After a couple of years in Winnipeg our lives took yet another turn. I lost one contract, picked up an even better one and started to make regular trips on business to Toronto. Soon it became apparent that it would be much easier to consider moving on to Ontario. Though the job still entailed working from home it would be much easier just to drive into the office once every six weeks rather than flying. So we put our lovely little house on the market which quickly sold, again our thanks to Doug the Realtor for all his efforts, we packed up our stuff, the dog, the cats and climbed into the car and Ryder Truck for the trip east.

What a beautiful journey. We took three day to go from Winnipeg to a place a couple of hours east of Toronto. We stopped to overnight in Thunder Bay and the next night in Sault St. Marie. Every now and then the views were so incredibly beautiful that we had to stop and gaze in awe. Photographs taken with a little snapshot camera just don't do it justice. We did have one sad event. Half way there Church the cat decided she had had enough of being in the car with us and took off. We searched for several hours and left a note with our address at the store but we never did see her again. I later heard from the lady in the store that she had been spotted near some houses so she probably did find a new home.

We arrived in Toronto in a thunderstorm, in the rush hour. The 401 is quite an adventure if you've never driven on it before. But with a beat up Neon and an even more beat up rental truck we felt that probably people were more afraid of us than we were of them. How people go to work every day on that road without having a nervous breakdown is quite beyond me.

We found the house of our dreams on the internet - but of course! As I said, two hours east of Toronto in the most glorious setting out in the country. It is a unique house in many ways. Most of all though it really feels like home and even after ten years we are pretty much convinced that even if we won the lottery we would never leave this one. They'll have to take me out in a box - a geodesic box at that!
Go to Chapter Fourteen

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