This week a friend of mine is leaving for a new job in Ontario. Obviously, I’ve had to say goodbye to close friends because of moving many times before, but it’s the first time when I’ve lost a close friend because of them moving away, rather than me moving away.
She’ll be driving across to Ottawa. It’s a drive I’ve made before. Many people I’ve spoken to, have expressed their dislike for driving through the prairies. The endlessly flat and straight roads apparently have relatively little appeal to the average person.
Personally, I’ve never minded the prairies. At the right time of year, it’s like driving through golden waves blowing in the wind and there’s nothing quite like experiencing a large thunderstorm on the prairies.
Personally, I dislike driving through Ontario much more. Trying to get across that province, takes the better part of three days and offers even fewer views. The one time my wife and I tried to take the scenic route through Ontario, it resulted in a massive detour as flooding caused one road closure after another, often even blocking the road behind us.
The longest trip ever undertaken was when we moved to Halifax from B.C. I flew ahead (for a job) while my wife (then girlfriend) and mother in law drove. She’d packed the car so tightly that it cracked the screen on an older laptop (this should have been a clue). Only staying in Halifax for a few months, we didn’t want to fully unpack the car there and have to worry about how it had all fit together. We drove around for four months with the car loaded. Then we set off to Ottawa, also taking the scenic route over P.E.I. In Gatineau (bordering Ottawa), while looking for a place to rent we got a flat tire with the car still loaded. The jack was under all the packed stuff and we really didn’t want to unpack the car on the side of the highway.
Luckily, my mother has been buying me and my siblings a BCAA membership as our birthday present for years. However, when the tow truck showed up, their jack wasn’t working properly requiring the attendance of a second tow truck. Apparently, the car had been loaded so heavily that the wheel wells has slowly eroded the tires.
So to my friend who’s driving across, make sure you keep the jack in an accessible spot and don’t load the car too heavy.
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