Ohio to Canada
We left the RV park and headed for our next destination in Cleveland Ohio, it was just a day of driving where nothing much happened. The only part that set Kate and my nerves on edge was when we saw a sign for a low bridge (13”6’) right before the bridge, Now if you’ve read previous posts on our blog you know that we were told our RV is 14 feet tall although we don’t think its 14” exactly, I think they told people that as a standard answer so that if they do try for a low bridge they might have a chance of not ripping the roof off.
Kate and I think this is the case and that our rv is not 14” exactly but we are not about to try and take on a bridge considerably lower until we measure the height of our rv exactly (which we will do when we are in Canada).
So you can imagine braking to slow the RV down enough so that we were able to take the turn into the street before the low bridge whilst trying not to take out a car that was in that said street. Really bullet sweating stuff, but we made it safely and went around the bridge and drive a few more miles to our campsite.
The campgrounds were really nice and they were set on a big lake that had a little jetty and a slide for swimming, the only bad thing is it had been raining all day before we got there so the campsite was a little soggy from all the rain. But we backed in and hooked up without any problems and cooked our dinner as per our regular routine.
We then set about working out the next day and how we were going to go into the city of Cleveland to the Rock and Roll hall of fame and a baseball game without having to maneuver a big RV in and out of the city. Our options were, ask at the camp office in the morning to see if they had a shuttle that took people in and out of the city or even to a train station, but just in case that wasn’t the case (as we thought it might be) we made plans to drive the RV to the local airport and park it in the short term parking and catch the air train to the city from there. But as we learned the next morning the airport could not accommodate any vehicles as large as an RV, so we were back to square one with transport having nowhere to park an RV in the city and driving an RV in the city is also stressful and Kate and I didn’t want to deal with that.
So I went to the camp office and asked if they had any transport into the city of if they knew of any alternative, they didn’t and suggested a car rental, so again we were back to square one. But Kate had a good idea and we called up the train station help desk and told them where we were and asked them what was the closest train station that went to the city, which they told us and we Google mapped it and looked at the car park and saw that it was big enough (we hoped at least) to accommodate our RV. With a plan of attack in place we unhooked and started up the RV and drove the train station.
We got to the train station with no problems and found the car park quite large and with many spots available, so we parked the RV so that it was in the back of the car park and only taking up two car spots. We then tried to locate the ticket office to purchase our tickets for the train, but as we were doing so the train came into the station and Kate and I didn’t find a ticket office or a ticket machine of any kind at the station, so we went up to the front section of the train where the driver was and saw a ticket machine. As we were deciding on which ticket to purchase the train driver told us that you purchase your ticket as you exit the train, weird huh? But as the train went from station to station that’s exactly how it worked people would know their stop, walk to the front of the train and buy their ticket as they got off at their stop. As Kate and I were going all the way into the main station in the city’s heart and when we got there we decided to observe how the rest of the passengers bought their tickets so we didn’t look to much like tourists, but it seemed that half the passengers just exited the train (they obviously had weekly tickets or similar) and the other half bought their tickets as they got off.
As Kate and I were the last to exit and went to buy a ticket the train driver told us to buy our tickets on the platform outside so that’s what we did and we got an all day train pass which allows you to ride the train all day for $5.
We got out of the train station after consulting the city map to locate the Rock-N-Roll hall of fame and made a beeline for it and got there with a minimum of fuss.
The hall of fame building is basically a work of art by some famous architect guy that does the glass pyramids and that what the hall of fame is with some other buildings around to compliment the pyramid. We went inside and saw lots of rock and roll stuff at the entrance and we bought our tickets, but it was lunchtime so before getting caught up in all the exhibits we went and got some lunch at the cafe first and discussed our game plan. There are 5 levels of rock and roll stuff so we decided to start from the top and work our way down the levels. The top level was dedicated to “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen and his life as a musician and had a lot of memorabilia and information from his early years to present. The fourth and third levels were about the evolution of rock and the technology that evolved with it. With radio broadcasting equipment to guitars and amps as well as records and cassettes and CD's and mp3 players. They also had exhibits about how music media evolved alongside the music and technology itself as well as the first music magazine that comprehensively covered the music scene the Rolling Stone.
