I drove from Portland, Maine through Canada to Chicago. My route took me past the White Mountains of New Hampshire, through upper Vermont, where French-Canadian culture started making its way into the road signs (with distances also in kilometers and French translations), across the border into Quebec, past Montreal and Toronto, and through Michigan.
I left in the morning, giving myself plenty of time to see the landscape I was driving through. The White Mountains were quite stunning, even with a low cloud cover. Montreal had a very nice skyline, but horrible traffic. My conclusion from spending an hour on the 5 miles of highway surrounding Montreal is that in Canada, all cars break. Constantly. At all times within sight there was at least one car broken down, and traffic backed up for miles. Luckily, there were no accidents, just cars getting tired.
Driving through Canada was an epic task, and I have a new appreciation for the distance between Toronto and Montreal (about as far as, say, Philadelphia and Boston). I also now know about the difference between Quebec and Ontario, two provinces of Canada, and appreciate their differences. Also, the view of the stars to the west of Toronto was striking. I have never seen stars that clear while being on a major highway.
I drove until a little after 4am (not being used to caffeine, a little goes a long way!), slept in my car (in a hotel parking lot), woke up early, baking a little bit in my car, and continued to the big city. I drove from one climate to another, and crossed a time zone. Very disorienting. Three hours of sleep combined with 19+ hours of driving does not make for a chipper afternoon, but being excited about life kinda makes up for the lack of sleep.
