Sunday was
going home day, so not too much to report, other than the journey. We had
anticipated heading out to Baltimore this day, but rejigged things and used our
Saturday more productively, and now all we had to do was pack and drive.
The Airbnb
was a really nice little place to stay, a two-bedroomed family home in a good
neighbourhood, on a quiet street. I’d guess it was built just before, or just
after ,1920 and in it’s Dutch Barn style was good and solid. Some of the doors
and windows looked original, and quite a lot of the internal wood most
certainly was original. Downstairs, some modern wood flooring had been put down
on the original surface, but the stairs and the upstairs floors were all thin
boards and as squeaky as you like.
In the
kitchen and dining area it was fitted out as any family home would be, with
everything you’d expect to find in a modern kitchen. The front room wasn’t dominated
by a TV because the owners had installed a ceiling mounted projector and a
self-deploying screen. Add the good stereo speaker system and Apple TV and it was
a very good home entertainment system. Not that we needed the facility, but we
used it out of curiosity.
I hadn’t
really thought about it, but the front door opened straight into the living
room, although outside the door was under a copious porch area. Fine in the
summer, and the storm door showed that, but for the winter, maybe not. The
front porch was set up nicely to sit, it was north facing so shady, and the
rear of the house had a nice deck with patio furniture and a couple of shade
sails, which you’d need as that was south facing.
The
neighbourhood of Clintonville is today quite trendy, with a fair bit of
gentrification, especially towards the river. North High Street was booming,
and the presence of niche restaurants and Pride flags gives you an idea of the
local ambience. Indeed, the bulk of the area looked to be untouched by modern
life, apart from the cars lining the streets, which is nice to see in a country
where tearing down the old is a national sport.
Prior to
departure, we did a quick dash down to the vegan bakery again, just to top up
supplies you understand. Sunday traffic was light, so it was an easy run down
North High Street and back. As quite large cities go, I have to say that
Columbus is a very nice place to be.
Ready for
the off, we loaded the car and headed northwest, towards Findlay and the I75.
Trusting to Google Maps again, the lady in the device took us up alongside the
Olentangy River for quite a distance, which was a nice drive on a Sunday
morning. I had to stop for fuel and was once again slightly perplexed as to
what happened to the requirement to add your Zip code to the gas pump in order
to verify your credit card. Obviously, we don’t have a Zip code, us being
Canadian and all, but there was a neat little workaround you could use. It took
me a second, this time around, to realise that I’d put a PIN number in and that
was the required verification. When we were taking the trailer on long runs in
the USA, they were still using the magnetic strip on the credit card, not the
chip as they do now. Perplexedness solved.
Google had
us heading up to Upper Sandusky this time, on a multi-lane highway, which is
how I thought we’d arrive on Friday. I think because Google finds the quickest route
based on live traffic conditions, it must have decided that the construction
works at Stratford would have delayed us too much so sent us down the smaller
country roads through Kenton. Either way, progress was pretty good.
We stopped
again at Bowling Green, on the northbound side this time of course, not too far
north of Findlay and not too far south of Toledo. It was still scarily hot, and
you don’t understand that until you get out of the air-conditioned car. Our
snack lunch was taken quickly!
Toledo was
negotiated, then were back in bumpy Michigan and pressing onto Detroit. As we
approached, the sun was glinting off the new bridge, and I have to say that it
looks even more impressive than in the (many) videos on YouTube. The bridge deck
is one span now, but it’s not likely to be open for another year yet, which is
a year too long in my book, especially as we were about to negotiate the
Ambassador Bridge.
The
Ambassador Bridge is ninety years old and has developed into the busiest land
crossing in the US and Canada. Unfortunately, it has suffered from a chronic
lack of investment because it’s privately owned. Betraying my socialist
leanings, I can’t help thinking that its lack of development, and even basic maintenance,
has suffered in the name of profit. It also predates all the main highways, so
at both ends, traffic is dumped straight into either Windsor or Detroit, and
not on a nice, speedy highway. The new bridge isn’t privately owned (phew!),
and doesn’t shy away from highways, with Ontario’s Highway 401 being extended
right to the bridge on the Canadian side, and a new connection with Michigan’s
I75 being constructed on the US side. The future looks bright, but for now we’re
stuck with the old bridge. Remember I was talking about Chip and PIN credit
cards? Well, the Ambassador Bridge still uses the magnetic strip technology,
which is slow and awkward – see, no investment.
Twisting
roads get you up on the bridge, and then drops you down onto Windsor’s Huron
Church Road. But not before the Border Service people have had a squint at your
passport. Normally, crossing back into Canada is quite easy, and there are
rarely queues. Unfortunately, on this Sunday, there were lines a plenty, so it
was on with the patient heads. Once at the kiosk, the young woman was polite, professional
and friendly. I handed her the passports all open to the right page, then made
sure all the car windows were open so that she could see inside, which are two
simple things you can do to make transit much easier. She’d taken her time with
a few of the cars ahead of us, but we breezed through and I’m fairly sure that
my little tricks to ease the way went some way to helping.
Then it was
Huron Church Road. Three lanes either side, with a built median and lots of Stop
lights. It pays to not get stuck behind trucks because they tend to move off
from the lights slowly, but this day the centre lane was full of trucks and the
right lane was full of people dithering about whether they wanted Tim Hortons
or McDonalds. Once they’re moving, those big rigs really move, and it’s a 60kph
limit there. I’m doing early 80 and I’m being harassed by one truck behind me
because he wants to go faster, so he dives into the right lane and starts a
passing move on me. He gets about two thirds of the way past then realizes
there’s a slow vehicle in his lane, so on goes his blinker and he starts to
move into my lane. Ordinarily I can’t be bothered to fight these idiots and I
just move out of their way. Today though, two things made me hold my ground. Firstly,
diving to the right to pass is a moving violation, and that’s on top of the
speeding. Secondly, I needed one of the two right lanes to make the turn to the
401 a few yards ahead, and I wasn’t going to be pushed out of lane to miss my
turn because of a twat like that. So, I stayed where I was. His blinker kept
going but he wasn’t going to side swipe me, and I wasn’t going to be
intimidated. I won that one because he did back off. On the 401 itself, 100kph
limit, he comes flying past me on my left (better), but he’s both speeding and occupying
the left lane, which is also a moving violation for a truck of that size. Of
course, out on the main part of the highway where the limit is higher, I
breezed past him and went on my way. Indeed, I could have backed off at the
point he was trying to force his way past and still have been ahead of him, but
I’m damned if I’m going to let a jackass like that intimidate me. Of course, I
would have yielded to avoid a collision, but while I felt confident that I was
OK, then I was going to stick to my right of way. We did take a photo of his
licence plate, but I doubt I will get around to reporting him. Had I had a
dashcam then maybe I would have.
The
football was an experience, even if the result wasn’t, and the visit to Basil
was excellent. Columbus is a great city, and our house for the weekend was lovely.
Now, if we could just get Michigan to fix its roads…
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