So with the build completed and the payment made it was time to set out on our Journey to Necedah WI to pick up Rosy Lee.
Our Journey was planned, planned again and re-planned a number of times on Google maps I could not decide whether to go there and back basically on the same route or come back around the top of Lake Michigan and cross the border back into Canada at Sault Ste Marie and then drive back via Ottawa and Montreal. I think that the two factors that swung my decision were the cost of Gas in Canada and the value of the Canadian Dollar against the US Dollar at the time. It made more sense to stay in the US for longer and take the benefits.
Day 1 Friday May 20th 2011 .We left home at 10:10am and my target was to cross the border at Houlton Maine and get as far down towards Massachusetts as possible. We drove through Nova Scotia and up through New Brunswick arriving at the border five and a half hours later. There were reasonably long queue's but everything seemed to be moving until we got to the front. We are UK citizens so have to use our UK passports to cross into the US and were told park up and go inside. It turns out that the last time we drove down to Maine which was the first time we had ever done this we forgot to hand back our visa cards at the border. These cards last for three months and we found out we should have handed them back in or posted them back to the US as technically we had overstayed our welcome in the US. I had visions of not being allowed in and the trip cancelled. 45 minutes later with a lecture on what to do in the future we were on our way.
The last time we did this journey we slept in the car overnight near Bangor and I had promised Annie that this time we would find a small Motel. We were making good time and I knew that for every KM we did today it would be less tomorrow and I did not want to get behind our schedule. We sailed past many Hotels and Motels near Bangor with my promise that we would stop soon and that I was still good driving but unfortunately we had left it to late by the time we started looking around Waterville. Everything was booked up with no vacancies and we wasted a lot of time coming on and off the I95 searching for motels with the aid of Grace (that's our GPS system Annie calls her saving Grace) before ending up parked up in a small shopping Mall in Augusta for the night sleeping in the car. Well we had lots of pillows and quilts so it was not to bad. Total distance 881km. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine
Day 2 Saturday May 21st 2011 After an early morning breakfast of cereal from the cooler and a quick visit to Tim Horton's we were on the road much to my delight as I wanted an early start and I had a target location in mind that we had to be at before 5pm that day. My plan was to head towards Albany New York and then make a decision to stay on the I90 towards Syracuse, Buffalo and Eire or to take the I88 and try to get to Binghamton New York where the Eureka camping world outlet store was located. and then push on as far as possible towards Erie to reduce the driving on Sunday. The journey was good with some small delays around Boston on the I495 but nothing that brought us to a stop. A beautiful journey across the Appalachian mountain range and a few rest stops for nature and food breaks and we were in great shape to head of towards Binghamton. I was tempted to stop at Cooperstown on the way for the Baseball hall of fame but new this would mean missing out at the Eureka store. The I88 was a nice change in pace as well with some great scenery and little traffic although there were some rough sections of road. In hindsight this was a good decision as it saved us a lot of money on the toll roads.
We arrived in Binghamton around 2pm and found the Eureka store. This store is the outlet store for all Eureka seconds and I wanted to try and pick up a Northern Breeze screen tent for the galley area of Rosy Lee. The beauty of the Northern Breeze is its an easy to erect screen tent with rainflys on all sides given perfect weather and bug protection. I asked if they had any seconds availabe and a very nice man said no but as I don't you automatically get 20% of the price of a new one and I do have some of them in stock. Well the back of the Tow Vehicle was already well loaded but a few adjustments and we were off with our brand new discounted purchase. We carried on the I88 until we reached Jamestown New York were we booked into a Comfort Inn to rest our weary bones. One hot meal later and we were ready for the sack. Total Distance 1,119km. Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York.