We went through the last two levels and it showed all the famous musicians and bands that had made it big throughout the years and showed all sorts of memorabilia and information on those people and bands. Once we had finished walking through those exhibits and went back up to the third floor to watch a film about all the people who had been inducted into the hall of fame since it started. We think they haven’t updated their information as they said the movie went for an hour but it went closer to an hour and a half, but it was right on time for what we wanted to do next and that was to walk to the baseball field and get tickets to watch the Cleveland Indians play the Kansas City Royales. After a short walk we reached our destination (its not hard to find a big baseball stadium in the city) we bought our tickets and went inside the stadium and had a look around took some pictures of the field and looked at all the food stalls.
After a while we walked around to where our seats were located and once we found them we went to get some food for dinner. Kate had wings with waffle chips, while I had a hotdog with peanuts. We watched the game and ate our food and then we got some dessert, which was funnel, cake and it was made fresh and really good. The game was going slower than usual and Kate and I had to leave before it was over, as we didn’t want to miss our train back or have the crowded train ride back to the station with the rest of the baseball customers. We walked back to the train station and got back to our stop with no problems at all, we also still had an intact RV once we got back to where we parked the RV. We got in the RV and drove back to the campgrounds without a problem hooked up and went to bed.
The next day as we exited the campgrounds we filled up our LPG tank on our way out and then went on our way. We drove for a while before deciding to stop at pizza hut for lunch and then getting back on the road, along the way we hit some road works and had to take a detour but the detour sent us down a road with yet another low bridge, so we had to double back and get onto another highway to avoid the detour and low bridge. But as we made our way into New York State and followed Lade Eerie for the last stint of our drive for the day, so we got in and hooked up and started preparing for the next day when we will be crossing the border into Canada. We got rid of all our rubbish cleaned out the fridge and got our papers in order. We also had to use the last of our firewood, as we are not allowed to take it across the border.
But before we made a fire we went across the road to Lake Eerie to watch the sunset and take some photos, it was really beautiful awesome to watch, we then went back to the rv and worked out that I would cook dinner and Kate would start the fire. As the grounds was wet it took a little longer to start the fire and we used up all the kindling but none of the big logs caught on fire and we ran out of kindling, so I Googled how to start a fire without kindling and I found out the potato chips make good kindling apparently with a large chip burning for approximately three minutes. So we tried that and heaped a bunch of chips underneath the firewood and what do you know? It works, and we had a roaring fire for marshmallows in no time, so remember that people if your ever having trouble starting a campfire.
So with that sorted out we went to bed and the next morning we packed up and checked over what we had done the night before and hit the road. We followed lake Eerie for a while and then hit some major highways on our way to the border crossing and as we approached the crossing we followed the signs to the rv section but that was closed and we had to go through where the cars were crossing. Once we got to the border crossing both with the guard in it he asked how many people were in the vehicle and for our passports. The moment of truth, as our passports got wet at Disney world and my passport photo ink ran so badly that I am not recognisable by that particular photo or enough to satisfy a border crossing at least. But my passport also had a microchip and my fingerprints on file if the photo didn’t cut it, he did something with our passports, which I presumed passed and asked us some questions about what we had on board the RV and if we had any firearms and that kind of stuff. The guard then asked us where we were heading to which I replied “uh Canada” which was not me being funny or disrespectful at all that’s just what answer came to my mind. He seemed used to this and then asked me to be more specific so I said the state and suburb and whom we would be staying with and he OK’d us and we went through the border.
