Saturday, 15 October 2011

Toronto-Waterloo-Sarnia-Benton Harbour

We got a good start, leaving at 9:15 am  with a fullish tank.  I tried to take a picture but the rechargeable battery in my camera was flat.  We had only one planned diversion, to drop Ian off at his place in Waterloo.  We then returned to the 401, passed London and took the 402 to Sarnia/Port Huron.

We hit a wrinkle at the US border.  Unlike Canadians, British subjects need to get a visa-like card upon entry, to turn back in when they leave.  The fact that Terry & Elfrida were arriving by land, and leaving later by air, caused some consternation.  They flagged us to pull over and speak to a border officer.  It took about 45 minutes to get fill out the forms, answer his questions (he sounded sceptical of just about everything we said) and get Terry & Elfrida photographed & fingerprinted, and admitted.  Meanwhile, the customs people had searched the Ford, and had opened and gone through every bag (and not quite put everything back.)  I didn't mind, but Elf bridled a bit about being treated like a criminal. 

But we got back on I-69, and made good time driving through the gently rolling farm country.  There was a lot of road kill - in one hour we saw five full-size deer and numerous raccoons and smaller wildlife. 

The new TomTom GPS worked well, but took a little getting used to.  For example, to go to a town rather than a specific address, you enter the town name to start, and then enter it again when it prompts for a street name.  It then pops up to ask "Do you want the center of town X?"  which you answer yes.  It works, but is not exactly intuitive. 

We arrived in Benton Harbour, the first planned stop on out trip, with an hour of daylight to spare.  We had a Texas-sized dinner at the Texas Corral (clearly the most popular spot on a Saturday night in this otherwise quiet town.)  Tomorrow, the plan is to head into Chicago to pick up the start of Route 66. 

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