The Long Goodbye

PChad left yesterday morning for the Shore 2 Shore with a Roar motorcycle ride.  Thankfully he had decided not to leave too early since he wanted to stop in Moncton & buy some waterproof gloves.  He had been gone for about an hour when I happened to look in the place where we keep our passports.  I knew he was planning on driving through Maine, so he’d need his passport, but I wondered if he had remembered to take it.  I looked, & there it was.

 

I tried to text & call his cell phone, figuring he might stop & check his phone before he crossed the bridge, or maybe he even remembered about his passport & would take his phone out to call me.  After about 10 minutes I knew I either had to follow him, or he’d have to just stay in Canada…

 

I quickly told the kids to get their shoes & coats on because we had to bring Daddy his passport.  Of course I also had to stop for gas!  We tried calling PChad’s phone every 10 minutes, hoping I’d get ahold of him before I crossed the bridge & had to pay the $45 toll.  But we had no such luck.  I got to the bridge, & figured I might as well keep going & keep trying his phone.  Chancery had to go to the washroom, so we had another small detour, then soldiered on!

 

We started calling his phone every 5 minutes instead, knowing that we were probably just going to end up making his phone go dead.  Then I got the bright idea to call the motorcycle shop where I knew he was planning on stopping.  I described PChad to the sales guy, & PChad happened to still be there!  PChad was a little confused when the sales guy told him, “You can run, but you can’t hide!  Your wife’s on the phone for you!”  At that point I was only about 45 minutes behind him, so PChad decided to wait for me at the nearby Tim Horton’s.  So, the kids & I got to say goodbye to PChad twice!

 

I had left the Henry & Vincent (our Taiwanese home-stay students) at home since I can’t take them out of province without prior notification, so now that I knew I was going all the way to Moncton & back, I called Miss Geesje to see if she could go pick the boys up & take them to the farm.  Thankfully she agreed & it all worked out!  Then since I knew the older boys were taken care of, & I had driven the 2 hours & spent the bridge toll to get to Moncton, I figured I should make the most of it, so we stopped at Costco & Value Village before heading back home!  The roads were not the nicest, with lots of rain, & mist the whole way, so I also treated myself to a Starbucks for all my troubles!

 

At bedtime we always ask the kids to say their 3 favourite parts of the day & then we pray about them.  Asher said, “Lunch at Costco, right now, & definitely not driving to Moncton!”