Mark and Patty RV Adventures: Travel Through Canada – Grand Island NY to Clarkston Michigan

August 16, 2013

Friday August 16th we crossed the border into Canada heading for Clarkston Michigan which is Northwest of Detroit. For us, this was going to be a long pull of 260 miles or about 5 hours. From the US side we crossed at the Lewiston Bridge just north of Niagara Falls NY. Then we drove across Canada for about 200 miles and exited at the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia Canada. Our destination was the Pontiac Lake State Park in Clarkston MI.

We left our site on Grand Island at 10:30 am for the Lewiston Bridge 10 miles north. That is the closest border crossing to us. This was our first delay. It took us just over an hour to cross the half mile into Canada. The US to Canada side had just one lane of traffic and the Canada to US side having 3 lanes.

Waiting in line on the Lewiston Bridge to get into Canada.

The Niagara River separating the US and Canada. This is north of the falls.

At the border point on the Lewiston Bridge.

The actual border plate on the Lewiston Bridge.

The 200 mile trip across Canada was mostly uneventful and went as planned. The sights going over the Blue Water Bridge at Sarnia were beautiful! It took us just 15 minutes to go over the bridge, pay the toll and to clear customs.

We had a little scare as the US customs guy warned us that our plant Rosey (Chinese Rose) could be confiscated! Seems Canada doesn't care what plants you bring in but the US does. They let us keep Rosey but next time she will ride in the RV instead of the truck.

We were now just 50 miles from our destination and it was 4 pm. We figured we would be in the campsite by 5 pm. Well, it wasn't to be. We are now in rush hour traffic and on a secondary road with construction confining the road to just one lane for 30 miles! It took us 3 hours to travel the 50 miles to our site after we exited the bridge into the US! We arrived at our site at 7 pm! That is one of the latest we have ever arrived at a campsite. Eight and a half hours in the truck is a long time.

Our back-in site is somewhat tight especially at the entrance. The site opens up once we are in place. The site is very secluded with loads of room and trees between sites. Patty picked this site online because it is shaded - and is it ever! We can’t see any of our neighbors around us. This is an electric only site with just 30 amps so we took on 60 gallons of water at the park entrance. This is our first time just having electric where we are prepared with a full tank of water. We are only here 3 nights and should have enough water. We feel that we could probably go a week easily with just electric.

Patty’s Uncle Kenny and his wife Phyllis came over to our site just as we finished setting up. They brought some appetizers and wine that we munched on while we got caught up. Kenny and Phyllis live just 20 minutes from our site.
About 8:30 we headed into the town of Clarkston for dinner.

Clarkston is a small town about 50 miles from Detroit. The downtown is hopping with activity that surrounds some very nice original bars and restaurants. They picked a very good place called the Union. The Union was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri. One of their specialties is Mac and Cheese which was part of the meal showcased on the show. Of course I had to have some, however with lobster mixed in. Yum, Yum!!