Departing Michigan
After four fun days in Michigan, it was time for us to move on and continue pressing north towards the icy tundras of Canada and all of her secrets within. Our plan was to drive through the UP and across the International Bridge before hanging a right and continuing on to Sudbury for the next leg of our journey. I had also wanted to throw a couple of scenic views in there along the way, particularly Tahquamenon Falls because I remembered them being pretty cool, however unfortunately I neglected to actually look at a map and realize just how far out of our way they really were! We ended up just stopping in Mackinaw City for a quick jaunt through one of the gift shops and a photo op down by the bridge before proceeding…
Not much to say about the next leg of our drive … the UP is famous for its nothing, you know … and before we knew it, we were getting ready to cross over into Canada!
Customs, Schmustoms!
Admittedly I was a little nervous because this was actually the first time that I’d ever crossed the boarder with me behind the wheel – I mean, we were running behind as it was and the last thing we needed was to have to repack everything on the side of the road because I looked at the customs agent the wrong way! Fortunately, they were pretty cool – almost all of the ones that we encountered were, in fact – and before we knew it, we were on our way, trying to both navigate through the streets of Soo Canada and also figure out how to convert miles to kilometers at the same time…
Conversion Factor
I think we made it something like 20 miles before I realized that there was a button on the dash that did all of the heavy lifting for us – of course, this was after Sara did a couple of Google searches on her phone to at least get us in the ballpark! I was just about to have her make me a cheat sheet when I found the button … maybe somethings weren’t as confusing back when everything wasn’t digital.
Canada vs. US Highways
The biggest thing that we noticed right off the bat was the distinct lack of freeways in Canada – we really didn’t see a single one until we were almost to Toronto, which was a little weird after driving through the entire UP at 75mph. I suppose it didn’t help that we really weren’t in a driving mood at that point – we had left late and it was going to be dark soon, and we really just wanted to get to our hotel, which was about 200 miles away. Of course, that would’ve been an easy, 2.5 hour drive on normal roads, but on rural Canadian, wonky roads, it was closer to 4.5 … thanks partially to a mis-turn because we couldn’t find the road that we actually wanted! Eventually it lead to the same place anyways, but needless to say, it was a long ride…
Yep, that would be a horse and buggy!
Seems fast, that is, until you realize that it’s still only about 62mph…