Road Trip

So, after a pretty sweet summer, Ben & I packed up everything, got rid of a ton, and said goodbye to Utah.  We rented a Penske truck and towed our car almost 4000 miles to Halifax, Nova Scotia.  It was a long, tiring, GREAT trip across the country through 12 states, 2 provinces and 2 countries.  I'm not sure we would ever do it again, but it was a good one time experience. =]  Anyway, here's a recap of our trip.

We packed up our apartment on Wednesday, August 7 with the help of Chad & Tyler Prince and left Provo around 4 to go to Ben's parents and stay the night.  We had a little get together with his family for our last night there, it was really fun to see everyone one last time before we moved.

We started our journey Thursday morning, around 11, I think.  We figured we deserved to sleep in a little to hopefully have energy to drive through the night and get to Wisconsin at a decent time.  (We didn't, but that's ok.)  Here's a recap of that first part of our drive.  It was pretty boring.

I made sure that either Ben or I took a picture of each state's welcome sign.  Some states, there were 5 or 6 pictures - that's when Ben had the camera - and others are a little hard to see, especially if the weather was bad, but hey, we got them all!

 Wyoming - yuck - no offence, but it was a really boring drive along the 80.

We stopped at Cruel Jack's (the only place around) and had lunch, which was actually pretty good.  As soon as we got back on the freeway, we realized the next offramp had pretty much every other food place to eat at, but oh well.

This was probably the prettiest part of the drive through Wyoming.  

And yes, this view does get old fast. 

Nebraska.  It was late, dark, rainy and foggy.  Not cool.  We planned on driving through the night, but could hardly see in front of the truck (thank you Ben, for driving), so we pulled over and slept in the car for a few hours.   

If Wyoming was bad, Nebraska was even worse.  Lots of corn, grass and boring views as we went through Nebraska.  Plus, we were anxious to get to Wisconsin where we had a bed to sleep in. 

Iowa was next.   

Right before we left Iowa, we passed the Mississippi River.  Pretty cool! 

 Yes.  Wisconsin.  We finally made it.  We stopped and got some custard shortly after we got to Wisconsin - to give us energy to make it all the way to the Sheffield house.  We stayed at Trent & Camilla's all weekend to not only break up our long trip, but more so to spend time with them and their cute kids!  We had an awesome time in Milwaukee with them, but I'm going to talk about that weekend in another post.  So, moving on.  We left on Monday around 8 to start the 2nd half of our trip (actually a little more than half was left, but we were optimistic) feeling rested and rejuvenated.   

We hit Illinois not too long after we left Milwaukee. 

And here's Chicago in a snapshot.  We thought about stopping, but we were focused on our destination and thought that driving a truck through downtown would be torture.  So, we didn't. 

 Next was Indiana

Then Ohio. 

We passed right through Cleveland, so I had to take a picture of the Quicken Loans Arena, per Ben's request (where the Cavalier's play basketball, FYI)

and Progressive Field (where the Indians play baseball, FYI) 

We also spotted some sweet rims on this Cadillac.  Classy.  Only in Cleveland? 

We hit Pennsylvania next.   

And then New York.  (In case you can't tell, that does say Welcome to New York) 

It was dark and my camera was having issues getting a decent picture

Next, Massachusetts 

 And then New Hampshire

And finally to Maine.  

In Maine, we crossed the border into Canada through Calais.  We got to the border around 9:30pm, had to get our visas, have our truck inspected, and make sure we were good to go as far as living in Canada for the next 4 years.  It was a fairly smooth process, other than the main guy helping us being new, or maybe just not very good at his job.  We were pretty much the only people there, so all the workers helped us get through in a decent time.  After all was done, we headed into Canada as official visa holders.

I almost missed this sign.  Ben was driving on the freeway right after we passed the border and almost slammed on the breaks so I could get a picture.  Best husband ever?  Yes

We found a motel to stay at that night in New Brunswick.  We thought it would be best to have a decent night's sleep, in a bed, and actually be able to shower before we finished up our trip.  We had about a 5 hour drive left to Halifax, so we wanted to get to our new home in good spirits.

 Saint John was the first major city we passed in Canada.  Well, it was actually probably the only major city we passed through.  But it was pretty and had some cool buildings.

More Saint John. 

And finally, we made it to Nova Scotia.  I think they had the best "welcome" sign of all the places we passed through.  I mean, a lighthouse, come on.  Pretty awesome.  

So, after 8 days, 4000 miles, 12 states and 2 provinces, we finally made it to Halifax, and our new home the afternoon of Wednesday, August 14.  We showed up to our apartment with 8 guys waiting to unload our truck.  They even cheered when I pulled up in our toyota with Utah plates.  Nerds.  But honestly, it took like an hour to unload our entire truck.  It was incredible.  We were seriously so lucky to have such awesome guys around to help us.  

Since then, living here has been a blur.  We've met so many people and made a bunch of friends.  Moving here has been one of the easiest transitions (although dang scary at first) and I know this is the place we should be.