Our 2024 Adventures

This page was last updated on December 12, 2024.

This time our traveling music is provided by Bon Jovi.
Jon looks much better than he did in the 80's and 90's!

December 12, 2024

We’ve been back and forth to Lewiston getting things set up for when the house finally closes.

It has now been confirmed that the closing date will be the 23^rd of December! After waiting for six weeks, we now start the insane activity phase of the process to try to get everything done before Christmas.

Our plan is to head down to Niagara Falls on Friday the 20^th to do the final walk-through inspection, get a certified check for the closing amount, and sign the necessary papers.

We will have access to the house on Christmas Eve so we will be trying to move some stuff from the locker before heading back to Ontario for Christmas. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

December 6, 2024

We were busy this week shopping in New York for temporary furniture so we have a place to sit and a place to sleep when the house finally closes.

We'll be using a card table and a couple of chairs as our seating. Since we only bought two chairs, any visitors before the truck arrives will have to bring their own chairs!

This sleigh bed (bedding not included) was a good deal ot a close-out store sale and we also ordered some matching night stands. When our furniture arrives this will probably be moved to the guestroom.

In addition we found some warm flannel sheets to keep the frost off during the cold New York winter. We're still looking for a duvet or comforter to go with them.

Everything we bought so far is stored in a rented locker in Niagara Falls.

November 26, 2024
Season of Change

Time to get used to winter again after thirty years of the moderate climate of the Pacific Northwest.

The cold reality of frosted windshields and mirrors has reared its ugly head, along with the fact that I now have to get the Jeep WINTERIZED. In addition I'll cover the side mirrors while it's parked outside since they aren't heated.

The current owners of the house we're buying have been using the garage as living space with a screened in front and carpeting… that ends as soon as we take possession, my baby doesn’t sleep outside.

November 24, 2024
The Waiting Game

For most of the past year, since we decided to move back to east Lewiston, we've been on a roller coaster swinging between frantic activity and boring lulls.

Now we find ourselves at the mercy of the red tape machine that is New York real estate. No matter how eager a seller is, and how ready a buyer, there are a myriad of hoops to jump through to buy a house here.

Everything that you would normally expect to be needed to buy a house has been done, yet here we are, still waiting for the bureaucracy to catch up to us.

November 22, 2024

Shortly after we left Washington, we discovered that one of the fog lights on the Jeep was out. It wasn't a big problem, so we left it until we reached New York.

We took it to Joe Cecconi Chrysler in Niagara Fall. The first thing that they told us was that they had to “diagnose” the problem, in spite of the evidence of a warning light on the dash and an obviously non functioning light. The diagnosis cost $100.

After over an hour of “diagnosing” the problem the service rep told us that the cost to replace and install the bulb was an additional $400. Yes! A total of $500 to replace a burnt-out bulb.

Needless to say we declined the repair, but we were still out the cost of the “diagnosis.”

When we got to Oshawa, Ken introduced us to his regular mechanic (Frank's Auto Service in Oshawa.) We took the car in yesterday and he did the repair for US $100, including parts and labor, a much more reasonable price than Joe Cecconi!

November 17, 2024
The Weekend

Friday’s ordeal left us looking forward to a couple of days of quiet. We spent Saturday loafing around the house until dinner when we cobbled together a version of chicken paprikash using whatever ingredients we had on hand to avoid having to go shopping.

Sunday lunch was a treat. It's been a few years since there was a Swiss Chalet on the west coast; we were so ready for it.

Sunday was “Football Day!”

Neither Ron nor I are big sports fans and hardly ever watch, but with our local team, the Buffalo Bills, going up against the undefeated KC Chiefs and Toronto’s Argonauts playing in the Grey Cup, well, we just had to watch.

Of course, by the end of the day Buffalo had handed KC their first loss of the season and the Argos defeated the Blue Bombers to bring the Cup back to Ontario.

I'm sure we were much happier about this than my friend Jen (a Winnipeg native) and her family who were watching in BC!

Overall a satisfying, relaxing weekend.

November 15, 2024

After spending too much time dealing with Ron's phone issues we had a short, but pleasant visit with my old friend, Patsy before heading to our hotel.

