The long journey ends

Ottawa, ON – Home at last! It’s hard to believe our long, long trip has brought us full circle after all these weeks, back to our lovely home. And to top it off, despite forecasted rain for today, we didn’t encounter one drop until we were in the house, having trundled all the stuff out of the RV in the dry. Only then did the clouds open to gently wash the dust off our well-traveled vehicles.

We got another early start today, but a bit of confusion about getting on to the interstate (even with the GPS) took us through some of the Rochester neighbourhoods that weren’t on the intended route. All my fault for thinking we were heading east when in fact the opposite was true. But the houses and streets were charming, and our good spirits about heading home, when we finally got turned around, made light of the error. And we only lost about 20 minutes.

On the I-90, eastbound at last, we made good time toward Syracuse and then northward on the I-81. There were quite a few vineyards along the highway in the region called the Finger Lakes – just a few miles due south of the Niagara peninsula where Canadian grapevines flourish every year. We also passed many more large farms.

Once we made the turn from east to north, we caught glimpses of snow in small patches in the bush. There were also lots of wetlands, full of migrating birds. Many of them were Canada geese, but we also saw plenty of ducks and, once, a graceful blue heron.

We had all our paperwork organized and ready for the border crossing, and in no time we had crossed the US bridge and were driving up to the kiosk to re-enter our home and native land. We were not the only snowbirds returning home with trailers and motorhomes, but when our turn came, the border agent asked only a few quick questions and we were on our way to the 401, with signs reminding us that the speed limit was in kilometers per hour, not miles.

From the bridge, we’d seen the St Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands region floating with great chunks of ice, and there was more white stuff in the bush that we didn’t want to admit was there. It must have diminished considerably today, because it was a balmy 24 degrees Celsius and there was quite a wind blowing.

When we got past Brockville and turned toward Ottawa on Highway 416, we began to see the evidence of flooding we’d read about in news articles on the internet. Creeks and streams we passed were rushing torrents, and the water went well beyond the normal banks, soaking the ground among the trees and in farmers’ fields. Some fields looked more like lakes than meadows. And enjoying the wetlands were literally thousands of Canada geese!

Finally we pulled into our neigh-bourhood and onto our street. All those miles, across states, rivers, mountains, deserts, mesas, and valleys, and all the terrific adventures we’d had and sights we’d seen were now memories. We hope you enjoyed sharing the adventure with us. It’s been wonderful, and it’s also wonderful to be home once again.

State of anticipation

Victor, NY – This is our last night on the road. It’s hard to believe that our jour-ney’s end is only a day away!  We’re now in a town on the outskirts of Rochester, just off Interstate 90. We started out this morning in Ohio, after a lovely breakfast buffet at the hotel. It was especially nice as we ate with real dishes and cutlery, instead of the Styrofoam bowls and plastic spoons that we’ve had at other hotels.

We were blessed with another clear, sunny day that only improved as we traveled on. About an hour into the trip, we crossed the state line into Pennsylvania.  There’s a small panhandle of that state, around 50 miles across, that has enjoyed access to Lake Erie from the earliest days of its history. It was a strategic point during the War of 1812, but today it’s a vacation destination with lots of parks, campgrounds and recreational facilities.

Although the lake was clearly marked in blue on the small screen of our GPS, quite near the purple line of the highway we were traveling, we were not able to see it out the window. There were too many trees between us and the lake, but further on we did finally catch sight of it. At first I thought there was a lot of foam on the water, but then we realized it must be chunks of unmelted ice! We had heard that the deep cold of this past winter had caused even the large bodies of water on the Great Lakes to freeze more than they had in years, so it will likely take more than today’s warmth to melt it all.

We exited at the first rest stop in Pennsylvania to pick up a map and some literature about the state. We did the same once we got into New York, where we also fueled up and went in search of refreshments. The food court building was actually on the westbound side of the interstate, and we crossed a breezeway over the highway, looking down on the trucks and cars whizzing past below, to get to it.

We could hear some live piano music when we got to the other side, and discovered a grand piano in the middle of the food court that was playing itself! A Plexiglas cover kept amateur musicians from attempting to try their hand on the piano keys. The music was great, and so were the tulips and Easter decorations on the piano.

