Night-flight to Grande Prairie

So much can happen in a week. My goal is to post just some of the 'happenings' in a few separate posts, just as we did when we were in Calgary earlier this summer. We drove up to Grande Prairie to visit my parents and a number of our friends and relatives in the area. With so many friends and relatives though, we missed quite a few of you and for that we are truly sorry. I could post a whole blog about the reasons why we're sorry and who we are sorry we missed, but that would be depressing. We don't need depressing right now, and this isn't the place for it. Why don't I just give you some of the details of the first few days...

I wanted to leave Saturday morning. Faith wanted to leave Friday evening and stay overnight somewhere. So we compromised. Sort of. We were at Puddicombes' for Cade's birthday party until about 8 PM eating, golfing, and having a good time altogether. We got home, put the kids to bed, and it was then that I realized that we had almost everything we needed for the trip sitting on the table and prepared to go in the van. I got a couple of things for myself, put it in the van, buckled the kids into their seats, and left around 9 PM. Yes, we are psycho. Faith drove for the first while and I tried to get some sleep in the back of the van. We switched seats in North Battleford when we stopped for a bathroom break.

It was eerie to see so few vehicles on the road. Add to that the fog that just seemed to hang in the air and cut the windshield in two at times, and it was something out of a mystery novel. The whole landscape was lit by moonlight and the trees looked like islands in a sea of mist. It was wild. Fortunately when we arrived at Lloydminster there were no red lights, so we sailed on through toward Edmonton without disturbing any of the sleeping children. I on the other hand needed a little bit of disturbance, so I turned up the Skillet, TFK, and Anberlin on my Zune and rocked out. I felt as though I could have gone the whole way at the time...

We drove until the tank beeped empty in Sherwood Park and I pulled into a service station parking lot at 4 AM. We decided that it was a waste of coin to pay $120 for a hotel room for just a few hours of sleep in a bed, so we opted for parking lot number two. The kids slept fairly well. I believe that around 5:30 AM the van moved so that one of the kids could go to the bathroom at the service station. Micah woke up around 6:30 AM because of the sunlight and restlessness and I tried to keep him quiet and occupied until everyone else woke up around 8 AM. Following that, we freshened up, put on new clothes for the new day, got some Tim Horton's, and went off to West Edmonton Mall to check out the back to school specials. We shopped until about nap-time, ate at a food court, and trucked it on toward Grande Prairie.

Everyone else slept until I woke them in Whitecourt and decided to get everyone ice cream. It was a quasi-tradition that my family had when we were growing up to stop for a Dilly Bar at Dairy Queen in Whitecourt. Faith and I switched spots again so I could sleep, which made the trip go so much faster. I was grateful to wake up just outside of Valleyview (which for us means we're just over an hour away from home).

We got to my parents' place and had enough energy to say hi, eat, enjoy some time out of the van, and notice how much longer into the evening the sun stays up. For the most part, the trip wasn't bad. I think I prefer driving when no-one else is on the road and the kids are asleep. I just don't like the hangover I get from sleep-deprivation. At least we made it there safe and sound. And we did have a good time.

- Mark