Today we said goodbye to our trusty Ford Escape. She served us well for nine days across eight states. Before reuniting her with her owner, Tricia, we gave her a well-deserved bath. Lots of bug debris and dust. We killed a lot of grasshoppers as we crossed the Plains and upper Midwest. Tricia was glad to see her "Silver Lady" again.
It was a lot of fun, too, to travel across the United States with a car that has the license plate "Whoo 4 Famous Potatoes"! And it's not a vanity plate, can you believe that?Our replacement vehicle is a rented cute blue Ford Focus sedan with ordinary Illinois plates. An unexpected option is satellite radio in the car. Steve immediately tuned it to the Broadway station. We've been listening to it ever since. We can hear you all saying, "Of course you are. Duh."
Cranbrook Academy of Art
The car exchange occurred on the campus of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where Tricia is a second-year graduate student. What a treat to get a tour of her world. She and her friend Ron graciously showed us their studios and departments and guided us around the grounds. What a beautiful campus! There are sculptures everywhere, in fountains, in pools, on staircases, in the middle of grassy areas. I have to admit that before meeting Tricia I had never heard of Cranbrook, but I will be more aware of it now.On our way to Cranbrook, we got lost, thanks to Google Maps directions that used one of those "Michigan turns" (see the separate blog post) that I understand now but didn't at the time. Arrrrggghhhh! Getting lost turned out to be very interesting, though, because we got lost among the mega-mansions of Bloomfield Hills. Oh. My. God. I have never seen such large houses before. They all had sweeping lawns and long or circular drives, and the lots were probably about 2.5-3 acres. Interestingly, where we were was not a gated community. Which was a good thing, because we were able to stop a jogger to ask for directions to Cranbrook.
http://www.cranbrookart.edu/Pages/History.html
Motor City
Being back in a big city for the first time since Seattle felt a little crazy, especially since we had to navigate the streets of downtown Detroit while looking for the U.S.-Canada border crossing. As we drove down a wide boulevard into downtown, we saw beautiful buildings and sculptures in civic plazas and, luckily, signs for a tunnel to Windsor, Ontario, Canada. YAY! I couldn't believe how easy it was.
The border crossing was unbelievably quick and easy, unlike the crossings I have experienced on my way to Vancouver, British Columbia. The customs officer didn't even ask for IDs, was very friendly and even tried to help us plan our journey to Niagara Falls!
Once on the streets of downtown Windsor things got squirrelly. The street we needed to turn onto was closed for repairs and detour signs were not immediately seen. We took a guess and drove toward the Detroit River, which turned out to be a good idea. We had stunning views of Detroit and the Windsor side was very beautiful with a riverfront greenbelt dotted with sculptures.
We eventually found our chosen route, Hwy 3, that would take us along the edge of Lake Erie to London, Ontario.
So long, Detroit!
Oh, Canada!
We were so excited to see another batch of wind turbines in the countryside between Wheatley and Port Alma, Ontario. In the late-afternoon light, these tall machines looked almost elegant to me. I want to know more about them, things like how much energy they produce, if they make noise and why some towers have their blades spinning and others don't. Do you turn them on and off?
Tomato capital of Canada
Highway 3 through lower Ontario goes through the town of Leamington. In the surrounding area, we saw many fields of tomatoes and acres and acres, or hectares and hectares, of greenhouses. I told Steve that I have seen similar greenhouses in the delta south of Vancouver, British Columbia, and I wondered if maybe Leamington's greenhouses had tomatoes growing in them. I checked our guidebook and learned that Leamington is nicknamed "Canada's tomato capital." Tomatoes became a major crop when the H.J. Heinz company opened a plant in the town in 1908.
Canadian corn, eh?
Lake Erie
We chose Hwy 3 with the hope that we would find a lovely spot on the Lake Erie shore so we could get our feet or hands wet and check off seeing Great Lake No. 4 out of 5. Houses and farms lined the shore and we didn't see any signs for public access. We decided to check out Rondeau Provincial Park, which was 6 kilometers off Hwy 3 and on the lakefront. Uh-oh, we spied a booth at the entrance to the park. Would there be a fee to get in? Yes. $15! Yikes! We told the park officer that we only wanted to take photographs, not camp. She told us that we could pay her and then she would give us our money back if we came back within 30 minutes. Uh, no thanks, we said.
Bummed, we decided to head back to Hwy 3 on a different road so we wouldn't have to backtrack. Lucky for us, this was a great decision. About one mile up the road we came upon a small public beach. Yay! No one was there and it was exactly what we wanted.
One more Great Lake to go! Ontario, here we come!
Steve quotes of the day:
-- "Look at the cannas!" as he flung his arm across me to point at a row of beautiful cannas growing beside a shed. I replied, "You are so gay!"
Facts are facts. Nothing you can do about it.
-- "Eating cheese & crackers while listening to Broadway tunes with my best friend. Can it get any better than that?" Aw, isn't that sweet?
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