Detour!

It turned into a beautiful day, so we went and explored Hemlock Ravine Park... explored might actually be an understatement, as we got a little lost. But it was beautiful nonetheless, reminded us a lot of BC. And during our "detour" we stumbled upon a nice viewpoint of the harbour, so it wasn't all bad. Once again the park had an off leash area, and any dogs we saw outside of the area were off leash anyways. It's so much more relaxed around here about dogs, it's so great.

Interesting title.

Still nothing on the job front, but at least now there are some hopefuls. We went to Dartmouth last week to the hospital there and one of the managers seemed very interested, which is a first so far. The picture below is of us crossing the bridge to Dartmouth, it was a miserable day and it costs a buck each way in tolls to cross! But if I do get a job over there, there's a seabus that goes almost right to the hospital, so that would be neat (maybe for the first week, haha.) The hospital was much older than the ones in Halifax, but smaller and much less intimidating. I also dropped off an application at Fabricville, and had to just about run out of the store because they had so many great fabrics I wanted to fondle and purchase. Maybe working there wouldn't be such a good idea, lol.
We haven't been doing too much around here, everything costs moolah and until we find some sort of work we're squirrelling away our money like... squirrels. I'd like to go to the Museum of Natural History soon though. We just missed the Sue the T-Rex exhibit, but it looks like there are some other great ones, including Gus an 88 year old turtle! I wish dogs lived that long. :( And once the weather warms up a bit more and stops raining so much we can explore more parks in the area and hopefully next week we'll go out to Mahone Bay to see my cousin.

Je suis fatiguee

So... the job hunting is not going so grandly so far. I went to the main Halifax hospitals and dropped off some resumes; most of the managers weren't around and those who were basically said "budget this" and "not hiring right now" that, but "I'll put your resume on the pile." Hm. All the while I was having a freaking panic attack because the hospitals are so huge and I couldn't find my way around. Pretty hard to look confident and capable to a manager when you want to run out of the building screaming, but I did my best. I realized I haven't really had many jobs where I had to go hunting and dropping off resumes, I mostly have got them from knowing somebody (ha, tough life, I know.) On the plus side, all the nurses I came across while trying to find manager's offices were very helpful and friendly, and the general energy on most of the units didn't feel negative or overly hectic. I also applied to a number of care homes in the area, as well as a position for a dermatology clinical research assistant at Dalhousie (*hopes*) That one sounds the most interesting to me, so I hope I hear back.I'm starting to think we may be experiencing some sort of delayed jet lag? I don't know, but we've both been feeling so tired since we got here. And last night we were up until 3am, and didn't get up until noon today (which would be 11pm and up at 8am back in BC.) I have read that travelling west to east creates worse 'jet lag,' but I don't know how applicable it is when you drive. I would've thought driving would've given us more time to adjust, and we have been here for a week already, so I don't know. Has anyone tried melatonin? Between the weird night schedule we used to live on and the time changes we've experienced I think our bodies are rebelling. We did go for a bit of a jog the other evening (*gasp!*) I don't know if that was a help or a hindrance.
I did go to Dalhousie and drop off those forms. The Arts building is very cool! There's a theatre in the building, and an art gallery too. The theatre department puts on four major productions a year, and the costume studies students do the costumes, which will be so fun. Scott is even excited about going to see the plays!
It's still cloudy and rainy around here. I can't wait for summer to come, I'm itching to find some places to swim - kind of my own swimmer's itch. Haha.

Settling in

So far I've been a bit guilty of arriving here and dropping off the face of the earth. There was so much stress leading up to moving here that now that we're here I'm feeling mostly exhausted and am just kind of relaxing. The weather has been crap so we haven't been exploring too much, but we have been taking the dogs to the park everyday and even found our way down to the off leash park by our place. The sunsets have been beautiful - I tried to take some pictures, but I can't wait to have my good camera back so I can get some better ones.
I am enjoying the heck out of having a dishwasher, cooking up a storm and not worrying about the dishes! Simple pleasures, haha.
Tomorrow the job hunt begins. I've applied for a couple positions online and haven't heard a peep back, so I'm storming the hospitals at dawn. There is a posting for a casual nurse at the corrections facility, but I haven't decided whether that's something I'd be very good at. Although I guess there's only one way to find out... Part of the problem here is that everything is so specialized, there aren't too many general wards where I would actually feel comfortable and qualify to work at. But I regress. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
I also have to drop off some paperwork at Dalhousie's theatre dept tomorrow - I'm super excited to see what it's like. I can't wait to start school! The paperwork is for the two classes I have to take at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (one of them is a fabric dyeing class, how cool is that?!)
So the question people keep asking is "Are you settling in?" My answer is yes, we are. The townhouse already feels like our home and we're starting to get to know the city. It's been a quiet couple days (not a bad thing!), but hopefully I'll have something a bit more exciting to share in the weeks to come!

