2012 saw me take my first big road trip since 2010, and my first one to ever cross an international border. I departed Texas intent on both visiting friends in two different states, one group of whom had recently relocated to Michigan, and on (possibly) crossing the border into Canada. I had just gotten my passport a month earlier and set off on the last day of May on what would become the first of my regular, annual road trip adventures. This time around I was armed not only with my Kodak Easyshare, but also with my Nokia slider style cell phone and my Canon 40D DSLR. As for navigation, I wouldn't have GPS for two more years and wouldn't have a smartphone for three more years, so this trip was made via directions copied longhand (i.e., via pen and paper) off Google Maps, with said mapping done on a laptop I took along for the trip. At this point traveling so far from home was still a bit of a novelty for me, and the thought of finally visiting Canada, a place I'd wanted to visit for years, was both exciting and anxiety-inducing. But I set out intent on making it happen.
May 31 - Heading out
I headed out at about 6 AM, delaying my start a bit due to rain.
Mileage at the start of the trip
Part of the initially long, boring drive through Arkansas toward Memphis and I-55
Crossing the Mississippi River
After some delays due to multiple road construction zones (particularly one between Little Rock and Memphis where traffic ground to a halt), a quick stop for a bite to eat, and some massive rain and winds that led me to take temporary refuge off the main interstate lanes, I made it up to Hoopeston after a very long day on the road. I would spend the first night at the home of my friends from my 2010 road trip.
June 1 - Motel-check in and first trip across the border
I stayed for breakfast in Illinois before heading out toward Auburn Hills and the first night to be spent in a motel. Although the people I would be visiting in Michigan lived in their own house, it was too crowded with family members for me to viably stay there. Heidi tried her hand at making some non-dairy pancakes using almond milk, which I took along with me for the ride up into the Rust Belt.
After about six hours of driving, I checked into my extended stay suite in Auburn Hills and settled in a bit while waiting to hear from Jessi. Eventually it was decided via a text exchange that we would meet up the following day.
Inside the motel room
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee was going on in Canada at the time of my trip.
The weather was rainy and cool. I had made sure to secure my passport before leaving Texas, with an eye toward a possible Canadian outing, and after the weather cleared up slightly, I decided to make a quick trip across the border into Windsor, Ontario. I took the Detroit-Windsor tunnel, coming out on the other side to face a pretty tough questioning from the Canadian border patrol. I was allowed to stay, and I went for a drive along the riverfront where I found this scenic overlook into Downtown Detroit.
Downtown Detroit as seen through a Kodak EasyShare camera at night. I had left my DSLR equipment back at the motel.
One of my bucket list items on the other side of the border was a bag of ketchup flavored Lay's, which I found immediately inside the first gas station I stopped at. I also stopped at a Subway, curious to see if the foot long sub was measured in inches on the other side of the border (it was), and then at a 7-11 close to the bridge back to the USA. The gas prices in Windsor were the first I had seen priced in liters, and I decided to fill up while I was there. It seemed like a fun idea at the time, but I would later calculate the per gallon cost in U.S. dollars and learn that I had actually paid about $4.50/gallon.
Too bad it was by the liter
My first fill up in Canada
I stopped at the Duty Free store on my way back into Michigan, picking up some souvenirs for myself and for some people back home. On future trips I would generally eschew souvenir shops as [purveyors of cheap merchandise sold at inflated prices], but this was my first international road trip and I opted to splurge on some mementos.
June 2 - Exploring Detroit
The next morning the weather forecast called for overcast skies with a 40-50% chance of rain. I opened the curtains in my room to find that the sun was out, though it was still windy. My friends came to the hotel to get me for a drive down into Downtown Detroit, and as we drove toward Downtown, the greater city's decay in the areas we passed through was extremely apparent. Downtown itself showed signs of better days gone by in its architecture and design.
Riding on the People Mover train around the downtown core
Some views from the People Mover
The Ambassador Bridge - one of two primary connections between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario - as seen from the People Mover
A walk around the riverfront and Downtown
Looking across the water by the Detroit Princess
June 3 - Visiting the Goldens' house
I headed back to the Goldens' household from my motel on Sunday, DSLR in tow, intending to take some family photos. The weather on this day turned out to be very nice indeed.
One of Michigan's 11,000 inland lakes, seen along the way to the house
The men were working on one of the cars when I arrived
The pet duck seemed fascinated with its own reflection
We headed out to a lakefront location to try for some pictures, but the youngest member of the family wasn't having it. We went back to the house and determined to try again on my return visit to Michigan a few days hence.
The EasyShare camera, commandeered by a small but determined budding young photographer
June 4 - On into Ontario
On Monday afternoon, I packed up everything into my car and set off for Canada for the next leg of my trip. Although I had essentially hopped across three nights earlier, this was to be the "real" visit to the other side of the border. That earlier border patrol encounter had taught me the value of having an actual itinerary and a plan for where to stay upon arrival in Canada, so I made sure to book lodgings ahead of checking out of my motel in Auburn Hills.
Mileage as I'm about to leave the Detroit area
I crossed the Ambassador Bridge into Windsor, Ontario - I figured that I would take that route since I'd taken the tunnel the last time - with some trepidation. The trepidation proved to have been well founded, as I was subjected to my toughest grilling by any border patrol officers to date. After a search of the car and being detained for what was at least a half hour while being questioned, I was finally/eventually granted entry into the country.
