2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 15

Friday, June 11, 2010
Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada to Saratoga Springs, New York

The Rundown: After a good night's sleep breathing in all that fresh mountain air we were up and at 'em pretty early. I was actually out of bed by 8:30am! That's HUGE!

We got up and got ready, then Katie and I went down and picked up breakfast. We had packed the night before, so all we had left to do after eating was load up the car and get the heck out of town. We were on the road by 10:30am. We were about five hours from Saratoga Springs, so the majority of our day was spent driving. We made it through the Montreal traffic without any mishaps and met a very friendly border control guard at the US border. We made it through the checkpoint without any problems, and were honestly relieved to be back on American soil. We loved Canada, but it's always good to be home! I was excited to be able to use my iPhone again to track our progress on the highway and check my Facebook!

We stopped at a McDonald's right past the border for a break from the car and some lunch, then moved on down the road. I talked David into stopping at the New York welcome center rest area for a photo or two and some geocaching. We were looking for the geocache behind the rest area when we noticed the maintenance man who was mowing the lawn staring at us. We left the area, since you're supposed to be a little 'secretive' when you're geocaching, but he caught up with us in just a few minutes. He asked if we were playing hide and seek with the GPS. When we said yes, he said, "Well, I guess it'd be cheating to tell you where it is, then." We just laughed and went back the our original search. He told us he'd seen people caching before, so it was no surprise. We did find the cache in short order and boy, it was a good one! It was huge! We took a Canadian travel bug and left a coloring book, then headed on out.

We were stopped again about an hour past the border right in the middle of the interstate. They had another border control officer there checking to see that everyone in the car was a US citizen. He didn't check our passports, but he did ask if we were citizens. We didn't have any problems and were sent on down the road. We stopped at the next rest area to potty and geocache some more. We found the cache quickly (it was an easy park and grab) and headed on to Saratoga Springs.

I got a text from mom not far over the border saying that she was at the airport awaiting her flight. It turned out that her flight was delayed by almost two hours and she would likely miss her connection in Chicago. We checked her flight status right after we checked into our hotel in Saratoga Springs. When it became obvious that she wouldn't be in on her original 8:46pm flight we decided to go to dinner. We ate at a Mexican restaurant near the hotel then took the girls back for an evening of swimming. They swam for about three hours, then it was time to go get Nana at the airport. Her plane arrived right on time, 12:10am, and we picked her up with no problems at all. We were all glad to get back to the hotel and get in bed for the night. David and the girls were snoring within minutes, but mom and I stayed up until almost 4am talking, of course.


High Points of the Day:
Katie: Picking up Nana at the airport.
Reese: Getting a whistle straw out of the first geocache we found.
Shannon: Getting to use my iPhone again!
David: Getting to see the mountains in upstate New York, free of fog this time!

Low Points of the Day:
Katie: There wasn't one!
Reese: Having to wait for Nana to get here.
Shannon: Riding in the car with David driving, carsick the whole day, even with Zofran!
David: Driving on the Montreal infrastructure that was decaying below the wheels of the car as we drove.

Photos of the Day:






Miles: 326

Total miles: 2549


Expenses

•Hotel: $49 ($40 parking fees, $9 taxes)

•Admission: $0

•Breakfast: $0 (hotel breakfast)

•Lunch: $19.07 USD (McDonald's)

•Dinner: $78.20 USD (El Mexicano - very expensive, very mediocre)

•Snacks: $0

•Miscellaneous: $0

•Gas: $32.45 CAD

Total for the day: $97.27 USD

Total for the day: $32.45 CAD

Total for the trip: $782.31 USD

Total for the trip: $743.87 CAD

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