The greatest portion of our trip today was on a toll highway, which again left something to be desired in terms of road quality. Still, it was four lanes with limited access, and lightly traveled, so that made it easy on Val at the wheel.

At the rest stops in these parts, there are coupon books with discounts for area hotels and restaurants, and we made use of these for our last couple of hotel stays. The coupons usually apply for walk-ins only, so we can’t reserve a room, but we call ahead and ask if there would be room if we were to arrive the next day. They are glad to tell us, and to assure us that there would be room for the RV and car in their parking lot as well.

At the hotel here in Victor, our window overlooks the parking lot so we can keep an eye on our vehicles. It’s also nice to see a Canadian flag flapping in the breeze!

On the shores of a great lake

Mentor, OH – We are staying in a very plea-sant hotel on the east side of Cleveland tonight, just a few miles from Lake Erie. It’s been a beautiful spring day, with the temperature hitting the low 70s under a bright blue sky.

Our closeness to home has prompted us to waken early and get on the road by eight o’clock, but we are not overdoing it; we try to keep our total distance to around 250 miles in a day so our esteemed driver can get the rest he needs to be alert on the highways and byways.

On this leg, there haven’t been any byways. We’ve stuck to Interstate 80/90 all day, starting in Illinois and crossing into Ohio after about 70 miles. In both states, we were required to pay tolls for the privilege of navigating great cracks and potholes along the concrete surface that rattled every dish in our cupboards, and our bones as well. At least in Ohio there was some road work in progress that made us think our money was going to a good cause.

In the early part of the day we passed through Amish and Mennonite country, where a major industry is the construction of motorhomes and travel trailers of all sizes and descriptions.  We were amazed at the acres of land filled with row upon row of trailers ready for market. In addition to holiday vehicles, there were horse and utility trailers, plus houseboats, which are really trailers on pontoons. There was all manner of support industry as well – factories where plastics, metal components and wood materials were supplied for the RVs.

This region is also devoted to agriculture in a big way. Hundreds of acres by the highway stood ready for spring planting, and in some places the first green shoots were poking up in tidy rows.  We also passed some fields billowing with smoke as farmers burned off the dry grass.

We saw some of the outskirts of Toledo on our way, and felt the presence of Lake Erie not far to the north, although we never got to a place where we could see it.

When lunch-time rolled around, we found a travel plaza along the toll road with a Pa-nera Bread restaurant – a favourite spot of ours from our trip to Florida. We enjoyed delicious soup and a sandwich. On the way back to the RV I had to smile to see our little rig squeezed between enormous tractor trailers, rumbling away in the parking lot.

As we approached Cleveland, the Interstate 80/90 split apart, with the 80 heading southeast and the 90 northeast into the city, following the contour of Lake Erie’s shore. We caught glimpses of the city’s skyscrapers in the downtown and then, finally, a blue-green streak of water, the great Lake Erie. It was great to know Canada was on the other side!

Our hotel tonight has a charming older section at the front to which the newer part of the building is attached. Just off the lobby is a dining room where we had a gourmet dinner while entertained by a live musician. A very pleasant way to end the day.

Across two states, around the world

South Bend, IN – The day was so lovely today, it was al-most a shame to be inside the RV instead of out in the fresh air! But we had miles to go before we slept, and if you read some of the place names we passed, you’d think we’d been globe trotting instead of state hopping.

We headed south on Interstate 74 out of Davenport this morning, crossing the Mississippi River not long after our departure, and joining Interstate 80 heading east. In no time we had left Iowa behind and were traveling through Illinois in the direction of Chicago.

The interstate at this point is a toll highway, and you might think that for that reason the road might be a bit less traveled and in better shape, but the opposite was the case. There were lots of uneven spots that made all our dishes jump when we passed over them, and as we got closer to the big industrial hub of Chicago, the number of semi trucks increased considerably. (See today’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos!)

Here are some of the place names we read on highway signs today: Princeton, Peru, Mar-seilles, Ottawa, Norway, Lisbon, Manhattan, Joliet, Frankfort (OK, not Frankfurt, but still!). I’m sure there are interesting reasons for these place names that probably have to do with the original locations. I do know that the first settlers after the aboriginal people in South Bend were French fur traders, which explains names like the Des Plaines River and others.