Day 3 Sunday May 22nd 2011. Today was a short journey as were booked into a hotel in Cleveland for the hight as we had tickets for the Cleveland Indians against the Cincinnati reds at Progressive Park. A quick breakfast at the hotel and a short dash to Cleveland found us at our Hotel by 10:30am where we were able to book in after waiting for the previous nights mass wedding guest departure at the front desk. We were able to take in a quick walk down towards Lake Eire and we were amazed as this was our first great lake experience. Annie is till convinced it is a sea and not a lake as you don't get ships that big on lakes. We both wish we had more time as we would have liked to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of fame but a few quick photos of the hall of fame and the Browns Stadium was all we had time for before heading of to Progressive Park for the game
Unfortunately up to this point Annie had been carrying all of our US currency and it was only in the hotel before the game that she gave me a significant sum in dollars. We went to the ball park and up to our high level seats where we sat and shared a subway on the terrace before taking our seats. We had both decided to get a 24 oz beer at our seats and when the man arrived i reached for my wallet. No wallet no dollars no credit cards Panic. Five minutes later at Guest services we recovered my wallet that somebody had handed in with all credit cards intact but minus $250.00. There is more to this story but this is not the place to tell it so with dampened spirits we resumed our seats. Now if this event had not happened it would have been a great day the weather was awesome the baseball was fantastic and our seats were superb . I can honestly say if I was not a Yankees fan the Indians won me over that day. We limited ourselves to a few beers in the stadium to reduce the cost due to our unfortunate even and decided to hit a bar on the way back to the hotel. Many many drinks later and Annie needing a helping hand back to the hotel we crashed for the night. Total Distance 237km. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio.
Day 4 Monday May 23rd 2011. Another early start much to Annie's discust as she was feeling the effects of the night before and we were on the road for our days destination Chicago. We were booked into the Hyatt Regency in central Chicago and I wanted to get there as early as possible to make the most of our time. Now this is where the time differences were working in our favour with only three days behind us we were still on Atlantic Canada time and Chicago is two hours behind on Central time so with body clocks and real time in our favour it was a fast paced dash across the plains of Ohio and Indiana to hit the big metropolis. Apart from the cost of the Tolls the drive was uneventful flat and boring although we did pick up some intresting littérateur on the Amish and the Mennonites at the service stops.
Chicago was reached by about 12:30 local time and the drive into the centre was unbelievable. Coming from the UK we are used to traffic this was not traffic this was a game of life and death. Annie who was meant to be watching for signs had her eyes closed for most of the journey so Grace was again my saviour. We did not do bad we went straight to the hotel missed the entrance drove round the block and abandoned the car in front of the Hotel with the Valet. At this point we realised that our great deal on a downtown hotel on Price line was now not such a great deal with a $50 Valet charge.
A quick change of clothes and we hit the town for some much promised shopping for Annie the weather was fantastic the scenery and the Architecture were awesome if you have never seen the bean in Millennium park you have missed a fantastic piece of architecture, We knew we were never going to take in much of the city and we both wished we had more time to come all this way for one afternoon and evening was crazy but we both thought it was worth it and both want to come back for an extended stay. We rounded our day off with a walk along Navy pier which is a place for sweethearts so we felt we belonged. Total Distance 560km. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois.
Day 5 Tuesday May 24th 2011. Today was the day we were due at the factory so another early morning start with breakfast on the road saw us heading out of Downtown Chicago before the traffic got to busy on the road to Necedah. Our only planned stop was a camping world location in Madison WI. We stopped of and picked up some supplies we needed and some we didn't as you do and made good time arriving at the Camp Inn factory just before our 12pm appointment time. The plan was to spend the afternoon with Cary having a hand over and instruction on all things Camp Inn. Pick up was planned for the next day in an out of state location at La Crescent Minnesota so that we did not have to pay the US sales tax. As a Canadian resident we have to pay full sales tax when we register the trailer at home and get no credit for any US sales tax paid.
We had a great trip round the factory and saw the hand built process that goes into every Camp Inn trailer and then brought our Tow Vehicle round for a trial hook up. Two thinks happened here a) the local mosquito population decided to have a party with us as the food and b) the wiring that I had done converting my four pin hitch to a seven pin hitch had not been done correctly. Cary says he has seen it all before and patiently pulled out some tools all the stuff from the back of the car and carried out the necessary repairs on the spot. With the car reloaded and the mossie cream applied we said our goodbyes and left for our onward trip to La Crescent. The pick up place is just over the Mississippi river so we drove over to take a look before driving back to La Crosse on the Wisconsin side for the last hotel night of our journey. Total Distance 530 Km. Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota.
Overall statistic
Total Distance 3,327km
2 Provinces
10 states
