Last minute vacation.....literally

The wife and I both ended up with this week off work. We didn't have any plans to go anywhere. Last night around 11:40PM we looked at each other and unanimously decided to head out to saskatchewan for the week to visit with her family and look around at houses since we put both of ours up for sale last week. At 2am, we were packed and ready to go, we packed up the wife's car, woke the kid up, and headed out. We drove through the night then decided to stop for breakfast around 8am this morning. After breakfast, I went outside with my son to put him in the car and left my wife to pay the bill. We headed out again and 200miles later, we pulled in to a gas station to fill up. The wife goes to grab her purse to pay and No purse!!! She forgot it at the restaurant where we ate breakfast. Well, after two hours of searching, we managed to track down the name of the restaurant we ate ate and called there. Shure enough, it was there. They were nice enough to offer to mail it to our destination c.o.d. I still had my bank card so I paid the gas and we head out again. We get into manitoba and everything is going good till we get to Winnipeg. I've never driven to Winnipeg before and know nothing about which route to take. My wife instructs my to take the exit to the right to get onto the right detour around the city. I take it. 2 hours later, we've now circled the entire city of winnipeg twice and still haven't fount the right route. I finally managed to get us on the right track.

Prairie driving SUCKS!!! Talk about boring. 5 hours of straight highway with only 4 corners to navigate and one small hill. Crazy. Nice thing though is that we finally arrived at our destination in Carlyle Saskatchewan. I also got to visit with some relatives along the way I haven't seen in years.

Took a few pictures. Haven't downloaded them yet. So, I'll be posting from Saskatchewan this week. Long day, slept 1 hr this morning. Been up since 5am yesterday.

Hey the off the cuff vacations usually turn out to be the best. Get some sleep and start tomorrow off at it's best.

We stopped in Holland yesterday to stretch and let Evan run for a bit. Nice weather. More snow out here than back home.

Where is Holland? I presume you didn't drive down to Holland Michigan. LINK???

Holland Manitoba....little farming community

Driving into town here wasn't exactly the most exciting drive I've ever taken. As we got closer and closer to our destination, more and more of these kept popping up littered throughout the feilds.

My BIL moved out here last fall with the rest of my wife's family for work. No shortage of work out here. He drives an oil tanker truck going around from field to field emptying the large oil storage tanks and hauling to a depot site where it is shipped to the refinery.

a typical summer scene around here.

Holy crap!!! Took a drive with my BIL today on some of the back roads around here. Oil pumps as far as the eye can see. I figured there'd be a few of them around this area but there are literally 100's of these pumps everywhere. No rescession around here. Everyone driving around in brand new pickups living in newly built half million dollar houses. Most places have a 2-3 car garage in the yard. No shortage of $$$ here.

Nope...no rescession here! Went out last night and met a guy who moved here only 5 years ago with just the shirt on his back. He moved here from my neck of the woods. He now owns a large acreage of farm land, got into racing as a hobby on the local dirt track. Now he travels the summer months throughout the states in a custom built car hauler/trailer combo hauling around a fleet of 6 super-mod races cars from track to track as a hobby. Instead of farming his land, he built his own private dirt track in order to test his cars. He builds race cars now as a hobby for other people and has his own fleet.

Sounds like the last minute vacation is going good.
I would be curious to see a map of your travels.
How many miles did you drive to get there?

Not exactly sure on the mileage to get here. Driving straight through without wasting time, you can make it in around 14hrs. Our destination is located right in the southeast corner of Saskatchewan about an hour from the north dakota border and an hour from the manitoba border. We took our time getting here though. Stopped often and visited with relatives along the way. What messed me up is the 2 hour time change. There is no time change here. I get up at 7:30am every day with or without an alarm clock. Here, I'm wide awake at 5:30am and ready for bed at 9pm(usually hit the hay around 11pm back home.

Speaking of homes, we've looked at a couple houses(one yesterday and two this morning) Going out this afternoon to look at a few more. Seriously considering moving here pending the sale of our two houses back home. People are very friendly around here. Nice country. Prairie driving isn't too bad once you get used to it.

We looked at an older house this morning which we are seriously considering. Built in 1910. 2 story house. 3 bedrooms. Lots of upgrades, nice landscaped yard with small garage. It is an older house but is very solid with lots of character and lots of potential. Very nice little farming town. Very friendly people.

There's allot of opportunity out here. Plenty of jobs. Everything you need is within a half hour drive it seems. The place we are looking at buying is a half hour drive. 15 minutes away, there's a casino, water park for the kids, campground, lake. Every little small town out here has 2-3 car dealerships. There's a drive in movie theater here. Population about 1300people where I'm staying but it seems like they have everything here that is available in the city.

