We headed to northern Minnesota today. It will be a three day trip. It turns out the shortest route from New York to Minnesota goes through Canada. So we packed our passports for a Canadian adventure.
After a long drive across upstate New York, we finally arrived at the Canadian border.
The Maple Leaf was the first hint that we had reached the border. It is strange how just a short distance from New York and the United States made everything feel different.
Our passage across the border into Canada was efficient and easy. A few questions and a $4 USD fee and we were on our way.
After we had to show our passport to proceed, we saw the Welcome to Ontario sign. Then we knew we were in Canada.
We traveled along the southern shore of Lake Ontario for quite a few kilometers. (This is Canada, right?)
Driving where the speed limit is in KPH and the speedometer is in MPH required constant mental math calculations to make sure we were being legal.
We were a bit surprised to see wind turbines this far east. In the United States, most wind turbines seem to be out west.
Our easy trip across Canada began to slow as we reached Detroit. The long line of trucks was our first sign of trouble.
The sign was welcoming, but the tail lights on the bridge were a bad omen. We were still in good spirits since Google estimated the wait at eight minutes. (Ha Ha)
When we finally caught up to the tail lights, we knew our quick return to the US was doubtful. The gates were barely visible. Google said it would be eight minutes. In the eight minutes Google estimated, we moved only about ten car lengths. The estimate remained constant at eight minutes.
The final tally was about 50 minutes from when we got behind the white Subaru. All that time Google remained steadfast that the wait was only eight minutes. Perhaps that is because the border crossing prioritized truckers who seemed to be moving relatively quickly through the line.
We did finally get safely through the border crossing, but even at the gate, it took some time because the questions were more numerous. We were also held for “traffic jams” that we never saw. I guess the extra two minutes waiting for the traffic jam to clear was worth it because we did not see any significant traffic after we were released.
Once we were in the United States, it was only a short drive to our hotel in Imlay City, Michigan.