Head East Young Man

Miles driven: 3,677

We have now left the Midwest. Wanting to add some international flair to our cross country trip, we took the shorter Canadian route, crossing at Detroit and then re-entering the US at Niagara Falls. I say international flair, but in reality the 4 hours across Canada involved dead straight motorway, corn fields, and a mediocre lunch on the side of the road in London, Canada. I was actually excited to stop in London – they have a River Thames and a Hyde Park and a few other places named after the real deal back in England. However, it basically resembled the suburbs of Anytown, Anywhere -- less than impressive.

And after hours of squinting at the small kilometer numbers on my speedometer, we arrived at the the threshold of hell, otherwise known as Niagara Falls, Canada. Imagine the worst seaside boardwalk you have ever seen, built along what was once probably one of the most scenic nature spots on earth. Throw in tens of thousands of bloated North Americans with bad haircuts and even worse tattoos. News flash, Canada: Hooters, funnel cake, and the Seventh Wonder of the World don't mix. We high tailed it back to the US, where at least New York has the decency to enclose the falls area into a state park.

Luckily, we spent the prior 5 days in two really cool college towns – Madison, Wisconsin and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Madison has one of the most amazing settings anywhere – a thin strip of land between two beautiful lakes. Throw in some awesome Wisconsin dairy (cheeses and ice creams) and tons of local beers, and life by the lake is good. Ann Arbor doesn't have the same setting, but the town feels more alive. The main drag in town is full of people eating and drinking outside, there is a huge local arts scene, and a life changing deli called Zingerman's. Put the town of Ann Arbor in Madison's setting, and you might just have the most perfect college town on Earth.

Across the board, we had a really positive experience in the Midwest. We ate and drank well almost everywhere, and except for one night in Spearfish, South Dakota, the towns we stayed in were full of charm. Maybe we got lucky, but “fly over country” had a lot more flavor than I expected.