October 2008
44 posts
Tuesday, 5th Day on the Road: At Home!!!
Tuesday is our fifth consecutive driving day. But we need to add packing day and Dad’s traveling day to Seattle on top of that… We are happy to be in Canada, but we are tired!
We slept in London, Ontario this past night. I have been to London quite a few times in the past 15 years. My first plane ride ever when I was a kid was to London, Ontario. I always liked this city. I knew some...
Crossing the Canadian Border
One of my biggest stress on this trip was the point where we would have to re-enter Canada. We are driving this train back in Canada and I have no idea of how it actually really works… I read on some websites, forums and more how foreign people can come live in Canada, but it focuses mostly on getting a VISA… But I am Canadian, I have a passport and I was gone for a little over 18...
We Made It!!
Hi all!!!
We made it home very late on our fifth day on the road! We’re in Quebec City. We slept for a few good hours but we still have to unpack the train. So here we go now. The weather is horrible, winter is coming to Quebec! It’s cold, rainy, and we’ll probably get snow soon. We actually saw some on the road yesterday. Thank god we moved quick to leave Seattle!
I miss...
Monday, 4th Day on the Road, In Canada!!
Our fourth day started slowly. We were hard to get out of bed!! Some may consider this trip a vacation, but it’s far from it. Driving around 12 hours a day is harder than we expected. Now I fully understand the regulations for transport van drivers to stop every 8 hours. Of course, we don’t have a bedroom in our train, so we try to push ourselves a little more and stop for a good night sleep in...
Sunday, 3rd Day on the Road, 3 States in One Day!!
There is a huge advantage to drive on flat lands: distance! Moreover, the speed limit in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin is 70-75 mph, equivalent to about 110-120 km per hour, so we can cover even more distance. Thank god we didn’t drive through Canada! :)
Today was another productive day, we crossed most of North Dakota, all of Minnesota, most of Wisconsin and settled ourselves in...
Sunday, 3rd Day on the Road: Snow!!
After driving through the Rockies in Washington, Idaho and Montana and only seeing little bits of snow, we were pretty sure we wouldn’t face snow for the rest of our journey…
I said before that Montana is flat. Well, North Dakota is even flatter. It’s only flat. We were excited to see small bumps and turns so much it was flat. It’s flatter and more boring than driving on Highway 20 in Quebec. And...
Saturday Night, Meeting the Turcotte!
Sometimes, when some situations happen, we say “It’s a small world!”. Well, we had that experience in Bismarck, ND. After driving through Montana and making it to Bismarck at around 12:30am local time (which is Central Time) and more than 14.5 hours of travel, we started hunting for a place to stay for the night.
I am not that picky for a hotel, but when you drive for over 14 hours and expect to...
Saturday Evening, Jumping Deer.
As I said before, the drive through Montana took us about a day. It’s a long state. We drove it from West to East following I-90 and I-94. Montana is considered as one of the heartlands of America, full of crops in the summer time. The view was really nice and it made for a nice drive.
We entered North Dakota during the night, trying to add mileage to our trip we only made a quick stop of dinner...
Montana is Flat and Long, But We Made It...
Saturday, October 25. We drove 760 miles (1,223 km) today. Our total so far, in two days, is 1,235 miles (1,988 km).
Our day was long today. We drove for over 12 hours, with stops for gas, food, pictures and stretching, our day of driving was about 14.5 hours. We made it from Missoula, Montana to Bismarck, North Dakota.
Montana is long, really long!! And it’s flat, well…...
Friday, Takeoff!!
Friday, 9:30am, we were taking off from the Courtyard Marriott in Kirkland. We took I-90 from Bellevue toward Spokane, on the East side of Washington State. After a first stop at Wild Horse Monument (elevation approx. 2500 ft), we had lunch in Ritzville, WA. We then crossed Spokane, WA and headed out into Idaho.
The view through Washington and Idaho was breathless… Mountains are...
Thursday, Packing Day!
Thursday was our packing day! After a short night, in which Dad was dreaming only of packing, we started early: 7:30am. I was thinking packing would be easy… until I realized how much stuff we actually had to pack in the U-Haul truck!!! Not that the truck was small, it’s just that you don’t necessarily realize how much stuff (and crap!!!) you actually have until you have to move...
Flight to get Dad here!!!
As you all know by now, Dad (Roger) has volunteered to make the road-trip with me back to QC! He’s awesome and one of the best friends I have in life, so I am honored to spend all that time with him.
So honored that I almost fucked his trip up!!!! I can be so stupid sometimes! Here’s the story!!!
I got Dad his ticket to come here, fucked up flight as Air Canada was trying to screw us...
Seattle to Quebec City, 3,059 miles (4,923km)
Most of you know by now that I will be moving back from Seattle to my hometown of Quebec City after two wonderful years in the Seattle area! I will deeply miss the Northwest, the work at Neural Audio and, most importantly, all of the friends I’ve made here, from work and from Kirkland.
So before I leave, a tribute to all of you who made those two years aweome. And if I forget to say bye,...
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This is Why I Don't Gamble!
The NY Time published a very interesting article a couple days ago called “Forget Logic, Fear Appears to Have Edge”. The overall article is really good, but a small excerpt from it confirmed my theory learned in the movie Two For The Money. Fear has a much faster and, possibly bigger, impact in our brain that our actual… brain!
NY Time excerpt:
Fear is an immensely powerful...