At some point over the summer, I had also gotten it into my head that I needed to see a moose. After doing some research, I found that most moose are located in the northern areas of New Hampshire and Vermont. Perfect, I WOULD spot a moose on my way to Canada. Why an obsession with moose? I'm not really sure. I read at some point that moose are the largest land mammals in North America, but subsequent research indicates bison are actually the largest land mammals, though moose appear to come in second. That being said, bison may be "bigger" in that they weigh a bit more than moose, but moose are certainly taller. So really, I think they're each the biggest in different ways. I call a tie. But I digress. I left Wolfeboro in the morning on September 4th and despite keeping my eyes peeled for moose as I made my way through New Hampshire and Vermont, I did not see any moose. :( But hope was not yet lost. I could maybe see a moose in Canada or maybe in Yellowstone.
Somewhat dreary weather leaving NH, but really pretty the way the clouds settled in the valley!
To Canada!
A few hours after departing, I was officially in Canada and while I knew the terrain would change, I didn't realize it would be so abrupt. I definitely went from the lush forests of Vermont to increasingly sparse forest area, and almost just flatland. While Canada was still pretty, it just felt different. Also, I was suddenly driving around french-speaking Quebec, which means I was reading signs written in French and watching my speed in kilometers, so there were lots of other things to pay attention to! I've never entered another country while personally behind the wheel of a car before so it was a little trippy to suddenly be "abroad" but in my car! Crazy!
French-Speaking Montreal
Eventually I made my way to Montreal, found my hotel, and set off to find Old Montreal (aka, the cute part of town), though all of Montreal was very pretty and clean. The area where I was staying was mostly typical urban cityscape, but was just around the corner from a major shopping mecca, which was fun to walk around. When I got to the old part of Montreal, it was like stepping back hundreds of years into Europe. The old buildings were beautiful. I eventually reached my destination, which was a lane near the water surrounded by many outdoor restaurants and cafes. I wasn't sure which restaurant to eat at, but when the hostess at the one I ended up choosing explained there was a "two for one" happy hour, I was sold. The hostess ended up being really sweet and we chatted for a bit about traveling alone (she obviously noticed I was by myself and thought it was very curious so I entertained her with my crazy travel stories). I had a great dinner but had failed to bring an umbrella with me, so I hung around watching a storm brew and pour outside. Eventually it was time to brave the storm, but I got lucky and caught a cab pretty quickly. By the time I got back to my hotel, it was pretty much bedtime.
At the border to Canada!
On to London, Ontario
Painted as the "garden town" of Ontario, I had high hopes for London, but really, it was just a suburb. As I was driving through London, I went through the "industrial" part of the city, which was a little sketchy and definitely not garden-y. The bed and breakfast (so fun!) where I stayed was in a very very cute neighborhood, and near the university, so it was populated with lots of families and students. Ultimately though, I ate dinner at a large chain in a chain-infested mall area, so it wasn't too special. I had been in the car for a ridiculously long time that day, so other than grabbing some food and hanging out at the B&B, I didn't do much. I should also note that my book on tape was 1776, which I thought was going to be a historical non-fiction about the war for independence featuring George Washington, but turned out to just be a history of the time. Don't get me wrong, it was very interesting and well written, but it wasn't exactly a "page turner" good for distracting you and keeping you awake on 8 hour long car rides. Nothing like a discourse on military strategy to keep you going ;)
Sadly, I never say an "entering Ontario" sign, but "Ontario" was on a lot of the exit signs, so this is what I ended up with. I knew I was in Ontario when the signs were back in English :)
Back to the USA and Chicago-bound!
After my nice, but not too eventful time in Canada, it was time to head back to the US, with my end destination being Chicago! While I enjoyed Canada and met a lot of very sweet/friendly Canadians, I think there are some very specific places where I would spend my time. Just driving through isn't that fascinating.
My drive out to Chicago was mostly uneventful. After spending a few extremely long days driving by myself in a car, I was just tired. My body physically hurt from doing all the driving and sitting by yourself for 8+ hours is boring so it's sometimes hard to stay awake. After a few hours, I made my way back to the USA, and then drove through Michigan and Indiana until I got to Illinois and Chicago!
Border crossing to USA
Funny story: the border patrol guy asked me where I was coming from, and I looked at him like, uh, are you serious? while I answered "Canada?" (I wasn't sure if it was a trick question). His reply was that I could have been coming from anywhere as there are international airports in Canada (the people in front of me were apparently from Kuwait...). Though my thought was that people would have gone through customs in Canada, and they are regardless coming literally from Canada to the US (it's not like he asked me if I flew in or anything! AND I handed him a US passport. If I had handed him a German passport, I obviously would have been one of the people who flew into an airport and then there could have been follow-up questions like, where did you fly into?). Maybe it's the blonde in me, but even if I had just flown in from London, UK, I still feel like I would have answered "Canada" to his question. Whatever. Besides, I was in my car with California plates, which prompted him to ask if I was from LA. Ha! Clearly I was giving off the dumb blonde, so LA vibe. (Sorry LA people!). Despite our ridiculous conversation, I was granted access back into the US...pfewf!
And then I officially entered Indiana and my trip went downhill. Let me sum it up by saying: "I went through Indiana AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS F#%&ING SPEEDING TICKET!!!!" Feeling refreshed and excited that my long ass journey was coming to an end, I got off the phone from a cute convo with my little brother, paid a toll, and accidentally over-sped up back to speed (I may have been mapping my route and re-starting my book on tape so I might not have been paying full attention to my speed for literally twenty seconds and voila, HP pulls out with sirens blaring, but he passes me, and just gives me one of those "I am a very scary authority figure" looks and points at me (which scares the shit out of me) and then proceeds to pull over the guy speeding even faster in front of me. For a split second, I thought I was getting off with just a warning, but no, he signals me to pull over too.
And wam bam thank you ma'am, he got two speeders at once. Since HP guys, again, scare the crap out of me, I spent my time with him trying not to cry too much and trying to stop my hands from shaking. The whole incident ended with a speeding ticket and me breaking down and sobbing as the HP continued on his way. Worst ever. But when I finally made it to Chicago, Kristi's mom made me feel better by saying that Indiana is very poor and they need all the money they can get, so I should just chalk it up as a donation. Besides, I managed to drive back and forth across the country, driving ridiculously long days for a total of about 31 days and only got one ticket. I mean, would it really be a road trip without getting at least one?
Needless to say, I did make it to Chicago, and seeing Kristi revitalized me and turned the day around :) Read about our adventures together in the next post!
Peace
ENCM
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