After the relief of the border crossing we stopped to get some Canadian money out from an ATM and for lunch at an outlet mall. But the ATM would not let us withdraw any money and we tried a few different things but to no avail we could not withdraw money from the ATM. So we decided to see if it would work if we just carded our lunch and the burger king, which it did no problem so we figured it was just the ATM being difficult. After that we got back into the RV and hit a Walmart close by and got some money out of their ATM without any dramas. Now we got on the road with our final destination in mind, which was Lucas’ house who is our Canadian friend, we will be staying with for our first trip into Canada.
After arriving and catching up with Lucas and having him ask us what we would like to do while we would be staying with him we said things like a hockey game and baseball game and other such things. He told us that we probably wouldn’t be able to catch a hockey game but about 5 minutes later his father called and told him that the bulldogs and the stars hockey teams would be playing a game on the following Monday. That was a bit of luck and within 10 minutes Lucas was on the Internet and had purchased tickets for the game, but before we went to pick up the tickets we decided on dinner at Lucas’ suggestion we went with a place that specialises in wings called the Wing master. He has over two hundred flavours and Kate had a lot of fun going through the menu decided what flavour she would like to have. So we picked up the tickets and the wings and went back to the house to have dinner, the flavours we decided on were buffalo blue cheese gold, honey mustard, maple syrup and gummy bear flavour and they were all delicious, so much so now that for almost every meal Kate suggests wing master and has her flavours already picked out.
The next day Lucas and his girlfriend Donna (who we hadn’t met yet) were having some friends over for a BBQ for the long weekend, which celebrates Victoria Day. So we went shopping at Walmart (insert Kate’s excitement for Walmart shopping here) to pick up some food and party stuff for the BBQ. We got back to the house and started to prepare for the event, and fired up the BBQ and started to cook and all the people for the BBQ arrived and started to eat and talk and they were all very interested about Australia and asked all sorts of questions. It was a really fun night as Kate and I also learned a lot about Canada as well.
We took it easy the next day and didn’t do much except take a drive to the apple cider farm and found out it was closed so we went and got a drink from Tim Horton’s which is the Starbucks of Canada only better.
The following day we hung around Lucas’ house for most of the day before getting ready to go to the ice hockey game. We left and went into Hamilton and found a park before grabbing some dinner and heading into the ice hockey arena. The home team were the bulldogs and they were playing the Texas all stars, it was a good game and it went into overtime but at the end the Texas stars won the game much to the crowds disappointment, but it was a great game none the less.
The next day was another easy day and didn’t really do much , we just hung out and relaxed for most of the day. The next morning were trip into Toronto city and visited the hockey hall of fame, which is a museum covering all Ice hockey history and various players that have been inducted into the hall of fame. It also had some interactive activities like shooting a hockey puck to score goals and also one where you are the goalie and have to stop the goals (which are computer generated). We also got to see the Stanley Cup which is one of ice hockey’s most coveted trophy, after the hockey hall of fame we had some lunch and walked over to the CN tower and went up to all the observation decks and looked out all over Toronto city and took some great pictures, we also went onto the glass floor observation deck and looked down and the ground that was so far away. Once we had seen all that the CN Tower had to offer we headed back to Lucas’ parents house to have dinner.
We arrived and I met Lucas’ parents for the first time and talked with them and did a tour of their beautiful home and surrounding gardens. We sat down to dinner and talked and Lucas’ parents asked all about Australia which we were only more than happy to answer. Once dinner had finished Lucas’ parents gave us some wedding gifts which were a bottle of excellent maple syrup, which Kate absolutely loved and then they gave us a stained glass hanging of loon goose in all its glory set against a beautiful backdrop of the sun with water around it. Once that was safely packed away in a box that they made for it we went outside to set off the fireworks that Lucas had bought. It was really fun to let them off because they are illegal in Australia so that was a new experience for Kate and I. Once we had finished there we headed back to Lucas’ house and retired for the night. So we are now up to date and today we just hung around the house again and relax, as usual please comment or leave a question on the blog and we’ll update as soon as we can again.
Kate and I think this is the case and that our rv is not 14” exactly but we are not about to try and take on a bridge considerably lower until we measure the height of our rv exactly (which we will do when we are in Canada).
