I haven’t been writing any posts lately, because my family and I drove across Canada to New York City to clear out my late grandparents’ apartment. We left Alberta with our cargo trailer on Saturday, January 15th, spent that night in Regina, and the next day drove through Manitoba and spent the night in Kenora, which was beautiful. But our truck started making funny noises and we needed to get it fixed at the Ford dealership there. Then we drove on to Thunder Bay, and spent the night there. The next day we started driving to Sault Ste. Marie, but about 60 km outside of Wawa a chunk of ice from a passing truck hit the driver’s side window and knocked it out completely. It was so loud and scary. It was also very cold, around -25C and very windy. We drive in to Wawa where we got the window taped up, which was warmer but then my dad couldn’t see out of his window, or see his mirror, so I had to lean out my window and tell him when it was okay to change lanes. The man at the autobody shop was very nice and made some phone calls for us about a new window. There wasn’t anything in Sault Ste. Marie but there was in Sudbury, so we drove on to Sault Ste. Marie and spent the night there in a very nice hotel, the Algoma Water Tower Inn. They had an outdoor heated jacuzzi, and it was warm in the water even though it was very cold (almost -30 C) outside!
We left Sault Ste. Marie early yesterday morning and drove to Sudbury, where we found a used window at an auto wreckers and had it put in at an auto glass shop. It is great to have a window again. Then we kept driving, and made it to my aunt and uncle’s house in Toronto, in the Beaches neighborhood. We got to NYC late on the 22nd, and since then have been busy cleaning out the apartment, taking things to the Salvation Army, the Housing Works thrift shop, and loading our trailer.
When we first arrived, I hadn’t seen many birds on our trip, mostly ravens, some crows, magpies, pigeons, starlings, and sparrows. On the way out of Sudbury I saw a hawk, and an eagle, and my aunt and uncle in Toronto have a pair of budgies, who are very sweet.
Today I went on a bird walk in Central Park with Bob DeCandido (Birding Bob) and Deb Allen. My dad came with me and it was lots of fun. I’ll write a separate post about the walk and the birds I saw as soon as I can. We are planning to leave NYC in a few days.
Prairie Birder 