Canadian Bypass

We left Aunt Charlotte's in Livonia, MI this morning about 10:00
headed for Niagara Falls. I thought we would go through the Windsor
Tunnel out of downtown Detroit, but Tomtom said it was faster to go
north to Port Huron, MI and cross to Canada that way.

We loved traversing north of Lake Erie via Ontario instead of the
south shore via Ohio. Almost no traffic and much, much better roads.
Man, we saw some really terrible road surface in Illinois, Indiana and
Michigan.

The weather changed yesterday in Michigan and eastward with much lower
temperature and occasional rain. We drove through a very heavy squall
near Brantford, ON. It was so heavy that all traffic on the freeway
slowed to about 20mph and many people turned on their emergency
flashers. It lasted about 5 minutes and then the sun came out again.

In mid-afternoon we pulled into Niagara Falls. I think the Canadian
side might be the most touristy place I have ever seen. It was like
the Las Vegas strip compressed into a few blocks. We found a good
parking place near the Skylon with a very convenient path down to the
overlook.

Fortunately the sun was out and we had a leisurely walk from American
Falls down to Horseshoe Falls and back. Then we hopped back in the
car, crossed the Rainbow Bridge back into the US and headed east to
Batavia, NY where we are staying the night.

We decided not to go to Toronto and Montreal. We think we're going to
make out way slowly across New York, visiting the Finger Lakes and
maybe touch the Adirondacks. We're playing it by ear at the moment.

We've put about 3,300 miles on Ruby since leaving Seattle.

Motor City

Yesterday we drove from Chicago to the Detroit area. We went to the
home of my cousin Renee and her husband Andy and their kids Andrea and
Alex in Canton, MI. They were hosting a gathering in our honor. Also
there were my Aunt Charlotte and my cousin Andre and his wife Jill and
kids Nichole, Marcel, Royale, Pierre and Maurice.

I last saw Charlotte, Andre, Jill and Renee in 1978. It was wonderful
to see them again and to meet their families.

Renee and her family have a pool. Audrey got in shortly after we
arrived and spent the next four hours in the water with me, Nichole or
Andrea.

Today we relaxed at Aunt Charlotte's house. The photo is at the
elementary school across the road. Audrey spent most of the day
playing with Aunt Charlotte's new kitten Tascha. Our Charlotte spent
the day being inexplicably terrified of the kitten.

This afternoon we met Renee and her family for dinner and they
surprised me by inviting my Uncle Ed. During our brief visit to
Detroit we got to see all of my family here. What a treat.

Tomorrow we'll head east again. We're going to take the Canadian route
to Niagara Falls. We haven't decided where we'll go from there. Maybe
northeast to Toronto and Montreal then down through Vermont and New
Hampshire or maybe just straight across New York to Boston.

And Now For Something Completely Different

When I told Uncle Gary and Aunt Kathy our planned visit dates they
told me they were performing in a classical chorale program and would
have tickets for us and babysitting arranged. I filed it away in my
brain as one of many details of the trip.

Well, it turned out to be a real treat. They are members of the chorus
of the West Suburban Symphony Orchestra. Tonight the symphony
performed three Beethoven works: the "Egmont Overture", "Ah Perfido",
and the 9th Symphony with the "Ode to Joy" chorale movement. Carol and
I enjoyed it very much. It was especially wonderful juxtaposed with
our current 24/7 life with the girls in the van.

While here we got to meet my cousins Eileen, Dan, Ken and Melissa for
the first time. Melissa has children almost the same age as ours and
they had fun playing together for a couple of hours.

In the morning we depart for Canton, MI where we'll visit with my Aunt
Charlotte and my cousins Andre and Renee and their families. I think I
haven't seen them since 1979.

When we leave Detroit on Tuesday we're considering changing our plan
and travelling through Canada from Detroit at least to Niagara Falls
and possibly through Montreal and down through Vermont. Stayed tuned!

Thanks to Uncle Gary and Aunt Kathy for a great (if brief) visit.

Cooling Off

It's in the high 80's today in Chicago. We went to a playground in
late morning but lasted about 5 minutes.

Back at Gary and Kathy's we got on the internet and found a nearby
free spray park. Audrey and Charlotte are loving it.

It's supposed to cool off to the 70s' on Monday. We'll be in Detroit
by then. Hopefully it'll be cooler there, too.

Chicago!

After Thursday's heat I never thought it would happen but we made it all the way to Chicago Friday night. A 700 mile day!

We drove away from our motel in Chamberlain, SD at 6:33AM. It was already pretty warm, which didn't seem like a good omen.

We realized it was going pretty well when we had about 300 of our 500 mile goal for day the under our belts. We figured if we worked in a swim in the afternoon then we could do the final few hours to Wheaton, IL. We checked the atlas and found Mirror Lake State Park in the Wisconsin Dells. We called and made sure they had swimming.

Then it was back to powering through the miles. I moved the roof cargo bag inside the van yesterday when I got tired of fighting the strong headwind. Today without the headwind Ruby was flying along smoothly at 75mph (the speed limit all the way from Idaho to Wisconsin).

It was only 86 degrees in La Crosse at 3:00; 10 degrees cooler than yesterday and significantly more tolerable in the van.

We got to the lake about 4:45 and had a very pleasant swim for an hour. Three more hours of driving and we were at Uncle Gary and Aunt Kathy's home at 9:15 PM.

We're back on schedule!