June 28 Day 4

It’s finally cooled down, and the last two days have been very comfortable. Got on line late Wednesday, and found that the state of Alaska has finally deemed me qualified to practice anesthesia within its borders, and has given me a license to do so. “Bout time, seeing how I applied in February!!

Drove down out of Vermont through curvy, hilly roads Thursday. Beautiful, but didn’t make very good time. Also used a lot of gas…12 MPG to today, mostly cause we were running the A/C all day. Impossible not to, as it got to 97 today. It’s now 7:30, and still in the high 80’s.

Stopped around 5 at a campground suggested by Melissa just East of Cazenovia, and spent a pleasant night in an apple orchard. Melissa stopped over for about a half hour. The next morning we drove to Buffalo and managed once again to take a wrong turn, but ended up where we wanted, Niagara Falls. The Falls were very impressive, and I took around 70 photos. Aurora walked with us down the Canadian side of the Falls, and was almost as big a hit as the Falls!!! Many Japanese will go home with her photo.

We stayed at a large family campground and water park just off the highway in Hamilton, Ontario last night. No privacy, but the campground is nice. Went for a walk on the shores of Lake Ontario this evening and Aurora got to see a flock of Canada Geese bedded down for the night on the lake shore.

Finally got to a grocery store yesterday. They wouldn’t take my credit card or my American debit card. Then I found out that I had to buy plastic bags at 10 cents each and bag my own groceries. Not a stellar shopping experience!

Got on the road before 9 this morning, Saturday, and got into the worst traffic of the trip so far going around Toronto. Bumper-to-bumper and almost a stand-still at times. Finally got out of the traffic and headed up to northern Ontario. Very pretty, but no attractions to make us stop, so today’s a day for putting on some miles. We’re staying at a motel tonight for private showers, a soft bed and internet access. We’re in Sudbury, about 2/3 of the way between Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie, where we’ll cross back into the US, in Michigan, tomorrow.

Still having some problems with the refrigerator—it seems to cut out when we’re driving, but stays cold enough till we stop for the night. No problems other than that (knock on wood!).