Goodbye Ettyville.... hello Montreal.
A New Year, a new travel plan, and a new newsletter platform!
In our last newsletter, from the end of October, we had just settled into Ettyville. Our kind landlords had let us move in early, so we were able to get everything unpacked, and things up on the walls, before we headed back to Ottawa for a week to attend the CanUX conference. While we were at the conference, we received a message from the landlords saying that they had a request for a showing. We had moved into the house, knowing it was for sale, but it had been on the market for a year, there had been no recent offers, and the owners (who lived across the street) preferred to have someone living in it for the winter, so, we had moved in. Long story short, the person bought the house. While we were happy for the owners, this meant two things: one, we were going to need to move out at the end of February, instead of the end of April; and two, we needed to move Rosie (our Airstream) because who knows how much snow there would be at the end of February!
So, once the conference was over, Rosie was quickly relocated to the driveway of my parents’ cottage so she could spend the winter there.
While we knew our time in Ettyville was going to be shorter than expected, we made the most of it. Just one kilometre down the road was a phenomenal disc golf course. They have a league that plays three times a week and Adam went as often as he could. They also had two fun doubles winter tournaments that we played in and while the weather was brisk, it was beautiful to play Disc Golf in the snow.
Early in the new year we started having to think about our plan for the year ahead. When the location for the National Disc Golf Tournament was announced as being in B.C. this year, that gave us our destination for the middle of September.
The more immediate concern was, knowing that we needed to be out of the house at the end of February, and discovering that most campgrounds don’t open until May, we needed a place to go for March and April. After considering various places around the globe, from Argentina to Norway, we decided to rent a place in Montreal.
In the middle of February, the Big Steel Box was delivered, and we started packing. But, this time we did things a little bit differently. Since it had been a challenge to find an unfurnished place for 6 months last fall we decided that maybe next year, we could just get a furnished place somewhere for the winter. That meant that everything going into the Big Steel Box, needed to be able to stay there a while ie: needed to be able to freeze. We also rented a small climate controlled storage locker for: things that shouldn’t freeze, winter things we might need next winter, and things we will need with us in the camper for the summer. At the same time, we were piling things in a different corner of the house that we needed in Montreal with us for March and April. Logistically, it was the most complicated move yet. But, all went smoothly. On our last day in Ettyville, the Big Steel Box was picked up, the climate controlled storage locker was filled, and we hit the road for Montreal.
While our time in Ettyville was brief, the sense of community in that cluster of houses in the middle of nowhere was something that will stay with us both.
On the neighbour’s property across the street was the BARn. An old horse stable that was converted into, essentially, a tavern, “If the lights are on, come on over!”. Many late night/early mornings we spent there. My stomach hurt sometimes from laughing along with the stories people shared. We were fortunate enough to be there for a sap boil the night before we left.
It was a joy to have lived in Ettyville, albeit briefly, but, off to Montreal we go, and off of Substack this newsletter will also go. Substack been a great way to share our adventures with those of you that have chosen to follow along, but, due to some of their recent business decisions, I am no longer comfortable supporting their platform through my content. So, moving forward I will be sharing our travel adventures from a different platform. You won’t need to do anything to keep receiving the newsletters. I have imported the email addresses to the new platform, so my next post about Montreal should auto-magically appear in your email inbox, just like these ones did.
Stay tuned for some updates from Montreal before we hit the road in May!