USA Day 45 - meeting an old friend for the first time

Total States Visited: 33
Where Are We Sleeping Tonight: Super 8, Beachwood, Ohio

Despite the ability to sneak out without paying, we paid for our campsite on our way out of New York state. After crossing through Pennsylvania again, we entered Ohio. After a McDonalds breakfast stop (shared with 2 coach loads of senior citizens), we stopped in Willoughby to put credit on our mobile phone that we bought back in LA. After we finally got the credit sorted (after some not helpful staff in Radioshack), it was time to call Julia to arrange where to meet. It was strange calling a friend that I have known for over 10 years but have never met in person. I guess deep down I was worried that we would no longer have anything in common and that today could be more painful than jumping on a bicycle with the seat missing...

 

With the directions loaded into the TomTom, we headed to Julia's parent's house which was cute and on a huge stretch of land with a never ending backyard - their property felt like a farm despite being in a residential suburb. Pulling up in the driveway, Clare asked if I was sure Iwe were in the right place - yes, I recognise Julia's 'green' car - surely no one else has a car that shade of green! Julia and Charlie were so different to how I imagined them - they are so down to Earth and both Clare and I felt at home in their company. The four of us are so similar in so many ways that it was kind of strange. Julia drove us in her 'green' Toyota in to the centre of Cleveland where we saw the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame before we boarded the GoodTime III, a kind of ferry that took us up the infamous Cuyahoga River where we saw heaps of Cleveland - it was so cool. Learning about how the river once caught on fire and seeing the desolate areas along the river was kind of sad but it has so much potential - if only the economy was better... On our way back to the pier, the ferry went for a little cruise out onto Lake Erie and it is easy to see how it is a great lake - it felt like a very calm ocean that stretched to the horizon.

 
 

 
 

Back on solid ground, Julia took us on a tour of the greater city, showing us where she went to high school and the university where she is currently studying. After a walk around Little Italy, where Clare got to take some lovely photos of them, we randomly found a Random Street, and we had dinner at the wonderful La Dolce Vita Bistro where we heard of how Julia and Charlie first met and got together - they make such a cute couple.

   

We went for ice-cream at Dairy Queen where we sat around and chatted about everything and had a great time. We even saw some strange unidentified lights in the night sky which had us guessing and making up stories at to what they could be. Turns out that they were the fires in hot air balloons! Despite wanting to stay there longer, the day (and night) sadly had to come to an end. I am so glad we meet up with them - it really makes this trip feel more like a holiday. As Julia said, hopefully it won't be another 13 years before we see each other again.

USA Day 44 - lets go to the mall... today

Total States Visited: 32 & CANADA!
Where Are We Sleeping Tonight: KOA Westfield, Barcelona, New York

After a very blah breakfast at Applebees, we rode the hillside tram down to the falls. We decided that we had to go on the Maid Of The Mist - how could we come all this way and not experience the best way to see the falls?! We walked down to the Maid Of The Mist pair and for a really cheap price we got our tickets and free plastic clothing! After a short wait on a long pier, we go to sail across the face of the US falls on our way into the Canadian Horseshoe Falls where we got bathed in spray!

 
 
 

After some touristy shopping (where we found an upside down Canadian flag made in China), we jumped in the car and drove up to Guelph. I hadn't planned on visiting any of my relatives here due to time constraints, but I now I wish I had their contact details with me. We did however drive the entire length of the very scary Alice Street on the off chance I saw a letterbox with our name written on it. Relising that we had a long way still to drive today, we quickly headed to the bookstore that stocks the books on the local Mafia. Picking up a couple of copies of volume 3, and a couple of other things for friends back home, we headed off. But first we had one thing left to do. We had been singing "Lets Go To The Mall" all day so we had to pop into one, because we had to go to the mall... today!

 
 

 

Back on the road towards the United States, we couldn't help but notice how strict they are on speeding here (maybe we should adopt a similar position back home) swell as how many interesting places there are to visit in Canada... we even found a patios store that specialises in life-size dinosaurs (and Ironman) for your back yard!

 
 
 

Crossing the border back into the United States was a breeze! Maybe its because we had Colorado plates, or because we didn't see, like dangerous people, or maybe the amount of stuff we had in the car just scared the Immigration Officer because once he saw all the stuff in the back of our car, he handed our passports back to us and basically said "Move along... move along..." - we clearly didn't have the droids he was looking for...

USA Day 43 - Canada, eh?

Total States Visited: 32 & CANADA!
Where Are We Sleeping Tonight: Oakes Hotel Overlooking The Falls, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

After a McDonalds inspired breakfast of make it yourself McMuffins, we were back on the road, bound for Canada. Despite a couple of rest stops (including one where we got a box of donuts), all we did today was drive and pay tolls. Not having tolls at home makes the experience fun at first but after paying over 8 different tolls, it gets slightly annoying, especially with the amazing variation in toll prices. The cheapest toll we have paid on this trip remains 35 cents but the new maximum toll price is $16! I kind of like the idea of getting a ticket when you enter the toll road that tells you how much your toll will be based on where you get off the toll road.

 
 
 

Todays highlights include seeing a wild turkey standing on the side of the tollway (the animal, not the drink), a street sign that made no sense to me (seriously, how much sense does a question mark make?), and houses in Buffalo that I think are way too close to high density power lines.

 

As we approached Canada, we could see the mist from the falls from miles away, which was so cool. Once we found the border (our TomTom doesn't have Canada maps loaded into it so it kept saying we were in the middle of nowhere), crossing into Canada wasn't too hard and a lot quicker than LAX - and we were seated the whole time!

 
 

After a quick currency exchange, we drove to the hotel - we can see the falls from our room window! Yes, it's behind some trees, but it is still spectacular. We had dinner at the wonderful Margaritaville where we were blown away at how huge the small nachos were! After eating too much wonderful food (that we couldn't finish despite ordering 'small' serves) we walked along the road next to the illuminated falls - there were even fireworks! There were street venders selling all sorts of glow sticks and light up items - Clare bought a bubble blowing gun. We had so much fun! This place is great :)