So I've finally landed at my home base in Dundas, Ontario.
Took a few days to drive here, which included a variety of entertaining events and experiences, ones that I will never want to forget in my lifetime. My sister and I started the trip after a much too brief visit in Winnipeg to say good-bye to a handful of very special people as well as the painful "see you later" to my love. I'm so convinced that one day sooner than later he will join me in Toronto so we can explore the city together.
Our first day of driving into the U.S was a bit delayed... almost 6 hours delayed... so by the time we reached the border it was already starting to get dark. I had been hearing repeatedly that my Jeep was going to get searched top to bottom at the border, and that all my belongings (and there sure was a lot of stuff, my poor Jeep was packed right to the max!) were going to be thrown to the side of the road and left for my sister and I to hastily repack before moving on. Pulling up to the gates I continued to look awkward by choosing the only closed one, leaving myself no choice but to back up and make a mess of what should have been extremely simple. With passports in hand my sister and I were ready to go with out sweetest smiles on just in case that made a difference. 5 seconds after handing the women our I.D's we were released to continue on our way. Easy as pie! Thank goodness... since we still had about 5 more hours of driving until we reached Minneapolis.
In Minneapolis I had never ever been more excited to see an empty parking lot with no lighting in my entire life. It seemed no matter how much or how little fluids my sister and I consumed stopping to use the bathroom was an on-going trend that happened at least every two or three hours. By the time we reached Minneapolis we had greatly expired our three hour limit and in desperate need of some relief we legit pulled into a parking lot and had our own little pants down party. No one knew us so who cares!
We stayed in a very fancy looking hotel called the Millennium that I had found a great deal at online and booked a few weeks prior. The pool would have been so amazing to jump into but by this time it was already past 2 A.M. and closed. Since we both looked like complete shit we decided on ordering a pizza instead of resorting to the hotel kitchen or any other drunk people filled after-bar hangout spot. Although when the pizza guy came it was a fight to who was going to show off their lovely locks and messy makeup. My sister lost but with her luck the pizza boy was apparently verrrry handsome and worth the short walk (or so she says).
Two ladies in their early 20's find themselves in Minneapolis with nothing to do for the morning... the only option is clearly... Mall of America! Without getting too lost we managed to find a pretty decent parking spot just outside of the entrance to the rides & rollercosters!! Robyn and I indulged in the unlimited rides wrist bands and tested out all the rollercosters and rides we could for the next four hours. It was so much fun I felt like I as a little girl again! We vowed not to shop at all since the Jeep was already packed and ready to go with very little room for even us to sit. We started on our way to Milwaukee that afternoon with no idea what we'd find...
With this being both my sisters and I first lengthy road trip without older people guiding the way, I thought it would be a smart idea to pre-book our hotel rooms online (taking into consideration the reviews, locations and free amenities... breakfast & WiFi). The first hotel was awesome, very clean and well managed. Pulling up to our second hotel in Milwaukee was another story completely... the only way I can describe it is it appeared to be a very nice place for drug deals and prostitution to take place. The rooms were affordably priced at $45.00 a night, the entire hotel had many dark private areas to suit the needs of a handful of people just hanging out in the parking lot, and the rooms were quite simplicity in a sense that they definitely are trying to save the environment by not ever using a washing machine or cleaning products. To top it off my sister can be a bit of a queen... hence her childhood nickname "Queenie", so as soon as she walked into our room she stopped dead in her tracks and basically marched right back out but not before turning on a wobbly, flickering lamp to check the bed sheets. The thankfully paid for a wonderful room at the Holiday Express across the street to save our health. Even the manager admitted to us that she often wondered who stayed at the other hotel as she has only ever seen strange people walking about over there. Errr... yikes! Thank you Robyn for convincing me cross the street with you.
The next day was our longest day driving. We had about 10.5 hours left and were planning on powering through all of it before suppertime. We got up early and enjoyed a delicious free breakfast, then made our way onto Interstate 94 to continue to back into Canada. For my first time driving on any kind of large, fast-moving highway I feel like I did pretty good. It was terrible sleeping each night as I continually had dreams of driving and getting lost or crashing/causing an accident. We made it safe and sound into Canada a few hours later then expected but it didn't matter because we found Tim Hortons once again. It was amazing. It was also amazing when Robyn and I were sitting in the Jeep in the parking lot and some guy backed up a bit in the drive thru in front of us and was hand signaling to us. It took us a few minutes to realize he was signaling to us but he was seriously almost out of his truck to walk over to us before we clued in that he was trying to tell us that Robyn had left her ice capp on the roof of the Jeep! People are so nice in Canada haha he couldn't stop laughing and neither could we. We felt like the biggest losers ever haha! Ahhh so the rest of our trip ended within four hours and now we are safe & sound at my Auntie's wonderful home in Dundas.
Her backyard is to die for. Such a paradise.
XXOX
