Day 1 - Toronto to Chesterton IN

September 2017 - Chesterton IN

We managed to be on the road by 9 AM and it was sunny as we left Toronto. Then the weather was sunny, cloudy, rainy repeat all the way. Never heavy downpours more like sun showers.

Tillsonburg area was settled in 1825 by George Tillson and other immigrants from Enfield, Massachusetts. 

We associate Tillsonburg with tobacco and this song by Stompin' Tom Connors.

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In 1836 the village was renamed Tillsonburg in honour of its founder. It was also in this year that the main street, Broadway, was laid out to its full 100-foot (30 m) width. Because the village was predominantly a logging and wood product centre, the street was built to accommodate the turning of three-team logging wagons. This width is now unique to Ontario and has become a benefit toward handling the pressures of modern-day traffic by providing angled parking. 

The mid-19th century proved to be the first step in the industrialization of this municipality. A water system was devised to not only supply pure water for domestic use, but also to provide water power to such industries as a sawmill, planing mill, grist mill, spinning mill, pottery and a tannery. Many of these new establishments were either owned, started, or financed by George Tillson.

Traffic! See the blue truck that is coming from Toronto where the Canadian Exhibition (county fair) ended yesterday.

One of the amusement rides moving on to its next location.

We used our Nexus cards to go through U.S. Customs at Sarnia, it used to be a breeze, flash our cards and go through but now the wait is as long as any of the other lines.

Welcome to Michigan.

We gained an hour which meant we got into the hotel at local time 5 PM.

Originally called Coffee Creek and located a little to the south of the current downtown, the name was changed some time after the post office was established in 1833 to Calumet, the river to the north. When the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad came through the area in 1852, the town moved north to the current location and began to develop. The town's name was not changed to Chesterton until after the Civil War. There appears to have been confusion with Calumet, Illinois, further up the track.

We are booked into the Hilton Garden Inn and given breakfast coupons.



For dinner we had crackers and cheeses.