Our View From The Road

Sharing where we've been and what we've seen

Tag: OH

  • Lake Erie State Park

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    Well, the night was warm and the nearby I-65 was at times a bit noisy. Evidently there is also a railroad close to this Cracker Barrel which a few times overnight woke me. So, we are at 7:00am awake and getting ready for breakfast. The restaurant is open and based on the number of cars already in the lot, a popular place to start the day. We enjoy eggs & bacon and a cup of coffee before heading back out onto the I-65 East.

    We immediately enter the state of Ohio and for the next couple of hours enjoy its pastoral landscape. We get off the interstate and take some smaller backroads to head NorthEast towards Cleveland. At one point in a small town we have to turn around and take an alternate route as the town had closed its Main Street for a Memorial Day running event.

    We bypass Cleveland and head toward Erie, PA. We bypass Erie and head into the state of New York along I-90. We hop off the interstate before it becomes a toll road to get fuel. Our destination is a short drive along US-5 past a number of vineyards that line the coast of Lake Erie in this area.

    We arrive at Lake Erie State Park without a reservation. We had checked online and it appeared that most campers had departed after the long weekend and thus there should be plenty of room for us. We were right!!! In fact, even better was that the computer system was offline resulting in the park attendant granting us a free night!

    The park is quiet and has lots of hardwood trees scattered about for shade. The park is also right on the shore of the lake with wonderful views of the sunset. We arrived mid-afternoon and so we’re able to relax and enjoy the view and lakeside breezes before having roast beef sandwiches and salads for dinner in the van. A little TV to relax by during the evening and then a walk to the beach to enjoy that stunning sunset.

    Sunset across Lake Erie

    Good night one and all, I hope you to have recently enjoyed a glowing sunset. see you tomorrow!

  • Day 44: It’s nice to be back, Eh!

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    So this is it, our last day of this trip in the USA and it starts with another beautiful morning. We enjoy a quick breakfast and pack up the van for the drive.

    We head out and immediately have a small issue, our phones (used for GPS mapping functions while on the road) are not connecting to a network. Luckily as this is the last US leg and we’re somewhat familiar with where we are going we can push on. We figure out over the next few hours that it’s only an issue with AT&T, if we change our phones to use Verizon they work fine.

    We head towards Fort Wayne, IN and have to decide which route to take. Detroit or Lansing. I’d prefer to avoid Detroit because of traffic and construction, but Lansing will add about an hour to our drive time. We’re tired of driving and so Detroit it is. At Fort Wayne we head NE towards Toledo, OH and hope that we don’t get caught up in any major delays.

    We’ve already noticed the lack of leaves on the trees when compared to our drive of yesterday. Spring is only just beginning in the Northern states.

    Toledo, OH is under construction, or at least the I-75N is. It gets better as we cross into Michigan, but then in Detroit it feels as if they’ve decided to completely redo the entire highway system. We muddle on and emerge the other side of the city unscathed. Yay!

    A quick lunch stop at McD’s and then a stop at one last US gas station. It seems like just a few minutes later and we’re paying the bridge toll (Debit/Credit only, cash no longer accepted). Over the Bluewater bridge and into Ontario.

    Canada Border Protection Services happily allow us to re-enter Canada with a minimal delay (less than 5min total from bridge to Hwy 402). Yay, we’re home, Eh!

    Our last hour for the day takes us along the shore of Lake Huron to Grand Bend where we stop at Tim Horton’s for a coffee (Mmm, Timmies) before heading to Exeter, ON where we are spending a couple of days with Barb’s parents.

    This marks the end of daily posts for this, our 2023 Southwestern US tour. I will put up a post in the upcoming days about our drive across Ontario towards home as well as one or two posts summarizing the trip in the next week or so. Whether you’ve followed us regularly or just found our blog, thanks for reading. I hope that you’ve enjoyed our view from the road.

    Thanks for coming along with us!

    BTW, we are planning a tour of the Maritime provinces in just a few weeks, so watch out for another series of posts starting soon. Cheers.

  • Day 6: May 25 – Exeter, ON to New Castle, IN

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    After two relaxing and enjoyable days visiting Barb’s parents, it’s time to head out. We spent the morning preparing for the longer road trip we would have that afternoon and at about 11:00am pulled out of their driveway. Thanks again Jack & Mary.

    Our route took us to Sarnia, ON where we would cross into the US and drive South towards Detroit and then onto Dayton, OH before turning West on I-70 towards Indianapolis, IN.

    The driving today was how everyone hopes it might always be when they travel, uneventful. The border crossing was very quiet and the process was quick. Detroit through to Toledo, the traffic was moderate and the roads not as rough as we’d expected. We stopped for gas shortly after Toledo and met up with Dean, Cathy & J-P who we were joining for our weekend in Indy.

    After turning West onto the I-70 is where the weather changed. The warm and grey conditions became warm and wet with a few heavy rain downpours along the route. Luckily the heaviest of the rain was gone when we pulled into our overnight destination, the Walmart in New Castle, IN.

    We’d chosen this particular Walmart as it’s about an hour away from Indy and therefore would be a good point from which to drive tomorrow into the Indy campground. It also allowed us to stock up on groceries.

    After the re-provisioning was complete, we all enjoyed a drink and an hour or so of conversation catching up with each other before heading off to sleep. Good night to all.

    Tomorrow we head into Indianapolis.