Arrival Into Awaiting Arms

Day: 6
Start: Moose Jaw, Sask
Finish: Calgary, Alberta
Time: 8 hours
Distance: 696 km
Remaining: 0 km
Harry Potter Discs: 14-17


The long journey is over. We've arrived in Calgary, and the Harry Potter series is finished. We finished the last CD over 100km from town, so we had another hour of silence to contemplate all that happened to him and to us in the course of this week.


Our day's journey was quite uneventful. We had lunch in Medicine Hat, another place that I'd always heard of growing up, but had never actually visited. As a kid, I had always imagined some sort of top hat, perhaps wrapped in a stethoscope. Instead, we found "The World's Largest Teepee". It was quite large, I'll admit.


A major part of daily travel routine was to feed Scott. With him needing milk every 3 hours, and the truck needing gas every 5 hours, and us needing food every 4 hours, we had to try to minimize the stops. Instead of taking him out of the seat to nurse him (which would legally require us to stop the vehicle), R collected the milk into a bottle to feed him in his seat. We changed his diaper during food and gas stops, which came along every 3 hours or so.


I had to include a picture of a train, even though this one is not that great. Starting in Manitoba, trains were a constant feature of the landscape. I couldn't believe how many trains we saw in Winnipeg, and the trend continued all the way across the prairies.


Little Scotty loves to suck. He's been that way since day one. If he doesn't have a soother (aka binky), he makes do with his bottom lip or his fingers. We've noticed that he likes to suck on his fingers as much or more than his thumb. That's how I was. My brother sucked his thumb, but I sucked my finger.


Even with the thrilling conclusion to the Harry Potter saga, it seemed like a long day of traveling to me. I was ecstatic to finally glimpse downtown on the horizon, and then see it grow larger and larger.


At the end of our journey, we had to pose for a few final photographs with the famous truck that brought us so far. For a while there -- following the towing incident -- I was at odds with the truck, but we reconciled during the trip. I will be sad to see it go when we sell it. It was fun to own something so large and so loud.


Our belongings hardly shifted during the trip. We'll only know once we unload everything whether there was any breakage or water damage. I would just like to point out the mobile closet that I put together, hanging from the ceiling. I couldn't bring myself to fold up all my suits and shirts and ram them in a box.


It was such a wonderful feeling to pull into town, into the awaiting arms of family. What a contrast to our arrival in Ottawa five years ago, when we didn't know a single soul. Everyone was so anxious to hold Scott and to hear about our trip and to show us the house that they'd helped us buy. R's family had already been over to the house to vacuum out all the cat hair (previous owner was a cat lady) and wash the walls (a smoker too) for us. After cleaning up our previous home, we were looking at this new one with a certain amount of dread. Having a few helping hands is such a boon.

I am so glad that we don't have to get up and drive again. I think I'm ready to try something else. Plus, I've run out of Harry Potter discs.