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News from June 2009

The Craziest Road Trip Ever

June 3, 2009

So this blog is going to serve very little purpose other than to update the one person who reads it on my recent road trip from Edmonton to South Dakota.

So to you who reads this…here we go.

So a good friend of mine named Tim was getting married this past weekend in Madison, South Dakota, and so some of my college friends and I decided that we would drive down to SD to share in the amazing occasion with our good friend Tim.

The plan was that I would fly from Kelowna to Edmonton to meet them and then we would drive down to SD together and have a fun college reunion style road trip, share memories, create nostalgia, eat junk food, relive old inside jokes….you know all that stuff.

The plan started going awry when I got deathly sick 4 days before my flight to Edmonton….I was still quite under the weather when I landed and was making preparations to go…but nevertheless I decided that the chance to hang out with old friends and the memories that this trip was certain to create was far too valuable to pass up, so I went along….

Maybe God was trying to tell me not go…..but I didn’t listen.

So the next hitch in our plans was that the van we were borrowing from a friend was not decidedly road worthy….and it was a race against the clock to get it to the point where we could drive it for 20 hours straight and then promptly turn around and drive home….

However after a brief overhaul of the steering system (which is somewhat important) the van was ready to transport us to our dream holiday spot of Madison, SD.

About 6 hours into our trip it was time for our first stop in Saskatoon, SK. There isn’t much there…but there is in fact a McDonalds….so that was our destination of choice. I was pretty hungry but after a couple Egg McMuffins and a couple swigs of Buckley’s I was ready to tackle the next leg of our trip to Regina.

It is about here that things started to go slightly different than planned…

Upon arriving in Regina one of my friends in the van (let’s call her Kim) noticed that she was missing her purse….with all of her ID….and her passport….and her husband’s passport…all of which were needed for us to cross the border in a few hours and continue to SD….

One quick phone call to the McD’s in Saskatoon revealed the location of the missing purse….3 hours away.

So it was decided that our friend (the one we’re calling Kim) and her husband (let’s call him Brad) would drive back to Saskatoon, retrieve the purse, and come back to Regina to pick us up and then we would continue through the night to arrive in South Dakota the next morning.

7 hours, a couple cups of coffee and one extremely long card game later Kim and Brad had returned and we were back on the road….

We arrived in South Dakota slightly later than we anticipated (about 9 hours) but we were healthy, happy, and exhausted….

The wedding was great, it was so good to see our friend Tim tie the knot. His bride was stunning…the location was beautiful, and it was all around a great time.

Now for the drive home…it was relatively uneventful UNTIL we reached the amazing town of North Battleford SK….and just west of it….Bambi did NOT look both ways before crossing the street…

At 120km/h deers don’t just get hit…they get obliterated. There were pieces of deer on our van, flying over our van…and all over the highway… one dead deer….6 relatively unimpressed Young Adults, and 1 seriously mangled front end of a Windstar.

Our now crippled Van was in a safety mode that it enters after it detects a problem. This safety mode prevented it from moving out of second gear, and travelling at any speed greater than 40 km/h

Which when you are 120 km from the nearest urban center….and you have less than a quarter tank of gas…is a disappointment.

So for the next two hours we limped along the side of the highway at 40 km/h while Semi Trucks blasted past us and honked their horns in annoyance.

We stopped at the Sandpiper Motel in Maidstone, SK…this hotel is the shining star in almost every axe murderer movie you have ever seen…and sometimes the old lady housekeeper walks into the middle of your room through a secret door with out knocking.

Yes that happened.

This stunningly unpredictable trip was brought to a conclusion when the dad of one of my friends drove the 3 hours out to pick us up and brought us back to Edmonton where I had literally ONE HOUR to spare before my flight home….

And while this trip went wrong in almost every way I have to admit…..it was the time of my life.

I had a great time with my friends, I loved the spontaneity, I loved everything about it… a trip to remember.

If you made it this far, I applaud your diligence.

Journeying,

Brian <><

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