On August 2nd I got "the" call from Clark (my realtor). My emotions were mixed...disbelief, excitement, fear, and shock. Normally you get a nice 30 or 45 day turn over when you sell your home right? Well apparently when you live in a "resort area" that is not always the case. The new owner wanted the house in 12 days! All that I could say was "holy crap"!! So the packing began...
We had so much stuff that we wanted to take, so the first thing I did was check the prices with Budget, u-haul, Bekins and a few others. Turns out to have it shipped was cheaper than driving it across, but at $4800 just to ship 1/2 of it, well, not really worth it was it? To drive it all was going to be at least $8000. In the end we decided to sell off the furniture and spare stuff, and only take our personal stuff, momentos and antiques with us. That brought the cost down to $1000 for the u-Haul plus gas of course. Either way we were looking at gas for our vehicles, food, and hotels. By cutting the shipping cost of our stuff down to $1000+, we could afford to go anywhere. The only thing left to do was find a vehicle to haul it across Canada. Kijiji to the rescue!! It took me about 4 hours and 10 phone calls but I found just what I was looking for...a nice used SUV with enough power to pull a 3500lb load, decent looking, and good on gas.
My new baby
Now that I had that part figured out, and we had made our list of cities we liked and that met our criteria, it was time to actually pack. So I taped out the dimensions of the inside of the u-haul on my dining floor and walls and started loading in the totes and boxes, and sorting stuff for the garage sale. Things actually went pretty smoothly. The sale was huge and took 2 days...made quite a bit of money too! There was about a pick-up truck load of stuff that went to charity and only 2 cans of crap for the dump / recycling. We managed to take pretty much everything we cared about too...except 1 item that there just wasn't enough room for. I even tried to get my daughter to store it for me at her house! But alas, no go...so my island (that my husband lovingly made for me at just the right height and size for me) stayed behind. I took pictures though...so he can make me a new one when we buy our new house.
I love the details he put onto this piece
He designed this to be just the right height for me to bake on :)
We were scheduled to be out of the house on the 14th at noon, so we booked a room at the Westbay Hotel and figured on being so exhausted that it would be nap time and maybe some golf before leaving on the 15th. Things actually went well (to some extent) LOL
The 13th was insane! It did however go a bit better than planned...I was supposed to receive the house monies after 3pm, but the notary knowing that we were in a time crunch pushed it out early and surprised me with a phone call at 10am. So off to her office I went, with cell phone in hand, frantically dialing the number of the woman who's Jeep I was buying. This was part of the time crunch...I couldn't buy the Jeep until I had the house monies. Luck was again on my side! She got my email message and was meeting me 4 hours earlier than planned. Yeah! After all that was done with it was off to Lordco to get the trailer hitch assembly done, then Dennis Jonnson for the installation and a quite check up etc, then 1 last stop at u-Haul to pick up the trailer. I should have been pushing the time envelope with all this, but it turned out to be not so bad. Instead of getting back to the house around 6pm or worse, having to pick the trailer up on the 14th, we were home before 4! In the end, my thanks goes out to my notary (Dorothy Clarkstone)...her caring and extra efforts made what could have been a disasterous day actually bareble.
We were done the balance of the packing and most of the loading in by around 11pm, so we decided to call it a night and finish in the morning. I thought we still had oodles to do but it turned out to only take a hour and a bit. I think I was still in a shock to be honest. After waiting for 2 years to finally get things going, it really did happen pretty fast. It was bitter sweet leaving too...I loved that house, but it wasn't a good place for us and neither was Port Alberni.
Our little oasis at the lake...
After tying up a loose end or 2 at the house, we headed to the Arlington for a bite to eat and to say a couple good-byes before running the last of our errands. Lorne spent most of the meal trying to dash across the parking lot and get his hair cut...something that became a bit of an issue along the trip. My mom and dad were doing anything not to talk about what was going on...I could tell he was upset. So we finished our meal, took some pictures, shed a few tears and gave hugs all around. Then we were gone...poof!
My dad and me...he was being the tough guy and cracking jokes.
Lorne and I...he had me laughing...was telling me he was going to disappear for a haircut for about the 10th time!
Dad, Mom and me...one last family photo.
For a tough old gal she ain't so tough...good thing you can't see the tears in her eyes.
For a tough old gal she ain't so tough...good thing you can't see the tears in her eyes.
Okay so not quite off...we still had a few errands to run (like paying Shaw, buying golf clubs, saying good-bye to Taylor, etc). Even though we left the house at 9:30am it was almost 2pm before we finally waved our final good-bye to Port Alberni!
It's going to be a bit before I see this again...
Now it was off to Nanaimo to say good-bye to Lorne's parents and pay one last bill. His dad was really happy for us...his mom was pretty sad and the visit was short. We had a quick stop and chat, I snapped a couple of pics and that was it...time to head to the ferry!
Anna with Rupert...she was trying really hard not to cry.
The tears had started...
I don't know about Lorne but I was getting pretty excited by this point...we were almost there...the point of no return!
Luck was on our side still too, for a change getting off the rock was going to be an easy experience and not a massive ordeal. The ferries were running almost on schedule and we were only facing a 1 sailing wait (and considering we were travelling in tandem with 1 vehicle being over 20 ft long, that wasn't bad at all). Lady luck must really have liked us that day too, because we managed to avoid a sailing wait all together and were 2 of the last 3 cars on the boat! So this was it...the point of no return had arrived. We were on the ferry and heading to our new life. The adventure had officially begun. :)
Lorne relaxing while we wait for the ferry
Leaving Duke Point
The boat was a wee full and we were right at the back of it
Wynnee was already enjoying the trip
This is how Rupert started the trek...and pretty much how he spent his time for the next week and a half! Panting, shaking, and hiding under the blankets. Poor little guy lost 4 pounds!
Getting close to Tsawassen now!
The first of many beautiful sunset pictures we took along the way.
We arrived in Vancouver around dusk and watched the sun set as we headed through Surrey and out along the trans Canada to Hope. We were aiming at just getting off the island and out of Vancouver, we met our goal and bunked down for the night in Hope. It was pitch black when we arrived but no big...we could see it all the next day. Okay...I've seen it all many times before but Lorne, not so much. He has never really even traveled off the island before now.
Abbotsford at dusk (it looks so much brighter than the picture I took from the ferry)
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