January 17-23, 2022

 2347.3 miles later...

Most of this week was spent in the car, traveling north and east.  I didn't take many pictures - most of the scenery was covered with snow.  The temperatures continued to drop the further we went.

Monday morning before we left Omaha, we spit into the Covid test kit vials and sent the samples off by FedEx back to Utah.  We heard stories from others crossing into Canada about the samples being lost or not arriving in a timely manner.  All we could do is pray that everything would go as it should and we would receive negative results by the time we reached the border.

Between Omaha and Des Moines, Iowa we saw the results of the bad storm the previous day.  There were dozens and dozens of vehicles, including semi-trucks, off the side of the road.  Some jack-knifed, some on their side and some totally upside down.  Some just slide off and got stuck in the snow, the occupants probably okay.  We could tell others had not been so fortunate.  We've never seen so many tow trucks and wreckers working to free the vehicles.  By the time we passed through the road was clear and mostly dry.  We felt it a tender mercy.

Just a quick overview of our travel days:

Monday - Omaha, Nebraska to Joliet, Illinois.  443 miles; 6.5 hours driving

Tuesday - Joliet to Toledo, Ohio.  255 miles; 4 hours driving.  Toledo is only an hour from Windsor, Ontario where we planned to cross into Canada.  We did not have our Covid test results back yet so decided to wait in Toledo.  We also felt like our car heater wasn't working properly so we found a Nissan dealer near our hotel and they kindly squeezed us into their schedule after hearing our story.  They checked the thermostat and all the fluid levels in the car.  They said everything was working properly and sent us on our way.  And they didn't charge us anything.  Another tender mercy.

Wednesday - Toledo to Kitchener, Ontario.  236 miles, 4 hours driving.  We received our Covid test results and headed for the border.  It wasn't as bad as we were expecting, but it wasn't a delightful experience either.  The agent was rather grumpy and didn't want to see any of the piles of paperwork the missionary department told us we would need.  He looked at our Utah driver licenses, our Canadian birth certificates and our negative Covid test results.  He wanted to know why we had so much stuff in our car, then why we were moving to Montreal.  We aren't supposed to say "missionary" because missionaries from many churches are paid and Canada would require a work permit for that.  We kept saying that we had family in Canada (not anywhere near where we were going, but...) and were returning "home" for awhile.  He finally got tired of us and waved us on.

About an hour into Ontario, traffic came to a complete stop.  We were probably about a mile from the front of the traffic and when they turned us back we could see traffic backed up behind us for miles.  The westbound lanes were totally shut down.

This was our view while we waited.  When we reached the emergency turnaround, they routed us west, where we just came from.  Once we crossed the border, our US phones stopped working so all we had was a GPS.  We stopped at a service station a few miles back and asked some young men where we should go.  They provided very good directions and after driving through a few small communities on a back road, we were back on the freeway again.

We stayed right downtown in Kitchener and quickly discovered that Covid restrictions in Ontario are much more rigid than in Utah, or anywhere we had stopped so far, and nothing was open.  There was a big mall across the street and it was totally closed.  We did find a restaurant that would deliver to the hotel but even that was tedious.

Thursday - Kitchener to Kingston, Ontario.  354 miles, 3.5 hours driving.  This was an easy driving day.  We are seeing more snow now and the temperatures continue to drop.

When we left the hotel in Kingston, the car temperature registered -10 F.  John is holding the drinks we left in the car overnight.  They stayed frozen all day.

Friday - Kingston to Châteauguay, Quebec.  276 miles, 3 hours driving.  Our new home.

We live in a newer, modern apartment building.  Our apartment is on the second floor, at the front of the building.  Looking at the top picture, we are the second balcony from the right.  Our apartment is nice but oh so tiny!  If any of you have seen my sewing room, our entire apartment is about the same size.

The young Elders who resided in our apartment previous to our arrival met us at the apartment and helped unload the car.  They gave us a quick tour and introduced us to the building manager.  They said he doesn't like them very much because neither of them speak any French.  John started chatting to the manager in French and they have been pals since.

We arrived at the apartment a few minutes before the Elders and were wandering around the parking area when a car pulled in.  John said, "It's the Elders."  I said it couldn't be because the driver was the only one in the car.  But...

Now you understand why I couldn't see both Elders.  More about them next week.

The Elders showed us where the phone store was and left us on our own.  We arranged for phones so we had a way to communicate.  A grocery store and bank ATM were across the street so we made a quick visit for dinner supplies and returned to the apartment.

On Saturday we found a Walmart and bought supplies for the apartment and a few groceries.  It has been wicked cold since we arrived.  Some days the temps never go above 0 F.  It is very overcast and foggy/smoggy? most days.  We are still doing virtual church meetings here so we haven't met anyone yet.