Toronto, Trucks, and Minty Lemonade

After crunching the numbers a few weeks ago, we figured out that it would cost at least $4000 to rent a U-Haul truck to move to Calgary. Since then, I got an excellent suggestion from my friend Eric:

Buy a truck.

After a looking at online advertisements in Ontario and Alberta, it seemed quite likely that we could not only resell a truck in Alberta for what we would pay for it in Ontario, we might even make a few bucks. We altered our plans so that I would drive the truck across the country, and R would fly with Scott.

However, R wasn't too keen on the idea of me driving 3500 km by myself, and I think she was even less excited about the prospect of flying alone with the baby. So, she decided she wanted to ride with me all the way (glutton for punishment, I guess). Unfortunately, most cube vans (ie: E-350 or E-450 moving trucks) have only two bucket seats up front, and nowhere for a baby seat.

Ford makes a few moving trucks that have a bench seat (and therefore a middle seat belt), and as long as you can disable the airbags, you can have the baby seat up there. I know that these trucks (F-350 or F-450) are floating around, but they aren't very plentiful. I found 3 listings this weekend, but none in Ottawa -- they were all in Toronto.

Coincidentally, Eric was traveling to Toronto on business this week, so I jumped in with him just before he left yesterday, a printout of likely trucks in hand. After a hot, sticky afternoon of visiting the used car lots on our list, Eric recommended that we just cruise down Kingston Road in East Toronto (ie: Scarborough) where there are plenty of dealerships. One of the first places that we saw had one cube van hiding in the back corner. We pulled in and found out it had just arrived on the lot 15 minutes before we did, coming off of a lease. It's in great shape, it has a bench seat, and it even has a cool electric gate on the back that you can stand on and go up and down. Great fun.

We still have to take it to the mechanic tomorrow for an evaluation, but everything's looking good. With that out of the way, we were free to go see Spider-Man 3, eat astoundingly spicy Chinese/Malaysian chicken and wash it down with Lemonade flavoured with lime and mint from Shoppers Drug Mart.

Thanks Eric. You're the man.

These two nights in Toronto were the very first I've spent away since Scott was born in April, and they were R's first flying solo as parent. It was quite sad to leave, especially since Scotty was scheduled for his first immunizations at Dr. Richler's office today. I've heard from R several times, and it sounds like she's holding up alright. Who knows how well I would have held up had I been around to see the needles [shivers].

Scott was 23.5 inches long and weighed 12lbs-10oz, which keeps him just a hair above the trend line for babies his age. I think I need to get back soon, or I might find him grown up already.