published 19th of june, 2022
06/07/2022 ended like the day before had ended: Rainy! A good day to "track".
We headed for Cuyahoga National Park. However, the weather wasn't really motivating. But the poor dog should also get his money's worth, so get out of the bus and into nature... as long as it's not raining. The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail was advertised as "accessible". For those interested in history, here is some background information about the trail.
We probably owed it to the mixed weather that hardly any people were out and about. We mainly encountered joggers and cyclists. It wasn't really cold, but not really warm either. I was glad I was wearing long pants, especially when the mosquitoes started attacking me again. Still, it was a nice walk with some animal encounters.
For the night I had reserved a pitch on a blueberry farm. On the way there we met some Amish carriages, later we learned that one of the 4th largest Amish communities is located in this area.
We were greeted warmly by our hosts at the "Messenger Century Farm" in Chagrin Falls (OH) and invited to breakfast the next morning after a Skoolie room tour.
To my regret, we learned that the blueberries (blueberries) are not harvested until July, but the farm operators also make maple syrup (maple syrup). To be honest, I'm not that into this syrup, but the cake we got with our coffee in the morning was refined with it and tasted great! After breakfast including a nice chat with the farm owners, we set off around 11 a.m. We had decided to make the trip to Canada a little earlier than planned, but more on that in one of the next posts. But the route along Lake Erie was clear.
By mid-afternoon I was getting hungry and decided to throw out the usual routine (find a place to stay and then have dinner) and look for a nice stopover spot. Google Maps showed a parking lot at the "Barcelona Lighthouse" (Westfield NY) directly in front of us. The lighthouse itself was directly on the road but the parking lot was a few meters further down. We drove down and parked right on Lake Erie. We've definitely had worse seats...not to say I was ecstatic! The picnic table with benches and an extra space for wheelchair users invited to a barbecue.
After the lunch break we drove towards Buffalo and decided to spend the night at Walmart (Hamburg NY) again. Not only because it became more difficult to camp wild so “close to the city”, but also because we wanted to use WiFi. Because before we could go to Canada, a few things had to be done: the "ArriveCAN" registration (thanks to COVID), take out car insurance for the bus and fill up the empty gas bottle. The insurance really worried me, because I had tried in advance (from Germany) to find a liability insurer for Canada and failed miserably. The e-mail inquiries and telephone calls I had made that day in this regard were also sobering. Most of you will know it or be able to guess it, but I would like to clarify something again: My German car insurance is not valid overseas, i.e. I had to take out a contract with Thum Insurance for the USA. However, since my bus is not a standard RV, this insurance only gave me coverage for the US itself, not Canada. Canadian brokers and insurers are unwilling to offer a contract without a Canadian driver's license or license plate. 🤷♀️ 😵💫🤯
Since I was of the opinion that we are not the first foreigners to travel through Canada in a specially converted vehicle, there had to be an alternative. And I found them with the Mexicans (Segurogringo - no kidding!). An insurance package that, as a trained insurance clerk, gives me a stomach ache, but at least it's better than nothing. 🥴