Day 21: 6/22/24
From: Fort Atkinson, WI
To: Chatham, Ontario, Canada
Distance: 472 miles

Another long drive today, but one that crosses an international border. Our passports have been waiting patiently for this day in the trip. (Too bad they don’t get a stamp…)

We wake shortly after 7 and are on the road by 8:30. The skies are mostly overcast today, but I think I see the sun way up there. I can’t be sure as it’s been several days since I’ve seen anything but gray clouds and pouring rain.

I drive the first 3 hours, plus an extra half hour in horrendous traffic south of Chicago that’s really due to construction in Indiana, but is backed up far into Illinois. Husband drives the next 5 hours, stopping only for lunch and to see the Joseph F Weber House in Detroit at Younger Child’s request because it was featured on the album cover of one of their favorite artists. It adds only 10 minutes to the drive, so we approve adding the stop to the itinerary.

The GPS brings us into a not-so-great part of Detroit and it reminds me of all the bad things said about this city. I can see where it gets its reputation. (The buildings are run down, boarded up, and empty, and the homeless and drug addicts are present.) The neighborhood changes for the better as we approach our stop, but we still don’t stay long. Younger Child is thrilled to see the house, then we’re back on the highway again and making our way to Ontario. I had no idea the entrance to Canada here was a tunnel! I assumed we’d be crossing a bridge. The neat thing about the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, though, is where you cross the border and there’s a giant flag on the way on either side of the border line. A maple leaf on one side and Stars and Stripes on the other.

The border crossing is much quicker than we’ve ever experienced at either of the other two places we’ve crossed, the border guard asking us what’s in our top carrier and probably wondering at us when we said sleeping bags and a very wet tent…

Forty-five minutes later, we’re at the hotel in Chatham, Ontario. It’s earlier than we expected so I text my local friend to see if she’d like to join us for dinner. Of all the local places, we choose Boston Pizza because of its array of gluten-free options. Friend is about a half hour away, so we make plans to meet at 8:15 and we pull in within 15 seconds of each other.

We chat and laugh with Friend while we eat and it’s so good to see her again 5 years after we last saw her. We look forward to spending tomorrow with her and her family again. The last time we saw them was a shared family vacation in Huntsville, Ontario in 2019. Our families got along well then and we look forward to spending more time with her whole family tomorrow.

We head back to the hotel at 10:30 and sleep is all I can think about. But Husband decides to do laundry first. I, on the other hand, pass out before he returns with folded clothes. I look forward to NOT setting an alarm in the morning.