Day 5: Getting Wet at the Falls

Day 5: Niagara Falls

So Saturday was the final driving day. We left Erie after three of us slept in. Can you guess who was up with the sun and waiting for the rest of us? We drove to Niagara Falls. We thought that we would just be there for a few hours, but ended up staying all day. We had so much fun. Kelcey really wanted to do some activity that required a rain slicker like she had seen in all of the movies. We got to wear a blue slicker on the Maid of the Mist boat ride under the falls and a yellow slicker on the cave of the winds walking tour(this also came with complimentary Niagara Falls sandals made special for this hike). Needless to say she was very satisfied. We had a great time getting drenched by the waterfall. It is amazing how big they really are. It was a great day. There is not a whole lot more to say about this because the pictures really say it all.

Before we left we decided to catch the showing of the IMAX movie of Niagara Falls. There were too many people in line for us to get in the 7:00 show so we decided to wait for the final show that was at 8:00. We were afraid that we would lose our place in line so we sent a few out for coffees and decks of cards and Kim held our place in line. We played a few hands of Pay me while we were waiting. Finally the doors opened and a puny teenager stood on a chair and started yelling at the whole group that was waiting, that we had better not push them over when we were coming in or they would close the doors and no one would see the movie at all. Then he continued to berate the crowd and said "I don't know who is laughing, but it is not funny, it is not a joke!" Which really set the four of us off. We each were pretty sure that the comments were meant for us. When the movie finally got underway we were very disappointed and a little bit traumatized. In order for you to understand you'll have to see the film, but my advice would be to not take your kids. Here are our favorite parts from the movie.

Kim: Lelawana was going to be forced to marry the oldest man in the tribe who smelled like a bear in the springtime.
Chris: The steamboat Capitan braved the rapids and when he finally reached the bottom he asked the hillbillies that lived on the river there if they had any bailing wire to put his boat back together. They said they thought that the spirits sent him and the Capitan replied " Maybe they did Old Timer, maybe they did."
Kara: Annie Taylor, the first person to go over the falls in a barrel, took a black kitten with her. When they pulled her out at the bottom her kitten had turned white.
Kelcey: Was traumatized by the family that was out boating in the Upper Niagara when they had boat trouble and didn't get their oars out until they were at the Danger sign. The boat tipped over and the dad disappeared, while the kids tried to fasten their life jackets in the water as they were flailing and getting dangerously close to the edge. The daughter was pulled out at the last minute, but the son went over the falls and survived. Horrific!

We left there about 9pm and drove the rest of the way to Syracuse. We had a hard time finding a hotel because of the big car show(featuring Henry Winkler and Penny Marshall), but the John Milton Inn had one room left. We tried to ignore the smell of rotten eggs and went to sleep. We went to sleep wondering: "Is this the smell of a bear in the springtime?"

This morning we packed up and moved to our final hotel for this trip. We found a church to worship with this morning and great for us they were having their 3rd Sunday fellowship meal. It was hard to remember how to make normal conversation. Chris said that we have "Shipwreck syndrome" meaning we've been isolated from civilization for way too long only spending time with each other. It was good to be able to visit with them all and when one sweet lady found out that Chris was a sailor she assured us that she would take great care of him, because her husband had been a sailor too. She then ran right over to Chris and gave him a big hug. We told Kim absolutely no picture taking at church, so sorry no pictures here.

Today we checked into our new hotel (where we are so excited to get to stay for 2 nights in a row!) We relaxed today, watched movies, painted our toenails(not Chris though), swam, ordered pizza by the pool and are now playing a game of 10,000. We were just enjoying not being in the car. Tomorrow we will have more of the same I think, although Chris has to check in with the recruiter and get the keys to his apartment. It is the end of another good day.

Day 4: The Need for Speed, revised

Day 3: Revised version

Day 4: Results Revealed

Hello again to all the faithful few. Thanks for traveling along with us and sorry about not being able to post yesterday. The hotel we were staying in had technical difficulties, but it was the cheapest place we could find in Erie (and it was still the most expensive stay of this trip.)

For everyone who hasn’t figured it out, the ticket was (in fact) bestowed upon Kim Rush. We enlisted help to police a comment from Jason Harris this morning saying that he zoomed in on a photo and could see the name Rush on the ticket. It is fun for us that you guys were so into it, but we did not want the votes to get spoiled. The tears in Kelcey’s eyes were still there from the first pictures we tried to take when she could not stop laughing. (She is the worst at keeping a straight face under pressure. Has anyone ever played “Honey, if you love me. . . give me a great big smile” with her?) Kim was pretty shocked to get busted, and for the record this is her first ticket in the USA . . . so the only one provable. No tears or anything, but she did appear to be bribing the cop at first when she tried to give him her debit card. In her defense again (by the way, who do you suppose is writing the post tonight?) her picture is on her debit card and she never uses any of the cards in Mexico. Kara adds . . . “She just pays cash.” No comment.

So anyway, how about a report from yesterday? We were trying to cover a lot of ground at an appropriate speed. Not much happened until Kim was driving again and we zoomed past a huge, speedy go-kart track. We thought it would be a safe and cheaper alternative to exercise the lead feet we inherited from our mom, so we turned around and took our break speeding around the track. This was not very fun for Kara, who was already feeling worse yesterday (puke count up to a total of 11 plus it would not have been safe for Kumquat.) Needless to say she was pit crew and groupie all in one. This stop was especially for Chris, since we girls hijacked his trip.

Kelcey and Kim were feeling increasingly nervous after signing their lives away and watching the other racers speed past the pit. When it was our turn to go, Chris took the lead and almost immediately spun out off the track. The first real curve was a hairpin turn and these babies could fly. Kim heard herself squeal like a grandma and Kelcey’s stomach flip-flopped as she did a double-take flying by . . . “Was that Chris?” . . . followed by. . . “Could that be me?” In spite of the spin out, Chris managed to lap us both twice. By the end, we were at least not afraid to open it up on the straight-aways and had passed one another a couple of times. Kara was a really good sport. (To flash forward, we are happy to announce that she is feeling much better today. She is very tired, but really a trooper.)

The other highlight of the day was that we completed the black-out of our travel Bingo game when we spotted a hot air balloon basket in the back of a pick-up. We are five away from finding a license plate from every state. Mostly we have just enjoyed spending time together. There has been a lot of laughing and remembering of events that could have gone long forgotten had we not been able to put our heads together on this extended party. We are having so much fun. A special thank you again to our parents for keeping our kids, our husbands for letting us come and Chris for letting us all tag along.

Tomorrow we will add about today (Niagara Falls), but for now we wanted to let you know that we are safe in our destination of Syracuse, NY and have clocked in at a total of 2, 920 miles.