Belated arrival post

Sorry everyone! Yes, obviously we made it to Halifax safe and sound. And things are wonderful. Our townhouse is beautiful, there is a dog park and the ocean across the street! The drive through New Brunswick was rainy and nasty, then about 20km outside of the Nova Scotia border we saw a rainbow seriously arcing into NS (like it was the pot o' gold!) Finally, a good omen. Then when we hit the border the rain disappeared and the sun was shining. When we got here there was a beautiful sunset, we watched it over the ocean while we played with the dogs at the park (they were soooo amped up from being in the car for so long, poor doggies!)
We explored the city a little today - it is lovely. Reminds me a lot of Victoria, with lots of trees and green space, and all the homes are old and full of character. After having seen the rest of Canada, I feel like we picked one of the most beautiful places to live, truly.
We picked up our totes from our storage unit today too. I can't believe how well that worked out - we shipped all our stuff through Canada Post to our storage unit here, and it was much cheaper than even just renting a trailer! (Thanks so much for the tips, Sarah!)
I'm keeping this short, as I'm just heading to bed (who would've thought all that driving would leave us so tired this last day and a half!) I'll keep sharing all the new places we're going to see, though!
Wish you were all here. Love!

Flooded

Hmmm, how come no one is talking about flooding in New Brunswick? The St John River is crazy flooded, worse than pretty much anywhere else we've seen so far!
The water levels all across Canada have been so high!

The final stretch!

We made it to just outside of Quebec City  last night. The weather was miserable and the traffic was horrendous! Quebec feels like another country. I don't know what I was expecting, but literally everything is in French and everyone around is speaking French. It's kinda fun though. We stood in the Mcdonald's lineup giggling like schoolgirls arguing over who was going to order our food. Turned out the answer to my "Parlez-vous anglais?" was "yes, I do!" do we managed alright. Although I did end up with a cheeseburger instead of a grilled cheese. But I can't really blame her, I'm probably the only person in the world who orders a grilled cheese at McDonald's.
They also sell liquor at corner stores for cheap, like the US almost! If we had any money or room in our vehicle we'd have filled up!
Despite the rain (just like home!) we camped for the night at KOA. It wasn't so bad though. Except our attempts at patching the bed patch didn't work, so it was another night on the ground - this time in a tent that reaked of rubber cement. Oh well, we're going to be in a real bed in Halifax tonight!
Our server at Tim Horton's this morning didn't speak English, but it was fun trying to order, and we both tried our best.
We're in New Brunswick now! We thought everything would switch right back to English, but that's definitely not the case. I wish I was bilingual - I've retained appallingly little from school French classes (sorry Mr. Down!) It's been great seeing this different side of Canada, and we're settling in to the last push to Halifax! Yay!

Quebec!

We weren't feeling tired last evening, so we carried on past Sudbury and drove in the dark a bit. It seemed like an okay idea at the time, until we came across a car accident and a poor dead moose in the middle of the road. That definitely took the wind out of our night driving sails, so we pulled into North Bay for the night. Having been annoyed at how pricey motels have been, we decided to pull into a mom'n'pop looking place in town. Let me just say that saving $30 on a motel room is not worth it! The place didn't seem too bad from the outside, but as soon as we stepped into the room we looked at each other with fear. It was the kind of place where you'd probably pick up bed bugs, and it reaked! There was a duct taped together scrap of dirty carpet covering a big stain, and even the dogs seemed apprehensive! We called Travelodge, and it turned out they were only ten bucks more, and included breakfast! So I had the unpleasant task of talking to the owner, who at first refused to refund our money. It was the worst encounter I've had with someone in customer service, by the end I pretty much yelled "The room stinks and it's dirty! Just give me my money back! We don't want to stay here!" So she finally did, but said "You're not getting the tax back!" "FINE!" So it was a $10 lesson in how not to pick a motel. And the Travelodge was the best place we've stayed at yet, and they were soooo helpful and nice. And the best pillow I've used in my life. Mmmmmm, coooozy.
Now we've driven through Ottawa, and are just about at the Quebec border. It's pouring rain, but it's the first timer we've hit rain, so can't really complain. Hopefully it stops soon. And hopefully we can get by on our horribly broken French.