The bridge crossing into Windsor, Ontario
I eventually found - with the help of a local police officer - an ATM in one of the casinos where I was able to get some cash in Canadian currency. Cash finally in hand, I waited out the rush hour traffic for a while inside a Starbucks before setting out toward Toronto and the suburb of Vaughan, Ontario.
Driving through rural Canada for the first time, with the same blue skies and wide open spaces as back home
Most road signs on Hwy 401 between Windsor and the Toronto area in southern Ontario appear in both English and French
The experience crossing the border had left me somewhat shaken, and I stopped at a Flying J and Denny's Diner just off the highway in London, Ontario. A veggie burger and iced tea cost over $14 and gasoline was selling for $1.24/liter. The man at the Denny's check out counter warned me to beware of price gouging once I reached Niagara Falls.
I arrived at my hotel in Vaughan at around 1:30 AM. As this was in the days before I had GPS or a smartphone, I had some difficulty locating the hotel, but eventually I found it and was able to check in for the night. It was nicer than I expected, with a separate bedroom, living room, and kitchen area, but a bit expensive/on the expensive side.
June 5 - Toronto and Niagara Falls
By now I was feeling relatively normal again, with the previous day's tough grilling at the border now behind me. I checked out of the hotel and went out to do some looking around.
The hotel in the morning
A Toronto Star satellite area in Vaughan, which I had driven by the night before while looking for my hotel
I eventually ended up at a Fortino's grocery store about two miles from the hotel, my first time inside a foreign grocery store. Inside I found an odd mixure of units for sizing and pricing goods. Fresh produce was priced by the pound, but packaged goods were labeled in grams or kilograms. Sometimes the metric unit was followed by the English equivalent in parenthesis, but even when it wasn't, a very high percentage of goods had clearly been packaged to standardized (i.e., American-derived) sizes even though they were being labeled in grams. This was the case even when the items in question were of Canadian origin. Prices were generally higher than what I would have encountered back home.
As a bibliophile, I needed to visit this bookstore in the shopping center behind the Fortino's. Back in 2003, I worked briefly for Borders Books & Music, a chain that went under in 2011. Chapters turned out to have the same vibe and feel on the inside, right down to the adjoining Starbucks coffee shop. I addressed the postcards for people back home over a cup of Starbucks coffee.
My first encounters with some Canadian institutions
Driving North America's busiest highway as I explored Toronto proper. The Macdonald–Cartier Freeway (Highway 401) uses a collector-express system to deal with the high traffic volume through the Greater Toronto Area, with two sets of lanes running in each direction. Signs for the express lanes are green and signs for the collector lanes are blue to avoid confusion. Going through the heart of the city, this gives a total of 14-18 lanes altogether depending on the area, and during rush hour most of them are bumper to bumper.
I was impressed with my first look at Toronto's downtown core as I searched for a post office to mail the postcards.
Sitting still on Hwy 401 during the afternoon rush hour
After an afternoon of exploration and some shopping, I set off in the direction of Niagara Falls
Driving the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) over Lake Ontario toward Niagara Falls. The weather was very nice and the view of the water and the shoreline looked amazing. A pocket camera pointed out the window could not do it justice.
Upon my arrival, I parked in a cash lot about a kilometer's walk from the Falls and made my way in their direction. The sound of the water crashing [and cascading] could be heard all around. My visit to the Falls was largely impromptu, with no advance plans having been made. Thus, there was no possibility of booking any tours and it was too late in the day to look for a high vantage point. But in the end it didn't really matter much, because you can see the Falls for free by just walking up to them and standing at the Niagara River View.
At Niagara Falls, on the Ontario side. The sound is loud enough to be heard from blocks away.
The casino and observation deck across the street and some distance beyond, overlooking the Falls
The Falls, lit up at night
I had originally planned to see the Falls and then head out, but I decided to linger for a few hours longer to see them lit up and to tour the circus of money traps in the vicinity. The area immediately near the Falls is a huge tourist area with scores of amusements and greatly overpriced food. A small order of french fries in the local Wendy's cost close to $2, and I didn't even speculate on the cost of the cuisine at the nearby (already closed for the night) Indian restaurant.
I re-entered the U.S. at Niagara Falls, NY, and drove straight through New York into Pennsylvania, ultimately finding a place in Erie to stop for the night. The room was rather warm and had wooden floors. After the expense of the Toronto room and the high cost of gasoline (and everything else) in Canada, I opted for a budget place.
2012 saw me take my first big road trip since 2010, and my first one to ever cross an international border. I departed Texas intent on both visiting friends in two different states, one group of whom had recently relocated to Michigan, and on (possibly) crossing the border into Canada. I had just gotten my passport a month earlier and set off on the last day of May on what would become the first of my regular, annual road trip adventures. This time around I was armed not only with my Kodak Easyshare, but also with my Nokia slider style cell phone and my Canon 40D DSLR. As for navigation, I wouldn't have GPS for two more years and wouldn't have a smartphone for three more years, so this trip was made via directions copied longhand (i.e., via pen and paper) off Google Maps, with said mapping done on a laptop I took along for the trip. At this point traveling so far from home was still a bit of a novelty for me, and the thought of finally visiting Canada, a place I'd wanted to visit for years, was both exciting and anxiety-inducing. But I set out intent on making it happen.
