Another week comes to an end, and a new one is about to begin soon. I was just sitting looking out at the highway through the leafless trees and resting the next few hours before hitting the road again. For a day, I didn't wake up to a sore back and neck. And I even got to use a nice clean restroom.
Things have got to change concerning the planning of the roadtrip: It'll be too dangerous to drive at night and early morning in the cold weather because there may be ice on the road. Have to start setting camp or finding a place to sleep around sunset.
At this point, it looks like I may stay another day in upper penninsula Michigan near the border of Cananda. Don't want to arrive in Canada during the night and miss the view. Once crossed the Canadian border, it'll be a personal historic moment- nothing really big in the eyes of others.
Left the Birchmont Motel at 10:17 am with 54054 miles on the odometer and headed east towards Christmas, Michigan.
Christmas is an incredible little town along the beach with season's greetings all over the place. Many of the buildings and houses were either green or red, or both. The post office was the gift shop, and there was a huge Ms. Santa and a green post office mail box in front. I wish the Christmas spirit was yearround.
After entering Ontario, Canada, most of the time was spent driving Route 17 towards Sudbury, Ontario. I didn't do much exploring in the city of Saint Ste. Marie, Ontario since I was so excited about venturing deeper into Canada. And you know what there was to see? Nothing much different, but somehow I liked it because it was new and different. Two things I noticed: there weren't many billboards covering up the roadsides, and there weren't many fences. The original plan was to travel to Niagra Falls and cross the US border and visit the northeast states before returning to Canada near Maine.
Stopped by this private park, but it was closed; however, the owners would have allowed me to pitch up a tent in their backyard for $12 Canadian. I thought it was kind of awkward to set up a tent in their backyard, and that was kind of expensive since I camped for less at parks which provided water, showers, and a closer view of a lake. Plus, a motel wouldn't have been much more. So I went back to the original plan and headed to the providence park.
It turns out the providence park was closed, as are all government parks at this time of year. To my bad luck, I passed up all the "open all season" camp parks a while back. And as I headed east towards Sudbury, Ontario, there were no more open campsites. It was going to be one of those parking lot nights. Even if I did manage to find a site, I'm not sure how well I could have done in the freezing night. It seemed most everyone at the campsites had mobile homes, but one site had two large tents pitched.
After driving through the Sudbury, which didn't take very long, I decided that the Travelodge Inn was the best place to stay. So I circled back and parked in a corner, put up my windshield visor, and went uncomfortably to sleep. That's not quite the way I imagined my first night in Canada.
When the Rodeo crossed the border of Canada/US into the Canadian city of Sault Ste. Marie (the US side has a city with the same name, but much smaller) it marked a not-so-special occassion. The Rodeo and I have travelled to all three continents in North America (Mexico, Canada, and United States).
