The trip.....

Overview: one of the early ideas was to drive to Yellowknife so that we could have use of a car there. It’s an older car and wouldn’t net any great resale value here, but I had confidence it could take us west and north. 5000 kilometers is a very long drive and at the time of conception the idea was also based on us being able to take a lot of our possessions with us. I knew the earlier we could leave the better but thought we’d likely still be okay as long as we left by mid-November.

Things take time and it wasn’t until the 31^st of October that I received and was able to sign the acceptance of employment. This allowed the travel arrangements to be made; two moving companies provided quotes and one was selected. On the first, I spoke to one of the moving companies and in that discussion he provided a name of a property management company in Yellowknife that had a good reputation. The relocation coordinator had encouraged me to find a place quickly as there were often shortages for good accommodations so I was happy to have a local recommendation as I wasn’t confident in finding a place sight unseen. Darcy, who was awarded the move had agreed to pack me up on the 9^th of November. My last day of work was the 8^th and as Danielle’s birthday was the following day – my move day – and she was going to be in Ottawa for basketball, we had her birthday dinner the night before and said our good-bye’s. Our intentions were that we would leave on Sunday and arrive in Yellowknife by Friday or Saturday the (16^th/17^th).

So, it had been a busy fall and while I had spent time moving possessions around from garage to storage and apartment to storage, I still hadn’t been able to finish off the sorting process of the apartment, hopeful that I would be able to on the day of the move. It was Lauren’s last day of work and we’d gotten up at 5:30 in order to grab the things we would need for the next two weeks, which would go into the car. The three movers arrived around 9:30 armed with boxes and paper and the next six hours were organized mayhem.  Lauren arrived home from work via Rochelle and we said our good-bye’s to her as well. We finished off the apartment by 8pm and the items going with us were in the car along with a variety of other items that had been left in the apartment.  Lauren and I drove away from Barrie, sadly realizing it would be a very long time before we saw it again.

We stopped into my mom’s place in Elmvale before arriving at (sister & brother-in law) Marlene and Paul’s home north of Elmvale and stayed the night, waking to a morning that held a bitter cold wind and intermittent precipitation. My intention was to go as far as Sudbury and to resort and repack all of the cars possessions before heading out bright and early Monday morning.  So far everything was on track.

Awoke to a significant amount of snow in Sudbury Monday morning and proceeded to pack the car following the previous day’s 'sort and reorganize'. Most everything was still going with us, the only thing left behind was the laundry basket. We left a little later than we wanted to but the roads were clear between Sudbury and the Sault and the drive was consistent. As we wandered the Sault’s downtown for a place to eat the snow picked up which we fortunately left behind an hour out of town.  We stopped in Wawa around 5:30 for a coffee, it was days end for the only other drivers on the road and by the time we resumed our drive there were fewer other cars heading into the dark of the northern road.  

The car started feeling different, almost like hydro-planing, before I realized that what had been dry pavement a few moments ago had now turned to grease and I was having trouble navigating the road. I crept along the highway, hoping that we would reach Marathon even though I’d planned on going further that night. Eventually we arrived and checked into the last room at the Airport Inn, bringing in our most essential items along with the two plants I wanted to bring to our new home. It was cold in Marathon, I was a bit shaken up and suddenly I knew that winter was upon us.

When we came to repack the car the following morning, we both saw a hose had become disconnected and was lying on the ground by the rear back tire. There were two mechanic shops in town – Canadian Tire and Napa – we went to the CT – car couldn’t be looked at until 10am – mechanic said everyone was busy in town with snow tires etc. We went to Napa and someone there diagnosed it as the air overflow that would normally be connected to the gas tank – they did a make shift fix and we were finally on our way.

The drive around the lake was beautiful. Dryden was smelly as was Kenora, I believe, but our focus was on reaching Winnipeg which we did, a very lovely Comfort Inn right off Circle Drive – an easy on and off the highway that gave the best complimentary breakfast along the way.  Tuesday was a good day.

