So our adventurous trip came to an end on Saturday. It really was a sad day. There may or may not have been tears involved. Hint: there was.
We said adios to Nikki and Alaska, drove about 400 miles, crossed the border into Canada, and camped at some random campground in Beaver Creek, YT. Unfortunately I didn't have any service, because service doesn't exist in BFE, so I couldn't live tweet crossing the border with Laur, but the customs guy was much nicer this time around. He thanked us for coming into his country, as he should, because it's a privilege for a country to be graced by the VanSumeren's. All I remember from the drive is that there was an unnecessary amount of construction. Canada's version of construction consists of putting up a sign that says "Slow" and then throwing down a bunch of rocks and gravel and calling it good. Oh and we also saw another glacier (because we haven't seen enough of those already). But this one was actually pretty big, so it was neat-o
The campground we stayed at was one that was literally in the middle of nowhere. Their sign said they had wifi, but what they didn't say was that I'd have to sit on a chair in the bathroom to use it, because that's the only placed they actually had wifi. So I did that. And I was judged.
Sunday we drove some more and got to Watson Lake, YT. We drove around 500 miles. Nothing really happened Sunday, except that we saw a lot of black bears. Mom still wouldn't let me hug them, so it was pretty much the worst day ever. Mom also said she saw a wolf, but it was really probably just a jaguar or something. Dad wanted to play his iPod via the aux cable in the bus and so to grant the princess his wish, we did. Mom and I were having a pretty solid jam sesh until dad yelled at us for singing and having fun. Apparently that's NOT what you're supposed to do when you're stuck in a motor home in the middle of nowhere. It was also Matt's birthday so we called and serenaded him. That was about all that happened Sunday. Sorry we're boring.
On Monday, we went from British Columbia to Alberta and drove through the Canadians Rockies. Apparently those mountains are a lot different than any other mountain we saw, because mom and dad yelled and woke me from my slumber. We saw probably a million buffalo heading south, but none of them were mom's BFF Elvis, so she was disappointed. We also finally saw big horned sheep!!! Mom has been saying how this trip hasn't been worth it because we haven't seen them (she's so dramatic). Word on the street is that dad's trying to take credit for pointing out the sheep to us, even though they were right in the middle of the road and were impossible to miss... (love ya dad). The campground we stayed at was a cute little one, but the bathrooms were honestly the smelliest bathrooms on the entire planet. Not even being dramatic here. They. Were. The. Worst.
Tuesday was my birthday (happy birthday to me, I'm an adult now). We peaced early in the morning and mom treated me to Tim Horton's, using my credit card. Since it's Tim Horton's, you'd think they'd know how to make a drink, or even just make a drink. I ordered an iced chai and was instead given a hot cup of milk and a tea bag. Ok TH, that's cool. The pack of Timbits I also ordered were delicious, so that made up for my failed chai, but still. We continued our trek across Alberta until we found a restaurant to dine at for my birthday, because it'd been like 4 hours since we had last put food into our body, so we were all feeling a little weak. We ended up going to this fancy steakhouse. Since the drinking age in Canada is 18 and I'm 20 year old adult, I ordered an adult beverage and felt like a baller. I don't know really know what I drank, but it had tequila and vodka and was delicious. Dad ordered a beer and so together we got TANKEDDDDDDD. Not really though, but still. Oh, but it was at this time that dad made a deal to go shot for shot with me on my 21st birthday, so you heard it hear, folks. Dad's getting wild on July 29th, 2015. If he doesn't, he owes me $1,000,000. After we feasted, we carried on to somewhere and ended at some campground. When we got there, the campground was technically closed. But we waited creepily until "security" showed up. Security ended up being the owner and he was such a nice old man and gave us a site to stay at so we slept our little hearts away.
EDIT: Mom wants me to share with all y'all that Tuesday was the first day we did not drive through a mountain range since like day 2 of the trip. The cornfields and plains really made for an exciting drive. Not.
On Wednesday we woke up at like 4am to head out (4am meaning 7am). Dad needed his chai latte to get him through his strenuous naps so we went probably a good 20 minutes out of the way to go to Starbucks. He'll try to tell you that I was the one pushing for Starbucks. Don't believe him. We drove through Saskatchewan and had to make an appearance in Saskatoon because mom just likes saying that name. Fracking is a pretty big deal here in Canadia, so we saw a bunch of semis and oil trucks and other fracking equipment (I don't know what all that entails, but we saw it). Wednesday was the first day this entire trip that we ran into rain. Of course I was the one who had to drive the bus through it while everyone was sleeping and was white knuckling it the entire time, but don't worry about me, I'm sure my arthritis isn't a big deal. We crossed the border into the US (FINALLLLYYYYY), but first we had to get the motor home strip searched, because we're a family of crooks. The border patrol made us pull over and tore apart the whole bus to make sure we didn't have any drugs or vegetables or fruit. Ok, I lied, we didn't get strip searched, but the guy really did come into the motor home to take a look around. The motor home was a bit messy, so naturally mom was embarrassed for the mess. She said that if she had known we were going to have company, she would've cleaned it up a bit. We drove the rest of the day and ended up at some rinky-dink city park in Granville, ND. There were probably 10 open sites that were a free-for-all. We spent about a half hour trying to find a level site and moved about 8 times and were completely judged by all 4 residents of the campground. After we finally got a semi-level one, mom and I played Rummey and I kicked her butt. I believe the score was 530 to 360. I would put a picture of the score sheet as proof, but mom threw it out because she's embarrassed that I alienated her. Dad Facebooked and checked AOL news some more during our vicious game. When it was time to get ready for bed, mom wanted to try her hand at piggy backing dad to transfer him. She did it with no problem until she said, "squats for days, am I right?" Then I had a problem because no. She just shouldn't say that (love ya ma).
So it's now Thursday morning. We woke up at 6:30am, on the road by 7:30. We're still driving through North Dakota and I'm convinced this state is almost as bad as Canada. There's no Starbucks so that makes it even worse. The plan is to get back to Houghton tonight, where mom and dad will stay until Saturday, then they'll head back to Goodrich.
I'll do a few more finals posts when we touch down. Sorry this is like a week late.
Peace, y'all.
