Surprise Winnipeg Visit

I’ve been telling my Winnipeg friends I’d try to visit sometime before I went back to work at BioWare in May.  I told them it was a big IF depending on finances, and that it was likely be mid to late April.  So on Sunday I jumped in my car and headed to Winnipeg without telling any of my friends I was on the way.

The trip takes the average person up to 18 hours, I made it in 13.  I was driving 130 the whole way, and only stopped for gas and bathroom breaks.  Whenever I would stop I’d log on to MSN on my phone to trick my friends into thinking I was still in Edmonton.  It was my first major road-trip in the Sunfire, and she held up well.  I do miss cruise control though, by the time I got to Winnipeg at 4:00 AM my leg was sore.  As soon as I got in I went right to sleep.

The next morning I chatted with my brother about videogames for a while after my shower, then decided to surprise my friends.  Chad was at work so I decided to surprise Kristina.  I was on MSN on my phone and we were chatting.  Randomly she said “Aw I really wish you were here!” so I told her to give me 10 minutes because I was going to find a file to send her.  In reality I was jumping in my car and driving to her place.  When I got to her place I got back on MSN.  “You ready for the file to be sent?” I asked, “Ya send away!”.  “Ok!  Here it is…  Come outside.”  She was surprised.  I spent the afternoon hanging out with her.  We headed to St. Vital Centre and got a Booster Juice.  It was so fun to be driving around Winnipeg with the windows open while it was +18.  Good to be back.

We were going to try to surprise Chad at work but he had gone home.  My family was BBQing steak that night so I headed home.  It was great to spend time with my family.  Afterwards I decided to surprise Chad, so I drove to his place.  I called him and told him to look out his window.  He didn’t believe me.  I finally convinced him to look out and because it was dark out he couldn’t see me, and still thought I was lying.  Finally he saw me and couldn’t believe it.  We ended up going to Sal’s that night for our traditional Cheese Plus Plate.  It was great to be hanging out with him.  The nice thing about this trip is that it’s unexpected and not in Christmas.  It’s not crazy busy, it’s nice out, the days are long, etc.

At one point Ashley texted me saying “I missssssss youuu!” and I replied “I’m heeeere!” and I caught her off guard as well.  Got quite a few good surprises in this trip.  She’s treating me to Mongo’s tomorrow.  This is going to be a good trip!