Canadian Trip!
So Ren and I are finally at our new place in Canada! We’ve settled in and have been resting from the looong journey.
But the road trip itself was something interesting. And interesting is putting it lightly. So I'll start with the first day!
Ren is camera shy, so he took most of the pictures.
February 5, 2011 Day 1:
We started on the road at about 9am. We drove and drove through Texas, going at the speed of slow for most of it because of all the ice on the road. I was driving most of the time in Texas since Ren's license was bad because the Texan government is dumb. (He could drive in all the other states, though).
Well...near Texarkana, the roads were starting to clear up. There were a few icy bits here and there, but nothing to worry about. I was just being extra cautious when we went under bridges and such.
I was going a bit under regular highway speed, which was about 50mph, when we hit this really icy patch that came out of nowhere.
I had no idea that it was coming because the car in front of me had no problem going over it at about the same speed.
So BOOM! Accident Get!
We slipped off of the road, and went right into the median. The median was the kind with the metal posts and wires, so we hit a metal post.
Now, we didn't hit it too hard, so there were no airbags deployed and we only had a pretty good dent, but it didn't affect the function of the car.
We were lucky that a State Trooper was passing on the opposite side of the highway because we waved him over and he already called a wrecker on his way back to get us.
Well, we waited for the truck. We took pictures of the damage, I was on the phone with my insurance company, and we called my mum about what happened. The tow truck finally came to bail us out of the ditch and when we thought he would back us up then pull us around, he skipped the backing up part and just pulled the car around so that the bumper just ripped the hell off.
I was just like "My caaaaaaaaaaaaar D'X" (I named him Vash, so I cursed the car with the name. But he's a sturdy one ♥).
Here are the pictures of the damage and stuff.
So~ The car was still drivable and like hell we were turning back! We proceeded with gusto!
Well, we get to Arkansas, out of Texas! Ren is driving now since I was a bit upset and shaken up. Not necessarily from the crash itself, but worried about what was going to happen afterward. But the roads were niiice and easy. No ice and no worries. (everywhere else except Texas DIDN'T have an ice problem)
Anyways, a little ways into that state, we start hearing this strange noise coming from our right front tire. So, we pull over and get out of the car to check it out. There was a plastic part hanging down and rubbing against our tire. So another state trooper pulled up and asked us what was wrong.
He told us to get some zip ties at the gas station six miles down and just tie it up.
Sooooooooooooo...we did. Ren got out and started trying to tie up the plastic part, but was having a difficult time. So this trucker saw us and helped us get it on!
Then we were back on our way! The rest of the drive to our first destination was easy. I fell asleep a lot because I'm a car sleeper. But when we finally made it to Nashville, TN, I woke up.
We met up with Maria, my mum's friend, at Starbucks. I had a chai tea and he had a vanilla creme cappuccino. We crashed at her house and it was nice seeing Mai again. Especially since I hadn't seen her since she was, like, ten. And now she's in high school and gotten so taaaall~ Kya kya~ ♥
Maria
Sleeping Mai
^_^;; Ren was being a bit anti-social, though. More so than normal. Hee~
Which brings us to...
February 6, 2011 Day 2:
We woke up early that morning and I couldn't find my coat. Turns out Maria's fiance thought that it was hers and put it in their coat closet. Whoops!
We set out at about 10am. I was driving first. It was a leisurely drive, nothing really terrible happened, actually. We split the drive time right down the middle. About 6 and a half hours for each of us.
The drive was extremely hilly though. So it took a toll on our gasoline usage, but other than that, the scenery was beautiful, and it was an easy trip.
We arrived at Rin's place at about the time I expected. 11pm closish to midnight. We giggled and hugged since we hadn't seen each other in, like, 6 years. We reminisced about the good ol' days when we were younger and such. It was nice! Then we fell asleep~
February 7, 2011 Day 3:
We woke up at around...tenish or so? We weren't going to go out on the road that day to get some extra rest before we punched out another chunk of our drive.
Rin made us waffles!
