Toronto, Chicago

Departure: Mon. December 28th, Central N.Y.
Arrival: Mon. December 28th, Toronto, Ontario.

Departure: Tues. December 29th, Toronto, Ontario.
Arrival: Tues. December 29th, Chicago, Illinois.



(Leaving N.Y. Blaaaa)


(More blaa)

Here we are in Chicago, visiting with Amber's family for a week or two. We stopped in Toronto, Ontario for the night on our way from N.Y. It was Amber's first time to the city. We weren't able to do too much, but we did walk around, have dinner and watched two indie bands at the Horse Shoe Tavern, which was a lot of fun.


(Proof we were in Canada. Metric thing... ugh. Was excited when I thought gas was $.96 Simon reminded me that in was in Liters AND Canadian $$. Crap.)

We found $6 overnight parking downtown and slept in our van. We were toasty warm, even though the temps dropped to 7 degrees. When the boarder inspector saw our car and asked what we were doing in Toronto, he said "isn't it a little cold to be camping?" We didn't say anything :)




We will be in Chicago at least until the 9th. We will stop in Indiana before or after to say hello to some folks. Until then, Simon will be working and Amber will be reconnecting with some people in Chicago and playing Rock Band which she wishes her sister didn't get for Christmas (lame excuse for musicianship, but still highly addictive).

Then it's off to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics!!!!! (which we still don't have tickets for....)

Our first day on the road!

Departure: VT
Arrival: Central N.Y. to visit Amber's father and step-mother.
Weather Conditions: Mostly Cloudy, Low 30s, light rain.

The last week has been full of goodbyes, packing and holiday preparations.

Amber ended her position at the South Royalton Market on Monday. Her fellow employees gave her a wonderful reception which included cupcakes, two road-trip themed CDs with great songs chosen by her co-workers and in Amber's honor, they all sported crazy holiday sweaters and/or garb. Bittersweet goodbye :(

Simon said goodbye to his office on Wednesday, but will continue working remotely on our laptop while on the road.

Packing went a lot smoother than both had expected. Amber had to say goodbye to many musical instruments and her guinea pigs, which are living with her step-mother until further notice, but was able to pack a small battery operated keyboard (small sacrifices for such a freeing experience). Simon and Amber had to say goodbye to mountain, road and tandem bikes (no room unfortunately) but Simon was able to bring his downhill skis. He is trying to convince Amber that she would really love skiing. Amber thinks that she would like to try snowboarding instead. Perhaps they will learn together?


(Abu in our van on top of guinea pig cage)



Christmas was wonderful. We gathered in the morning to open presents and received a lot of practical goodies which will surely come in use and had a fantastic dinner of (very) local pork and veggies. Finally we ended the night with a partner game of apples to apples. Good times!


(Abu hanging in our two for the price of one x-mas tree.)


We left this morning, saying goodbye to Simon's family and headed down the driveway, when to our surprise we encountered our first obstacle. Some mysterious community members blocked the bridge on the driveway leading to the road with some Ribbon and a large cardboard sign reading “Bon Voyage” and a beautiful red rose! What a pleasant obstacle anyways. We thank those with such creativity and generosity!






After saying a couple more goodbyes, we were on our way.

Where are we going...? a rough idea, but no definite plan
When will we be back...? not quite sure
Will we be back...? ummm....

So here we are. We plan on staying in N.Y. until Monday morning, at which point we will head to Toronto for the night and then off to Chicago. We are giving the van a second try (though this time almost 30 degrees warmer!) Sweet dreams :)

We Survived

First night in the van a success! Temps dropped to -8, but we stayed warm. Besides the occasional icicles on our noses, we were toasty. I wore three layers on my feet, two on my legs and three on top, plus a hat, gloves and scarf. We tried keeping our faces warm by putting our heads under the blanket, but our blanket turned to ice where we were breathing.

My three complaints for the night, not enough cushion, contact lense case froze and the two alarms I set didn't go off, because they died on account of the cold (I was only a few minutes late for work though).

I think we may survive this winter after all.

-Amber

Hey Everybody!

December 26th, our mini-van adventures begin. Stay tuned for updates....

P.S. Tonight the temperature in Vermont lingers around zero. We're gonna sleep in the van and give it a test run... or should we say, test sleep?