Continuing my North America tour, the Greyhound bus from Chicago to Barrie was the worst. No power or Wifi and when I asked the driver if there was a switch he needed to flip, he shouted “I’m the driver, not a mechanic!”. OK, no more Greyhound for me, don’t need the cold, discomfort, lack of sleep, delays and abuse. Crossed the US / Canada border in the middle of the night and the agent looked like she didn’t believe a single bit of my story – dual Canada / US citizenship, 51 years old but retired in Thailand, attended an electric car building convention, visiting family, nothing to declare. She let me through anyway and after a change of bus in Toronto I made it to Barrie where my kid sister Sue Brown-Taunton picked me up.
Sue’s family was in transition from one residence to another so we spent most of my visit checking out places to live and I ended up being the leaseholder as I had the best credit in the crowd. We stayed with her friend Dawn McFadden and her family, can’t say thank you enough for opening their home to us. I ate many, many bags of Doritos and watched a lot of Littlest Pet Shop and Glee with the three delightful McFadden girls. I forgot to take pictures, so nothing to see.
While I was there I booked short-hop flights for the rest of the trip, next up Austin, Texas.