So you can imagine braking to slow the RV down enough so that we were able to take the turn into the street before the low bridge whilst trying not to take out a car that was in that said street. Really bullet sweating stuff, but we made it safely and went around the bridge and drive a few more miles to our campsite.
The campgrounds were really nice and they were set on a big lake that had a little jetty and a slide for swimming, the only bad thing is it had been raining all day before we got there so the campsite was a little soggy from all the rain. But we backed in and hooked up without any problems and cooked our dinner as per our regular routine.
We then set about working out the next day and how we were going to go into the city of Cleveland to the Rock and Roll hall of fame and a baseball game without having to maneuver a big RV in and out of the city. Our options were, ask at the camp office in the morning to see if they had a shuttle that took people in and out of the city or even to a train station, but just in case that wasn’t the case (as we thought it might be) we made plans to drive the RV to the local airport and park it in the short term parking and catch the air train to the city from there. But as we learned the next morning the airport could not accommodate any vehicles as large as an RV, so we were back to square one with transport having nowhere to park an RV in the city and driving an RV in the city is also stressful and Kate and I didn’t want to deal with that.
So I went to the camp office and asked if they had any transport into the city of if they knew of any alternative, they didn’t and suggested a car rental, so again we were back to square one. But Kate had a good idea and we called up the train station help desk and told them where we were and asked them what was the closest train station that went to the city, which they told us and we Google mapped it and looked at the car park and saw that it was big enough (we hoped at least) to accommodate our RV. With a plan of attack in place we unhooked and started up the RV and drove the train station.
We got to the train station with no problems and found the car park quite large and with many spots available, so we parked the RV so that it was in the back of the car park and only taking up two car spots. We then tried to locate the ticket office to purchase our tickets for the train, but as we were doing so the train came into the station and Kate and I didn’t find a ticket office or a ticket machine of any kind at the station, so we went up to the front section of the train where the driver was and saw a ticket machine. As we were deciding on which ticket to purchase the train driver told us that you purchase your ticket as you exit the train, weird huh? But as the train went from station to station that’s exactly how it worked people would know their stop, walk to the front of the train and buy their ticket as they got off at their stop. As Kate and I were going all the way into the main station in the city’s heart and when we got there we decided to observe how the rest of the passengers bought their tickets so we didn’t look to much like tourists, but it seemed that half the passengers just exited the train (they obviously had weekly tickets or similar) and the other half bought their tickets as they got off.
As Kate and I were the last to exit and went to buy a ticket the train driver told us to buy our tickets on the platform outside so that’s what we did and we got an all day train pass which allows you to ride the train all day for $5.
We got out of the train station after consulting the city map to locate the Rock-N-Roll hall of fame and made a beeline for it and got there with a minimum of fuss.
The hall of fame building is basically a work of art by some famous architect guy that does the glass pyramids and that what the hall of fame is with some other buildings around to compliment the pyramid. We went inside and saw lots of rock and roll stuff at the entrance and we bought our tickets, but it was lunchtime so before getting caught up in all the exhibits we went and got some lunch at the cafe first and discussed our game plan. There are 5 levels of rock and roll stuff so we decided to start from the top and work our way down the levels. The top level was dedicated to “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen and his life as a musician and had a lot of memorabilia and information from his early years to present. The fourth and third levels were about the evolution of rock and the technology that evolved with it. With radio broadcasting equipment to guitars and amps as well as records and cassettes and CD's and mp3 players. They also had exhibits about how music media evolved alongside the music and technology itself as well as the first music magazine that comprehensively covered the music scene the Rolling Stone.
We went through the last two levels and it showed all the famous musicians and bands that had made it big throughout the years and showed all sorts of memorabilia and information on those people and bands. Once we had finished walking through those exhibits and went back up to the third floor to watch a film about all the people who had been inducted into the hall of fame since it started. We think they haven’t updated their information as they said the movie went for an hour but it went closer to an hour and a half, but it was right on time for what we wanted to do next and that was to walk to the baseball field and get tickets to watch the Cleveland Indians play the Kansas City Royales. After a short walk we reached our destination (its not hard to find a big baseball stadium in the city) we bought our tickets and went inside the stadium and had a look around took some pictures of the field and looked at all the food stalls.
