Travelog - Feb.1, Day 1

Up at 6am. Still dark. Check email while eating my cereal & having my ‘light’ therapy. Note from Sean confirming his trip to Canada and telling me the price of his ticket (I'm paying). Can’t open the attached document giving his travel arrangements. Dilemma: he doesn’t want to retype the info; I don’t want to install the Japanese font. I figure I win unless he plans to hitch hike from the airport to Merrickville, about an hour’s drive.

By 7am we are off and running, albeit at a slow speed, while listening to our favourite radio station, CBC, discuss the difference between two weather forecast terms – snow and flurrries. Whatever the term, it is snowing lightly enough to make highway 43 very slippery, not so good for us novice trailer pullers. A snow plough escorts us into Kemptville, past my Curves outlet (5 cars outside, I wave but no one sees me) until we pull off into the Canadian Tire parking lot to readjust one of the stabilizer bars. A little cranking and then some persuading and the right bar is raised to the 3rd link like the other. I begin to wonder if a Hensley hitch would be easier.

From there we turn south onto the Veterans’ Memorial highway (#416) going south. The border crossing is uneventful with the usual questions about destination, how much money (cash, travellers cheques), hiding people in the trailer, and the presence of firearms, beef, dairy products or fruit. I am surprised by the latter two and start to imagine the lunch I never got around to making being confiscated. My cleaning lady will do the honours for me

“The State of New York must take great pride in their crows” I comment as we pass by 3 giant crow statues sitting in a highly visible promotory overlooking the Interstate. (Buffalo is also proud of its name as the city features three large statues of buffalos in a similar fashion. But then I get ahead of myself in this story-telling)

At 253.6 km and 10:57am we need gas. Price is $2.29 per US gal. Back on I-81, the 6-lane highway is now dry. It is a beautiful day with clear skies and the sun pouring into the car. My feet are now toasty warm. Al continues driving at roughly 90kph doing his best to reduce the inevitable sway as transport trucks continue to overtake us. His only comment in the last 2 hours is: “At this rate our trip will cost us $500 in gas alone”. I don’t ask if he is counting in American or Canadian dollars; I just return to my book, Quilts: A Beautiful History, a gift from Barbara.
Folks not interested in reading quilty stuff should skip this paragraph assuming of course that someone IS reading this.
I learn several things from this book. Crazy quilting, popular in the 1900’s was used not just for quilts, but also teapot cosies. That surprises me as I am currently making one out of brown striped ties for a Brown Betty. Still, I prefer my oxymoron. Working with fabric on the bias is difficult enough (for me anyway), but I just had to add the challenge of creating a pleasing design that doesn’t scream – TIE! Not so easy due to scale, striped design & limited colour values. My Christmas tree skirt has been put on hold as a result.

Our travels continue without significant event, my lunch being 3 wonderful homemade-by-me oatmeal/cranberry muffins; Al is not hungry. Good thing too as I had a quick look at the gas stop menus providing abundant evidence as to why we’re rapidly becoming a nation of overweight & obese folks.

5:28pm, exit 193 on the I-90 just north of Columbus, OH. Oooh! there are 4 different motels to choose from. Surely one will accept our four-footed friends as well. Al is looking for his reward for his10 hour driving marathon on our first day – a beer. First motel we stop at says on the Welcome Sign “We’re pet friendly”. The day is done, but where is dinner?