Back in the USA - 08/17/19
17 August 2019 | Fairmont, West Virginia
Helen
Woke up early and it was pouring rain. Decided to sleep a bit longer. We showered and got dressed. Finished packing our things. Enjoyed breakfast with Jacquie. Mark did a check on our vehicle, including the tires. Then we said our good-byes to Jacquie as we left just around 10:15. Picked up our cousin, Andrew, who lives close to the Dixie Mall. Then headed to the Pickle Barrel at Sherway Gardens for an early lunch. Joe & Sue joined us. As did my sister Fran. Another cousin, Steven, joined us later. It was great to see everyone. Thanks for joining us on our last day in Canada. We left the restaurant around 1pm. The QEW was grid locked in places Everyone would speed up and then slam on their brakes. We seemed to crawl along as it took us 2 ½ hours to drive to the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, NY. We stopped, briefly, at the Duty Free shop. It took us another hour to cross the bridge as it was solid traffic. We had the advantage of two lanes. At some point they opened more lanes which helped. We finally got to the wicket. Due to our temporary license tag, the customs agent wrote down our VIN number and checked to see if it was legal. No issues found. We were cleared in. I asked him why the flags were all at half mast and he said it was in honor of some judge who just passed away. We were not charged a toll fee to cross the bridge. I don't remember not paying in the past. We continued our drive to I90 and headed west to Erie, Pennsylvania. It cost us $3.15 for our drive on the NY Thruway. Then we headed south on Hiway 79. Mark was ready to stop around 8pm, but I said we should go a bit further. We stopped for fuel along the way. I was checking on hotels for tonight, down the way. I drove for an hour while Mark selected a hotel. We ended up at Fairmont, West Virginia. I was surprised at the steady traffic along the way. Maybe it was due to it being a summer weekend. We ended up stopping at a Microtel. It was quite the tiring day for us. Tomorrow's drive will be even longer, but we will be back in our hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. Thanks for your emails and messages. Enjoy the rest of this weekend.