Rin~
Rin and I!
We got dressed and ready to go visit my Virginia mommy, Rhonda and my first best friend ever, Casey. And omg, her brother Adam, who is seventeen now has gotten so tall and handsome! ;u; He was a short little chubby thing when last I met saw him, but he's gotten so mature looking and his voice has gotten so deep!
Casey is just the way I remembered her and her mother is dating a woman now! O.O My mind, it was blown. Especially since her now ex-husband and her were so tight. They were like my VA parents.
But here they are now!
Casey!
Casey, Adam, and Rhonda
Well~ Rin's boyfriend came over to drive us to Maymont Park to derp around and such. We had a good time! We took pictures of interesting things and the gardens were really nice! We had a lot of fun.
Go Rin, go!
It was a tall, carved tree
A very tall carved tree
Ren decided that I was going to be his model.
EXTREME GROTTO!
This License plate is the best ever
We then went to a Pad Thai restaurant where Ren and I split a meal and it was really tasty! Casey's boyfriend met us there and paid for our meal. That was really sweet of him.
Peeeace~
After that, we went to Casey's house. The house that I aaaaaaaaaalways went to when I was a child. It was so different! It was just Casey living there now. Her dad lived with his girlfriend and her mum lived in Rin's neighborhood with her own hair salon in the back.
Soooo many rodeeents. She breeds mice and such, studies their genotype, etc. She's even getting a job at the local university for lab mice.
Cages~
She also collects animal skulls. They're really cool looking. It didn't surprise me, though, she's always been a bit strange.
Well~ Ren was getting tired and we needed to wake up early to hit the road again. So we left with Rin and her boyfriend and headed back to her place.
There, we just sorta crashed.
February 8th, 2011 Day Four:
We woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and packed our stuff back up to hit the road again. Ren was the one who took the wheel this time around at the beginning.
I had been trying to text my cousins to see if we could stay at their place so we could visit NYC. Of course, they're flakes and made up excuses on why we couldn't. This just goes to show that sometimes you just can't trust your family as much as you can trust your friends. Blood may be thicker than water, but which one is more refreshing? :|
Well~ Crazy shit decided to go down on the way there.
We tried to see the D.C. area because we were RIGHT THERE so why not? But of course, everything was blocked off from regular people so we couldn't get close enough to see jack crap. That and there was absolutely no parking anywhere.
So we were disappoint.
We got some pictures, though.
Library of Congress
LOL it says “D St.”
But then, we kept getting turned around and turned around because D.C. highways are retarded. There would be, like, five ways to get onto one highway, but then one way to get onto a billion others. Plus all of the construction didn't help. And northern divers are more dickish than Texan drivers if you can believe it. They will NOT let you over at all. Never. Ever. And they will honk at you if you even think of not going the speed that they want.
:|
Finally, after taking forever to get out of D.C. We hit Maryland.
There, Ren was driving along the left side like la-di-da, when suddenly, this guy going over 100mph TEARS passed us and nearly hits us on our left side. At first we thought that guy was just in a major hurry to get somewhere.
Well, we were right because he was running from the cops. THIS RIGHT HERE was what happened.
There were, like, twenty police cars plus a helicopter in pursuit of this guy. D¦ Aw man... was that messed the hell up.
So after being stuck in that traffic for a while (in which some guy decided that it was the perfect time to drop his pants and pee on the side of the road at that time. We lawled hard), we finally made it to Pennsylvania.
We explored the library there a bit and got pictures of Philadelphia city.
Old-ass globe from, like, 1920 or something?
Our horoscopes!
Pretty dome~
Theeeen....we got lost again. Googlemaps steered us wrong! So we went in circles around and around and around until we FINALLY got back on our path.
It was getting pretty late at this point.
We get out of Pennsylvania finally and into New Jersey! Where....we got lost...again! DX We passed through NYC and took pictures of the pwetty city and all that, though.
We passed through Delaware which only took, like, no time to go through. Then we went to Connecticut.
