On our way

Fourth night since we left Ottawa. We're in a gravel parking lot behind a brew pub in the Industrial end of La Crosse, Wisconsin, staring into a darkening sky, sweating and swatting mosquitos, waiting for the storm to break.

Tonight's view

Every day, it's been roads and roads of billboard signs. Gigantic billboards. Mostly for injury lawyers. Or bankruptcy lawyers. Or Jesus. I did see one where they mentioned some Catholic patron saint--unfortunately I forgot her name--for challenging times. I thought that one was nice.

Sian and I are off on our travels!

We started a day late (I had been sick), heading first to Peterborough on October 2 to see my Uncle, Aunt and Cousin, then to Hamilton on the 3rd to see Cohen for a hike and an Ethiopian feast with Marla. Lovely night, witnessing only one police shakedown. We slept on the street outside Cohen's apartment, which was very peaceful for the most part, the calm broken only by the 5 am shift workers and the "Hamilton Church Bells" (sirens), which started nice and early. 

Hamilton - Devil's Punchbowl

Ivan and Cohen in the punchbowl

October 4 was our day to cross the border, which we did in freakishly minimal time. 

I remember seeing a sign when we drove onto the Ambassador Bridge that read "border crossing -expect delays", and noticed that it was a permanent sign--not one of those electric signs--which essentially means they never expected anything but delays since they put the border in. But it was so slow that Saturday that we had only to wait for one car, have one quick conversation (he liked the van fit up!), and then we were in the US.

Weirdness continued with the crazy heatwave. It was 29 degrees once we got to Benton Harbor, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Coming into town there was even more Jesus than on the road, only this Jesus was poorer and black. We passed empty stores and torn down buildings and not a living soul around. In all honesty , we weren't sure we going to stay, but then we hit the retirement golf course and the nearby rich retirement area and our destination - a parking lot overlooking the golfing greens - and it was all white pants and polo shirts. The nearby beach was pristine white sands with long, slow walk-in sand bar and the water was still beautifully clear and tepid even though it was October. Our host for the night ran a brewery and a smoke house, so we followed our swim with enough protein to last us a week.

The wetland we parked by in Benton Falls

Beach at Benton Harbor

The North Pier, Benton Harbor

This evening is La Crosse. We ran a trail run in the Hexley Forest (by yet another golf course), then cooked our first in van dinner - black bean chili with sweet potato -  and are waiting out the rain with me posting and Ivan hanging up his cousin's Italian pottery tiles over the sink. 

First van dinner!

Just saw lightening - have to pull in the sky link. I hope everyone is well and we'll post soon!