Now Leaving Canada

After finishing up most of the van construction and visiting as many of our family and friends as we could in the little time we had budgeted, we've finally left for good and are on our way. Yesterday we left Ontario and took the ferry across the border at Sombra/Marine City and entered Michigan. From there we drove south to Ohio, where we'll stay for a few days visiting with Meghan's parents and finishing up the last of the work on the van. The trip was uneventful, with the exception of one incident. 

About 1 hour outside of Columbus, about to make a turn from a state highway onto the freeway, when Meghan yelled, "Holy Crap!*" (* she might not have used the word 'Crap')  I looked up to see a red car coming to rest on its roof in a farmer's field just off the road. We skipped our turn and rushed the 100 meters or so up the road to where the Pontiac Sunfire ended up, the wheels on the upturned car still spinning when we arrived. I called 911 while Meghan ran over to see if the vehicle occupants were ok. The three of them crawled out of the totalled car, luckily with no major injuries. The one woman was complaining that her chest hurt, so when the paramedics and fire department arrived, they put her on a backboard and took her to the hospital, but that seemed to be just a precautionary measure. With nothing left for us to do, we were back on the road in only about a half hour, happy that everyone seemed to be doing alright. 

Talking to the girl driving the car to help calm her down, we realized that it's amazing how quickly your life can change. The 20-year old told us she thinks she's going to lose her job, because without a car she has no way to get there. She said she had only liability insurance on the car, and it looked to me like a write-off - that will take a big financial toll. We can only hope that her mother, taken to the hospital in the ambulance, has health insurance. They were lucky though - coming out of that without serious injury. 

The driver was apparently driving too quickly around the curve on the familiar road, in a hurry to get somewhere as we all often are. Meghan and I will be taking our time on this trip - seeing all the sights and trying our best not to be in a hurry to get anywhere. We made it to Meghan's parents' place without further incident and had a nice dinner before heading off early to bed after an exhausting couple of days.

Check out the additional info stuff in the left navigation page - we've updated the site to include a few pages listing information about us, the van, our route, and a photos page. They aren't too exciting yet, but we'll be adding to them as we go.

Cheers,

Ian