After a few weeks of Christmas and visiting, it was finally time to fly back to the trailer. Of course, nothing is as simple as it seems. We arrived on the island with our bags packed to the max… Then Christmas happened. So now we needed to figure out what could be left behind in order to bring at least SOME of the kids’ new toys along with us. We really tried; The kids even helped out and piles of the toys that had to come, and the ones that they were willing to store to be picked up at a later date. We probably should have thought about this before we gave Mason a 12″ globe for Christmas, as this was by-far the most challenging item. In the end, it just didn’t seem fair to the kids. So we borrowed a big duffel bag (thanks Oma!), packed in almost all of the Christmas stuff, and just checked that extra bag on the airplane.
Flying back went about as well as one can hope. The Air Canada guy at the check-in area was SUPER helpful. Even after wrapping Mason’s globe in towels and a blanket, we were still worried about it getting crushed. We told him about the globe and he went and found us a cardboard box to re-pack it in which he checked for free. Phew did that take a load of worry off. We flew from Victoria to Vancouver in the morning, then Vancouver to Houston later that day. That second flight got delayed a little over an hour but luckily staffing is easier to fix than weather, so once they got everything sorted it was all smooth sailing. We landed in Houston around dinner time (or so it felt; it was actually after 8pm local time) and we had a hotel booked for that night that provided an airport shuttle. Once we figured out that we were in the wrong section of the airport to be picked up, and that we couldn’t fit on the train with all of our stuff, we walked through the underground tunnels with a big pile of carts, bags, and hungry/tired kiddos (and parents lol). One might have higher hopes for weather when you fly from Canada to Texas, but it was cold; something like -2 or -4°C. We got on the shuttle and had a super-friendly driver who offered to stop wherever we wanted to grab some dinner on our way to the hotel! We all thoroughly enjoyed pizza and a movie in bed in the hotel that night (toddler-sized tomato sauce handprints on the sheets anyone?)
The next morning I woke up early for whatever reason, and crept out of the hotel room to go pick up the rental car early. This all went smooth, it was a bit warmer (right around zero), and I was amused listening to the local radio station on my way home as they were talking about all the challenges sub-zero temperatures can cause in such a warm climate. They didn’t get snow to my knowledge, but still schools were closed and power outages were a big concern (from spikes in usage). Anyways, by the time I was back with the car and did the 4-5 trips up and down to load up all of our stuff, the kids had just woken up. We grabbed some bagels and peanut butter from the hotel breakfast room and we were set!
As soon as we got out onto those big Texas highways, all the stress of the previous days melted away and my excitement of re-starting the trip grew. There has been a few times on this trip where I am flooded with this feeling, which I think can best be described as “freedom”. This was one of those moments for me.
Kirsten on the other hand was not quite ready to claim success until see could see our trailer without any leaks, rodents, or whatever misfortunes that may have struck while we were away. Dallas was a bit colder than Houston. I think it was -4 or so when we arrived at the trailer. Luckily when we arrived, the truck started right up and so did the trailer furnace, the trailer had no signs of any critters, and only one sparkling water had frozen and exploded which we had prepared for by putting all of our liquids together in a big bin. And then for the two jars of pickles and peaches that I forgot to put in that bin (and therefore was stressing out about for the past month)… the pickles had indeed frozen, but both jars were intact! Even all the batteries were still charged. We could not have hoped for a better outcome! Kirsten could finally breath a sigh of relief.
The trailer had been parked on a storage lot inside a campground, so as the sun set we drove around the grounds and found the campsite we would call home for the next few days. We pulled the in and set up almost nothing, just got the trailer “pretty level” and plugged in the electricity so we could enjoy our dinner of hotdogs, cozy around our own kitchen table again.
