Tri-als and Tri-bulations

Day 1: Markham Ontario – Davison Michigan The day has FINALLY arrived. I get to join Tammy and the pups and begin the next chapter. I didn't need to wake up early but it was a restless sleep for a variety of reasons, the main one being that I'd given away what little furniture I had to Brendan and Jen and therefore ended up sleeping in a sleeping bag on the hardwood floor. Needless to say I've had better sleeps. I had some final packing to do and a couple of errands, did all that then headed off to Woodbine Racetrack. Ya, I figured since I'm moving to the gambling capital of the world I'd get some practice in losing money. It was either gamble away the last few Canadian dollars I had or convert it to U.S. Dollars which would been the near same net effect. But actually we'd had a work team event pre-scheduled there a few months back and it was going to double as a going away for me. A buffet lunch was included and considering that buffets are a staple in Vegas it was pretty ironic that my last meal in Canada was a buffet. At first I felt a little ripped off because I don't eat lunch but I thought that I was going introduce the team to Buffet Niko. Tammy can vouch for Buffet Niko. He gets his money's worth. Anyway my “Canadian Cash Dispersal” plan worked out perfectly, 3 races, $50 in bets, zero wins. Maybe I should avoid the casinos in Vegas. Ryan on the other hand, I found out later, walked away up $360!! Well after I lost everything I said my goodbye's, took a couple of group pictures and headed out.

I have to say that it's been an emotional roller coaster lately and especially today. I've been bouncing around between the joy and excitement of finally being with Tammy to the sadness of leaving friends and family to the exhilaration of not having to be at work on Monday morning (just kidding boys) to the deep sadness of leaving one of my best friends and training partner Chris without being able to say goodbye as he's been in the hospital since last weekend after a very serious cycling accident. Thoughts are with Chris and his family. So I get on to highway 427 and within minutes I find myself planted firmly in stop and go traffic. Exiting onto highway 401 produces a change. I'm now fully entrenched in stop and no go traffic. It's as if Toronto's road infrastructure is giving me a final slap in the face. I'll miss many things but driving the 401 and DVP will not be one of them. Traffic finally cleared up and I got moving and started making good time. I had a couple of Tim Horton's gift cards and about $5 in change so that was going to be dinner. I made a quick pit stop there and headed for the border. Customs was actually pretty painless. I was prepared all kinds of things including a full body cavity search, being questioned in a dark room with a single spotlight blinding me so I couldn't identify my investigator, Chinese water torture. But the scariest question I got was “how long have you been married?” I almost blanked out. Sorry honey. But then again you can't remember either. All my paper work was checked and approved. My truck was approved for import and I was officially and legally in Merica. I got back on the highway and made way for my first stop. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful except for a dead deer at the side of the road that had been hit by a car. Well uneventful for me but fairly eventful for the deer. About an hour later my GPS directed me on to a secondary road and then on to a gravel road to where i would spend the night.

So I have booked stays for the entire trip but have decided to avoid hotels and motels and located places off the beaten track and somewhat different or typical of the locale. My first night was to be spent in a recreational vehicle.

It's located in a beautiful setting in a stand of trees overlooking a small lake. And it's got wifi and it's got Direct TV so I could watch the hockey game. Unfortunately the Rangers, which I'd bet on to win the Cup, lost and were eliminated. Man I suck at this gambling thing. Whatever possessed me to move to Las Vegas. Tammy please keep me away from the casinos. Hmmmm ...... I wonder if I can hot wire this RV and drive it the rest of the way to Vegas?