The rollercoaster week

I left you last with a somewhat ominous sign that trying times were ahead. Let's get into it...

May 20th

I awoke on my birthday (34 years young!) - having spent the night tossing and turning and starring at the ceiling - at 4am. I waited until 6am and decided enough was enough and I needed to leave to get better reception so I could check in on people back home. Here's where the trouble begins. It had rained relentlessly all night long, and as I started my engine I had a sinking feeling that I had literally...sunk... I was right. I was stuck in the grass. At 6am. Having reached the end of my tether and desperately wanting to get the heck out of there.

I tried a few times to no avail, until, emerging from the rain and fog like some sort of hero, one of my hosts came running over to help me. He was so lovely, and together we got my van towed off the grass and onto their gravel. After many many apologies on my behalf for tearing up their grass (they were entirely unbothered and assured me it would be fine in a few days time), I finally departed in search of better phone reception, and knowing I had a big day of driving ahead of me to get into Winnipeg city.

In all this fuss, I actually entirely forgot it was my birthday until someone called with well-wishes, once I reached enough civilisation for my phone to grant me a few meager bars of shitty reception. I plugged Winnipeg into my GPS, and hit the road, chatting to my friend while I drove. After about an hour, I hung up and kept driving another 30 minutes...until.... I reached the boarder for the USA. Oops. I did NOT want to cross the boarder (and sacrifice my bear spray and other paraphernalia in the process.

I pulled over and consulted my map, only to discover that I had driven 90 minutes in the wrong direction. Sighing, I turned around to make the 90 minute drive BACK, and to take the turn I had missed to go north away from the boarder and get me to Winnipeg without leaving the country. Needless to say, adding 3 hours onto an already big drive didn't put me in the best of moods. But, we solider on.

After an uneventful (and far longer than I intended) drive, I hit Winnipeg. The coolest thing that happened on the drive over was that I reached the Arctic Watershed - the point after which all rivers run into the Arctic Ocean.

Very kind family friends of ours had offered me a place to stay in Winnipeg, as sleeping in the van isn't legal in many places. I had a very welcome hot shower, met their lovely house-sitter (Jenna) and slept inside on a bed for the first time in weeks.

May 21st

If you're wondering why I bothered to spend a day in Winnipeg all is about to become clear, but today I enjoyed the luxury of being in a full house, cooking breakfast and going on a long walk to explore the city and buy supplies for a craft project I needed to do. Jenna very kindly took me out for a delightful dinner, and to say we got on like a house on fire is an understatement - I sense I have made a very dear friend for life. After dinner I showered (gotta make the most of that unlimited hot water) and set my alarm for the ungodly hour of 4:30am

May 22nd

Off to Dallas I go... to meet a very handsome pilot in some storybook romance where we fly around to the world to meet each other. Someone write a book about us please haha.

After a stupidly early start, 3 flights, and some major stress involving my plane being diverted to Oklahoma City and me thinking I was never going to actually get to him, at 4pm I got to run into the arms of my pilot.

Priority number one was a nap for both of us, and then we headed out for dinner in downtown Dallas. If anyone has ever been to Dallas and enjoyed it, sorry, but it wasn't my favourite.

May 23rd

After deciding Dallas was rubbish we got a hire car and I drove us 3 hours south to Austin... best freaking decision of our lives. Austin is fantastic. It has such interesting culture and nightlife, and I will absolutely be going back at the next opportunity I have. We had lunch at this amazing community space that serves cafeteria style vegan food, with communal seating, spaces for yoga and mediation and so much more. After lunch we walked down to see the Colorado river, before doing some shopping and heading back to the hotel so Dion could nap again. I lay by the pool with my birthday present (his favourite book), until he came and met me for a swim. Texas was hitting 40 degrees so needless to say this was a welcome reprieve from the heat.

We dressed and went out to explore the city at night...and what a night. We found a food truck that offered vegan hotdogs and loaded fries (so delicious), and walked around hopping from bar to bar being treated to amazing music artists, excellent people watching and copious amounts of drinks. As you should do in a foreign city, drunk, with your crush, he dinked me on the back of a scooter from one hotspot to the next (me screaming all the way), and we continued our adventures.