The Best Western Summit Inn in Niagara Falls is a very nice hotel, but the breakfast buffet was more cheaply set out than most Best Westerns we've experienced.

We successfully traded our Washington licenses for New York ones. The staff at the DMV was very pleasant and helpful. The whole process took less than 45 minutes for both of us.

Not so good at the Social Security office where we went to replace our original cards. The wait was over 90 minutes for what turned out to be a very simple procedure.

The low point of the day was the drive through Toronto traffic. Eight lanes of traffic if each direction and we still spent over an hour gridlocked across the city.

When we finally got back to Ken and Mary's we didn't have much energy for a big meal so we made ourselves a small charcuterie of cheese and fruit, and enjoyed a glass of wine before heading off to bed.

November 14, 2024

Apparently, there is an new updater for the iPhone. The “Apple Devices.” app for he PC replaces iTunes as an interface between the PC and the iPhone.

Ron tried to install this and ended up with his phone locked. After almost 3 hours with support last night, it is still locked as of Thursday morning.

They've told us that we have to go to the Apple Store in Amherst, NY today to try to get it fixed.

I don't recommend messing with this app until Apple gets their act together.

iPhone update: We drove to Amherst to the “Apple Store” but it was actually a Best But and the Geek Squad charged us $40 to correct the problem caused by the software Ron tried to install. There is an actual Apple Store, but that's not where they sent us for some reason!

November 9, 2024

Since we're no longer traveling I decided to leave off the day counter.

Mick, our agent, was able to schedule the inspection quickly, so things are moving along nicely. We'll head to the US in the next week to arrange for drivers' licenses and to see what we can do about registering the car.

Meanwhile, we're settling in at Mary & Ken's. Tonight Mary cooked dinner for Ron and me, Tiffany, and Monica, it was a delicious spicy Indian sweet potato aligotè. As usual, all the Cains made it pretty rowdy.

November 8, 2024
(Day 15)

We made it to Oshawa after fighting traffic across Toronto. We had our first home cooked meal in over 2 weeks!
Mary & Ken are lending us a apartment in the basement of their home while we wait for the house to close, this could be as much as 45 days!

The sellers signed back the offer for a little more, but the total is still less than the original asking, so we've agreed to it.
If you want to see the listing and photos, Email us

November 7, 2024
(Day 14)

We put in an offer on a house today, we should know tomorrow whether it is accepted.
Coincidentally, the price of the house we were looking at actually dropped $10K while we were deliberating.

November 6, 2024
(Day 13)

Some thoughts from the Road:

It looks like we have a new president, but who can ever tell? Can you spot the robots in this picture?

After almost two weeks I can say, for both of us, we are really tired of restaurant food! It's hard to get anyting that isn't loaded with carbs, salt, and fat. It hasn't been doing our stomachs any favors and neither of us has much of an appitite anymore!

It's rainy today but we have one more house to see, after that we will probably make a decision between two of the houses we've looked at.

November 5, 2024
(Day 12)

Earlier last week Ron tripped on a curb and hurt something in his side. We spent a bit of today at urgent care where an x-ray showed no serious damage, so it looks like a pulled muscle or a sprain. Becaue of the pain he hasn't been sleeping well and he was pretty exhausted so we took it pretty easy most of the day.

November 4, 2024
(Day 11)

I didn't post anything yesterday because I spent most of it recovering from the poor dinner choice of the night before.

I seem to be pretty much recovered from the dinner disaster.
Today we had a ton of errands to complete; getting a storage locker for some extra stuff we shipped ahead, picking of the shipped boxes, and getting the keys to our box in Lewiston.

Email us if you want the mailing address.

After looking at one of the houses we are interested in we went to Lewiston for a BBQ lunch.

It was a pretty New Englind fall day with temperatures in the 60s and 70s.

November 2, 2024
(Day 9)

The dinner of vending machine food was, in retrospect, a bad idea as I have had an upset stomach all day! Fortunately we have a couple of days before we have to do anything so we'll have some time to rest.

We made it to New York State today.
Hotels rooms are hard to find on the weekend so, instead of Best Western where we have been staying we're at a Super 8. Basically this is the absolute minimum as far as accomodation is concerned.