After a while we walked around to where our seats were located and once we found them we went to get some food for dinner. Kate had wings with waffle chips, while I had a hotdog with peanuts. We watched the game and ate our food and then we got some dessert, which was funnel, cake and it was made fresh and really good. The game was going slower than usual and Kate and I had to leave before it was over, as we didn’t want to miss our train back or have the crowded train ride back to the station with the rest of the baseball customers. We walked back to the train station and got back to our stop with no problems at all, we also still had an intact RV once we got back to where we parked the RV. We got in the RV and drove back to the campgrounds without a problem hooked up and went to bed.
The next day as we exited the campgrounds we filled up our LPG tank on our way out and then went on our way. We drove for a while before deciding to stop at pizza hut for lunch and then getting back on the road, along the way we hit some road works and had to take a detour but the detour sent us down a road with yet another low bridge, so we had to double back and get onto another highway to avoid the detour and low bridge. But as we made our way into New York State and followed Lade Eerie for the last stint of our drive for the day, so we got in and hooked up and started preparing for the next day when we will be crossing the border into Canada. We got rid of all our rubbish cleaned out the fridge and got our papers in order. We also had to use the last of our firewood, as we are not allowed to take it across the border.
But before we made a fire we went across the road to Lake Eerie to watch the sunset and take some photos, it was really beautiful awesome to watch, we then went back to the rv and worked out that I would cook dinner and Kate would start the fire. As the grounds was wet it took a little longer to start the fire and we used up all the kindling but none of the big logs caught on fire and we ran out of kindling, so I Googled how to start a fire without kindling and I found out the potato chips make good kindling apparently with a large chip burning for approximately three minutes. So we tried that and heaped a bunch of chips underneath the firewood and what do you know? It works, and we had a roaring fire for marshmallows in no time, so remember that people if your ever having trouble starting a campfire.
So with that sorted out we went to bed and the next morning we packed up and checked over what we had done the night before and hit the road. We followed lake Eerie for a while and then hit some major highways on our way to the border crossing and as we approached the crossing we followed the signs to the rv section but that was closed and we had to go through where the cars were crossing. Once we got to the border crossing both with the guard in it he asked how many people were in the vehicle and for our passports. The moment of truth, as our passports got wet at Disney world and my passport photo ink ran so badly that I am not recognisable by that particular photo or enough to satisfy a border crossing at least. But my passport also had a microchip and my fingerprints on file if the photo didn’t cut it, he did something with our passports, which I presumed passed and asked us some questions about what we had on board the RV and if we had any firearms and that kind of stuff. The guard then asked us where we were heading to which I replied “uh Canada” which was not me being funny or disrespectful at all that’s just what answer came to my mind. He seemed used to this and then asked me to be more specific so I said the state and suburb and whom we would be staying with and he OK’d us and we went through the border.
After the relief of the border crossing we stopped to get some Canadian money out from an ATM and for lunch at an outlet mall. But the ATM would not let us withdraw any money and we tried a few different things but to no avail we could not withdraw money from the ATM. So we decided to see if it would work if we just carded our lunch and the burger king, which it did no problem so we figured it was just the ATM being difficult. After that we got back into the RV and hit a Walmart close by and got some money out of their ATM without any dramas. Now we got on the road with our final destination in mind, which was Lucas’ house who is our Canadian friend, we will be staying with for our first trip into Canada.
