Day 9

I slept in a bit, not getting out of bed until 9:30, and started to pack.  The plan was to head into downtown for lunch at the Bier Markt with Hartmudt and then hit the road back to the US.  Since we had a passenger, we needed to get creative with packing the car.  We managed to fit everything without too much trouble and headed back to downtown.  Parking was an issue yet again.  We found a lot close to the restaurant, but when we got back to the car, ended up paying more than expected.  Lunch was very good, but the service was slow and the food took a long time.  Ty had a German-style pizza and I had a very tasty mushroom soup.  We split Bavarian pretzels which came with a very good horseradish mustard.  Then, sadly, it was time to part ways with Hartmudt.  He was the best part of Toronto!

We found some bike trails along the Niagara River which sounded pleasant, so we headed toward the Falls.  Unfortunately, traffic was a disaster from the time we left the restaurant all the way to the suburbs of Toronto.  It ended up taking four and a half hours for a trip which should have taken only an hour and a half, so, needless to say, the Falls did not happen for us.  The engine light started blinking halfway through the drive and the car was shuddering, which made me pretty worried.  We kept going, however. 

We were very happy to cross back into America, but I stupidly told the custom’s officer that I bought cabbage in Toronto and was bringing it back to the States.  This caused us to have to go inside and have our car inspected.  The officer inside seemed pretty surprised that the other officer felt the need for our car to be searched due to cabbage, but was quite pleasant.  It didn’t take too long and then we were back on our way.  The pit-stop also enabled us to turn on our phones for the first time in days, and contact our buddy in Buffalo, where we were headed.  We stopped to get some gas, which helped the car to stop shuddering.  Our guess is that we got some bad gas while in Canada…another reason to stay away from Toronto. 

We got to the Celmer residence fairly easily and were just in time for dinner.  Wow, what a feast!  We had turkey, veggies, rolls, salad, and then almond pound cake for dessert.  After dinner, we hung out with the Celmers and talked till pretty late.  After the frustrating drive, it was nice to relax with great hosts.