....There are zombies there, I swear. That's what populates Connecticut. :| Everything looked like it was running, but there were no people there. So we were like "Hell no, we're not stopping here". It was creeeeeepyyyyy.
But we finally made it to Boston, Massachusettes. Where we rested for the night. It was, like, 3am by the time we crashed.
THAT DRIVE TOOK US 15 HOURS WHEN IT SHOULD HAVE ONLY TAKEN US, LIKE, 7!
February 9, 2011 Day 5:
Creepy-ass parking garage!
We visited Ren's friend Matt from the LeetStreetBoys. He's the lead singer of a little group that does music with little nerdy sayings like "The Fanboy of the Opera" and "Yuri the Only One for Me", etc. His music is really cute. Check it out!
But he bought us lunch and we talked for a little bit before we had to leave to make it the rest of the way to Canada. He's a really nice guy! Though I was more quiet than normal to let Ren socialize with his friend and let the men talk while the woman sits there silent, like she should….. Fuck you, Ren. >||||| (he wrote that) I love you. :| I know.
From there, we got out of Massachusettes. Through a corner of New Hampshire and into Maine.
The drive itself wasn't bad. Nothing really happened. Well...
We did have to stop at a gas station where Ren got out and fixed the car with my shoelace, some yarn, and a dog leash (because that was all we had, because while Ren had the tools to remove it, it would have taken too long to fix the issue so, quick fix get). Ren: I laid in the damn snow DX Such a man. ;u; But things were going well after that road wise and drive wise.
It was when we got to the border of the United States and Canada was when shit happened.
So after we finally get off of this creepy-ass road in Maine, we get to the border patrol. We show them our passports and they ask us questions.
We tell them the truth. We're there to be there for four months to look at schools and to look around the area because we eventually want to become citizens, etc etc etc. We'd be visiting with my mum's fiance whom we haven't met before, but my mum's seen him so many times and trusts him and stuff. Blah blah blah.
DENIED.
Because our story had "holes" in it and he thought we were going up there to stay illegally, he denied us entry. The guy was a dick. He said we don't have enough financial backing, too much stuff, and a fishy story.
So...I started crying because wtf were we supposed to do? We had driven 2000+ miles already with a beat down car that was being held up with whatever the hell we could find in the car.
The other guy looked really bad about what was happening and kept pulling the dick off of the side to talk with him. I think he was trying to get him to reconsider and let us through. But the dick didn't care and wanted us gone.
Ren kept his composure as normal and helped to calm me down.
Boooy was my mum pissed when I called her when we were inside of the station. She wanted to talk to the guy, but he refused.
When we finally signed the paper to leave because we would just try in the morning, he was like "I'm sorry that I upset you" and I was thinking "No you're not, you ass" I just gave him a look and rolled my eyes, then left.
We stayed in a motel for that night. It was about two in the morning by the time we fell asleep.
February 10, 2011 Day 6:
My mum had called the superintendent at the patrol station and he said that the story does sound strange, but pretty much told her that we should try again with a different officer, just tell him we're staying for a little while just for a visit, and not to mention anything about school, moving, etc.
So...we went to a different border patrol and I was prepared for the worst. I thought we were going to get the third degree, denied, and have to drive all the way back home again.
Nope! We get to the border patrol officer, a nice portly man and he asked how long we were staying, I gave him a list of inventory that I had written down that morning, he looked over it, and was like
"All right! Don't have too much fun now" and let us through.
I was like "....That's it? We're in Canada? THAT WAS SERIOUSLY IT?!" kdsjfglkjneth
I had seriously prepared myself so hard for the worst that when nothing happened, I was ALMOST disappointed. But at the same time, I was so relieved that I wanted to do cartwheels.
HOLY CANADA BATMAN!
We drove and drove, it was a smooth ride and FINALLY MADE IT, YAAAAAAY!
So that's our trip in a nutshell! Or rather...not so much a nutshell.
But we're here, safe and sound. ♥
Here’s our new place~!
