Yes, this entry happened a full week ago. Lay off.
Saturday, the 16th 11:01- Rocky shows up as expected and helps me finish up packing. Namely, he sits at my desk and teases me while I finish up packing, and then I make him carry down my ridiculously heavy bags downstairs.
11:38- Sarah finally shows up, late as usual. With Margaret and her mom, Sarah and her mom and stepdad, Rocky, my grandparents, and my entire family, our kitchen is understandably a little packed. But I love it. We’re all just standing around and talking and eating chocolate chip cookies. Hard to go wrong.
12:25- Lift off. Namely, artfully maneuvering The Beast (our large, should-no-longer-be-in-commission Suburban) out of the garage and around my grandparents’ two cars. Don’t ask me why they drove separately- I live in Michigan.
12:30- A mile and a half from my house, my dad asks if I have the key to my bike lock. As I hadn’t even planned on bringing my bike until less than an hour before, I had totally forgotten it. Typical of a family trip, we clearly have to turn around to retrieve the key in question.
12:33- My dad has already started making bad jokes about the state of our 7 year old Suburban. This is potentially going to be a very long trip.
12:38- I find the key. Success!
12:39- Second try at the leaving thing.
1:43- We are in serious Hicksville, Michigan. Seeing as our state only has 3 large cities of note, that I live in one and will not be passing through another, this makes sense.
This is a beautiful state, though. I keep taking pictures of random corn fields because I won’t be this way for a while. Maybe Christmas, if we go to the other side of the state to visit with family.
3:05- After passing through Flint,
the third most dangerous city in America, we come to Port Huron and the Canadian crossing. Like no kidding. There are actually street signs for Canada.
So we pay our tolls, cross the bridge, tell the woman on the Canadian side that we are not carrying any firearms, tobacco, or alcohol with us, and we’re good to go.
3:25- So we’ve been on the Canadian high way for a while now, and the speed limit around here is 100… km / h. But it’s still awesome to see speed limit signs for 100.
3:44- I feel like I’m driving through Kansas, not Canada.
4:09- Ooo, the signs are now in both French and English. I don’t think we’ve entered into Quebec, but maybe all three of us missed it.
Or not. I don’t really know, but I’m fascinated. 3 and a half hours of being in a car will cause you to be easily amused by rather mundane things like that.
4:47- We’ve stopped at a “Service Centre” for a leg stretching and dinner getting. So we elect to visit Wendy’s, which is fine with me though not my favorite, admittedly. But I’m trying to figure out what to order and as I’m not that hungry just want a plain hamburger, which is nowhere on this menu. I know that these chains change their marketing to fit different countries, but this is CANADA, not Vietnam or something. No plain hamburger, and no regular dollar menu for me to fall back on. I end up ordering way more food than I need to, and it’s not until we get our order hat I realize that with the exchange rate, there is no dollar menu.
Way to go, Shannon. Exactly where am I about to be dropped off, again?
Around 5:30- My dad knows the father of a kid who went to my high school who is currently at Boston College, and said father told my father you can take some route 20 something or other and it’s a short cut to Niagra. So we get off the highway, follow what we think is the right road, and after 10 or 20 minutes realize that we’re not finding the road we thought we were supposed to hit, nor are we going in the right direction. This is understandably not good. We are in the middle of the Canadian countryside and can’t seem to find where we’re going.
5:47- We stop at a gas station and ask for directions to this mystery route we’re looking for. The guy we ask, a local, doesn’t really know what we’re talking about, and just points us in the right direction.
This would have been helpful… had we not already had a compass in the car. We try our luck again in finding the route.
6:03- Verbatim from my dad, after discussing why the road we’re on isn’t on the map with my mom: “I’m just going to wing it.”
So, armed with little to no knowledge of Canadian geography and a car compass, we set off into the Canadian farm country yet again.
6:09- A text message from me to Rocky, when asked how my live blogging was coming: “Well my computer doesn’t have a whole lot of life left on it. But now we are lost. In Canada.”
6:24- We seem to have hit civilization again and the land of slightly traveled roads. My mom insists that this road is in fact on the map and will eventually lead us to the highway we were on originally. This is progress, at least. We’re heading southeast instead of north.
6:30- So apparently this route 56 we were on turns into the route 20 we were trying to find earlier, which should eventually run into the high way we were originally on, called the QEW.
6:34- Now our route 20 has become Centennial Parkway, which my mom assures us will spit us out on the QEW.
6:39- Over an hour after we first got on our short cut, we finally get back to the QEW. And my computer is dying from all this hour of activity, so I am taking a well earned power nap.
6:54- Lake Ontario. I live by Lake Michigan, drove over Lake Huron, drove by Lake Erie, and have now see Lake Ontario. Had I lived in the UP, I could have totally hit up all 5, which would have made this even more epic.
7:06- We hit the Niagara Falls area city (?) limits. This would make you think we’re getting pretty close, right?
7:30- Wrong- apparently we’re crossing in Buffalo instead. We thought we could make it over the border with our original tank of gas, but the low fuel light goes on and with the luck we’re having today, we really don’t want to push it and inevitably have the car die in the middle of the bridge to New York. Because that would probably have happened.
7:41- We hit the border of the US of A, get through more easily than we got into Canada (they didn’t even ask about the illegal drugs in the back! I mean…)
9:09- After some driving around Rochester, New York, we make it to our hotel for the night, after which we decide to hunt down an Applebee’s for some dinner.
11:38- I finally get some wifi and am able to submit my blogger application and watch Phelps win his 8th, which is ridiculous , by the dubs. And then I go to sleep.
Sunday, the 17th6:00- WHAT IS GOING ON. My dad had gotten a wake up call and it was a rather abrupt alarm in the middle of my oh so nice sleep. Well, screw waking up. I roll over and go back to bed.
6:19- My turn for the shower, apparently. My brain is still trying to figure out a) Why I’m awake and b) why it’s so light out so early.
7:46- After packing up and grabbing a quick breakfast, we are on the high way to MIT. OMGZ.
9:40- We cross over the Erie Canal. My third grade psyche had sort of made it a bit more glamorous than the muddy creek it is in real life.
11:13 – We hit the exit for the Massachusetts turnpike. My dad’s latest joke: “Well, at least we’re going to Mass on Sunday.” Oh, hilarious, Dad.
11:29- MASSACHUSETTS. OH. SO. CLOSE.
12:15- So we’re on this 5 mile downcline in the mountains of western Massachusetts. (The fact that there were mountains there alone was news to me. But anyways.) Two signs that we see back to back: “Run Away Truck Warning” and “Falling Rock Zone.” Gee, so reassuring.
12:21- I don’t think I’ve mentioned how nervous I am yet. So for mentioning’s sake, the fact that I am going to college really just hit me like 3 minutes ago. I am going to college. I am no longer living in Michigan.
12:53- 54 miles to Boston.
12:58- A car almost merges into us, and we almost die. Almost being the operative word.
1:57- omgwegotoffthehighwayinBoston.
2:30- I AM AT MIT.
And the week since has been ridiculous, and is coming soon to a computer near you.
Comments (4)
I LIKE CORN.
Haha, I would pay to go on a trip with you and your family. By the way, I totally could have helped, since I'm Canadian.
@suigler - LIES. You like rice. haha
tess is cute
BMW Parts San Diego