As much as we enjoyed Chicago, we were just as happy to leave the congestion of downtown for the open road again. This time we were headed to my brother's to visit for just one night. It wasn't exactly on the way, but the detour created only a difference of about 2 hours in our our last couple of segments to Ottawa anyway, so I wanted to go just to see my mom before she heads back to her home in South Asia and just to get an extra chance to see my brother and his family, including my super cute nephews.
The drive there meant driving through Indiana and Ohio. Indiana welcomes you with industries everywhere. They look pretty unattractive--industrial revolution-like conditions, almost. The places look dark and dingy. Thankfully, that gives way to fields of corn and other agricultural products as well as marshes and lakes as you keep driving.
Once we were in Ohio, the main challenge there was toll roads. They are so expesinve--almost USD20 to drive through the state. But you get what you pay for. The roads were well-maintained with excellent rest stops that had tourist info, gas station, a few fast food restaurants, and obviously washrooms. It was nice to stop there for meals and bathroom breaks. We also learned a valuable tip for Canadians driving in the US who need to put their zip codes at the gas pumps when trying to pay at the pump: use the numerical digits from your postal code and add two zeros at the end to create a 5 digit zip code. So if your postal code was R5F 3E3, your "zip" code would be 53300. It worked like a charm. One of the gas stations had actually unlocked the pump so we could use it without needing to pre-pay, just trusting us to pay inside, but you don't always get that. It would have been helpful to know that 10 years ago when I was driving all over the US for work!
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| Bridge on the I-79 in Pennsylvania |
Anyway, reaching my brother's place, my nephew came running down the front steps to see us, big smile on his face and hands held in the air to give us a great big hug. He is so sweet and affectionate. It just brings tears to my eyes. It was wonderful to be somewhere that we could relax a bit, have some downtime--even with 2 kids under 5--and enjoy some home-cooked food. One the road, you have fast food because there isn't much else unless you have the time to drive to a city for a proper meal, and usually when you have this much driving, you're just trying to save time. I sure wish we could have stayed more than a night, but I was grateful for the time we had nonetheless.
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| Red tailed hawk |
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| Cedar waxwing |
From there, we spent the night in Syracuse so that we could enjoy a relatively short drive to Ottawa on Friday, our final leg of the journey. Syracuse seems filled with churches for some reason and looked beautiful in many parts. We wished we had time to explore the city more, but we were just as happy to reach Ottawa today and finally rest for a few days to set my husband up here before I fly home in a few days. We faced a fairly strong storm while heading to Ottawa, but then we were treated to a beautiful rainbow along the way to Syracuse, and I also got a couple of bird photos outside the hotel. I have seen these birds in Edmonton before, but I never pass up the chance to get a good photo of a bird.
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