Between 2-3am everything closes, and the roads re-open (the shut them so it's pedestrian only during the evening). They way the police clear the streets was a spectacle in itself. Several mounted horseman ride around with megaphones saying "Get off the road" over and over again until they're satisfied that most of the drunken revellers are on the sidewalks. Once most people are clear of the roads, the form a procession - the mounted police go first, in a line, followed by a line of police on golf-buggies, followed by police in cars. All yelling at people to clear the road, with somewhat dry humour, making remarks such as "the road is opening, you will get run over".

Stumbling home and into bed at 3am I decided maybe I am not too old for this after all...

May 24th...and 25th

...never mind, I am too old for this. I don't think either of us surfaced until well after 10am, checking out of the hotel and hitting the road to get back to Dallas for our respective flights home. We returned to the hotel the airline provides in Dallas to shower, and then jumped in a Uber to go to the airport. My flight was 2 hours before Dion's, so he came with me to say goodbye and to prepare for his own flight.

This is where our next bout of trouble begins. We weren't late when we initially hopped in the Uber, but we were on time.... we hadn't left any extra time for me to get on my plane. Our Uber didn't even make it out of the street the hotel was on before becoming trapped in gridlock traffic thanks to a broken down train. After sitting in the Uber for 10 minutes, we decided to bail, walk one block over a try again. No sooner had we walked down the street than the train cleared the tracks and the cars started to move again. In a split second decision was ran back to our Uber, begging him to let us back in. He kindly obliged and we jumped back in the car. But he'd cancelled our ride. And try as I might, I couldn't get the Uber app to match us up again, so we jumped out of his car for a second time, and went back to the hotel to get a new ride.

Now we were stressed...and hot, from running around in 40 degree heat. Our new Uber was a lovely lade who unfortunately managed to miss not one but 2 freeway exits thanks to being stuck in the Express lane and unable to get across to exit for the airport. The clock ticks on. By the time we arrived at my terminal, my flight had already been boarding for 10 minutes, I was crying about saying goodbye in such a rushed way to Dion, and stressed. We got told by 2 security entry points that they were shut and we had to keep walking further and further down the terminal to find an open one. At this stage I was full on crying, politely asking people in the security line if they could let me through and explaining I was going to miss my flight. Dion stayed and waited until he couldn't see me anymore for a final wave, and then he was gone, I was crying and thinking this was all for nothing because my plane was about to leave without me.

I made it through security, a sprinted through the airport (thinking I was going to be tackled at any point by big burley security men wondering what I was going) only to arrive dripping in sweat, teary, snotty and panting at my gate..... to read DELAYED on the sign. Freaking heck. I texted Dion to let him know and sat down to wait.

Just as the stress washed away and I had calmed down from all of that drama, a new concern started to build... if we didn't leave soon I was going to miss my connection.

I'll cut to the chase - I missed my connection. I ended up stuck in Minne-freaking-apolis for 24 hours. But I did get to visit the famous Mall of America, known for the fact it has an entire theme park in the middle of the mall. Yep - you read that right. Full on rollercoasters. In the middle of a mall. That's America for you...

I got back to my van at midnight, a day later than I had hoped, and had never been so pleased to see it.

May 26th

After the best sleep of my life back in my precious van, I got up early knowing that thanks to my delay I had to drive 9+ hours today to stay on track for reaching the Rockies (where I had booked and paid for campsites). West of Winnipeg, for those who are unfamiliar with Canada, is a whole lot of nothing. Seriously. After the utter beauty that Canada had boasted thus far, after Winnipeg it's open prairie land as far as the eye can see in every direction. Don't get me wrong, it's cool and unique in it's own way...but it's also monotonous and a recipe for falling asleep at the wheel.. (don't freak out mum, I'm fine). It's so vast and flat you can actually see the curvature of the earth, and it goes as far as the eye allows you to see. Totally unobstructed. Wild.

I arrived at my parkup for the night - a winery in the middle of nowhere - exhausted and ready for a solid sleep, but also excited to be getting so close to the Rocky Mountains, and pleased to put a week of drama behind me.

Come back next week for more...