ON Archives - Page 5 of 9 - Our View From The Road

Arriving in Indy

After enjoying a beverage and slice of pizza at our hosts last evening, we enjoyed a long and silent night.

The views across the farmland this morning were serene. Windmills on the horizon quietly turning about their business whilst a few early farming types were up and running about getting a jump on the days chores.

We get going at about 8:45am and head back towards highway 401. The border crossing at Windsor is only about 45 min away and so we are hoping to beat the Saturday rush. Not quite.

US Customs is busy with many lanes open for traffic each having between 6 and 9 vehicles waiting. We join a line of 6 cars and 1 minibus. Mistake #1. The minibus takes a while for all passengers to be processed and then the lane is closed temporarily while there is a shift change of agents.

Our turn comes and it isn’t long before we realize that we have inherited the badass agent out to prove something to someone. We’re grilled. We’re boarded. We’re released. Phew. 25 minutes in all to clear US Customs. Argh.

Detroit driving is actually very good and the I-75 South towards Toledo flows smoothly. Potholes, lots. Construction, also lots but as it’s Saturday we pass right through without any delays.

Before we know it we’re driving around Toledo and onto US-24 towards Fort Wayne, IN. This is a beautiful road. Quiet, smooth, relatively flat.

When we arrive in Fort Wayne we head towards town and stop for fuel and groceries at a WalMart. Whilst stopped we made ourselves lunch in the van.

Back on the road we head now towards Indianapolis. Traffic builds as we get into the city as there are lots of construction zones we need to slow down for. We head around the city on I-465 and then take I-65 towards the Speedway. A few more turns and we’re driving down Georgetown Road towards IMS Lot 1-A where we are camping whilst in town.

A friendly campground host sets us up in a really nice spot at the edge of the camping field away from the rowdiest of campers. Excellent!

We’re meeting friends while here and they pick us up in their truck shortly after we arrive. We go back to their hotel which is next to the Indianapolis Colts football stadium and enjoy a couple of drinks while catching up on everyone’s travels from Ottawa to Indy.

We take an Uber downtown to Fogo de Chāo a Brazilian Steakhouse where all enjoyed a wonderful meal while telling tales and laughing at ourselves and the escapades enjoyed throughout our long term friendships.

Barb and I took an Uber back to the campsite to end the day and fell asleep to the thrum of generators, music and fireworks.

Tomorrow, the Indy 500. That’s it, that’s all, a motor race. Sleep tight everyone! Vroom, vroom.

Heading West to go East?

Welcome to the first in a series of posts in which we will share with you a trip to the Canadian Maritime provinces. We’re traveling in our 2022 PleasureWay OnTour 2.2 camper-van again and plan on staying at a variety of campgrounds along the way. It’s late May 2023 and our plan is to complete this trip over the next four weeks arriving home ahead of Canada Day (July 1st). We hope you enjoy reading about our travels and will check back often as we add to Our View From The Road.

It’s Friday. It’s early. It’s day one of a new adventure. We’re excited. We’re off…. But wait, why are we heading West? I thought this was a series of posts about going to the East coast? Remember I said, it’s late May? That can only mean that it’s time again to head to Indianapolis for the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 !!!!! That’s right, we’re heading back for a 2nd year.

7:00am and I’m out for my 5km walk, a beautiful morning. 8:40am and we’re out of the laneway. Towards Prescott and Hwy-401. Our first stop was the Mallorytown OnRoute service center for fuel and breakfast. Not a huge Tim’s fan but it does fine for this morning. The driving is good for a Friday, the usual compliment of trucks setting the pace whilst impatient drivers try to carve around them.

Toronto comes and goes. Early Friday afternoon traffic slows us a little but soon we’re cruising past the airport and on our way out of town.

Our next stop is the Cambridge OnRoute this time only for gas. $1.709 / litre for regular, ouch. We’re getting hungry but decide to push on.

Woodstock OnRoute and we stop to take a break in the picnic area. This is a wonderfully quiet, shady spot to take a break and enjoy a sandwich in our van. Not much further today so we finish up and get back on the road.

Past London, West Lorne and finally we pull off of the highway at Blenheim. Our stop for tonight is the Red Barn Brewing Company. As a Harvest Hosts location, we stay for the cost of trying some of their goods. They are fairly new based upon the nice barn structure in which they are situated. They have a nice outdoor patio and some activities to enjoy such as the game of cornhole. The beer selection is quite good and we buy a few to enjoy whilst traveling about.

Tomorrow we cross into the US of A. Sleep well everyone.

