hotel like 15 miles down the same road, never having to turn off anywhere until we got to Chatham. This time we were out in the country totally lost and driving around when suddenly Chatham appeared. haha TWICE. The second time around I said Okay, I’ve had enough of this. Let’s get some directions! Speaking of signs, we saw this one, which led us nowhere useful. And yes, I know that because I followed it. Hey, I needed information!

I then proceeded to locate the police station because, believe it or not, I knew where it was since I had seen it the day before when we were leaving the Paper Pickle. I know, ironic, right? haha I went in and asked a very nice policeman (whose name happened to be Andrew Zalecki) for directions. I knew I wanted to be on 401 but didn’t know how to GET TO 401 by that time because I was totally lost. He was VERY nice, never laughed at me, not even once, at least not on the outside, and proceeded to draw me a very lovely map! Woo hoo! I was dying to ask him to let me take his photo for my scrapbook so I could tell the story of how he saved us, but I was too afraid he’d think I was psycho and arrest me. haha Of course, I kept the map for my scrapbook! (he even autographed it)

Thank you, Andrew Zalecki, for saving my sanity that day. I was ready to just sit down on the curb and cry a while.

And what do you know? The map WORKED! Here she is……the 401 we had been seeking. I love these signs with the crowns on them.

So anyway……that was just the START of the drive back home. And I wish I was kidding when I say this, but this is the kind of shit that happens to me on an average, everyday, all the time basis. Nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever. I know there’s supposedly some sort of theory out there about how you attract things to you, so if things happen to you it’s because you actually want them to happen, you want that drama, etc., but it’s not the case with me. GOOD drama? Bring it on. This kind of crap? No thank you.

This is probably the last cool photo we took on our trip home. We had seen it on the way to Canada but this time we were prepared and on the correct side of the interstate so we got a photo. Isn’t he cute? I loved the Nestle Quik chocolate milk mix when I was a kid.

I wish I could say that getting lost was the last calamity we experienced on our trip home, but that’s not the case. We drove a long time (I was planning to go all the way home, 8 hours) and finally stopped for dinner in Anderson, Indiana at the Cracker Barrel. This was about 2-1/2 hours from home at this point, so I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I felt fine when we went into the Cracker Barrel, but there’s something about being in a restaurant surrounded by people and eating that just does something to my anxiety disorder, even if I’m not consciously thinking “OMG there are tons of people in here.” It’s weird and I hate it, but it’s what happens. Anyway, when I begin to develop an anxiety attack it will make my IBS flare up. If you don’t know what IBS is, consider your self lucky and just never you mind, and if you do know what it is then you know how horrible it is to be in a freaking restaurant and have your friend and your kid sitting out in the car waiting for you because you’re stucking being sick in the restroom! Fun times….NOT. haha Sometimes I can sort of stop it in its tracks, but sometimes I can’t and this was one of those times, OF COURSE. Because that just matches the REST of the trip, right? CALAMITY, Sandie! So after a while I thought I was feeling better and since I had taken some anti-anxiety medication (trying to ward off a full-blown attack) Thea drove. We didn’t get far onto the interstate, before the next exit even showed up, before I was feeling that I would be sick again and I told Thea to take the next exit so we could find me a restroom. After we got off the ramp and were sitting there at the stop sign, we saw a Holiday Inn directly in front of us and just said, forget it, let’s just stop for the night. I hated to do it because we were SO CLOSE to home, but it was like a sign right there in front of us! haha I was so pissed because after 3 days on the road trip and feeling fine I thought for once I was going to be able to go somewhere and get back home without being sick. But this is my life. So we stopped for the night and relaxed and went to bed and started out again the next morning for the last leg of the trip.

**To read the rest of the posts from this trip, click on the links below