Our goal for Wednesday was to reach Lloydminster. It was an ambitious drive but with enough time and good conditions it was manageable. Lauren’s dad was driving in from camp and we would have dinner and stay the night. Driving the TransCanada is a unique event, we were on the Yellowhead (Hwy16) north of Portage de Prairie was a 2 lane highway but we were able to make good time. The skies are big and the sunsets are beautiful on the prairies. As we got closer to the Battlefords we noticed how the area / roads were filled with ‘workers’ – not the correct definition or description – but the way it became quite apparent that there was a lot of action, a lot of movement of goods as well as the men that were a part of it all. We made one last pit stop before making our end run to Lloydminster, we were just outside North Battleford and had been back to divided 4 lane highways since leaving Saskatoon, when the car starting losing its grip on the road. We stopped the car and checked the road – it didn’t seem possible – we had hit some light rain an hour earlier but it wasn’t apparent any longer. We resumed and the roads became more difficult to manage and we had to turn back, Lauren very disappointed in being unable to meet up with her Dad.

We ate late – it was a terrible meal at Smitty’s and we found a room at the Super 8 – a haven for all the boys with their trucks. We went to bed shortly after and I awoke at 3am anxious and concerned and feeling very unsettled about the remaining drive; I was no longer confident in making the drive, at the very least I would have to get new snow tires as these ones were obviously poor. Should I even attempt the drive? Lauren was in touch with her dad and he said that his travel back to camp was quite bad, the roads had iced over and he didn’t think he would be able to come back out that night so we decided to move on and get as far as Edmonton and make some decisions then about the rest of the trip, though I knew I wasn’t going to be able to drive north – I’d lost all desire, confidence and umph to do so. But to fly…..I don’t know…..? I’ve been known to have anxiety attacks just thinking about flying so this wasn’t a very comforting thought either…..

A hard decision was made – leave the car in Edmonton and fly to Yellowknife. It would mean that we’d have to definitely leave some stuff behind, and/or pay additional pieces of luggage.  Got a hotel in Leduc, very close to the airport and deliberated how to get rid of the car. Put an ad in Kijiji and got a few responses; the first one was ready to come over and pick up the car, until he realized it was an out of province vehicle – he then explained that cars not registered in Alberta had to be inspected etc which would now cost him more – that I should explain this on the kijiji ad. This was confirmed by the next caller as well. I adjusted the ad and even got some response at 2:30am though no more response until noon on Friday. Originally we were trying to leave on Friday but knew that we’d not had enough time to deal with the car, thus we decided to stay another day. I'd obviously forgotten that the provinces were different in terms of putting a car on the road with a new owner....

It just so happened that I needed to make a call to the moving company to determine what day he expected my stuff to be into Yellowknife. During the conversation it came up that I was trying to dispose of my car before heading north via plane. He, offhandedly suggested that I could park it at the Park n Fly and he would be able to pick it up in a couple of weeks time. I was ecstatic as we were not liking the idea of not having a car in Yellowknife. He also commented on the fact that Alberta took great care of their roads but that I would have certainly noticed the difference crossing the border into NWT. Lauren and I went to find where we were going to park the car the next day before flying out at 10am. 

This now changed things in terms of not having to get rid of any of our belongings and / or potentially bringing additional luggage at a cost. However, I had picked up smaller pieces of luggage in Barrie so that we could fit them better into the car. Now they were going to be useless to us as we needed larger suitcases. We went to see what we could find and begin the process, once again, of sorting and repacking and determining what stayed behind in the car to be delivered another day.

Friday the 15^th. It snowed quite a lot in Leduc and we drive slowly to the Park n Fly where a shuttle picked us up to take us to the airport. The Park n Fly is filled with pickup trucks, evidence I think as to how many people fly out for jobs to remote camps. One of the bags is over its required weight so we have to move things around so that we don’t have to pay. We’d picked up a couple of cheap duffle bags at Walmart which handled a lot of our clothes so we were able to keep it to 2 pieces each. Edmonton turned out to be a lovely airport – very modern and aesthetic. We boarded but the plane didn’t leave for another hour, the snow had held some up and the planes were also being de-iced before leaving.  Because of the snow we couldn’t see the ground until an hour into the trip and then the remoteness and isolation of the area became crystal clear. I was so glad to be on the plane…..in light of two disagreeable events I had become ‘cured’ of this longstanding flying anxiety and had not a flutter of panic arise.  We landed into Yellowknife, a bright and sunny city that in mind bears a lot of resemblance to Sudbury, just on a smaller version of it.  We are staying in a housekeeping suite downtown YK and after dropping off our packed walked downtown to pick up a few groceries – nothing too out of sync with what we would have paid in Barrie.  Today is a do nothing day……..well, other than this blog that is…….

These are the basic chronicles of the events bringing me to Yellowknife. Future blogs will revolve around further observations about our travels and the sights and feelings associated with the travel. Until then……keep well.