Just the beginning!

Hi everyone!

It's Matt here, Heather has graciously allowed (forced) me to write today's post. So we left Monday at about noon after a pretty hectic morning trying to get everything sorted out. We set off west and after a little foray into London so that Heather could show me her old stompin' ground, we drove to The Pinery Provincial Park just outside of Sarnia, on Lake Huron. By the time we got there and pitched our tent it was about 9 and we were both pretty exhausted so we just played some cards and called it a night.



On Tuesday morning we quickly made some oatmeal, took a quick stroll to see the beach and test the temperature of Lake Huron and then we were off to the US! We decided to try to make it as close to Chicago as possible. Heather came across what seemed like a pretty nice State Park in Indiana so we ventured there. When we drove up to the entrance a big sign was on display stating "CAMPGROUND IS FULL." We figured this might just be for RV camping and not full to us rugged, Canadian tent campers. But when I went to inquire, surely enough it was full, and had been full for 6 months. Suddenly the fate of our entire trip flashed before our eyes as we hadn't booked ANYTHING in advance. Luckily, the Garmin GPS saved us. We entered "campground" as our destination and it took us to another park just 10 minutes away that did not take reservations and was first come first serve! All I can say I love the first come first serve policy!

Once we set up shop, we decided to go the beach, and catch some late afternoon rays. As we walked out through this kind of tunnel entrance to the beach we were amazed at how nice the sand was and refreshing Lake Michigan looked. Looking left there were miles of beautiful sandy beach. But then we looked right and saw a huge factory. It was pretty weird to see the stark contrast between the Park we were camping in and the beach and this giant industrial complex surrounding it.



The next morning, we drove into Chicago. The initial drive was pretty unremarkable as we pretty much just drove through an entire industrial zone. But as we approached Chicago and could see the famous skyline it got nicer and nicer. I'll let Heather update you all on our Chicago stop. But let me say that so far I think it is the coolest city I have ever been to!! See the picture below to catch a glimpse of how awesome it is! K, off to explore Chicago some more! We will update you in the next few days!


Love Matt and Heather!

And.....we're off!

Hello friends and family!

Welcome to our road trip blog - where we hope to keep you updated and in the know about all of our adventures over the next few months! For those of you who don't know, Matt and I are embarking on a 9 week journey through the good ol' US of A en route to Matt's best friend Pat's wedding in Victoria at the end of August. Though our route is still somewhat TBD, we are hoping to swing through some of the best national parks, beaches and cities the States' have to offer before crossing back over the 49th parallel to explore Vancouver Island.

This last week has been busy as we have been getting all of our gear ready for the trip as well as packing up our respective houses to move everything into storage. We are moving into a new place come September and had to get that part of our lives organized before leaving. Our original plan was to leave Tuesday morning bright and early and get as close as possible to Chicago in a day, camp overnight and then head in to the Windy City relatively early the next morning to enjoy a full day of sightseeing before crashing at a hotel. As we sat around this afternoon though, we were getting ANTSY! Most of our tasks and chores were done but we were still 40 hours from departure time! As we twiddled our thumbs and watched bad daytime TV, the idea was thrown out to leave a day early. WHY NOT we said - and thus a new plan was born! I love road trips already! I could definitely get used to this flexibility!

So we've decided to add a stop at the Pinery in Grand Bend, ON. We will leave midday tomorrow which will give us the time we need to tidy up some last minute details in the morning and then friends, we are GONE! I can't tell you how excited I am - there has been a LOT of build up and talking about this trip and I'm excited to hit the highway. We promise to keep you updated as to our whereabouts and to post pictures if we can!

Lots of love!
Heather and Matt