Happy New Year
Well even with my best efforts I’m really failing at keeping up with this blog. A person doesn’t realize how much time it takes to keep up with life sometimes. Since December 20th we have traveled over 8,000 KM and been in temperatures ranging from -34C to 22c. I have so much I want to update you on that it’s hard for me to decide where to start. I want to cover every trip we have made since we started and the goal is to get totally caught up. If you bear with me I will get there.
Today was my first full day home since December 20th. I got to sleep in, make a real breakfast, and then Noah and I made some homemade perogies. Since you can’t just run to the grocery store in Iowa to get perogies we had to make them, which the family doesn’t mind as they really love the homemade ones the best anyway. After that I got all the kid’s school graded from last year so we are ready to start back up tomorrow. Now, I have a few minutes of time before I will start the BBQ to make pork chops with perogies for supper. When we left Canada we could only take with us what fit in our camper, which means when I went to make perogies I didn’t have the tools I normally did. Luckily we bought some glasses that had a smooth surface for rolling out the dough. I got my perogy dough recipe from Kevin’s Aunt Helen when we lived in Ituna, Saskatchewan. I never heard of perogies until I met Kevin but, they are a staple in our house now.
Rolling the perogies 
Cheesy potato filling
On December 10th I was scheduled for my Canadian Citizenship Interview. I was so excited because it was done on MS Teams so I could do it from Iowa virtually. Well, when I attended the meeting, my Citizenship officer informed me I had to be in Canada for the interview. I have been waiting for my Citizenship for a long time now, the application was sent in October 2019. I was very frustrated and told my Citizenship Officer I wanted to reschedule ASAP, so she rescheduled me for January 6th. Which normally, that would be tons of time for us to plan to get me to Canada for this, but, we had already planned to spend Christmas and New Year with my family in Southern California. Not only that, but our daughter Ruth was flying from Saskatoon to meet us in So. Cal. With all the previous plans we made we couldn’t leave Southern California till January 2nd and we still had to drive over 2,600 km to get back to Iowa before I could head to the Canadian border.
We got back to our home in Iowa on January 4th at 4:00 am. I took a nap until 9:00 am, went grocery shopping for the kids, and then left by 11:00 am for Yankton, SD where I had a Covid test scheduled for 4:45 pm at Walgreens. We got there an hour early and decided to see if I could get my test. They informed us even though I scheduled the 24-hour test they don’t do it at this location and there were no appointments available for the other locations. At this point, I have to be in Canada the next day and have to have this test. We called and drove around the town trying to find anywhere that would give me the test I needed for crossing the border. I called a hospital and they told me they couldn’t do the test cause I wasn’t one of their patients but I begged and they agreed to get me in. I got there and they informed me the test was going to be $200. I was tired, hungry, and upset now that I had to pay $200 for a test I should have had for free, but, with the time constraints, I didn’t have a choice.
After I got the test done, Kevin and I went out to supper at a Mexican restaurant in town. We both were super tired from not sleeping the night before and rushing back from California. There was also a blizzard warning the entire drive we had to take, although we wanted to stop and get a hotel there in Yankton, SD we knew that we had to get farther if I was going to be in Canada in time for my interview. We drove through to Jamestown, ND which was about 1,000 km that day. The entire drive there were extreme winds and blizzard conditions with an extreme cold warning. It wasn’t the safest conditions to be traveling in but we knew we had to be there on time.
Blizzards we drove through
The next morning we got up early and hit the road again. We drove through to Kenmare, ND then it was time for us to part ways. I left Kevin at a hotel in Kenmare as he is waiting on his Green Card and can’t leave the country until he has that processed. Then I drove the rest of the way to Estevan, SK, after crossing the border and getting my quarantine rules I had to drive through Tim Horton’s on the way to my hotel. I got myself soup, large coffee, and Biebs Bits, then straight to the hotel for my quartine while I stayed in Canada. The ladies at the front desk were super sweet and told me I had to plug in my car since it was going to be -34 but, the car I was driving didn’t have a plugin so I just hoped and prayed it would start the next morning. I enjoyed my Timmy’s and a hot bath then was asleep before 9 pm as I had to be up early for my next covid test and virtual interview.
I got up early to get my virtual covid test taken, got on the all only to find out both the covid test they gave me at the border had frozen before I got them. Then had to call health Canada to ask what they wanted me to do since I would be leaving Canada in just a few hours after I did my interview. They walked me through the steps to take to sign up so I am exempt from the test and free of quarantine once I cross the border back into the USA. That took all morning and I got off the phone with them just in time for my Citizenship Interview. I guess since we traveled by land borders most of the time and my passport wasn’t stamped every time I crossed the border they needed to verify all my days in Canada to be eligible for Citizenship. According to my citizenship officer everything is good and I have enough days and now I’m just waiting for my final approval and then they will schedule my Ceremony! Which I’m super excited for although that does mean we will have to be back in Canada for that. But that is a small price to pay to get my Citizenship! I’m very excited that it is getting so close.
As soon as my interview was done I packed up to head back to the USA. Praying the car would start in -34 temps and it did! Of course, I had to go through the Tim Horton’s drive-through on the way out of the country. Don’t you worry Timmy I’ll be back for more soon. I went through the USA border with no issues then went to get Kevin so we could start our journey back home. We drove to Devils Lake Casino for the night as it was so cold we didn’t feel safe driving with the blizzards and cold temps, we had planned to stay one night and head out, but, the extreme cold warning was for 2 days and we felt safer staying an extra day to let things warm up just a bit. We don’t have any of our regular winter gear it is all still in storage in Hinton so we knew it wasn’t smart to drive in temps like that and not be prepared.
After 2 days of waiting out the weather the temps got to -19 and we knew we had to get out of there. We got up early January 8th and packed up to head out. Of course, there was another blizzard warning but wasn’t till 10:30 am so we had to get going so we could outrun it. For this trip, we took a dealer car as our truck is still waiting for a part to get fixed. Well, the car started making some banging noises the day we stopped and Kevin put in a quart of oil. Before we left Kevin checked the oil and there was none in the car, so we bought 2 more quarts of oil and gassed up the car hoping it would make it all the way back home. Well, I’m writing this blog now and home safe so that means we made it without any issues. We got in at 9:00 pm last night then grabbed groceries on the way home so today we could sleep in. I finally feel like I got some rest since we left California on January 2nd.
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