Guess what stuff is mine and which is Ren’s.
Reading material!
The outside
But the road trip itself was something interesting. And interesting is putting it lightly. So I'll start with the first day!
Ren is camera shy, so he took most of the pictures.
February 5, 2011 Day 1:
We started on the road at about 9am. We drove and drove through Texas, going at the speed of slow for most of it because of all the ice on the road. I was driving most of the time in Texas since Ren's license was bad because the Texan government is dumb. (He could drive in all the other states, though).
Well...near Texarkana, the roads were starting to clear up. There were a few icy bits here and there, but nothing to worry about. I was just being extra cautious when we went under bridges and such.
I was going a bit under regular highway speed, which was about 50mph, when we hit this really icy patch that came out of nowhere.
I had no idea that it was coming because the car in front of me had no problem going over it at about the same speed.
So BOOM! Accident Get!
We slipped off of the road, and went right into the median. The median was the kind with the metal posts and wires, so we hit a metal post.
Now, we didn't hit it too hard, so there were no airbags deployed and we only had a pretty good dent, but it didn't affect the function of the car.
We were lucky that a State Trooper was passing on the opposite side of the highway because we waved him over and he already called a wrecker on his way back to get us.
Well, we waited for the truck. We took pictures of the damage, I was on the phone with my insurance company, and we called my mum about what happened. The tow truck finally came to bail us out of the ditch and when we thought he would back us up then pull us around, he skipped the backing up part and just pulled the car around so that the bumper just ripped the hell off.
I was just like "My caaaaaaaaaaaaar D'X" (I named him Vash, so I cursed the car with the name. But he's a sturdy one ♥).
Here are the pictures of the damage and stuff.
So~ The car was still drivable and like hell we were turning back! We proceeded with gusto!
Well, we get to Arkansas, out of Texas! Ren is driving now since I was a bit upset and shaken up. Not necessarily from the crash itself, but worried about what was going to happen afterward. But the roads were niiice and easy. No ice and no worries. (everywhere else except Texas DIDN'T have an ice problem)
Anyways, a little ways into that state, we start hearing this strange noise coming from our right front tire. So, we pull over and get out of the car to check it out. There was a plastic part hanging down and rubbing against our tire. So another state trooper pulled up and asked us what was wrong.
He told us to get some zip ties at the gas station six miles down and just tie it up.
Sooooooooooooo...we did. Ren got out and started trying to tie up the plastic part, but was having a difficult time. So this trucker saw us and helped us get it on!
Then we were back on our way! The rest of the drive to our first destination was easy. I fell asleep a lot because I'm a car sleeper. But when we finally made it to Nashville, TN, I woke up.
We met up with Maria, my mum's friend, at Starbucks. I had a chai tea and he had a vanilla creme cappuccino. We crashed at her house and it was nice seeing Mai again. Especially since I hadn't seen her since she was, like, ten. And now she's in high school and gotten so taaaall~ Kya kya~ ♥
Maria
Sleeping Mai
^_^;; Ren was being a bit anti-social, though. More so than normal. Hee~
Which brings us to...
February 6, 2011 Day 2:
We woke up early that morning and I couldn't find my coat. Turns out Maria's fiance thought that it was hers and put it in their coat closet. Whoops!
We set out at about 10am. I was driving first. It was a leisurely drive, nothing really terrible happened, actually. We split the drive time right down the middle. About 6 and a half hours for each of us.
The drive was extremely hilly though. So it took a toll on our gasoline usage, but other than that, the scenery was beautiful, and it was an easy trip.
We arrived at Rin's place at about the time I expected. 11pm closish to midnight. We giggled and hugged since we hadn't seen each other in, like, 6 years. We reminisced about the good ol' days when we were younger and such. It was nice! Then we fell asleep~
February 7, 2011 Day 3:
We woke up at around...tenish or so? We weren't going to go out on the road that day to get some extra rest before we punched out another chunk of our drive.
Rin made us waffles!
Rin~
Rin and I!
