Mississauga, Ontario
I’m in Mississauga, Ontario now, at the end of the day, writing my blog. Mississauga sits on the banks of Lake Ontario, and is the seventh largest city in Canada, just 25 miles west of Toronto and part of the Greater Toronto Area. Toronto airport is actually mostly in Mississauga.
It’s a little depressing being here, actually, because it really does mark the end of the trip. If I wanted, I could be home tomorrow. Amherst is just a little over 7 hours away from here. If it wasn’t for visiting Rachel and Anna in Burlington, I probably would drive straight through tomorrow, actually. Oh well. Bummer!
For today, there’s little to say, and that will be the case now until I get home on November 5, and wrap the blog up at the formal end of the 2024 Phil Bev Road Trip: Adventures Across America. I certainly have had some adventures, but the trip isn’t actually ending; it’s sort of suspended while I figure out what’s next.
But for today… well, it started out cold and really never recovered. It was in the mid-40’s this morning, and and stayed in the 40’s and early 50’s throughout the day, with a bit of a chilly wind, as well. The day was mostly straight forward driving, about 5 hours from Standish, Michigan, south down interstate 75, east along I-69 to Point Edward, and then across the Blue Water Bridge intoCanada, then taking routes 402 and 401 east to Mississauga, where I am at the moment.
On the way down through Michigan, though, I took a brief detour into Saginaw, which I at least wanted to get a glance at, since it was made famous for me by Simon and Garfunkel: “it took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw.”
I really didn’t see too much of Saginaw, as I just drove through quickly. It seemed like a “basic” city to me, sort of like a Springfield or Worcester in Massachusetts, or Hartford in Connecticut. A sort of straight forward small city focused on getting by each day, rather than being the seat of anything hip or special, even though each of these towns no doubt has its own special and unique quarters and districts. Nothing too romantic about Saginaw from what I could tell on this brief drive by.
The drive down, both before and after Saginaw, was pretty enough, still on forested roads, although the forest was now far less dense and more like large wooded areas, with mostly bare branches or some fall colored foliage, and with few evergreens. It’s still very pretty, but lacks drama and awe. Now, it’s just pretty.
At this stage of my trip, I really was just focused on getting to where I was going. After entering Canada, I stayed on the interstate highway, rather than taking local roads, which brought me into Mississauga (missy sauguwa) around 4.
The city sits on the banks of Lake Ontario, and is the seventh largest city in Canada, just 25 miles west of Toronto and part of the Greater Toronto Area. Toronto airport is actually mostly in Mississauga.
After checking in to my hotel, I took my now customary drive around. The first thing of Mississauga I saw, though, from my fifth floor hotel window was a city much larger than I expected, and a downtown not only further away than I had imagined, but a downtown filled with tightly packed skyscrapers.
I didn’t know anything about Mississauga, including its size or its proximity to Toronto. In fact, I’d never heard of Mississauga. Turns out, it’s been pouring money into downtown development for years, and is known as a skyscaper city. In fact, The most notable feature about the city as as you get closer to the city center is its many relatively new high rise buildings, many of which are residential, as well as many housing office and retail spaces. I’ve never seen a city where there are so many of these high rises packed together in an otherwise flat city, just rising up out of the ground. It’s like a 1960’s version of a city of the future.
Interestingly, in driving around the residential streets, if I didn’t know where I was, I might think I was in some part of England. The relatively new brick homes reminded me of some newer housing developments in and around the London suburbs.
Tomorrow, before I head out toward Cornwall, I’ll head back into the city and check out its waterfront area, along the banks of Lake Ontario.
After leaving the city tomorrow, I could drive straight through to Burlington in about seven hours, but I’ll instead stick my with spending the night in Cornwall, Ontario, tomorrow, about 4½ hours from here and the last stop in Canada before crossing back into the U.S. I’ll drive the remaining three hours or so to Burlington on Sunday morning. I’m really not in a hurry. Just the opposite.