Northern Trip
2 September 2005 - Friday
The beach house we stayed in was extremely fancy, and right on Lake Huron.
We slept in for the first time on the trip, and then got up and walked along
the beach. Here I am rolling up my cuffs so my pant legs won't get wet and
sandy:
We then left for the final major leg of our journey.
0 Miles - Left Tawas City Michigan
We drove down US-23 and then rejoined I-75.
There was a lot of northbound vacation
traffic as it was the beginning of Labor Day weekend. We stopped in
Saginaw to visit the nice people who let us use their lake house.
We stayed a few hours, but then pressed on. People had been giving us dire
warnings about how backed up customs getting into Canada can get, especially
on a holiday weekend. So we drove out I-69 to Port Huron MI. Gas prices
were high, we didn't realize at the time that it was because of the
hurricane and not because of random geographic fluctuations.
We got to the border, and there was at most a 10 minute wait to get into
Canada. We just said we were driving on to NY, so they let us in.
187 Miles - Arrive Ontario, Canada
We took 402 toward London, but then got off on 4 and then 3 to try to see
Lake Erie. The road was torn up, to the bare dirt, for construction. And
our turnoff wasn't marked in Aylmer. So we took the scenic route. Canada
is surprisingly flat in this area, and filled with Mennonites and Tobacco
farms.
We eventually ended up at
Port Bruce Provincial Park. We walked along Lake
Erie which was muddy and churned up from the Hurricane Katrina remains which
had recently passed through.
After walking along the shore, we got ice cream. Luckily I had $5 Canadian
in my wallet left over from my Ottawa Trip the previous year.
We found our way back to 401, then to 403 and through Hamilton ON which was
extremely busy. All of these roads were clogged with people, many with
US plates, going well over the 100km/h limit.
We got on the QEW and saw the last of the Great Lakes, Ontario.
We felt no need to stop (even if such a stop were possible) because
Ontario was the one Great Lake I had actually seen before prior to this trip.
We got to customs at the Whirlpool Bridge, and were waved through with
barely any questions after at most a 5 minute wait. So all the horror
stories of long waits were unfounded, at least for our particular trip.
710 Kilometers - Arrive New York
We then went to Kristina's grandparent's former house, which is outside of
Buffalo NY. The majority of our journey was over, and her parents got in
later that night.
455 Miles - Arrived East Amherst NY
Day 7 - 455 Miles Traveled, 3778 Miles Total
Back to main trip page