We got dressed and ready to go visit my Virginia mommy, Rhonda and my first best friend ever, Casey. And omg, her brother Adam, who is seventeen now has gotten so tall and handsome! ;u; He was a short little chubby thing when last I met saw him, but he's gotten so mature looking and his voice has gotten so deep!
Casey is just the way I remembered her and her mother is dating a woman now! O.O My mind, it was blown. Especially since her now ex-husband and her were so tight. They were like my VA parents.
But here they are now!
Casey!
Casey, Adam, and Rhonda
Well~ Rin's boyfriend came over to drive us to Maymont Park to derp around and such. We had a good time! We took pictures of interesting things and the gardens were really nice! We had a lot of fun.
Go Rin, go!
It was a tall, carved tree
A very tall carved tree
Ren decided that I was going to be his model.
EXTREME GROTTO!
This License plate is the best ever
We then went to a Pad Thai restaurant where Ren and I split a meal and it was really tasty! Casey's boyfriend met us there and paid for our meal. That was really sweet of him.
Peeeace~
After that, we went to Casey's house. The house that I aaaaaaaaaalways went to when I was a child. It was so different! It was just Casey living there now. Her dad lived with his girlfriend and her mum lived in Rin's neighborhood with her own hair salon in the back.
Soooo many rodeeents. She breeds mice and such, studies their genotype, etc. She's even getting a job at the local university for lab mice.
Cages~
She also collects animal skulls. They're really cool looking. It didn't surprise me, though, she's always been a bit strange.
Well~ Ren was getting tired and we needed to wake up early to hit the road again. So we left with Rin and her boyfriend and headed back to her place.
There, we just sorta crashed.
February 8th, 2011 Day Four:
We woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and packed our stuff back up to hit the road again. Ren was the one who took the wheel this time around at the beginning.
I had been trying to text my cousins to see if we could stay at their place so we could visit NYC. Of course, they're flakes and made up excuses on why we couldn't. This just goes to show that sometimes you just can't trust your family as much as you can trust your friends. Blood may be thicker than water, but which one is more refreshing? :|
Well~ Crazy shit decided to go down on the way there.
We tried to see the D.C. area because we were RIGHT THERE so why not? But of course, everything was blocked off from regular people so we couldn't get close enough to see jack crap. That and there was absolutely no parking anywhere.
So we were disappoint.
We got some pictures, though.
Library of Congress
LOL it says “D St.”
But then, we kept getting turned around and turned around because D.C. highways are retarded. There would be, like, five ways to get onto one highway, but then one way to get onto a billion others. Plus all of the construction didn't help. And northern divers are more dickish than Texan drivers if you can believe it. They will NOT let you over at all. Never. Ever. And they will honk at you if you even think of not going the speed that they want.
:|
Finally, after taking forever to get out of D.C. We hit Maryland.
There, Ren was driving along the left side like la-di-da, when suddenly, this guy going over 100mph TEARS passed us and nearly hits us on our left side. At first we thought that guy was just in a major hurry to get somewhere.
Well, we were right because he was running from the cops. THIS RIGHT HERE was what happened.
There were, like, twenty police cars plus a helicopter in pursuit of this guy. D¦ Aw man... was that messed the hell up.
So after being stuck in that traffic for a while (in which some guy decided that it was the perfect time to drop his pants and pee on the side of the road at that time. We lawled hard), we finally made it to Pennsylvania.
We explored the library there a bit and got pictures of Philadelphia city.
Old-ass globe from, like, 1920 or something?
Our horoscopes!
Pretty dome~
Theeeen....we got lost again. Googlemaps steered us wrong! So we went in circles around and around and around until we FINALLY got back on our path.
It was getting pretty late at this point.
We get out of Pennsylvania finally and into New Jersey! Where....we got lost...again! DX We passed through NYC and took pictures of the pwetty city and all that, though.
We passed through Delaware which only took, like, no time to go through. Then we went to Connecticut.
