Waterloo Ontario to Sudbury Ontario Return - The House Is Sold

In the few days since we arrived in Waterloo, we found a Costco and bought a microwave oven. We also checked out Zehr's grocery store and found that they did not have the product lines we liked despite being part of the Loblaws family. Creatures of habit, we found a Real Canadian Superstore just like the one back hope, except it was about six times larger. While there, we registered with the pharmacy. We also stopped by Leon's furniture store and ordered a 65" Samsung Q80T television. This was a couple of sizer larger and a lot better picture quality than the one I broke (No, I swear I did not break it on purpose). We found out that the furniture pipeline was empty and orders could take a long time to fill. Fortunately, they expected this TV to arrive within the week.

Yesterday, we drove to Sudbury and checked into the Hampton Inn. Then we went out to supper at St. Louis Bar & Grill with Leo and Diane.

This morning, as it rained lightly, we went for breakfast at Perkins with Safe Ride Home Sudbury President Lesli Green. We would normally have been starting the 2020 campaign to provide rides home in their own vehicles for clients who thought they might be over the limit. Alas, with COVID, this season was not to be. While I would be stepping down as Volunteer Coordinator, I expected to remain on board in a consultative role as this program that I really believe in moves forward.

We stopped at the house and carefully loaded our pictures in the car. We saw that Lana had picked up the furniture from the garage, The few things remaining, outside the items specified in the sale agreement, did not bother me since we were turning the house over a month earlier than originally agreed to.

Then we drove downtown for our 11:00 AM meeting with our lawyer, Tracy, at Best Law Offices. Sandy and I had been two of Peter Best's first clients back in 1975 and now, with his daughter Amy spearheading the firm, they would fulfill our last legal needs as citizens of Northern Ontario. We signed a lot of papers and turned over our keys to the house we had lived in for 36 years. You would think there might have been a bit of sadness but, to tell the truth, I did not feel it.

It was drizzling as we headed south just after noon. We caught rain in Parry Sound but the sun was out as we took the back road through Hockley on the way home. We noted that the Rosebud parking lot had been closed off since out last trip. The last way in, we were slowed by big trucks taking the back roads late on a Friday afternoon and it started raining as we reached Waterloo. The Equinox was parked in the garage just before 5:00 PM.

Clouds north of Waterloo

We were now full-fledged residents of southern Ontario, something I have not been since before I was three years old. Time to settle in and enjoy our new home.

Sudbury Ontario to Waterloo Ontario - Moving Trip #4 (Last)

Back from Waterloo on Thursday, it was time to get the last things out of the house. I put out a call to the Freedom Riders and had some of our brothers and sisters of the wind come out Sunday and lend a hand. Not only did we get the furniture we were taking to Waterloo loaded in the trailer, we also got the large couch, love seat and other things we were giving to Lana moved to the garage. It would be easier for her to pick them up from there before the 15th. The weather was absolutely spectacular for the move.

Our TV was on the floor and we ended up sitting in camp chairs for the night. That was after we went out for supper with Leo and Diane at St. Louis Bar & Grill.

This morning, we loaded the TV and chairs in the Equinox. The only things remaining were our paintings and prints, which we would pick up next week when we came up to close the deal on the house.

It was spitting a bit as we left town at 8:30 AM. We stopped at the truck pullout at Burwash to dump the garbage and, with the air a balmy 57 F, the morning did not feel like Northern Ontario in November.

I am going to miss Highway 69

Port Severn - Cottages on islands can be a problem here

Not sure what the Mountie Moose was guarding

It was 70 F when we saw a northbound group of sport bikes at Waubaushene. I would bet they were heading into Muskoka for a bonus last day of riding the curves.

Arriving at the condo by mid-afternoon, we geared up for a wait. That was not to be because the afternoon booking did not show up and Alice let us go ahead early. With Mike and Tom not there yet, I started moving everything that I could alone. That turned out to be a lot of things. Mike arrived early and we got the rest of it while Tom, who had to travel from Tillsonburg after work, arriving in time for the clean-up. He also brought some of the boxes I had stored in his garage on the way down.

The son-in-laws went over with me to park the trailer in its new home. Then we came back and I hooked up the new modem/router. It was as easy as Rogers had suggested and we had the WiFi and cable working in no time. The older big TV in the bedroom was OK but we discovered that the cracking noise when I squeezed the screen while picking up the 49" Samsung smart TV was fatal. We knew something would not survive the trip.

At the end of the day, we were finally in residence. We had my roll top desk (circa 1977), our kitchen table and chairs (circa 1975), camp cots and folding camp chairs plus a ginormous number of boxes. Time to start unpacking. Tomorrow.

Today's Route (288 Equinox/trailer miles):

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Sudbury Ontario to Waterloo Ontario and Back - Moving Trip #3

When we got back from our trip to Waterloo where we picked up the condo keys, we has less than two weeks to get the move done. You can't just pull up to a high rise building any time you want and start unloading a large amount of stuff, so we had booked the freight elevator for three hours Thursday (today) starting at noon. This gave us a target for our penultimate load.

The bulk of our things were going into either bankers boxes or slight larger boxes that had originated at the hospital and came to us via Lana, a schoolmate of Kim and Heather, who had just moved into her first house in Garson. We also arranged to give her some of the furniture we were not taking with us.

Wednesday, I started loading boxes. The symmetry of only having two sizes of box allowed for very orderly arrangement of them in the 5 x 10 trailer. When I had three layers of loaded, we started placing odd shaped and bulky things on top. We also loaded the Equinox and the Kia Rondo, the latter of which would be making a one way trip.

