Well. That was a whirlwind trip. Not nearly as long as I thought it would be. For those unaware, I flew to Chicago one way and drove back up with the boyfriend. He'll be here for a couple of months and wanted to have his truck here for that time so we're not car-sharing as much.

First of all, the US Border guys now know waaaay too much about my personal life.

US Guy: So, why you headed down?

Me: Just headed down to meet up with my boyfriend and then we're driving back.

US Guy: Your boyfriend visiting down there.

Me: No. He's an American.

US Guy: Any engagement plans?

Me: Uhhhh, no sir, not at this time.

US Guy: Are you pushing for it or is he?

Me: Uhhhh, neither at the moment.

I understand that they are wanting to keep undesireables out and all... but let's get real. I'm not about to abandon the child up here just so that I can be an American. I mean I like y'all and all.... but...

Arrived in Chicago on Wednesday night and decided to stay there. Spent way too much on a hotel. In the morning we drove right past hotels that were easily 50% of the price I'd just forked out. Bummer.

We just started to drive North and West. Of course we were chatting and catching up - and missed the turn, so we ended up in Minnesota a little ahead of schedule since we were supposed to go farther west and then north. Oh well.

Love Minnes-OH-ta. Had the friendliest waitress ever. Drove towards North Dak-OH-ta: Land of Dead Deer and Bug Swarms.

Stayed in Fargo, ND. Much cheaper hotel.

Figured out that Americans pay WAY LESS for gas than us Canucks. We're around 85-90 cents a litre. They are paying what works out to 60 cents.

Got to the border.

Three hours of: "So, any engagement plans?" "So, when are you moving to Canada?" "So, are you planning on marriage? Have you discussed marriage?"

Geez! Give a couple a little bit of air, would ya?? MAN!

It actually wasn't too bad when I went in to talk to Ms. Canada Border Guard. I explained the reasons for him coming up here. I explained my son, my ties to Canada, my non-marriage plans.

Anyways, the boyfriend got the usual "get out of Canada on this day" card... so he's got to leave by July 6th. Which is fine because he needs to get south and flag wave a bit before then.

And let me interject something. I used to make a bit of fun of my American boyfriend about his 'flag waving' patriotism. No longer. As I've become aware of his US flag all over the countryside, I've become hyper aware of all the Canadian flags we have up in Canada. We have WAY MORE.

If there's a surface to put a flag on/in/over... we stick it up. And if we can't do that, we stick just a maple leaf somewhere on the surface. We are all about our flag. Who knew?

Once we got away from the border we decided to make it as far as we could and Swift Current, Saskatchewan ("One of Canada's Top Ten!"..... uhhh.. top ten what, might I ask?) was it.

But it was not without it's excitement. After leaving the previous town, I casually mentioned that we might want to get fuel. Perhaps I should have been more aggressive, because 45 minutes later all we were staring at was either the black, dark, empty prairie.. or the fuel gauge that was nuzzled up to the E like a long lost child. We finally found Morse, SK and I had to bribe the guy to turn the pumps back on and sell us gas.

Anyways, we made it home.

It feels good. It feels normal. It feels easy.