November 1, 2024
(Day 8)

Dinner on the road is not always a glamorous affair. Sometimes it's whatever is in the vending machine washed down with a V8!.

It was a pretty uneventful day today, which is good when jostling with semis at 70MPH all day.

We crossed into Eastern Time mid morning, then into Ohio where we're spending the night. The plan is to get to Niagara Falls tomorrow.

We will stay in NF for a few days to set up storage space and meet with our realtor. We should be able to see a few houses while we're there, as well.

We'll need to set up a residence address to register the car, get drivers' licenses, and change our insurance. Depending on how the house hunting goes, we may need to get an apartment.

>/td>

October 31, 2024
(Day 7)

Happy Halloween

	This morning we crossed the Mississippi into Illinois.
	Our plan was to stay in Munster, IL (like the TV show) in honor of Halloween, but thre were no suitable hotels so we continued to Hammond, IN.
	By tomorrow we will be in the Eastern Time Zone!

October 30, 2024
(Day 6)

We finally made it out of Nebraska. Although it's listed as the 16th largest state it seems like a lot more when you're driving across it.
To make matters worse it rained all day with thundershowers for a large part of the day. Visability was very poor at points when water from the big rigs hit the windshield. Ron's knuckles were pretty white when we finally made it to Newton, IA.

October 29, 2024
(Day 5)

Today's weather was a little surprising here. We're in Kearney, NE in the eastern part of the state, and the temperature is 81F! If it wern't for the breeze we would be sweltering in the heat. At the end of October!

Tomorrow our weather is expected to be from 44F to 75F with some breezes and light rain and showers in the middle of the day.

Today, we got a couple of loads of laundry done and shipped a package to Niagara Falls to make the car easier to pack. Also did a little shopping for things we were running out of.

October 28, 2024
(Day 4)

Happy Birthday Monica and George!

	We made it to Nebraska and the major mountains are behind us. Nebraska is pretty flat and most of today's scenery consisted of miles and miles of grasslands. About a third of the way across the state we crossed into Central Time.
	Kearney, NE is our home for the next 2 nights. We need a day to catch up on laundry and reorganize the stuff in the car. Since we don't have to get up early and drive tomorrow we decided to have a nice dinner of take-out lasagna and some Portteus wine!
	At this time of year we're very aware that the weather can change fromm dayto day as we move east. We use an app called “Weather on the Way” to plan our day to avoid serious storms and adverse road conditions. This is what we are expecting today, overcast, warm, and dry roads.

October 27, 2024
(Day 3)

We're staying in Cheyenne, WY tonight, home to one of the largest rodeos in the US. We'll skip the rodeo this trip!

Until we reach Nebraska, we'll be driving on high plains. The altitude varies from 6,000 to 8,000 feet. I use the information screen on my GPS to track the levels.
	Throughout the high plains, rock formations like thos are common. Ron joked that all of the signs for tourest attractions had the word "rock" on them!

October 26, 2024
(Day 2)

We're spending tonight in Evanston, WY (elevation 6,749.)
After today we have one more major crossing and we'll be on the "Great Plains" and, hopefully, clear sailing the rest of the way across!
Tomorrow we're expecting dry weather with overcast skies and temperatures from 45F to 69F

Today, mid-morning, we crossed into Utah.

This part of the state is pretty rugged these sandstone hills are carved by wind and, in some places, by man.

October 25, 2024
(Day 1)

We made it to Prosser, WA on our first night. We had been hoping to get farther, but we got a late start and HAD to stop in and say goodbye to Paul Portteus at his winery in Zillah, WA.
We're trying to make up for lost time. Today we crossed our first time zone line and will rest in Mountain Home, ID for the night.
< Of course, crossing Idaho is quicker because of the (GASP!) 80 MPH speed limits!.

October 24, 2024
(Ready to Go)

	Our house was packed yesterday, and the movers are loading the truck today.
	We're leaving our home of the past 9 years and heading for Lewiston!. Our neighbor, Marian, took this last picture of us outside our house.
	Here we are posing with our last (for now) west coast sunset, thanks to Jerry for this photo.

Linda & Ron

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