Once again, Leo became an essential member of the moving team. I'm sorry we did not get any photos today because I would have liked to have some visual memories of how this went.

We picked Leo up and brought him over to the house before 6:00 AM this morning. It was warmer as we set out, Sandy and I in the Equinox with Leo following in the Kia Rondo. For our American friends, the Rondo was discontinued in the USA after 2010. This was a 2012 Canadian model Sandy's dad bought new and bequeathed to her in his will. It didn't get used much and had less than 15,000 kms on the odometer. 

It was unseasonably warm (49 F at 7:00 AM) and we saw a northbound Indian motorcycle north of Waubaushene, where we stopped at the new Tim's. Continuing on, we approached Waterloo via Highway 9, Orangeville and Fergus. I found the most efficient way to get to the condo from this side was via Winterbourne and Bridge Street, something I had not considered before.

We arrived at the service doors of 6 Willow Street a couple of minutes before the appointed noon hour. I went in to the management office to look for Alice, the building superintendent, not knowing that she had been watching for me. She tracked me down and watched as we got the vehicles backed up to the service door. Then she showed us how the freight elevator worked and left us to our own devices.

Sandy did not want us wearing shoes inside the unit due to the off-white carpeting. The foyer was tile so that was OK. The system we set up was that Leo would bring the boxes from the trailer and vehicles and stack them by the elevator door. I would load the elevator and ride it up to the 15th floor and carry them into the unit, stacking them in the foyer. Then Sandy would move them into the living room and re-stack them there. The job got finished quickly and we were able to turn the elevator back over to Alice sooner than we expected. Then I booked it again for 6:00 PM to 9:00 on the 9th (so Mike and Tome could help with the furniture move in).

The last task was to take the Kia and park it in one of our spaces in the underground lot.

We were on the road back before 3:00 PM. There were a lot of motorcycles enjoying the unusually warm weather on our way back. Arriving in Sudbury about 8:30 PM, I unhooked the trailer and gave Leo a ride home.

Today's Route (566 Equinox/trailer miles):

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Waterloo Ontario to Sudbury Ontario - Moving Trip #2 (Day 3)

Today was our first morning waking up bright and early in our new home. One thing this place does have is hot water. Lots of it (according to the Welcome to Waterpark Place book, they pressurize the pipes to 150 PSI) and it was instantaneous.

The first stop this morning was at the condo management offices where we met building manager Tracy. We filled out some tenant forms and booked the freight elevator for the afternoon of Thursday November 5th. That would be the first of two trips down to move all of our possessions. On the way, we checked out the exercise room, swimming pool, party room library and billiard room. The pool and exercise room were open, although under COVID restrictions regarding number of people.

I had arranged for cable TV and Internet with Rogers. They had a relatively new system called Ignite where the DVR is actually in the cloud. You get a modem/router and a wireless box for each TV. No cables other than one to connect the modem to the cable outlet. And it was a do-it-yourself install. I got a text from the delivery person and was able to track his progress online, which allowed me to meet him in the parking lot and get my bag of goodies. I just left everything in the unit since we had to head back to Sudbury.

Our new landlords stopped by this morning. Vic and Mone are retired from the University of Waterloo and live in London. They bought this place to be their retirement home but settled in London due to family circumstances and have been leasing this unit out for almost thirty years.. They are very nice folks and were fixing up a few things in the unit.

One last task on the way out was to find the Access Storage office and take care of the paperwork for the storage spot I was renting for our trailer. Then we were heading north just before 1:00 PM.

We followed the secondary roads through Fergus, where we picked up lunch at Mickey D's, and then Orangeville where we followed Highway 9 to Highway 400. Snow flurries started in Barrie and then started to intensify around Mount. St;\. Louis.

Snow in Barrie

After a coffee stop at the new Tim's at Waubaushene, the snow turned to rain near Parry Sound. It was 4:00 PM and starting to get dark. On Highway 69, there was no snow but there were a lot of plows out. What did it matter, it was only taxpayers' money. There was snow on the ground and it was dark when we pulled into the driveway just before 6:00 PM.

Today's Route (285 Equinox miles):

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Woodstock Ontario to Waterloo Ontario - Moving Trip #2 (Day 2) - We Get The Keys

We had agreed to meet our real estate agent Alex Bunker at the condo at 11:00 AM. It was wet this morning so everyone was lucky they had gotten Halloween done before this system rolled in.

Checking out about 10:00 AM, we drove the 40 miles to Waterloo and parked in the Visitor lot near the front door. Alex arrived shortly after and gave us each a ring of three keys including an RFID fob and a remote control. Alex showed us how the fob opened the front doors, the doors to the amenities like the pool, exercise room, etc. and the entry from the underground garage. A nice couple in the lobby explained that button #1 on the remote opened the garage door to Parking Level 1 where our two spots were located. One key opened the door to the storage lockers on P 1, one opened our mailbox and the last opened the front door to our unit. Then we went up and did a walkthrough of unit 1504, which was just as it had been represented to us. Alex also gave us a welcoming gift basket and then bid us goodbye.

I went down and moved the Equinox into one of our parking spaces. Then I used a cart by the elevators to move our possessions in the car either into the locker or up to our unit. We had brought our camp cots along with the memory foam mattresses and bedding Sandy had made for them and set them up in the master bedroom. We had a couple of camp chairs to sit on but we had no TV yet, so we turned in very early.

Today's Route (40 Equinox miles):

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