Our first experience consisted of getting up at 4:30 AM, which meant we did not get a lot of sleep. The result was two cranky people. We then got on Metro North’s first train of the day. We arrived to a mostly empty Grand Central, with most things still closed. I was expecting more things to be open at that point, but I was wrong. Thankfully Hot and Tasty bread place was open, so Leon got a bagel and I got a corn muffin. We then went to get the bus, which the ticket said between Lexington and 3rd at 41st street. When we got there, there were just a bunch of people standing in line. I felt like the trip was going to be cheap and ..ghetto? And so we waited.
Two buses arrived but they were heading to Virginia. Finally our bus arrives, and they check our IDs an stow our luggage. Then our adventure really begins…
First we went to Union City NJ and picked up more passengers.
Everything is in Spanish and I have to rely on Leon for most of the translation. They started off the bus ride with a prayer. And Leon was frightened by this, and that doesn’t happen often.
Then we stopped at the Vince Lombardi rest stop.
No real food there, and Leon predicts what the rest of the trip will be like. As it turns out, he’s right.

We get back on the highway and we start traveling north, or so I thought. It turns out that the next time I look out of the windows I see signs for the Pocono Mountains, which are in PA. Why we went through PA I’ll never know. We stop at 12 for lunch in Binghamton, where again it’s mostly fast food, and we have Pizza Hut for lunch. We got personal pan pizzas, which are not as big as I thought. So we ordered a stuffed crust with jalapenos to go.

We continued to drive north on Rt 81, and after another 3 hours and 2 movies later (in English thankfully), we made another pit stop toward the Canada border.

Then we made it into Canada after going over the first 1000 islands bridge. We stop off at customs and 3 people need to get things worked out. We are then in Ontario, and I’ve officially been out of the country.