There are no photos here due to my camera being out of action :( Todd and Hannah did though and I will update this later with some photos of theirs.

For our first night without Peggy and Rez we stayed at a campgroup just west of Toronto in the Valens Conservation Area. It was dark when we arrived and we had an early night. We had been given a booklet containing a list of wildlife that we might see in the area and had high hopes that we might see Racoons for the first time. There was rustling in the forest but we never saw any.

We had bought maple syrup and the ingredients for pancakes to celebrate being in Canada and that's what we made for breakfast the next morning. Cooking pancakes on a camp stove turned out to be a bit harder than anticipated and it ended up taking about 45 minutes to cook enough for the three of us. We had mostly been having quick breakfasts up until this point so it was nice to relax and cook something.

We left soon after breakfast and headed back toward the American Border. Our target was the Ambassador Bridge which links Windsor Ontario with Detroit Michigan. It was a long drive across fairly flat terrain but the roads were good and driving was easy. Some Radiolab podcasts helped pass the time, in particular an episode about getting rid of mosquitoes. We just happened to have a discussion about the very same thing the night before so it was quite serendipitous. The Ontario highways (at least the ones that we drove on) were really good, as were the roadside service areas. It was nice to once again buy fuel by the litre.

It was late afternoon when we reached the border. The city of Detroit is a bit infamous among people of my generation. Almost everyone knows about it, mostly because of Eminem, but also because of the more recent city bankruptcy. There is a general perception that the city is half abandoned and very dangerous.

Before we could put that to the test however we had to make it through customs. Hannah needed to validate her student visa which meant that we needed to leave the car and wait for processing. This involved sitting in a busy waiting room while being treated like a criminal. Stone faced guards controlled access in and out and permission was required to use the bathroom. While we were inside our car was searched. We always had a procedure for opening the boot so that nothing would fall out. The guards outside obviously didn't know about this and ended up breaking our lantern because of it. Dealing with the US customs almost makes you wonder whether they actually want tourism at all. It seems to work on a guilty until proven innocent system with customs officers doing their best to stress people out.

We eventually were allowed to go but the delay meant that we didn't have time to see much of Detroit. We needed to push on to our next campsite near Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was a really nice place with very few people staying. We had a open area nestled away on its own. It was dusk as we arrived and we were treated to the most spectacular fireflies. We made good use of the hot showers and had another good nights sleep. My cold was finally on the way out by now and I was glad to not be coughing my throat out every few minutes.

Another lazy morning and pancake breakfast left us feeling nice and relaxed as we set off to explore the college town of Ann Arbor, home of the famous University of Michigan. The skies were dark as we parked and started to explore the campus. Todd was interested in seeing the Football stadium which unfortunately was closed up but we were still able to see how huge it was. It sounds absolutely insane but the stadium has almost 110,000 seats. That is more than double Eden Park and it is just for a University. It is the largest stadium in the USA and the second largest in the world which really is incredible. I visited the campus store and bought a Wolverines (the Football Team) sweatshirt. I had had a similar one from dad when I was little so it was cool to be able to experience the place behind the name.

It started to rain gently as we returned to the car. Soon after we got back onto the road we were engulfed in the most intense storm I have experienced. Out of nowhere the wind began to howl and rain began to fall in such a huge volume it was as if we were under a waterfall. The roads instantly flooded with water close to half a metre deep by the look of it. Making this more impressive was the fact the we were on a slope to the water was rushing downhill along the the road. Several parked cars looked as if they were getting drenched. I was glad that we had a good ground clearance otherwise we might have been in trouble. The rain lasted for about ten minutes before weakening. Traffic had barely moved while this was happening but we eventually got moving again and soon found ourselves at Costco for a Costco lunch.

Costco is a wholesale store that requires membership. I have bought a membership back in California and had been in a few times since. One cool thing about Costco is there are usually at least half a dozen people offering free samples of different foods. The samples are usually quite generous so with a bit of luck you can visit a Costco and get a nice varied lunch for free! If that isn't enough they also have a takeaway restaurant in the store which is pretty much the only place that the legend of ultra cheap American food was actually true in my experience. We took refuge from the rain for half an hour and ended up eating way too many samples topped of by pizza.

This would be our final night before reuniting with Peggy and Rez in Bloomington Indiana and we were keen to get as close as possible before setting up camp. We drove south through Michigan into Ohio, and then west into northern Indiana. The landscape was much nicer than I had been anticipating. Yes there was corn and a lot of it, but the topography was mostly rolling hills with patches of forest spread throughout. I had expected things to be dead flat with corn as far as the eye can see. I suspect that the great plains to the west are probably much closer to this than Indiana.

We left the highway towards our camp for the night at . We were driving along a narrow back road, corn high on both sides, with a fiery sun setting in front of us. The moment is seared into my mind and I remember it like it was yesterday. There was something profoundly calm and beautiful that I haven't really felt before. I you had asked me where I thought my most amazing memory would be before I left I can assure you I wouldn't have said Indiana. I think sometimes the bigger vistas or towering skylines can be too much to take it fully, and as a result are harder to fully appreciate in a moment. The simplicity of this background in Indiana meant that for a minute or two everything just culminated perfectly in a simple experience that I wont soon forget.

We spent the night at the Apple Orchard Primitive Campground and shared a huge open grassy area with just one other group. As we were waiting for the ranger to return to the office Todd collected a huge amount of wood from scrub that had been cut beside the road. We sat as the light faded and the fireflies rose with one of the best campfires of the trip. The night was still and warm and the sky clear. Thinking back now to what should have been a fairly straightforward day of filling in time turned out to have some of the strongest and most treasured moments of the trip. Once darkness had set in Hannah noticed some movement just outside the light of the fire and there we saw two cheeky raccoons. They ran off as we turned to look at them but soon returned and peered at us from behind a tree like in a cartoon, one face above the other.

The next morning we left fairly early to drive the last few hours to Bloomington. We had had an amazing time since the girls had left us but we were eager to be reunited again. It was also Rez's birthday so we were looking forward to arriving in Bloomington to celebrate. Read all about it next time!