....There are zombies there, I swear. That's what populates Connecticut. :| Everything looked like it was running, but there were no people there. So we were like "Hell no, we're not stopping here". It was creeeeeepyyyyy.
But we finally made it to Boston, Massachusettes. Where we rested for the night. It was, like, 3am by the time we crashed.
THAT DRIVE TOOK US 15 HOURS WHEN IT SHOULD HAVE ONLY TAKEN US, LIKE, 7!
February 9, 2011 Day 5:
Creepy-ass parking garage!
We visited Ren's friend Matt from the LeetStreetBoys. He's the lead singer of a little group that does music with little nerdy sayings like "The Fanboy of the Opera" and "Yuri the Only One for Me", etc. His music is really cute. Check it out!
But he bought us lunch and we talked for a little bit before we had to leave to make it the rest of the way to Canada. He's a really nice guy! Though I was more quiet than normal to let Ren socialize with his friend and let the men talk while the woman sits there silent, like she should….. Fuck you, Ren. >||||| (he wrote that) I love you. :| I know.
From there, we got out of Massachusettes. Through a corner of New Hampshire and into Maine.
The drive itself wasn't bad. Nothing really happened. Well...
We did have to stop at a gas station where Ren got out and fixed the car with my shoelace, some yarn, and a dog leash (because that was all we had, because while Ren had the tools to remove it, it would have taken too long to fix the issue so, quick fix get). Ren: I laid in the damn snow DX Such a man. ;u; But things were going well after that road wise and drive wise.
It was when we got to the border of the United States and Canada was when shit happened.
So after we finally get off of this creepy-ass road in Maine, we get to the border patrol. We show them our passports and they ask us questions.
We tell them the truth. We're there to be there for four months to look at schools and to look around the area because we eventually want to become citizens, etc etc etc. We'd be visiting with my mum's fiance whom we haven't met before, but my mum's seen him so many times and trusts him and stuff. Blah blah blah.
DENIED.
Because our story had "holes" in it and he thought we were going up there to stay illegally, he denied us entry. The guy was a dick. He said we don't have enough financial backing, too much stuff, and a fishy story.
So...I started crying because wtf were we supposed to do? We had driven 2000+ miles already with a beat down car that was being held up with whatever the hell we could find in the car.
The other guy looked really bad about what was happening and kept pulling the dick off of the side to talk with him. I think he was trying to get him to reconsider and let us through. But the dick didn't care and wanted us gone.
Ren kept his composure as normal and helped to calm me down.
Boooy was my mum pissed when I called her when we were inside of the station. She wanted to talk to the guy, but he refused.
When we finally signed the paper to leave because we would just try in the morning, he was like "I'm sorry that I upset you" and I was thinking "No you're not, you ass" I just gave him a look and rolled my eyes, then left.
We stayed in a motel for that night. It was about two in the morning by the time we fell asleep.
February 10, 2011 Day 6:
My mum had called the superintendent at the patrol station and he said that the story does sound strange, but pretty much told her that we should try again with a different officer, just tell him we're staying for a little while just for a visit, and not to mention anything about school, moving, etc.
So...we went to a different border patrol and I was prepared for the worst. I thought we were going to get the third degree, denied, and have to drive all the way back home again.
Nope! We get to the border patrol officer, a nice portly man and he asked how long we were staying, I gave him a list of inventory that I had written down that morning, he looked over it, and was like
"All right! Don't have too much fun now" and let us through.
I was like "....That's it? We're in Canada? THAT WAS SERIOUSLY IT?!" kdsjfglkjneth
I had seriously prepared myself so hard for the worst that when nothing happened, I was ALMOST disappointed. But at the same time, I was so relieved that I wanted to do cartwheels.
HOLY CANADA BATMAN!
We drove and drove, it was a smooth ride and FINALLY MADE IT, YAAAAAAY!
So that's our trip in a nutshell! Or rather...not so much a nutshell.
But we're here, safe and sound. ♥
Here’s our new place~!
Guess what stuff is mine and which is Ren’s.
Reading material!
The outside