We were up packing until 1:30am this morning before we fell into bed. This time we made sure we had everything. We were up at 7am, departed the hotel by 7:45am and were at O’Hare International Airport by 8am. We caught the Omega Shuttle from O’Hare to Midway – much cheaper than a cab at $17pp. We had a lovely chat to this lady from Chicago who was going from O’Hare to Midway to pick up her car upon her return from Florida.

We booked into our flight, went through security and then went in search of breakfast. It wasn’t the healthiest, but it was certainly delicious. It was this puff pastry scroll that was filled with mushrooms and cheese. After that, we headed towards our gate. Sam had to make do with McDonalds’ coffee. Poor baby.

The flight to Buffalo was relatively uneventful. It was half a planeful of people, and there was nothing to see thanks to the clouds. And we were sitting right on the wing – not such a great job in picking the seats on my behalf. My bad.

When we got to Buffalo, we made our way down to baggage claim and got our bags, and then tried to figure out how we were getting from Buffalo Niagra International Airport to the Greyhound Bus Station in downtown Buffalo. For $18 pp we could have taken another shuttle, but we talked to this lovely lady at the information counter who said for just $2.05 we could catch the 24 NFTA-Metra bus to downtown which would get us maybe a block or two away from the Bus Station – just to tell the driver that’s where we were going. $4.10 total is much better than $36, so that’s what we decided to do.

We didn’t realise that in order to get from the Airport to downtown, we had to go through Cheektowaga, which is basically the low-socioeconomic area of Buffalo. We went on a public bus through the ghetto, people! With our backpacks and everything. It was the scariest bus ride of our lives. We didn’t talk because we didn’t want to give away our accents. We just looked out the window at the houses. Sam saw a prostitute on the street corner, and a drug deal going down outside a drug house. Yup, really living in the fast lane now!

We did survive the bus ride though, and the bus driver did manage to get us a block away from the Greyhound Bus Station. Once again there were revolving doors, but Sam found a normal door that he could open to get inside so we used that instead. We checked with the ticket counter if we had to do anything but she said no, since we already had our tickets. Our bus wasn’t until 6:30pm, but the lady behind the counter said the next bus was at 4:50pm and we could see the driver about catching that one if they have room. Since it was just before 3pm, we eagerly jumped at this opportunity. Sam went in search of sustenance while I watched the bags, and he came back with a croissant and a danish each, along with a cappuccino made from some powered concoction. There’s not much to choose from at a Greyhound Bus Station in Buffalo. And we were thankful that they had anything at all since we hadn’t eaten since 9:30am.

We ended up chatting to this nice old lady who was going from Buffalo to Niagra Falls on the bus to leave her husband for 2 months, why I don’t know. I didn’t ask. Thought it might be better that way. The 4:50pm bus arrived around 4:30pm, and the driver told us that we could by all means jump on his bus rather than waiting. Unfortunately for the old lady who was sitting beside us, this bus wasn’t going through Niagra, so she had to wait for the 6:30pm bus.

The process of going through customs via Niagra/Buffalo boarder is different to the West Coast of Canada. We were not given any customs declaration forms. We weren’t given any tags for our bags to put on them before we put them on the bus (I think this had to do with us printing out our ticket from home and bringing it with us). The border was literally 10 minutes drive from the bus station. We did go past the HSBC Arena, so we know what the building looks like. Anyway we get to the border, and we’re told to stay on the bus but gather our belongings. The driver gets off and unloads all the bags onto the curb. We then file off the bus, pick up our luggage, making sure we have all our belongings together and then file into the building. One by one (or travelling party by travelling party) we get called up to three counters, each stationed with a Customs Officer. He takes our passports, we have a conversation – in which we discuss hockey, our trip so far, where we’re going next and that Australia actually does have a national ice hockey league. He let us through no problems (we didn’t say anything about the Maple Leafs. Promise! We did mention we’re going to the Hockey Hall Of Fame tomorrow!) and told us to go get back on the bus.

