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4:20am Holland, Michigan: I am convinced that every barn looks the same at 4am. There’s something about the sound and smell of a barn through that still half asleep daze that never fails to get me excited for the day to come and yet also makes ask myself “I could be in bed right now, why am I doing this?” I will never be a morning person.
This year’s trip to Bromont began at the beautiful Great Lakes Equestrian Center in Holland, Michigan. Erika Treis Petersen and her husband Dave have kindly allowed me to hitch a ride with them for the 760 mile, 12+ hour trip. Last year, I left from Virginia and drove the 12am to 6am shift through upstate New York, so I consider myself lucky to be traveling by day.
One anxiety whenever going to Canada is the horses’ paperwork–coggins, passport, health certificate–because, as nice as Canadians are, they will turn you away at the border if things are not in order. I let people smarter than me worry about that and I just hide all of the massive amounts of produce I am bringing into Canada, because for some reason they always ask about that. “No sir, I do not have an apple tree in my suitcase…this time.”
I was guaranteed by Verizon that my wireless internet card would work just fine in Canada. But, if you think about it, that’s only slightly better than being guaranteed by Sprint, which is only slightly better than being guaranteed by AT&T. So we’re not starting with much. The moral of the story is that I’ll be around throughout the day as much as possible, but no promises until we arrive at Bromont.
Last year, I provided photos, updates, and poetry recitals throughout the trip to Canada and I will try to update this post once or twice during the journey today. Until next time, stay classy Eventing Nation.
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8:05am Border Crossing, Port Huron, Michigan: Passport–check, apple tree–check, why we are coming to Canada–check. Literally the road is so bumpy that I can barely type this, much less drive the truck and trailer at the same time. Joking. Next up is 8 hours of southern Canada countryside.
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11:56am Oshawa, Ontario: Well the good news is that my wireless card works in Canada. The bad news is that it means I get to spend the day doing exactly what I would if I was at home. It’s amazing how similar Canada looks to the US when I’m working on the computer. My cell phone is thus far a complete epic fail–thank you Sprint, so sorry if you have been trying to call Mom, all is well. I’m pretty sure we just passed a canoe museum. 6 hours to go, God willing.
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4:08pm Somewhere north of New York and south of the North Pole: The good news is that we found a McDonald’s. The very good news is that they had something called the ‘double Big Mac’ which is exactly what it sounds like. The country side is endless and beautiful. Chinchillas getting restless in their cage. Back to emails.
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4:43pm Somewhere in Quebec: One observation I haven’t made is that it is hot in Canada–88 degrees Fahrenheit, to be exact. I haven’t seen a weather forecast for the weekend, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this warm. It feels like I am back home in VA.
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6:05pm Montreal: I wish my camera was working because then I could take a picture of all the backs of cars sitting stopped in front of us on the highway. Montreal traffic is less than ideal at rush hour. Things are moving more smoothly now and we are an hour from Bromont!
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7:15pm Success! We have arrived at beautiful Bromont. I have this feeling that I get after long drives where I both want to sleep and run a marathon. Instead, I think I’ll see who is here.
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Go Bromont.