We managed to get past the large metropolitan spread around Chicago without much difficulty. The toll highway, unlike normal interstates, had travel plazas beside the highway where one could stop for food and fuel. This kept travelers from leaving the toll corridor and heading off at exit ramps to get meals or fuel, as they do on regular interstate highways. We stopped at one for lunch and to fuel up.

There was a McDonald’s there, so I asked for their basic hamburger, not wanting extra sauces and calories. When our order came and we went to sit down, I realized the cashier must have thought I said “bacon hamburger” instead of “basic hamburger”! Oh well, those extra calories and the bacon were pretty good. I let them go to “waist” instead of to “waste”, where I know they would have tossed the meal if I’d returned it.

After lunch we drove around to the fuel station. I gave the cashier a $100 and said I wanted to prepay $60 on pump number 13. She gave me a receipt but no change.  Turns out she thought I said we wanted $100 worth of fuel! I began to wonder if I had become inarticulate in my old age!

South Bend is the home of Notre Dame University, which is very near our hotel, and it was here that Henry Studebaker started selling wagons, before advancing to automobiles. His factory was a major employer until it closed in 1963. As the halfway point between Detroit and Chicago, South Bend was an important industrial hub in the early years, but now it is less so. Today, the university is the main employer.

Barns, silos and rich furrows

Davenport, IA – We’ve traced a diagonal line today from the centre of the northern state line with Minne-sota in Forest City to the centre of the eastern state line, next door to Illinois. It has been a balmy day, in the high sixties, with a bit of cloud cover but no rain.

What we have had, though, was a stiff and steady crosswind along Interstate 80 that kept Val busy at the wheel. Not only did he have to keep the RV and car from being nudged to the right side all the way, but he also had to manage the rush of air every time a semi truck went by, which was often on this well-traveled interstate corridor.

The geography along the greatest part of our route today has been rolling hills and large tracts of agricultural land. I love seeing the farm homesteads at the edges of the fields, ringed with trees planted as windbreaks, where a cosy house stands next to a big barn and tall silo, and a pickup truck sits in the driveway. Sometimes you can see chickens strutting around, or a horse or two, and in the yard there’s a child’s bicycle or swing set.  It looks so peaceful and wholesome, and evokes 1950s TV show feelings where mother is baking pies in the kitchen and Lassie romps on the lawn with a tousle-haired boy in denim overalls.

In all likelihood, Mom is at the office and the kid is playing video games, but that’s another story.

We passed through Cedar Falls first, and then Cedar Rapids a bit later on. The latter was a large indus-trial centre with a big Quaker Oats factory, among others, and multiple railroad lines passing through. Shortly after passing through Iowa City, we saw the signs for the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in a town called West Branch. It might have been interesting to stop there and compare it to the Eisenhower Presidential Library we’d seen in Abilene, but we recalled our frequent mantra: you can’t see everything.

We’re now settled in our hotel in Davenport, and were pleased to find a Red Lobster restaurant right next door where we enjoyed a nice seafood dinner.  I looked up some Davenport trivia and learned that this is where the first chiropractic adjustment was ever done; Palmer Chiropractic College was established here in 1867. There is a three-part railroad bridge here that sees about a dozen crashes every year by semi trucks. The trucks, apparently, are usually pretty badly wrecked, but the bridges seldom incur much damage at all.

The town is vulnerable to flooding from the Mississippi River, which we will be crossing tomorrow on our way out, but town planners did not want to obscure the river’s beauty with levees or dykes. Instead, there are ordinances for building construction to ensure minimal damage by floods. The flooding issue makes quite a contrast to the drought problems in states we’ve visited in recent weeks. Unlike the southwest, around here are plenty of ponds and lakes, and the soil looks dark and rich with moisture.

The waiting game

Forest City, IA – There was no rush to get going this mor-ning. We had no-where to go.  The RV was at the dealer, we’d taken our tour yesterday, so all there was to do was wait for the work to be done. Having time on our hands is a bit of an adjustment, but we had some amusements to help pass the time.