Looks like I may need a sig name change in the near future if we move out here since since my current one will no longer apply.

Kept track of the km's on the way back yesterday. 1500km's roughly. Left at 6am Saskatchewan time.(2 hrs behind our time) Got home last night at 2:30am. Long drive. Would have been a bit shorter but we stopped for a couple hours to visit friends along the way.

Looks like we'll be moving out there before long. We've got one of our houses sold but the deal ain't done yet(as they say) As soon as the other one is sold, we'll be calling Saskatchewan home.

Well, it's official. My wife is heading out to saskatchewan to get settled into a new job at the beginning of may while I stay behind and tie up loose ends here. We closed the deal on the house we're living in just last night. Only thing left to do now is get the smaller rental house sold.

That quite a step. It all is sure happening fast, but that's the way to 'get er done'. Once you've decided no sense in prolonging things.
Good luck with the wrap up and sale of the properties. ....and the move overall. Exciting times for sure.

...on another note, I've never known anyone who lived in "Saskatchewan" Kewl!!!!

edit to add:
I meant to mention earlier ... no problem with a name change. PM me what you prefer and I'll take care of it for you.

Doc said:

That quite a step. It all is sure happening fast, but that's the way to 'get er done'. Once you've decided no sense in prolonging things.
Good luck with the wrap up and sale of the properties. ....and the move overall. Exciting times for sure.

...on another note, I've never known anyone who lived in "Saskatchewan" Kewl!!!!

Click to expand...

Well, there's a first for everything!

We've been packing like crazy. most of the house is packed already since my wife won't be here when it comes time to move at the end of may. Allot can happen between now and then. If the rental house sells, I'll be getting a u-haul to load everything. If it doesn't sell, I've be moving across the back lane. We've already started eliminating allot of stuff we don't need and are holding a yard sale this weekend coming up to get rid of more stuff.

Here's the house we hope to get.

Cheers GroomerDude...can ya find a house without snow?? Sure cuts down on the heating bill.
If you need a hand as your passing through you have my number. If you lost it PM me.
Give the little woman the number and tell her to call if she needs help on this end of the lake.
Nor.

It'll still be a couple months before everything is figured out. Good news is that the one house is sold as well as the boat(no lakes around where we are moving to) Everything is slowly falling into place. I figure by July/August I'll be heading out.

Good move Brian,

It's interesting how people get attached to cities and feel they can't move to where the opportunity is no matter how bad their scenario may be.

I learned the lesson a long time ago that if there are places that are offering work and a better life then it worth it to make the move - no matter how difficult it may seem.

Saskatchewan is booming these days since the Alberta government went crazy after Kline left. I think you are making a good move.

PB

We've looked at the whole picture out there and it's allot better than here. Housing prices are fair depending on what you're looking for. Utility costs are half of what they are here. Taxes are half of what they are here. Jobs are plentifull. More jobs than people out there. Every time we want to go shopping here, it's a 3 hour drive to the city. Out there, every little farming town is within a half hour drive and all services you need are close. We've looked at the whole picture and decided it's time for a change.

Good luck mate! nothing ventured nothing gained.

Thanks! Things are falling into place nicely. My wife heads out next week. She already has a bunch of interviews lined up for jobs when she gets there. We're very close to buying a house out there. We've decided to give up on selling the smaller rental house and just keep renting it for a while till the market picks up again just so we don't lose too much money on it.

I had planned on moving into the rental house for a month or so but it looks like we may have it rented again so now everything will be moved up a month and instead of moving across the back lane, I'll be loading up a moving truck the last week in May and heading out.

I love it when a plan comes together!! Congrats Brian. Sounds like it's all working out nicely.

GroomerDude
In the mean time while waiting to move, practice up on this....
http://www.cci-ammunition.com/game/default.htm

Sask has lots of these little critters.

That game is tough or else my eyes are tired!

The first step is done now....haven't been able to get online in a week due to moving last weekend. I'm now staying in our rental house till the end of July then heading west in august.

It's been a long week to say the least. Helped move the tenant out last saturday, then moved all our stuff over to the rental house, then helped the new owners of the other house move in(they're good friends of ours). In there somewhere, I had to head to the city for a couple days for a funeral.

I'm tired of moving. I only unpacked the bare essentials. Living out of the camper mostly but setup the bedrooms and living room in the house.

Please disregard all of my posts in this thread from #14 on........