The math

I count the driving as being from the moment we left my home in Alameda, until the moment I returned to my new place in Toronto without Beth, who was on the plane back to Louisville.

So from California across the U.S., with detours to the Grand Canyon, London Bridge, the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest, up to Toronto, over to Montreal, back to Toronto, back to Buffalo to get my own car back and all my boxes, handling Customs on the way back, and then returning to Buffalo the next day to the airport.

The math says we did 4,634 miles.

For the Canadians among us, that is 7, 458 km.

Yikes.

(I was going to do one total map of everything, but Google maps is saying it can't calculate those directions.)

Day 9 - Customs

Understand, please, the "day 9" took place about three days after day 8. We took Tuesday and Wednesday off at the 'rents and recovered from the trip; Thursday we drove to Toronto, and then Friday morning, hit the road for Buffalo. We had a full day planned, and of course life's little curveballs made it just that bit more interesting.

The plan was, hit the road at 8, hit the border by 10:30ish (I expected some traffic but figured we were going mostly counter-commute, as we were leaving Toronto), stop by my PO box on the way down to pick up my keys, return the rental car, hit Kinko's (had to re-print some paperwork for the border), then UPS to pick up my boxes, then hit the border for U.S. and Canadian Customs. In a happy world, we'd have done it in enough time to get back to Mugino's, drop off the boxes, then run downtown to Joe's to pick up the suitcases left behind on Monday and even maybe hit the CN tower, which isn't too far from him. OK, even we knew that wasn't realistic, but it would have been nice.

Yeah. Best laid plans, mice, men, all that. Hit the road late. Traffic was worse than I'd thought. We missed the place where the 403 and the QEW split near Burlington and went in the wrong direction for about 20km. Hit a 30-minute wait at the border. Etc. By the time we crossed the border, we were almost two hours behind schedule.  

First the adventure at the post office. The first person we got had no idea what I was talking about, but quickly passed me on to someone who did - unfortunately, she needed the postmaster. Who was out. But wait! There he comes, seconds after the words "he's out" cross her lips. OK, post office handled, in and out in about 15 minutes.

Rental car return. Stop to fill up and clean it out, receive a complement from the nice lady, Yolanda, at Alamo, for returning it so clean. No mention of the fact we're a day late.

No, not that Alamo, silly.

UPS. They couldn't be sweeter. Since I had set up the boxes to take up the entire car with me alone in it, we're not 100 per cent sure they'll all fit with Beth, but the guys at UPS say "no problem, we'll hold anything that doesn't fit." We manage to make it work by emptying the one with the exercise ball and Spot the Zebra, who flies free in the trunk all the way back to Canada.

Yeah. That Alamo.

Kinko's. I keep printing legal documents on 8.5x11 and vice versa, but they agree to give me 50 per cent credit back for 'em. They also demand to know what on earth possessed me to move back to this climate at this time of year?!

At this point we realize it's about 2:55 and we're 20 minutes from the Lewiston border and running low on gas. U.S. Customs Vehicle Export closes at 4pm. It's Friday. Monday they are closed for MLK day. I go into panic overdrive; you didn't want to hear me when a ... lady in a mini-van cuts me off getting onto the I-190, forcing me off onto the 290.  Then the GPS sends us to the back of the land of freakin' Oz to get back onto the road we want.... we end up making it to the border (where there is, thank g/d, no line!) at 3:45. I run in (thankfully, we'd asked the agent that morning where the office was), and discover I'm fourth in line - and right behind a guy registering five vehicles.

Customs people are not happy he waited until almost closing time to show up, and when I half-seriously say "Wanna take single-car girl first?" they do. A few taps on a keyboard, an agent accompanies me back to my car to check the VIN, and tah-dah - legal for export, with six minutes to spare.

We found the sign.

Then we hit Canadian Customs. A much longer process, declaring the car and all my worldly possessions (turns out I prepped the paperwork incorrectly; I broke it out precisely as to what was arriving when, including multiple shipments, and they just needed to know what was with me and coming afterwards. They didn't even care about the stuff that had come in with me four days earlier.). The third agent I was handed off to was really nice, though, and she and I chatted a while. Total time spent - 56 minutes. 

Another pretty Toronto-area
sunset, shot through a dirty
windshield.

Then we headed back to Toronto for one final evening, and the next day I got to come back to deliver Beth to the airport in Buffalo. For the third time in a week, we are driving into Toronto during the Sunset. I'd love to see what some of these roads look like in daylight...

And just going to Buffalo and back, I did another 300+ miles. Did I mention I'm starting to get just a wee bit sick of driving? Next post will reveal how many miles we drove between Alameda and me settling in.

Day 8.5 - Montreal to Toronto

We'd planned to spend lots of time, a full day at least, with me showing Beth around town. Yeah. Didn't happen. We hung out with the folks, and took just an hour before we left for Toronto to do a quick spin over the Mountain, through the Plateau, downtown, and then back out. She wanted to see views and old buildings, she got to see views and old buildings. :)

She wanted old. Or old-looking.

I told Beth we don't call it
"Kentucky Friend Chicken" in
Quebec. Welcome to PFK - "Poulet
Frites Kentucky."

Clan Diamond. Clan Diamond's kitchen.

I had forgotten to tell Beth that it
would feel like every second building
was a church... 

Us on the mountain. Not the best
angle, but that's Montreal
spread out behind us.

Better angle of Montreal. With
"Big O(we)" (stadium we were still
paying for 30+ years after the
Olympics) in the background.

The big apple. Always
my landmark that I'm
"almost to Toronto."

