Monday, August 3, 2009

Crossing the border

Checking out ones brain completely to the GPS does not always work out. As I've mentioned before, there is a traffic system in the GPS. Whenever we got to cities, it faithfully informed us of impending traffic and if requested, rerouted us.

MSN Direct, unfortunately, does not do border crossings. There are 3 border crossings to Canada around Buffalo, and the time to cross is documented online. We checked. Since that was known, and MSN Direct had been so effective thus far, I assumed that the GPS would route us correctly. It was not to be. 175 minutes after getting 1 mile from the border, we were across. The other crossings were reported at 0-20 minutes, but the one to which we were routed was 90-180 minutes. Throw in a little more stop & go traffic for the first 10 miles of Canada and we had 16.5 hours on the road. Ugh.

But as I have said before on the upsidea of travelling in the RV, it is excellent. While creeping along that mile, Martha was able to clean up the dishes from breakfast & lunch (served enroute), fry up some burgers, feed everyone dinner, clean up the dinner dishes, clean the bathroom, vacuum, mop the floor. The RV looks great.
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3 comments:

  1. Dan DouglasAugust 3, 2009 at 9:33 AM

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  2. Dan DouglasAugust 3, 2009 at 9:34 AM

    wow... I must have just been lucky. I didn't put that much thought into crossing from Buffalo into Canada. We left Dunkirk about a quarter to 1 in the afternoon on a Tuesday in July and I only remember a 15-20 minute wait. http://dan-sabbaticalroadtrip.blogspot.com/2008/07/day-11-hockey-hall-of-fame-and-toronto.html I don't remember which crossing it was, but it was the most obvious one given the route we were on to Toronto. I remember getting off the freeway, making a left, having a friendly chat with the US DHS dudes, another left across a bridge to a huge and largely deserted Canadian border checkpoint, chatting with a very bored Canadian border guy, then through the toll booth on the Canadian side and that was it.

    Now, coming through the tunnel back into Detroit, that was another story. The DHS folks are much more cheery when you are LEAVING the country than when you return. :-)

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  3. VinceAugust 3, 2009 at 11:01 AM

    I think the problem is that today is a holiday in Canada, so a fair number must have gone away for the weekend, and then were coming home early to "beat the rush." Or maybe they were the members of the family who did not get today off... None of our other Canada crossings were even 1/4 this bad. We just got unlucky.

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