And on the Tenth Day – CANADA Eh!

Wednesday April 8th 2020

Ok! After being away for a little more than five months and with the total chaos that is going on throughout the globe right now, it was especially heart warming to see we were this close to home. Actually if we could get the winter warmth any where in Canada that we can get in the lower 48 states, I don’t know if we would ever leave.

The Trump supporters have their MAGA (Make America Great Again) while here in Canada we are still great eh!

What a strange feeling as we paid our toll to cross the Blue Water Bridge to get to Canada and other than commercial trucks, we were the only vehicle crossing the border, the ban on non essential travel is obviously working. Now don’t get me wrong life will not be normal here in Canada either for a while with this whole Covid-19 pandemic going on. But the one thing I can tell you is that there will be great teamwork throughout all levels of government. Oh don’t think for one minute that we don’t have our share of crazies, the difference here is they aren’t in government, they are not in control of anything, in fact in most cases not even their own lives. Watching a Canadian new broadcast, there is lots of information, we just have news here in Canada, not fake or real news, just the news, and the real Canadian craziness here, if some one in control screws up, they step up and take responsibility and get it corrected and done right. That has to be one of the biggest differences, our politicians aren’t breaking their arms trying to pat themselves on their back while our citizens are dying from this horrible virus, oh they may do that, but only after the job is done, and here we don’t have all that childish name calling and leaders getting their feelings hurt, there has just been co-operation between all political parties as well as federal and provincial government.

Oh life is not normal here by any means. As we passed through customs we were not quizzed on the value of our purchases, no it was all about our travel and our health, and then being read the riot act about our mandatory 14 day isolation period, and how it was now law with penalties for not adhering, and that our neighbours may be nervous enough to tattle if we don’t obey.

It was disheartening last week when Trump blocked the purchase, of much needed PPE (personnel protection equipment) for our health care workers from 3M, but then why should we have expected any thing else, Trump has always said his objectives was all about America and his hope to “Make America Great Again”. Yes it is when times get tough that you get to learn who your true friends are, and as disappointing as that was for us, it wouldn’t stop Canadians from being ready to help our America neighbours to the south again as we have so many times before, some countries may be more short sighted but Canada is not that country. Oh don’t think there won’t be back lash, but it will be done the Canadian way, if we can’t rely on our allies when needed, than we will have to rely on our selves, so when things are back to normal I’m pretty sure a Canadian company will be manufacturing and supplying our health care workers with their required PPE and we won’t be relying on a foreign country … just saying.

On the ninth day Michigan!

Tuesday April 7th 2020

And on the ninth day of travel we have made it to Michigan, the home of Port Huron and the Blue Water Bridge, our route back to Canada. Tuesday morning and it’s a great day in Fisher Indiana, the trees are in blossom and the forecast is for 73 or 23 degrees with rain storms overnight, we are planning on picking up our final supplies this morning and then heading north on I-69 into Michigan and hopefully getting to the Lansing area for the night.

So in the interest of proper social distancing, Miss Laurie went for groceries at the local Miejers in Fenton before we headed north on I-69 toward Michigan, there was still no eggs, or toilet paper, a number of items were still limited to one per customer, I still don’t understand the whole hoarding thing, like seriously what the hell is the attraction to the butt floss, and what’s the deal with eggs, are the chickens on strike or what, we will be fine for a couple of weeks but this has been going on for over a month!

Well we decided to push a little further to day so we made it to Port Huron, where we filled our fuel tank, and sheltered at another Cracker Barrel within sight of the bridge to the Canada. So tomorrow will be an easier drive as we climb the bridge and get back onto Canadian soil. We have had a great five months with our America friends, enjoying the warmth and hospitality that most Americans offer so freely. We do regret that this virus is causing our friends so much pain right now. I am going to show the upmost respect to those in charge of keeping our friends safe.

So the winner of worst roads of all our travels this year has to go to Michigan, now we had been thinking that the perennial favourite would be Illinois, with Indiana being a close runner up but no, not this year. No this year Michigan has stepped up to be the State with the worst roads, not an award to be strived for but I have to say these roads were a whole new level of bad.

Now just as a goodbye gift we were treated to a lightning show at dusk along with a hail storm, the hail was only about the size of dimes but it does make quite a racket on the coach roof and the vents and skylight. It only lasted a few minutes, and no harm was done, but not a very nice send off … just saying