We rolled over the Ambassador Bridge that links the city of Detroit to the Canadian city of Windsor. This bridge over the Detroit River is the busiest international border crossing in North America in terms of trade volume. It is also a toll bridge that is owned by one very rich American named Manuel Moroun. After paying our dues, we shot across, arriving safely again in the Great White North.
It was a sort of homecoming. We had left the province of Ontario about three and a half months beforehand, crossing the border near Niagara Falls on the other side of Lake Erie. In that time, we’d had some truly amazing adventures on this road trip. We didn’t have too much time right then to reflect, as we had a couple of urgent missions in Ontario:
- Sell the trusty steed (i.e. car) we had bought at the outset of the trip.
- See a bit more of the province and say cheers to some good friends based in Ontario.
Our first stop, Windsor, Ontario, was not particularly uplifting. The weather had already turned quite chilly, the first time during our North American adventure. Also, despite popping into a number of dealers, we weren’t getting even close to a reasonable bid for our vehicle. At least we found Tim Hortons’ timbits, which are apparently made out of donut holes.
London, Ontario, was a bit different – nicer weather, lovely parks, great walks around the River Thames. Having listed our vehicle on the local classifieds website Kajiji (also, it seems, the automotive platform of choice in Canada), we started getting a few nibbles and even a test drive. The key was to pay for advanced placements on the site, and we saw some immediate improvement as a result.
We discovered that if we had our vehicle “safetied” (inspected by a mechanic for road-worthiness), we’d be able to command a much higher price. After all, no one wants to buy a lemon. We did this in Kitchener/Waterloo at a reputable operator, which fortunately only resulted in minor repairs. We had landed two interested parties via Kajiji, one in Hamilton and the other in Brantford. We drove to both and offered a test drive and started negotiating. Both were strange characters and clearly pros, and our negotiations were grinding down to quite poor prices. Then one afternoon, we got a Kajiji message from a couple in Toronto that were keen. We shot off to see them, offered what must have been a satisfactory test drive, and within minutes we were handed our asking price in cash. We had to say a quick farewell to our tireless trip companion “The Doctor”, and that was that. Done and dusted. We then cancelled our car insurance and returned our plates to Service Ontario. It was a fairly stressful period, but we managed to wrap up the whole selling process in under a week. This gave us some time to explore Toronto…
We visited the Toronto Islands, a group of 15 small islands in Lake Ontario right in front of the city’s downtown area. It is easily accessible via ferry and makes for a great place to walk, cycle or canoe.
We popped into the excellent St. Lawrence Market, a large food market with a tonne of variation. It was founded way back in 1803, and moved into this impressive former City Hall building about a hundred years ago. The thing to try here is Carousel Bakery’s Peameal Bacon Bun – but be prepared because, despite the mild appearance, it is the spiciest food I’ve ever had.
We hopped on the train and made our way back to Kitchener/Waterloo, where we spent the final few days with an awesome couple – they had helped us at the beginning of the trip too and are just fantastic friends. We checked out their local Ultimate Frisbee league, took in a key Canadian tradition by watching the hockey match between the Kitchener Rangers and the Oshawa Generals, squeezed in a screen golf session (it was getting cold), and even carved a few pumpkins.We had such a great time with them, and really hope to catch up again soon.
And then the final day arrived. The day before Halloween, Ella and I packed our bags for the last time and hopped on an Air Canada flight, departing the beautiful continent of North America with some incredible memories.