Day 8 - Columbus, OH to Montreal

785 freakin' miles. We passed through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario and Quebec. By the time we hit Montreal, at 2am, after leaving Columbus at 9:30am, we were numb. And did I mention I'd been fighting a fever since Ohio? I was dosing heavily on aspirin to suppress the fever, wanting nothing more than to get to my mommy's for a little R&R and TLC.

As mentioned on earlier blogs, we found a border crossing - conveniently, the small one closest to Toronto - that would be helpful with the exporting of the car. We relaxed at that point, and then realized we had a very narrow window during which to meet my housemate at the house if we wanted to drop off the big heavy bags that we'd been lugging around the country. So we started rushing again; we were fortunate at the Canadian border that because I wasn't in my own car (we're in a rental), they didn't make me do the "moving back to Canada" full Customs declaration, we're going to do that in full on Friday.

We didn't make the window to meet the housemate, so Joe took the bags and they are sitting in his office, bless his big fuzzy heart. We did not want to pack that jigsaw puzzle even one more time.

The backseat of my car

I will say we got really good at that packing - the emergency road kit on the floor behind the driver's seat, the two big purple suitcases (one of which weighs nearly what I do!) on the seat, on their sides, above that. The overnight suitcases that we were living out of, behind the passenger seat, with the PC on the floor, wrapped in a big thick coat. Move the top overnight bag forward slightly, tuck my backpack in behind it. Beth's backpack fit into the empty space between the suitcases and the door. My shoulder bag fit between the two purple bags, and her shoulder bag slid in above them, on its side so it didn't block my view. On the floor between the seats, the Cd bag, and in the well between all the above, the bag of food/drink.

After we dropped the bags, we hit the road for Montreal. At that point, I kinda went onto auto-pilot. Now, granted, it's been 14 years since I've done the trip, but I used to do it so often that I know that road. And yet, every 20 minutes, I saw new things (when the heck did they get so many multi-story hotels off the highway? And when did the Big Apple get so small?). I knew it was one of the busiest highway routes, but didn't know it until I saw how much darned traffic there was on it at 1am! And the fact that every 50km we passed 24-hour truck stops with couches and showers for truck drivers said a lot to me - we didn't recall seeing those anywhere else on the trip.

But. Earlier in the day. I was just reviewing the photos with Beth and we realized we took a "Pennsylvania welcomes you" photo, and then the next one on the camera is the "Welcome to New York" photo. We literally took not a one photo in PA. Ok, fine, the route we were on, we weren't in PA for more than a few hours, but... Even boring Oklahoma got more attention from us. :)

There really isn't much to say about the trip. It got colder, and we determined that not enough of the windshield wiper fluid in the tank was of the "rated to -20" variety to be of use (prior to purchasing that, I'd had the California summer-weight stuff in the tank, which I very helpfully filled to the brim just before we left!). I need to find an indoor parking lot and leave the car in there for an hour or two for it to melt, so I can get the bad stuff out of the tank!

Fanciest welcome sign we
saw the entire trip. I think
Quebec is compensating
for something.

We spent a lot of it going "wow. Yesterday morning we were three miles from Arkansas. Tonight we're all the way in Quebec. Wow."

We couldn't manage to find the "welcome to Canada" or even "welcome to Ontario" sign at the Lewiston border crossing, so no sign for the biggest, most monumental part of the trip!

But we have to cross it again on Friday once my car is cleared for export, so we'll look again. And in the meantime, rest on this thought: We've been very, very, very sparing in what photos we've shared. I just noticed that Beth's camera has taken more than 600 photos in the last eight days, plus another few hundred on my camera. Of that, we've shared under 30 photos.

I swore when I started this blog I would not be the annoying neighbour/friend/cousin who expects you to spend an entire evening looking 700 trip photos. I succeeded! Yay! :)

Post-script - bags

I am so blessed with good people in my life. Yesterday I posted my phone number on FB with that plea for Torontonians to take the bags from my car.

Within three minutes, the phone started to ring. They are now sitting in a friend's office off Spadina. Thank you all for being such wonderful people!

I'm in bed, and sick, at my mommy's. We will report on yesterday when I wake from my next nap.

We're in Montreal

We arrived at the 'rents in Montreal at 2am.

We left Columbus, OH, at 9:30am.

785 miles. Three states, two provinces. We tired. We post more tomorrow. Bye.

New plans! Help needed from Torontonians ASAP!

OK, g/d bless the Customs and Border Patrol office at Lewiston, NY. They don't require two certified copies of the original title (plus original title), they don't require original bill of sale, they don't require a lien release letter or a recall clearance letter... and they don't require anything to be presented in person.

I love Lewiston, NY. :)

All they required was the VIN to be submitted by email. Stanley (my father, for those unfamiliar) logged in to my email and sent it for me approximately 1.5 hours ago, and we heard back a few minutes later starting the clock on my 72-hour window after which I can bring the car into Canada.

At this point we're about halfway between Columbus and Cleveland, OH, heading north.

The rough plan is stop somewhere near Lewiston, rent a car, and leave this one (which cannot leave the U.S. during the 72-hour window). We're going to drive up to Toronto just long enough to drop off the contents (I swear if we have to re-load this car one more time, one of us is going to explode), and then head to Montreal to be cosseted by my folks and to let me show off my hometown while we wait for the window to end.

That means I need somewhere in Toronto to leave said boxes/suitcases today, until I return on Thursday. My new roomie is going to be out of the house until 10pm tonight, by which point we were planning to be much of the way to Montreal. If we can't find anywhere else to leave them, we'll wait around until she gets home, unload the car there, crash and head to Montreal tomorrow.

If you have space in your home for a few boxes & suitcases, please contact me ASAP. My phone number was posted on FB; I can't access email or the blog from the road (we stopped at McD's in Medina, OH to use their WiFi), I still have an old phone/plan.