July 31, 2012
Today is the last night of our trip. At this time tomorrow
we will be in our new hometown of Toronto, relaxing with my Sister and
Brother-In-Law and (hopefully) booking a bunch of viewings for places to rent
ASAP. For now, though, I am sitting by the campfire in Wheatley Provincial
Park, about 30-45 minutes South-East of Windsor on Lake Erie. We have gone all
out for our last night of camping, purchasing two bags of fire wood, having
fire roasted Smokies for dinner and S’mores for desert (we have had these
twice, on our first night camping and our last). Given the heat and humidity
that has stuck with us this trip; I don’t think the extra heat was such a good
idea though.
Our friend’s mother happens to live in the nearby town of
Wheatley and invited us over for the afternoon after we had set up the tent. It
was a wonderful time on the porch of this beautifully large yard, the adults
drank iced lemonade and ate melon in the cooling breeze while Zaid had great
fun filling up a yogurt container with water from the hose and dumping it on
his head. Our very generous host sent us back to the campground laden with
fruits and veggies, and a beautiful blueberry pie that will be part of lunch
tomorrow.
Crossing back into Canada turned out to be very quick and
simple. After my experience driving in downtown Milwaukee, with the 4 lane
freeway turning into 8 and then 4 again, I was a bit nervous driving down the
freeway in another large US city. This stress, combined with my previously
mentioned stress of crossing borders made for a very stressful time. I had done
ample research the night before and determined that the Detroit-Windsor tunnel
would be the best route. I’m not sure how the Ambassador Bridge was, but there
was no need to stress about the tunnel. There was next to no traffic on the
freeway or in the tunnel, as we zoomed through customs in just a couple of
minutes. We all breathed a sigh of relief to be back home in Canada so easily.
Our day started with the final big attraction, the Car
Museum (technically called the Henry Ford museum) in the Detroit suburb of
Dearborn. This turned out to be well worth the visit. Not only did it house
close to a hundred cars from an 1899 car to a 2009 Toyota Prius, but it also
housed a huge collection of trains, airplanes and other memorabilia. Amongst
the items we saw were the limousine that JFK was riding in when he was
assassinated, the bus that Rosa Parks refused to bow to segregation in, and
(the highlight for Zaid), the original Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The museum
houses far more stuff than we had time to visit, including a pioneer village
and a tour of a working Ford factory, and so we hope to make a return visit at
some point in the future.
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| The bus where Rosa Parks stood up to Segregation by not standing up |
With the end of our trip looming it is time for us to turn
to the future, and our new life in Toronto. The end of our trip will come on
day 40, making it 40 days and 40 nights from Vancouver to Toronto, the same
amount of time that Noah was afloat on the Ark in the flooded world. Like Noah,
after 40 days we are ready to land and are excited for the new beginning that the
end of our trip brings.
yaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!
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