To avoid cabin fever, we ventured outside for a walk around the grounds. It was quite mild but a fairly stiff wind was blowing. We strolled down to the golf course and headed along the paved path next to the Winnebago River.  Several large Canada geese were strutting on the green across the river, while two of their compatriots paddled along in the water, honking loudly.

We were so absorbed in the goose conver-sation that we didn’t hear a golf cart come up behind us. After we got out of their way, the two golfers stopped and planted tees on the riverbank. Thwack! Their balls flew over the river to the green on the other side and the geese high-tailed it to another part of the grass. I don’t know how golfers can possibly see where those tiny white orbs end up, but the pair hopped back in their cart and headed on to the small bridge that would take them to the other side.

Since lunchtime was approaching, we drove down the road to the grocery store and picked up a couple of sandwiches to bring back to the room. There were movies to watch on TV, and I had a crossword puzzle to work on and my book to read. We indulged in a nap. We looked at our watches. We looked at our watches again. 

Finally, the service department called to say the work was progressing, and that the RV would be ready by five o’clock.  Shortly before that, we stopped by to say hello to Casey, the sales rep who had sold us the RV in 2011.  She’s the sales manager now and was delighted to see us.  It was great to chat with her again and tell her how much we were enjoying our RV.

Off we went to the service department, where we got a full report of the work that was done and paid our bill. It was great to have the small repair jobs done and to know everything was in good order. We stopped to fuel up the motorhome, brought it back to the hotel and hitched up the car, so now we’re all set to hit the road again.  We hope we’ll have as beautiful a traveling day tomorrow as we had today.

Irving's fifty years

Forest City, IA – Even though we took the tour of the Winnebago factory twice before, we were still interested in doing it again.  So we boarded the tour bus at the Winnebago Visitor Center and headed in to the large campus of factory buildings this morning for another look.

The factory has been one of Forest City’s largest employers for decades, and even when fortunes dipped during leaner years, the management figured out ways to keep it going by diversifying its products. We learned today that the aluminum billets stacked next to the metalwork building are not only formed into parts for Winnebago motorhomes, but a full sixty per cent of their output goes to outside clients.

Winnebago also builds portable libraries, emergency vehicles, mobile medical and dental units and even police paddy wagons alongside its motorhomes and trailers. But its greatest product is the huge and varied line of holiday vehicles that roll out of the factory every day and onto highways across the continent. The dedication to quality is evident at every step along the way.

Another thing that was evident was the upbeat feeling among the workers.  In the Stitchcraft building, where all the fabric and upholstered products are made, employees sit at sewing machines, or at cutting tables, or where the covers go on the cushions, and around them are pictures of their kids, a shelf full of paperback books for swapping, and banter about the stuff of life.

Our tour guide, Wray, told us that some employees have been on staff since the earliest years of the company.  He pointed out Irving, in his plaid shirt, on the far side of the factory where they were assembling coaches on top of the chassis, and told us he was the company’s most senior employee. He’s been with Winnebago for fifty years!

It was just as fascinating today to see the whole process as it was the first time. We saw sparks fly at the welding station, we smelled fresh sawdust where they were installing the thick plywood floors, and glue where they laid down the vinyl flooring. We heard the alarm bells whenever the robotic carrying mechanism took one part along cables to the next step of the assembly line, and the loud hissing sound of the intense water stream that is used to cut carpet, vinyl and other pieces.

Seeing all the steps that go into building a motorhome like the one we’ve been using for the last two and half years was reassuring. We’ve never had a moment’s concern about the solidity of our unit. We left it this afternoon with the dealer, a mile away from the factory, where we bought it, so they can check it over and do a couple of small repairs. Our appointment was for tomorrow morning, but they were able to take it this afternoon and get an early start on it.

It was nice to have some free time to re-lax, read a book, have a nap, and en-joy our beautiful sur-roundings.  The hotel is next to a park area and golf course and even though it’s not as attractive as it will be when the grass greens up and flowers bloom, it’s still nice to look out our window at the trees and hear robins and cardinals chirping away. We’ve also enjoyed our meals out, chatting with the people of Forest City.  It has a nice small town feel.