We crossed into Canada at Port Huron/Sarnia. This bridge is called the Blue Water Bridge.
The Border Patrol guy took his job very seriously. No smiles or words of welcome, just asked us to declare specific items if we had them.
We didn’t pass right away because we didn’t have the app filled out, so had to go park uner the roof in the distance to get the ArriveCAN app downloaded and the COVID info entered.
Most of the driving in the morning looked like this.
Carson loves, loves, loves Tim Hortons, so we had to stop so he could get his donuts. He has been waiting for Tim Hortons since our last trip to Canada in 2019.
We couldn’t find a parking spot, so at first, this was the only view we thought we would get.
This is the view if you turn your back on the Falls near the American falls end of the block.
We walked to the bus as it pulled up and let some workers off. The driver waved us back to where we were standing, even though no one else was around. Awkward!
The falls is gorgeous and the color of the water amazing.
Carson’s friends wanted him to send a selfie, so here ya go Destination Imagination kids!
We didn’t take the time to take the boat tour, or walk behind the falls. There were long lines for everything here.
Is it Wall Drug? No! Just racks and racks of magnets and keychains with all the names on them.
From inside the main building, which is mostly restaurants and lines for all the paid activities that were available.
The American Falls. Not nearly as impressive compared to Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side.
A cool speckled gull at our bus stop.
Back to the eerily empy parking lot to make some sandwiches for lunch.
Can’t you just see a zombie apocolypse moview being made here? Parking lot after parking lot with just a car in random spots. No people and nothing else a park would normally have available. So creepy!
Heading back into the US-much faster than leaving it.
The boys may not be little anymore, but they still made up a game with the jelly packets while we waited for our food.
We finally found parking at the very last bus stop on this route.
Family selfie!
After the hotel breakfast, we were on our way. Our first adventure of the day was getting into Canada. After the usualy questions about firearms and fruit (we didn’t have either), the very serious border agent wanted to scan the app with all of our COVID vaccine info on it. There is an app? Apparently it is called ArriveCAN and it is required in order to enter Canada. We had all our vaccine cards but had no idea there was an app that we had to upload all of that info to, so the guy had us park to the side after we got over the bridge, download the app and then fill out all of the info it wanted for each one of us. It took forever, until we realized the reason that our phone signals were not strong enough was because they had us park under a huge metal roof. Once I got out of the truck and walked about 10 ft from the roof, things uploaded much faster, and we received the barcode that the border agents scanned and then we were finally on our way.
Our next adventure was Niagara Falls. It took a while to find a place to park because we were pulling the camper and normal parking spots aren’t long enough. We finally found a place in Parking Lot C (in case you needed to know), which looked like an abandoned park full of empty parking lots. Seriously, it would make a great backdrop for an apocolyse movie! But, the shuttle bus did come and pick us up and take us to the Table Rock stop, where we walked around amongst the hordes of people, took some photos of the Falls, and some selfies. Then we took the shuttle bus back to the truck, made some sandwiches, and headed back into the US.
We continued to drive to Utica, NY where we stopped for the night. Tomorrow we are heading through the Green Mountains in Vermont, stopping at the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream factory, and then into the White Mountains in New Hampshire for a few nights of camping. We are looking forward to less roads and people, and more nature in the coming days!
Our goal was to leave about 7am, and we drove out of the driveway at 7:38 and didn’t have to go back to grab anything. Pretty good for a 25 day trip!
Bye house!
Jeff did most of the overall schedule planning for this trip and will do almost all the driving too. Amy does the research on things to do and see along the way. We both packed and got the camper and truck packed.
Our first stop was a boat landing. Great visual! One summer I worked for the City of Oshkosh and tested lake water for zebra mussels which were just starting to take over. They can really do damage to water intake pipes!
Trains! (If anyone reading this didn’t know, Jeff loves trains)
Great to see a Monarch on some milkweed.
We stopped for lunch here and you can see the Mackinac Bridge in the distance.
A windy selfie
Impressive, isn’t it?
The cost was $2 per axle. Not bad! We were expecting it to be a lot more.
The table is the staging area for the bed of the pickup. The blue cooler on the right is the only cooler we bring. Jeff built a cedar rack in the bottom of it so water can drain out as the ice melts. No soggy food!
A selfie on the northern most shore of Lake Michigan.
A quick tailgate lunch
We set off almost at the target time of 7am, and drove for most of the day. The highlight of the day was stopping for lunch in the shadow of the great Mackinac Bridge. Amazing feat of engineering! We also stopped to stretch our legs mid morning as we drove through the U.P. and saw some really old train cars. The driving was pleasant all day, not crowded and no bad weather, with occasional construction zones. After getting to the hotel and a bite to eat, we are all relaxing and will probably fall asleep early.
Hello everyone! After a three year hiatus due to a worldwide pandemic, we are gearing up for another epic roadtrip-25 days! Highlights this year include traveling over the Mackinaw Bridge, the Canadian Niagra Falls, Camping in the White Mountains, Kennebunkport with the Klines, ferry rides to and from Newfoundland, camping in Gros Morne National Park in Canada, a visit to L’Anse aux Meadows-the oldest Viking Settlement in North America, then a day in Quebec City, and passing through Ste. Saint Marie. So much to see and explore. We can’t wait!
We will not be posting anything about our trip to our individual social media accounts until we get back home because we don’t want to advertise that we will be gone for such a long time. We will post a link to each blog post on a private facebook group for anyone who is on facebook. We also have a sign-up (to the right on or scroll down) so you can get an email when the blog gets updated.