My mom and I, plus the three Tollers, went on a road trip to Calgary to participate in the Canadian National Toller Specialty. It was a long drive… but well worth it! The trip was packed full of events and I took over 1000 photos… would have been more, but I was busy for much of it. (I am going to break the trip into multiple posts…)

We headed north to Canada, took some back-roads around Bellingham, and crossed the border at Sumas on our way to Kamloops, where we planned to stay before continuing to Calgary. But we noticed a strange spray of water on the windshield as were pulled off the freeway to go check out a nearby waterfall… and then steam coming off the hood. A bypass hose (or something) burst. Not good.

Thankfully we had our GPS and were able to find a dealership back in Chilliwack, 10 miles back the way we came from. By the time we got there we had the heater going full blast to keep the engine cool. No good.

We wandered the parking lot with the pups, waiting for the prognosis of the suburban and to find out how long it would take.

It was really warm and there were swarms of mosquitoes… one of my least favorite things in this world. But there were also flowers and fields so I could distract myself by snapping photos.

We made our way back to the dealership to find out that we needed a new water pump, too. The real bummer is that they wouldn’t be able to get the repairs finished until the next morning.

No car, three dogs, and a reservations in a city 3 hours away… great. We were able to get a hotel close by and the dealership had a shuttle service to take us (and the pups) there.

Taylor passed out in the shuttle/truck.

Sunny looked like he was about to get in trouble. (He’s used to riding in a crate all the time.)

And Rina couldn’t care less. She just chomped on the leashes next to me on the seat.

The worst part of the little set-back was the waiting… and that we should have been three hours farther along the road than we were.

But! It could have been worse! If the hose and pump went out any later, we would have been in the middle of nowhere, far from any mechanics or dealerships to get us fixed up.

So really, it’s a good thing that it happened when it did, even if it meant we didn’t reach Calgary until midnight the next day, didn’t get to bed until 1am, and had a ring time at 8am on Friday.

Who needs sleep, anyway?