Day 48 (Oh, Canada)

Day 48
August 8, 2006
Mackinaw City, MI to Niagara Falls, ON (513 miles)

We started south from Mackinaw City on I-75 not sure exactly where we would stop. We knew it would be a 500 mile drive to Niagara Falls, which sounded agonizing to us, so we planned to get at least into Canada and then decide where we would stop. We made great time on the first 300 miles to Port Huron, Michigan, where we planned to cross into Canada (Sarnia, Ontario). We drove first through heavily wooded, open land and then the Rust Belt cities of Saginaw and Flint before turning east on I-69 and heading toward the Port Huron. The Blue Water Bridge connects Ontario route 402, the freeway from Toronto, with Interstates 69 and 94. This crossing is the fourth busiest on the U.S. - Canada border.

At the border we presented our passports and were asked what we were bringing into the country, including, specifically, if we had any produce, weapons and liquor. After getting the green light, we drove forward a few hundred feet and exchanged $40 US into $43.85 Canadian.

The biggest difference we noticed as we started driving across southern Ontario was every unit of measure familiar to us, except time, was different. The radio stations were Canadian, too, and gave weather reports in Celsius, which was essentially meaningless to us. We learned that 100 kilometers per hour was roughly equivalent to 63 MPH. The price of gas was really tricky for us because it was quoted in dollars per liter. We had to first figure out how many liters per gallon and then the exchange rate. If we did the math right, gas was going for about $4.11 (U.S.) per gallon. We were glad we filled up in America at $3.06 per gallon.

We didn’t find a campground that appealed to us and we weren’t that tired of driving, so we kept going. The thought of spending two nights in the same place rather than one night in each of two places really appealed to us at this stage of our journey, so we continued on. The kilometers really flew by and before we knew it we were approaching Niagara Falls. We pulled into the Niagara Falls KOA at dusk (8:30 PM) and finished setting up in the dark.

It didn’t take us long to figure out that everything in Canada costs more than it does in America. Our KOA campsite was about $60 (U.S.) per night—the same type site cost us $27 in Mitchell, South Dakota last week. Even when you consider that Mitchell’s Corn Palace isn’t quite the same destination as Niagara’s falls, the popularity of the place alone cannot account for difference in price.

We ate a simple meal in the trailer, went to bed and slept well in the 15 degree weather.