Crossing the Border, Eh?

Well, all of my worries about crossing the border were for naught!  We woke up at 6am on Saturday and quickly showered, ate breakfast, then closed up the 5th wheel and set out to cross the border.

We packed some water for our 6-hour trek Northeast to Bainsville, Ontario.  I normally pack our lunch to eat along the way at a rest stop.  We have found it difficult to find a place to pull into for a quick lunch while hauling this huge rig without it being a little nerve-wracking.  But for this trip, we didn't want to test our luck with getting searched just because of a PB&J or ham and cheese sandwich.

We reached the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge border crossing at 7:40 am.  There were only two cars and a tractor-trailer truck at the gates when we arrived.  That was a sight I was not expecting.  By all that I had read, I had figured we were in for a long wait.  This just goes to show... don't believe everything you read!  Instead of a wait, we were able to drive straight up to an empty window.

I was concerned when we saw the lack of traffic that it was going to be a bad thing.  I had thought that the slow volume of cars would give them more time to be extra careful and search everyone's vehicle but especially those in an RV.  So at this point, I was really stressing out.  Dennis tried to reassure me that we had nothing that would put us in danger of not getting in or being fined $300.  Guess we all know who's the worrier of the two of us.  Hey!  Someone has to!

At the gate, the border control guard asked for our passports and then ask the normal questions: Where are you from?  What brings you to Canada?  How long are you going to be here?  Do you have any firearms?  Do you have family or friends you are visiting while here?

After answering all his questions with short simple answers he then gave us back our passports and said have a nice trip!

All I could think was praise the Lord!  No searches, no delays, no nothing.  I was elated!

I refuse to go down the road of regret over all the things I tossed out of the fridge or my little house plant that we gave away.  I am just going to be thankful.

On our way!

Our travel on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) was very pleasant.  This is a freeway that runs from Niagara Falls area all the way up to the border of the Quebec province.

This is also Ontario's busiest highway, so once again, after everything that I had read, I was worried about hitting major traffic - ergo, one of the reasons I made D get up at the crack of dawn.  We did hit a few areas that slowed us down but overall it was great.

 

We breezed across the Burlington Skyway bridge and drove past Toronto.  After Toronto, it changes numbers and has a few spots where you have to pay a toll.  We did end up stopping at an ONroute to get diesel and were able to pick up a quick lunch.  Since the line for Tim Hortons was out the door we chose the A&W fast food restaurant.  Dennis got a Beyond meat burger and was in heaven. I, on the other hand, had a fish wrap that was just so-so.  At the end of the day, we had arrived at our campsite way earlier than we had expected.

Notes from Dennis
My biggest worry on move day was getting the RV & Truck safely out of our spot at the campground.  Trees, close RVs, small road, and other camper's vehicles parked along said road made it very tight for something that long.  But in the end, we squeaked thru without having to back up!

I am happy to report that the new bike rack worked much better for us.  The bikes were in no danger of falling off during the entire trip.  Part of that reason might be due to the condition of the roads in the Ontario Province.  They are a dream!

One of the features on my truck that is very cool is that I can switch the computer over to metric vs Imperial.  Since the signs have the speed limit in Km/hour and distances in kilometers, that came in handy.  Right after crossing the border, we saw a giant, American-friendly sign announcing that 100 Km/hour = 60 MPH!  That gave me the ratio of 10 Km = 6 MPH or 5 = 3.   When we see a sign 50 Km/hr, I think 5X6=30!  Close enough and easy peasy.  The actual formula is 1 Km/H = .621371 MPH.

And of course, the temperature up here is shown in Celsius.  Penny looked up an easy way to convert the temperature in your head rather easily:  Let's say you see that it is 20 degrees Celsius.  So the cheat formula would be: 20 x 2 = 40 and then 40 - 4 (the first digit in the previous results) = 36.  Finally, 36 + 30 = 66 degrees Fahrenheit.  The actual formula is: (X°C × 9/5) + 32 = Z Fahrenheit.