That's A Wrap!: Beula's Homecoming.

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

START:  Wawa RV Resort, Wawa, ON - 10:45 a.m.

STOP:  HOME!!!!!!  Porcupine, ON - 3:40 p.m.

WEATHER:  Mostly overcast with a little drizzlin'.  Yanno, sad, gloomy, trip-over kinda weather.

Well, family and friends, this is it.  We've arrived at the end.  Our last morning as a buncha west coast bounders was upon us and after more of the same in terms of our morning routine, it was time to bid Wawa adieu and finally head for home.  Before we could do that though, Mom wanted to stop and check out one of the trading posts in town (& stock up on some more souvenir gifts that we were too lame to buy somewhere cool) but after some browsing and getting all gassed up and ready, we were finally, officially, homeward bound.

It was a pretty quiet drive for the most part, with all of us pretty exhausted from the events of the past 41 days and looking forward to being in our own beds, but we did manage to see some wildlife along the way, which jazzed things up a bit.  Dad spotted them all, being a black bear and two tall sandhill cranes standing in the long grass on the side of the road.  We didn't get a picture of either but WE SAW THEM, ALRIGHT?!  It deeply saddens me that there were no legitimate griz sightings on our adventure but Dad and I did see those two waddling brown lumps as we blew past a side road in Godknowswhere, so we may not have griz, but we have brown lumps, damn it.

We were officially welcomed back to Timmins around 3:15 p.m. and proceeded to drive through town like a bunch of noobs, 'oohing' and 'aahing' over every new paint or siding job in town as though we'd been gone for 10 years.  After a quick calculation, we discovered that we'd gone a total of (Mom:) "9,500 calories!  I mean kilometres."  I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that we consumed WELL over 9,500 calories (probably daily) on this trip.  But 9,500km - who knew Beuls had it in her?  We're all thankful that she did, though!

So finally, we pulled (no, not into the driveway) onto the lawn and were home once again.  As we all bounded up to the front door, we were greeted with this little scenario:

Dad:  "Do you have the keys?  I don't have them."

Mom:  "No, I don't have them.  I thought you had them."

Dad:  "Well, they're not here.  Are you sure you don't have them?"

Mom:  "I don't have them!"

Great, everybody back in the Bounder, we're boondockin' on the lawn tonight.  Of course, they were eventually tracked down and we were finally, actually, really, officially home - and I'm not gonna lie, suddenly having so much space to roam around in took a little getting used to!

Mom, in the kitchen:  "I can't remember what I usually do around here!"

Me:  "Real glasses!  Yaaaay!"

Mom:  "Yeah, and nothing falls on your head when you open the cupboard doors!"

Ahh, the simple things.  But that's all folks!  Beula's on the lawn and we're all getting ready to nestle into our respective beds.  It's been a memorable 42 days and 9,500km and we're glad we've been able to share every last minute of it all with whoever's been following our trek across this glorious country.  And to all of you, thank you for reading and commenting along the way.  All of your kind words has made writing every day something to look forward to and we enjoyed being able to use this blog to take you all with us.

To Mom and Dad, thank you for spending all of your money (KD and dumpster divin' tomorrow!) to make sure that this was a vacation we'll never forget.  We know how lucky we are to have been able to do this so don't think we don't know that we won the parent lottery with you two.  Love you.

To Mike, thank you for being hilarious you and giving me more than enough blog material every day - even if it was just a you-had-to-be-there moment for our own memories.  I don't think we would've lasted 42 days without that constant comic relief. Love you.

For one last hurrah, the fam and I are kind of curious to see who (or at least how many of you!) has been following along on our journey, so whether you've been an avid reader or just popped in to check up on us from time to time, leave a comment (even if it's just your name, or 'anonymous') to let us know!

Thanks again for coming along : )

Letting the good times roll to an end (for now!),