LTV Kozad: Cruising North America's Highways & Byways: Headed East Leg Three

Trying To Out Run Mother Nature!

April 20 to 22nd

Winkler MB to Welland ON

22 hours and 2200kms

As it was now noon when we left Winkler, we were not sure how far we wanted to drive today. If it has been anything like our time in North of the Border we knew heading south was a good option to try and avoid the cold weather!

Amazing how many trucks saw along the way, including an interesting transport carrying a bus without any suspension system down the highway!

Don't Blow Over or Take A Fast Turn!

Then on our way to the Canada/USA border, with the westerly wind once again blowing us towards the centre line it happened again!

Back Again, two warning lights!

That darn warning light came on again! ESP Visit Workshop!

We looked at each other and thought, okay looks like we are headed north to Winnipeg to take care of this before we are really in trouble.

Craig called the Winnipeg Mercedes Benz Dealership and spoke with a service advisor and explained the two warnings which were flashing on our dash!

The conversation went something like this:

Craig: We are driving our 2014 MB 3500 chassis motorhome across Canada and we have two warning lights that came on. One says ESP and the other is as symbol of a tire rotating!

Mercedes Benz: Is it windy out!

C: Yes it is really blowing.

MB: Is the steering wheel cranked to one side so you can try to keep straight!

C: Yes, we have been fighting the wind for two days now!

MB: Don't worry about it. Your electronic stability control is confused with the wind and how hard your steering wheel is cranked over to go straight. No worries, once the wind dies down your system will reset itself and you are go to go!

C: Thank you so much...

MB: Your Welcome Sir, Enjoy your trip!

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And once again we headed south towards Chicago to try and outrun this weather!

Crossing the border into the USA at the Pembina/Emerson crossing went smoothly. Since we have been issued our Nexus Cards we have found travel much easier; in airports, crossing into the USA and re-entering Canada. We were "boarded" by the US Border Official and he checked out our Unity and sent us on our way!

So, we kept heading south and thankfully the wind changed to a northerly and we were now getting a push instead of blowing directly against the side of the Unity! Much better now driving, lucky Jan as we head south through North Dakota!

Also our mileage became even better on these flat interstate roads, maybe it was the tail wind also says Jan, but in any event we were averaging 19mpg and at times getting upwards to 22mpg. Can't complain at all.

Finally the weather, still windy, changed and the sun came out when we were in Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

Finally by the time we reached Fergus Falls, the weather started to change!

Fergus Falls, Minnesota
See the flags flying straight!

This is a nice rest stop at Fergus Falls just off the Interstate!

In 1870 the town site was purchased for just over $100.00

We continued on to spend the night in Monticello, Minnesota where we found a camp ground finally open! We had experienced the pleasure of April travel where almost if not all campgrounds, both private, provincial, state, municipal, etc, etc, were closed until May 15th.

Luckily the only campground we could find open was located right on the mighty Mississippi River! Amazing! It was called River Terrace Park Campground.

We have an app on our iPad called Allstays Camp & RV

For us this has been a great resource, the app does not require wifi nor cellular data to search for a place to stay, and you can locate yourself on the map. My only want is that I wish you could input directions on the map to follow to the next campground.

Great Camp Site On The Banks Of The Mississippi River!

We departed the next morning for Chicago! We were hoping to find a place to stay somewhere before we reached those busy freeways. This would allow us a rest before tackling the heavy traffic of Chicago.

And once again those strong winds, snow flurries and cold weather were with us!

This was one of those Extra, Extra Large Flags which was flying straight out!

More snow flurries along the way to Chicago

Nice Scenery south of Monticello, MN

Some interesting water towers along the way!

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We drove from Monticello through Minneapolis - Saint Paul following the I-94 and I-90 through Chicago. Having no idea what to expect, as we have never driven this way before, we did though know it was going to be busy!

We had scheduled our drive to either stop before Chicago to avoid the afternoon rush hour but that would put us the next day through the busy morning traffic!

So Jan, the Pilot, told Craig the Navigator to set a course: "Take us through Chicago as late as you can!" We thought it may be wise to hit the 7:00pm traffic versus the 8:00am morning rush!

Once again the wind has picked up!
On our way to Chicago!

Chicago Traffic, notice the semi-trailer ahead of us!
Will comment on that later!

Nice Buildings Along The Way!

And the Rush Begins! But this was late at approx. 6:30pm.

We knew there would be tolls along some of the Interstate and State highways, but we were a little awed to see 5 lane traffic, bumper to bumper, split into 8 lanes; with the far right being the "Cash Only" lanes.

