The sale of the STi was the easiest part. Dude checked it out, drove it, liked it, and sent the money to me via two email money transfers. It shows received in my parents' account, they send me the money, bada-bing bada-boom.
We then proceed to UHaul to pickup the trailer. NBD. Go to UFA for some gas (company card combined with a company vehicle that has unlimited personal use in Alberta FTW) and stock up some jerry cans plus the truck on fuel. And from there, we hit the road.
Now, before I get further into the story (and hopefully you are thoroughly entertained by the envisioned madness), you should pop on over to google to check out our route. Originally, we had planned on leaving Sunday morning and going from Calgary, Alberta to Corvallis, OR to pick up a front cross member for Jeff's slammed 63 Chevy and visit a friend/stay the night. From there, we'd drive to McCleary, WA, grab the Tal[hoon] first thing Monday morning and then head to the Sweetgrass, Montana border (and finally arrive back in Calgary). INSTEAD, we ended up going from Calgary to McCleary, then driving to Corvallis, and finally back to Calgary via Sweetgrass. The routing makes the story even more funny if you've ever traveled the roads we did 
Oh, and it berkeleying RAINED CONSTANTLY. Insanity.
So, we've left Calgary right? We end up getting onto H22 (ye olde' cowboy trail of yesteryear, what decades ago used to be the main highway running vertically through Alberta). About 15 minutes down the road, we have a concerned citizen fly past us waving their arms in the universal sign of SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOUR TRAILER!!111!!!1! We pull over ASAP, and it turns out a chain UHaul has on its trailers as an emergency hold down you tie to the rear of your car had fallen and grinded itself to bits. Really no big deal besides the sparks flying and it possibly wrapping around something.
As Jeff attends to this, I stop and watch the traffic fly by in the northern direction (us heading south). In the distance, I hear the sound of a Civic blasting along. As it crests the hill, it seems like its blowing smoke (which is not surprising in and of itself, it IS a Civic after all). As it gets closer (Doppler Effect in full swing) a grinding noise presents itself to my ears getting louder and louder, with it dawning on my small tired brain that the cloud behind the car is a CONTINUOUS MIST OF GASOLINE AND THE CIVICS GAS TANK STRAPS HAVE BROKEN AND IT IS DRAGGING ALONG THE GROUND AT 130km/h (steel tank, lots of sparks, all of that GOOD STUFF). As the car whizzes past (driver oblivious), three more concerned citizens fly by to warn him. He pulls over.
Now, I'm in a hurry. But I know that its going to cost the kid at least $300 to get the car towed anywhere that can fix it since we are in the middle of butt-berkeley nowhere, and we are already way behind schedule. So, I tell Jeff that we'll offer to give the kid a lift (including car on our empty uhaul), BACK the way he was coming to the biggest town on our way so he can get it fixed. Remember, this is a stat, so all of the towns will basically be closed anyways. We go talk to the kid, ratchet his tank in place, load the car, make room for him in the truck, and head towards Pincher Creek. We drop his car off at a Fountain Tire and go on our merry way having accomplished our good deed of the day.
So with that excitement over, we continue towards the US border. At this point in the story, its about time to mention how you are supposed to have a notarized letter stating you are authorized to bring someone else's vehicle over the border; did you know that? Well, luckily I did! Also luckily, my father decided to not get it done after I told him the car didn't sell initially on Thursday. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu (insert rage face here). Yes, that is right, we COULD get turned away at the border. So, what I am saying here is, all of this work could literally be for nothing if they turned us away and I'd be out close to $400 for zip. I had a letter signed by my father, but if it ain't notarized and they ask for it, you are E36 M3 out of luck. Luckily for us, this was a smaller crossing, and it was later in the evening.
More luckily, the border guard didn't ask/bother, and we were able to continue the journey at 7pm Monday evening. At this point, Jeff and I have determined the trip is shaping up to be one of little sleep and many energy drinks. The truck is crowded with tools, so sleeping is hard (especially for Jeff, he's a bigger dude at 6'0 so with the back of the crew cab full there ain't much leaning room for sleeping). Surprisingly enough, I've been driving this whole time without any drowsiness issues. From the border, we drove down to Spokane, and onto Seattle... and this is where the rain began. I currently hate mother nature now for all of the rain it delivered over the past 5 days directly in our path. And both of us did not realize how hilly the specific portions of WA we were entering were. After a couple of stops to fill up and eat, Jeff was now driving and we got to Seattle at 2-ish. I passed out in the passenger seat, waking up slightly lost outside of McCleary where Jeff is having a hell of a time finding the small town. Uneventfully, we find it, raid the ATM's for the cash for the Talon, and then sleep in the truck for 2 hours before the Tal[hoon] owner arrives at the storage place outside of town.
We meet up with the owner just fine (weird how everything seems to be going well now eh?) and check out the car. She's a beaut, well built, well prepped, runs amazingly, and is fast, and comes with a spare tranny, 40 tires (we only end up taking about 20 that are worth it), and lots of spare goodies. We load the car up, say our farewells, then hit the dusty trail to Corvallis.
At this point, we are pretty tired but solider on. We are currently at hour 50-ish (starting at 9:00am Sunday morning and assuming 4 hours of sleep Sunday night) with only said 4 hours of sleep plus the occasional small 15 minute power nap. Everything seems to be looking up though, I managed to get across the border, make it to where I had to be, and have the cash in hand to buy the car. We cruised on down to Corvallis (in the rain >:( ) and grabbed Jeff's crossmember. We also had our only true meal the ENTIRE trip, some real messican burrito's, enchilada's, and chimichonga's. Mmmmmmmm.
This puts us around 4:30pm on Tuesday, starting our trek back towards Canada. Needless to say, I can't make it to work in time so I call and let them know I won't be in Wednesday either. Stay tuned for page 3!