Sorry but there are no pictures from today, we were just to focused on our destination and forgot to pickup the camera.

Day 47: The road home

Days 45 & 46 were spent visiting family & there was no specific post for those days.

This is it, the last day of this trip. We are up early and it’s cool. We enjoy breakfast and say our goodbyes (for now) and hit the road. Our first stop is just a few blocks away at a public dump station where we empty our tanks for the last time.

We drive cross-country towards Cambridge, ON where we join Hwy 401E towards Toronto. The traffic is steady but being a Sunday there are few trucks on the road. This allows traffic to flow easily and before we know it we’re in Toronto passing the airport.

Traffic comes to a short halt a couple of times as we cross the city but nothing that causes any real delays. We stop at the highway service center near Port Hope, ON where we grab a sandwich and coffee before filling up with fuel. Argh! Canadian fuel prices are harsh.

The drive towards Eastern Ontario goes smoothly and we arrive at home by mid-afternoon. The tree damage from the recent ice storm looks severe and will take some time to clean up, but that’s for another day.

This trip has been amazing, we’re both tired and looking forward to resuming our home lives but for now, we sit and reflect on the sights and experiences we’ve shared in recent weeks.

As mentioned in my last post, I hope to post a summary of our trip in the upcoming days so watch for it. Thanks again for coming along for the ride & we hope you join us again on our future trips.

Day 44: It’s nice to be back, Eh!

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.

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 01: On the road again…

Welcome back to our travel blog! The long and snowy winters end approaches; however, not quickly enough for these intrepid explorers. And so this post finds us heading out in search of sunnier and warmer climes in the Southern US. Todays drive took us from the US/Canadian border, across the Blue Ridge mountains and into the state of Virginia.

It’s 6:00am and half of the house is awake for the day, it should be a busy one. No snow overnight so at least there’s none to brush off of the van before we can drive. Now, time to go for a walk and then the final loading to complete. 9:00am target departure. Wish us luck!

Ok, so 9:30am and we’re rolling out of town after dropping a package off at the post office. The roads are dry and it’s sunny, a good omen we believe.

The St. Lawrence river is open water signaling that Spring is near. The border crossing is very smooth with just a few cursory questions concluding with the agent saying a rather abrupt “Goodbye”. Several hundred yards later at the bridge toll booth we were held up slightly as a trucker maneuvered his/her 11’6” wide load through a series of bollards signed at being 11’6” clear. Some of the item wrapping brushed against the bollards but otherwise no damage done. Nice driving.

The drive across US37 towards Watertown, NY was easy and a nice way to ease into what would be a long day.

We picked up I-81 and headed South towards Syracuse and onto Whitney Point where we stopped at the visitor center and had a ham & cheese wrap for lunch.

Frost capped trees near Whitney Point, NY

Binghamton, Scranton and Wilkes Barre soon followed as the interstate took us further South with each passing mile. By this point in the journey almost all of the snow on the ground was gone and the temperature was steadily above zero Celsius. By the time we cross out of Pennsylvania and into Maryland the temperature is a steady 8C, that’s 15C above this mornings temperature at home!

Driving through West Virginia the sun sets and the nighttime truck traffic is taking over the interstate, time to find a park up. Like Mr & Mrs Milddogs last year, we decided to stop at the Cracker Barrel in Winchester, VA. where we enjoyed a chicken dinner before settling down for the night. I was even carded when requesting a beer with my dinner! 59 and still looking under 25! I’ll take it.

It was a very long day of driving which saw us arrive at 7:15pm, almost 10 hours after leaving home. Tomorrow should be shorter and will see us head towards Chattanooga, TN. Stay tuned for how we make out.

Before signing off for the night, let’s address a few questions you, our readers, might have.
1. How are you handling the colder temperatures? Are you not afraid of the piping freezing while driving through states with temperatures below freezing point?
– We left home with the van still ‘winterized’ with plumbing antifreeze in the piping and plan on leaving it that way until the ambient temperatures support ‘dewinterizing’.
2. Have you made any changes or improvements to the van over the winter?
– We were generally very happy with the van when we last used it in 2022. We have added a small shelving system under the sink to better organize baskets that we keep there containing various items used in the galley.
3. Was any specific maintenance performed before travelling this year?
– As the van currently has only 15000kms on it, only an oil change and service was performed by the Ford dealer last Fall. Other than this, only the typical pre-trip checks of fluids, tyre pressures, etc. were performed. We are expecting to have to perform a little more maintenance upon our return.