I spent more time in the car today than I have in a long, long time. What is usually an 8-hour drive took 11+. I'm pretty tired, but my back is not screaming too much, just a bit stiff. Can't complain about that.
This is the most heartwarming thing of the day. This car was ahead of me in line to cross from Canada to the USA. Notice the Ontario license plate. Also notice the M-22 sticker. M-22 is the scenic highway that goes up the northwest shore of Michigan. It has its own fan club, and these Ontarians are members!
The very worst thing about the day was that after an easy passage into Canada, and cool temps with a bit of rain across Ontario, the sky cleared, it got hot, and the line of cars and trucks waiting to get back to the US was 4 lanes wide and 1.5 miles long. It took more than 1.5 hours, and I have no air conditioning. Finally got back across the Blue Water Bridge. The water was beautifully blue, but I could not manage a picture.
Once I was back in Michigan, my priorities were a cup of ice, salt, and a restroom in that order. I was soaking wet with sweat. But again, I can't complain. The car did not overheat, I had plenty of gas, I was sweating out all the waste products instead of crossing my legs, I had a book on CD, and I had a cooler full of food thanks to Diane.
Another fortuitous event was that while I was still on I-69, the traffic in the opposite direction was a parking lot, but those traveling west were moving. Hooray! I'd had enough of "parking lot."
While cutting north on I-75 to US 10 I crossed the Zilwaukee Bridge over the Saginaw River. I thought I had blogged about this once long ago, but apparently not. If you are from Michigan, you know this is a rather infamous span. Construction was begun in 1979, but it wasn't completed until 1988. You can read all about its problems on Wikipedia, so I'll just tell you the most famous part of the story. One span of the concrete bridge hung out into space, supported only on one end for several years before construction was resumed. Supposedly, when it was finally finished, only one truck driver was brave enough to drive across it to test it out. There are still a lot of people who will not cross it, due to continued structural issues. It has been plagued with problems throughout its existence. However, it is beautiful. The best pictures can be taken from the river level, but I was NOT stopping once I actually got moving again.
I'm giving myself one crash day tomorrow before I get busy. Life is good! Wonderful trip.
 | See Canalway Trail Again |
4 comments:
That was some long wait at the border. Glad to hear you made it home safe and sound. Holy smokes on all those bees.
My father in law told me yesterday as we also crossed the zilwaukee bridge that it was built to eliminate a draw bridge on I75, but by the time it was completed situation had changed and it wasn't needed. Something about a sand dredging operation.
Lulu: "Our Dada says that reminds him of the waiting he and Mama used to have to do to get across the bridges onto Long Island. That was never any fun in a car with no air conditioning."
Java Bean: "Ayyy, that's quite the collection of dead spicy sky raisins inside the house! I hope you have a vacuum cleaner handy!"
Ann- not my favorite part of this summer, for sure
Doug- yes, there was a bascule bridge much lower down.
Bean- spicy sky raisins for sure. One of them wasn't quite dead and I sampled the spicy part last night.
Lulu- never thought about bridges to LI.
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