Heading North

I'm sitting in a motel room in Pottersville, NY, about 90 minutes from the Canada border, asking myself "what were we thinking?" Somehow it's comforting to know that it's below freezing back home in Chapel Hill as well right now (30F, -1C). But right now, Montreal is our destination, and it is -2F, -19C! I lived in Canada for almost 6 years, so I felt tough and used to the cold. But it's quite a shock to the system to go from unseasonably warm weather in NC (I packed the car in a tshirt and shorts) to a full throttled Canadian winter in just 2-3 days. I knew it would be bad when I felt overwhelmed by the cold around DC, just four hours into trip. NYC got hit with a pretty crazy storm just before we arrived, which made driving around trickier. Luckily we missed the storm and everything had been cleaned up already, so the roads weren't too bad. But our poor car seems to be adjusting to winter as well and gets foggy windows. Before leaving NYC we decided to have a mechanic look at our car to make sure it was ready for serious winter weather. They didn't get back to us until 12:30, meaning we weren't on the road until 1pm yesterday. We got stuck in some serious traffic, causing it to take almost four hours just to make it to Albany (2 hrs north of the city). Olivia made it clear it was time for a break and a diaper change, and by the time we were back on the road it was dark. Sarah did really well, but once we got further north and there were fewer cars on the road, we decided to call it quits. So here we are, at Lee's Corner Motel in Pottersville, NY. We're actually having quite a bit of fun, it's great not having to go to school or work until January 12th! I think the drive south is going to feel like a relief, though I'm really glad we made the trip and can't wait to see our family.

Sarah just got out of the shower, so it's time for me to start getting ready for the fina stretch.