Homeward!

The Peace Bridge, Buffalo

  Time to go home. Four days in beautiful Upstate New York had come to an end and it was time to wind up the stabilizers and head north for home, with a quick detour to Waterloo to pick up the dog sitter and the dig sitee.

Packing up is fairly easily when it’s just two highly skilled (ahem!) campers, moving around in perfect harmony and with a common aim. We still missed our target time, but no one was counting anyway.
I had in mind that I didn’t want to go back on the Thruway and end up at the Lewiston international border crossing north of Buffalo, and the Satnav seemed to agree with me, plotting a route north west on I390 from Corning, then due west on NY20A to the south of Buffalo and the Peace Bridge to Canada.

It was quiet on the 390, and the wooded, steep sided valley made for a pleasant run. We though we were in for some more “Porpoising” at one point, but the concrete pavement soon gave way to asphalt, thank goodness. We came across some construction where the right lane (of two) was closed off. There seemed to be a crowd of construction workers milling around behind a concrete barrier, but what caught my eye initially was the two cop cars in the far distance with their lights going. I was already at the temporary speed limit of 55mph, good boy that I am, but I slacked off a bit anyway with thoughts of being chased down by Highway Patrol. Just as we approached the gaggle of workers, I noticed that one was holding a radar speed trap gun and clocking all the cars heading north. Ah, I thought, that’s why the cops are busy. I will make no comment about who was holding the radar trap, but it didn’t look like a cop.

We left the 390 and made our way into Mount Morris with its lovely, broad Main Street. You will of course know that Mount Morris was the birthplace and home of Francis Bellamy, author of the original Pledge of Allegiance. The town is rightly proud of its famous son and certainly lets the casual traveller know all about him.

From Mount Morris we swung west on NY20A, a well paved country road that cut directly through some verdant agricultural scenery. It was all very lovely but I don’t think I was prepared, though, for the switchback ride the 20A was going give us. It started quite up and down, and just became worse. I like to think I know how to handle a heavy trailer on the steep downgrades and I was gearing and slowing down before beginning my many descents, taking it as easy as I could on the brakes, and feeling quite pleased with myself. On the drop down into Warsaw, the signs directed cars with trailers into a side loop and had us stop at a big sign. The sign showed that the steep hill down had a very sharp right bend at the bottom, and narrow bridge to go under. Great information and, better still, it had forced us to stop and start the remaining part of the descent at 0mph. Very clever. As it turned out it wasn’t quite that scary, but if you’d not knocked off your speed and understeered on the bend then things could have become a wee bit sticky.
Up and down the 20A went, often with sharp bends on the hills. By the time we reached Wales Center and another perilous, twisty downgrade, the brakes on the Toadmobile were complaining. I was hoping it wasn’t warped rotors, which it turned out not to be, because the they were definitely upset about the abuse I was meting out to them.

Still, onwards we went and were soon cruising between Lake Erie and south Buffalo. The Peace Bridge, which links New York with Ontario, was another narrow structure but also another that afforded great views; The Niagara River to the right and Lake Erie to the left. Great bridges, but terribly narrow.

Getting back into Canada was no problem and only held us up for a few minutes, so it wasn’t long before were barrelling along the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) past Niagara Falls and onto Hamilton. Just crossing the border showed a marked change in the habits of the drivers, though. Where in New York people seemed OK with driving to the speed limit (maybe because it’s enforced?), on the QEW it was every man or woman for themselves. Twice people used an offramp to overtake us on the right then swoop in front of us to go back to the lane they’d started in. It’s not like we were dawdling, either, on or just above the limit. But I’d forgotten, though, that speed limits in Ontario are only suggestions.

Some of the construction work on the QEW was scary, too with semi-trucks barrelling past us with just a foot or two to spare where the lanes were narrow. It pays not to observe too closely sometimes, and I think the DW was blissfully ignorant of the lack space between other vehicles and us, all moving at 100Km/hr or more.

Despite all that, we arrived in Waterloo to a delirious dog and a student who wanted to go home for a couple of weeks.

The run from Waterloo to London was OK, but I swerved the Highway construction at Iona and went on the 402 to Longwoods Road, then took the slow road home. I’d held off buying gas because I wanted to see how far we could get, before realising that there’s no gas station on Longwoods Road until Thamesville, about 60Km. Gulp!

Always one to hang onto a worry, I took it easy and arrived in Thamesville with gas to spare, so I pushed onto Chatham. It was a close-run thing, but we made it; the poor old Toadmobile was running on fumes when we finally arrived home.

So, there it is. A round trip of 1548 Kms (962 Miles) towing the trailer. I didn’t tally up the fuel, but we averaged 20 Litres/100Km (12 M/US Gal); we’ve done better but most of the driving was at 60mph or more; the one windy day really pulled down the figures. It’s quite hard work dragging an Airstream around, but it’s really worth the effort when you stop and enjoy some different parts of the world.
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No plans for future travel, dear readers, so you can have a rest from my blogging now!
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