Agawa Bay

I repeat, Lake Superior is gorgeous! We stopped for a bit at Agawa Bay - all I wanted to do was set up a cabana and drink a corona, ahhhh!
Picked up an air bed patch kit in Sault Ste Marie, so tonight should be a better sleep. Now we're heading on to Sudbury.

We're in Sault Ste Marie right now. Cell service in Ontario has been atrocious! Pictures to follow...

Ontario!

I am in love with Ontario so far! Kenora is especially beautiful with all the lakes. We made a quick stop at Kakabeka Falls - very cool. Apparently you have to buy a $5 permit at the park though, so we, uh, ran to the viewing platform, ooh'd and aah'd, and ran away. We made it to Thunder Bay last night... Lake Superior is enormous! We stayed at a KOA campsite in the area and it was so great - they even had an off leash dog park! Which was much needed... after a full day of driving the dogs were full of beans. Unfortunately our air bed sustained an injury and by the middle of the night we were sleeping on a thin layer of plastic. Guess we need to get a roll of duct tape today. We tried fixing it, but all we had was gum, doggie poop bags, and 4 tiny pieces of tape I commandeered from an out of order sign. I don't think I even need to tell you that it was not effective.
We're hoping today will be another great day, should make it to around Sudbury.

Centered

We just passed through the longitudinal center of Canada. Neat!

Bad luck beard

Scott would like everyone to know that everything will be fine from here on in, as he has shaven the bad luck beard. We have pieced together that the beard grown in Quesnel was infused with pure evil, as bad luck seems to have followed the beard wherever it has gone. Much like a playoff beard brings good luck, this seems to have been some sort of bizarro beard.
The beard has thus been removed. We will keep you posted on any further developments in the theory of the bad luck beard.

A new day

So we ended up waiting at the mechanics for over 6 hours yesterday for our alternator to be replaced. Turns out it's a real bitch to change one in a Ford Escape. Of course it is. They had to take off the entire axle on the passenger's side to even get the old one out. The shop wasn't very close to town, but we did find a dog park, so the dogs had their first off-leash doggie park experience and it went great! Other than that we just sat around the junk yard, then when it got too cold sat on dirty couches in the mechanic's lounge and watched The Cable Guy on VHS. And tried to keep the dogs away from the mouse traps in the corners.
The bill came to $850 *choke* (including the 25km tow) which was pretty hard to swallow. But the guys at the shop were really nice and stayed late to finish so that we could carry on our journey. And I made my first costume industry contact - the shop owner is a major historical war reenactment buff and is constantly looking for historically accurate uniforms and such. So he was excited to hear about my program and wants me to contact him when I'm done.
It was 8:30pm by the time we got out of there, so we found a hotel, took a much needed shower, and crashed.
Now we're on the road again. This picture is of some of the flooding in Brandon.

Alternate universe

The morning started off so well! We got going early, the sun was shining and the roads were perfect. Then shortly after getting into Manitoba I noticed the battery light was on. Then the cruise control failed. Then the dash lights went out. Then the car died.
*sigh*
So we called a tow truck, who was apparently very busy as we waited two hours to be picked up. Now we're sitting in a junky mechanic shop lot with the dogs waiting to hear what we're pretty sure we already know: our alternator has crapped out.
I thought this adventure was supposed to be fun?!

Regina night two

The highway is back open, but we've decided to stay for another night - hopefully it means the roads will be even better tomorrow. Plus we've already paid for another chilly night at the campsite, so hopefully we can get an early start tomorrow.
This is a picture of the highway coming into Regina from Manitoba. If we had left this afternoon we probably would've just ended up sitting in traffic anyways!

Stuck

So thanks to a blizzard in eastern sask and manitoba the highway is closed and we're stuck in Regina. And every single hotel in the city was booked for the night, so we spent the night at King's Acres Campground bundled up in our little tent. We were really hoping things would be cleared up this morning, but no such luck. There are semi's and campers lining all the side streets and parking lots - we're certainly not the only ones affected by this! So for now we're cozy in our tent, watching movies on the laptop and checking highway reports. Expecting to spend another night here and hopefully be on the road again tomorrow.