After arriving and catching up with Lucas and having him ask us what we would like to do while we would be staying with him we said things like a hockey game and baseball game and other such things. He told us that we probably wouldn’t be able to catch a hockey game but about 5 minutes later his father called and told him that the bulldogs and the stars hockey teams would be playing a game on the following Monday. That was a bit of luck and within 10 minutes Lucas was on the Internet and had purchased tickets for the game, but before we went to pick up the tickets we decided on dinner at Lucas’ suggestion we went with a place that specialises in wings called the Wing master. He has over two hundred flavours and Kate had a lot of fun going through the menu decided what flavour she would like to have. So we picked up the tickets and the wings and went back to the house to have dinner, the flavours we decided on were buffalo blue cheese gold, honey mustard, maple syrup and gummy bear flavour and they were all delicious, so much so now that for almost every meal Kate suggests wing master and has her flavours already picked out.
The next day Lucas and his girlfriend Donna (who we hadn’t met yet) were having some friends over for a BBQ for the long weekend, which celebrates Victoria Day. So we went shopping at Walmart (insert Kate’s excitement for Walmart shopping here) to pick up some food and party stuff for the BBQ. We got back to the house and started to prepare for the event, and fired up the BBQ and started to cook and all the people for the BBQ arrived and started to eat and talk and they were all very interested about Australia and asked all sorts of questions. It was a really fun night as Kate and I also learned a lot about Canada as well.
We took it easy the next day and didn’t do much except take a drive to the apple cider farm and found out it was closed so we went and got a drink from Tim Horton’s which is the Starbucks of Canada only better.
The following day we hung around Lucas’ house for most of the day before getting ready to go to the ice hockey game. We left and went into Hamilton and found a park before grabbing some dinner and heading into the ice hockey arena. The home team were the bulldogs and they were playing the Texas all stars, it was a good game and it went into overtime but at the end the Texas stars won the game much to the crowds disappointment, but it was a great game none the less.
The next day was another easy day and didn’t really do much , we just hung out and relaxed for most of the day. The next morning were trip into Toronto city and visited the hockey hall of fame, which is a museum covering all Ice hockey history and various players that have been inducted into the hall of fame. It also had some interactive activities like shooting a hockey puck to score goals and also one where you are the goalie and have to stop the goals (which are computer generated). We also got to see the Stanley Cup which is one of ice hockey’s most coveted trophy, after the hockey hall of fame we had some lunch and walked over to the CN tower and went up to all the observation decks and looked out all over Toronto city and took some great pictures, we also went onto the glass floor observation deck and looked down and the ground that was so far away. Once we had seen all that the CN Tower had to offer we headed back to Lucas’ parents house to have dinner.
We arrived and I met Lucas’ parents for the first time and talked with them and did a tour of their beautiful home and surrounding gardens. We sat down to dinner and talked and Lucas’ parents asked all about Australia which we were only more than happy to answer. Once dinner had finished Lucas’ parents gave us some wedding gifts which were a bottle of excellent maple syrup, which Kate absolutely loved and then they gave us a stained glass hanging of loon goose in all its glory set against a beautiful backdrop of the sun with water around it. Once that was safely packed away in a box that they made for it we went outside to set off the fireworks that Lucas had bought. It was really fun to let them off because they are illegal in Australia so that was a new experience for Kate and I. Once we had finished there we headed back to Lucas’ house and retired for the night. So we are now up to date and today we just hung around the house again and relax, as usual please comment or leave a question on the blog and we’ll update as soon as we can again.
Hi Kade and Kate,
Are you heading over to the west coast of Canada? Your cousin Julie lives there.
Loving your blogs guys - good job!
Love
Aunty Clare
I have a few things to comment about.
1. How bizarre about the train ticket purchasing!
2. I have decided to boycott the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. No photos. Lame.
3. Remember Eerie Indiana? Old school!
4. I am so trying the potato chip thing!
5. Any biffo at the hockey game?
Oh, and lastly:
Marge: "We don't have any fruits or vegetables."
Homer: "What are you talking about? The trunk is full of the stuff!"
Brochure: "Smuggling, your A - Z guide to success?"
Haha!
Hi guys mum here. Again glad to hear you are having a good time. Alison told me about the rego probs, hoping that is resolved soon. How is the spotto going? Hear from you both soon...lola