When we did, I noticed that ooh, our bus has free Wi-Fi through Greyhound! So that’s what I’m updating this post on. Currently we’re somewhere on the way to Toronto, in Ontario. Man, it is good to be back in Canada!

We did have a great time in Chicago, and though the Supernatural leg of the trip is over, there’s so much more to look forward to, including seeing Bella, Terry and the rugrats on Thursday when we fly to Saskatoon, the Short Family in San Antonio, and our new friend Tammy, when we travel down there on December 1 and of course our crew in Dallas – Jen, Rhonda, Jesse, Kelly (and finally meet the infamous Pookie!), Clay, Harry, Karin, Val and Nathan, and Leni and meet up with Mickie, Frederick and Alex, as well as hopefully getting together at some point with my friend Wendy, who also lives in Dallas and is another Supernatural fan. And I definitely can’t forget about meeting up with my girl, Sue in Houston. We will make this happen!!

Anyway I’m not sure how much longer we’re on the bus for, so I’m going to sign off now and get this uploaded. If we do anything interesting tonight – which I doubt we will, we’re both knackered, I’ll add to this post, but if not – we have returned to Canada in one piece and are really looking forward to the Hockey Hall Of Fame in TO tomorrow, and then glass seats at the Buffalo Sabres Vs Florida Panthers game back in Buffalo! It’s gonna be a big one, folks!

ETA: Just passed a large accident on the highway with firetrucks putting out a fire on a massive roadtrain. Good times.

ETA 2: We got to Downtown Toronto, which is freakin’ huge, people! HUGE! (AND WE WENT PAST THE AIR CANADA CENTRE – MAPLE LEAFSSSSS!) Anyway we got off at the Toronto Bus Station for Greyhound. We looked around and tried to work out the public transport maps, but man were they confusing. So we followed a security guard and headed for the main building for the Bus Station and thank god their visitor information booth was still open! We asked the lovely lady behind the counter what the best way to get to Pearson International Airport was (our hotel has a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel, and we love the word FREE right now). She told us how to catch the subway and the bus to the airport and all it would cost us was a total of $2.75 each. BARGAIN. It helped when she said when you go through the shopping mall area, you’ll see a Tim Horton’s on the right – and we were like HOMG TIMMYS! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU WE HAVE BEEN SAVED!!! She found that rather funny.

Anyway we followed her instructions (catch the southbound subway from Dumas to St George, then get off and go down the stairs to catch the westbound train all the way to the end to Kipling, and THENNNNN go upstairs and walk to the END of the platform and catch the 192 Rocket to Pearson. Simple, right? And it was. It was just TEDIOUS with the bags on our backs. I’m so glad we decided to get hiking backpacks for our trip. I can’t even begin to imagine how tedious this trip would be with a normal suitcase and having to carry that around everywhere.

It was fun on the subway with a driver who was very fond of the accelerator… and heavy handed on the breaks! I was nearly flying everywhere with inertia, and Sam was just cracking up laughing at me. Some of the other passengers were too. But that’s okay! It was rather funny. We made it though, made it to Pearson, and figured out where the shuttles were. Then we had to go INSIDE and order the shuttle. Thankfully, by the time we got back out to where the shuttles pick people up from, it was just driving up. That was awesome. And we were ecstatic to see there’s a Subway literally outside the hotel’s front door. That’s awesome.

We checked into our hotel, room 504 – once again the number 9 follows us everywhere (5+0+4=9). But the best part is that our room comes with free wi-fi, and we can use it in our room! Anyway definitely time for bed!

ETA by Sam: Figured I would add, upon driving into Toronto on the bus tonight, one of the best things we saw was what Wendy and I have come to refer to as “Wendy Ho’s”. That’s one of those heavenly buildings that have a Wendy’s restaurant right beside a Timmy Ho’s. Lunch & Coffee in 1 spot… Wendy Ho’s, remember the name people, remember the name!