These were the lanes Jan had to get to so that we could pay our toll and continue on. This was not too bad, until we now saw another two or four lanes merging into our 8 lanes which now required these 12 lanes to merge back down to 5 lanes! Interesting.....

We experienced 6 toll booths and paid twenty (20) some dollars in tolls along the way. The traffic was bumper to bumper and crawling along; amazing skill on our Pilot's behalf to maneuver us through this mess!

Jan did so amazingly well, in fact remember that semi-trailer we were following carrying the concrete slabs pictured above! Well, in the slow moving, packed and merging traffic, the semi decided to change lanes. The slow moving traffic kept him from getting all the way into his lane; no problem my driver says as the back end of the trailer was still in our lane a good couple of feet!

My Pilot Jan, decides she wants to get past him but without intruding too much into the next lane! After all that might be a tad rude!

So she sneaks skillfully by the semi trailer's ass end! Just missing, did I say just, like by three inches, passing the corner of the trailer by our passenger side mirror! Meanwhile the Navigator is saying, politely I must add; "stop".... "Stop".... STOP!! Our body, behind us, is wider than this cab!"

Jan knew exactly what she was doing, her subconscious must have remembered when we were test driving Class A motorhomes, you know the nimble 36' ones! The salesperson told her: "all you have to do is make sure you clear your mirrors, the rest will follow no problem!"

Drove like a professional she did! Not even close she said!

Semi Trailer now three cars ahead, ready to move over to the next lane!

Your Welcome!
We thought this was interesting signage!

Chicago Skyline! Beautiful....

Relaxed Pilot Maneuvering Through Hectic Traffic!
Job Well Done.

We drove right past the Stadium where the Chicago White Sox play!

U.S. Cellular Field - Home of the White Sox

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By the time we drove through Chicago both of us were pretty exhausted; it had been a long day and now our challenge was finding a place to "camp" for the night!

We were checking our Allstar's Camping App, as well as our AAA camping books and could not find anything that was open at this time of year. We did find one municipal park which indicated it was open, so off the interstate we went. Well it wasn't open, now it was dark out and getting late!

Craig had noticed a McDonald's close to the interstate exit which was being used by about 18 trucks for overnight parking. There was an area across from the trucks with enough room for us to park without intruding on their turning radius!

So into McDonalds Craig went to ask if we could stay the night with the big rigs! Not a problem they said, just park out of the way in the back!

Where we stayed the night NE of Chicago
Also where we had breakfast the next morning.. .nothing beats an Egg McMuffin!

We had a good sleep, the weather had warmed and it now was about 6 to 8 degrees Celsius. More trucks came and went during the night but that was not a problem.

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Now we were on the final day of Leg 3, up through Lansing and Flint Michigan headed for the Port Huron/Sarnia Canada/USA Border Crossing.

This section of highway is heavy with truck traffic going in both directions!

Interesting Truck Traffic - lots of large single tire axles!

We had used the Sarnia ON Border crossing when travelling east a few years ago in our car. All we could remember was huge line-ups of traffic trying to enter the USA and were a little concerned about how this was going to be coming through with our Unity!

And just like going through Chicago there was another toll to be paid. The bridge that one must cross to enter/exit the USA/Canada costs you! But not bad, it was only $3.00 and can be paid in either Canadian or US Funds. If the Navigator ie. Craig, had been doing his job he would have had his Canadian Loonies handy instead of paying with US Green Backs!

Coming up to the border crossing to Canada

Of course, construction was happening!
We experienced this the entire time since we entered the USA!
Infrastructure Projects - a good thing!

One thing we did note driving through Illinois and Michigan was the amount of industry dedicated to the automobile industry! Amazing and unfortunately we did not get any pictures of the huge assembly plants, both Chrysler and GM that we passed along the way.

We ended this leg of the journey in Welland, Ontario where we have relatives.

We would be spending three nights before our the next leg, which is to be up through Toronto to visit our daughter, her husband and our first grandchild before driving on to Halifax, Nova Scotia!

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Craig's back has been behaving amazingly well with no real issues! No doubt "relaxing" in the Navigator's seat was a good choice for this trip!

The Unity's seats are very comfortable and as we did not get a chance to install aftermarket heated seat pads, Craig picked up an inexpensive "heated seat cushion" which worked amazingly well. Priced at $49.99 we picked it up on sale for $19.99. Heath Heating Cushion from Canadian Tire.