Today was a great day. Since we didn't have complimentary internet in the hotel room last night--and we certainly weren't going to actually pay for it--we didn't have anything to keep us up late and take away from our sleep. We got an early-for-us start on the road around 10 AM and headed straight for Buffalo/Niagara Falls. My mom's cousin Katherine...who also happens to be a fan of the blog...and her family live in Buffalo, and she and her husband Bill treated us to an awesome lunch at Anchor Bar, the restaurant where Buffalo wings were first invented. Not surprisingly, the wings were awesome. It was kind of tempting to order a cheeseburger or something just for the irony of it, but I'm glad we stuck with the theme of the trip and stayed cliche. That makes us 3 for 3 on regionally indigenous foods so far. The next stop is Cleveland,
so it's a pretty safe bet we'll be looking to chow down on some steamer platters.
We left Anchor Bar with high morale and the GPS set on Niagara Falls. For those of you who have never been, you can either view Niagara Falls from the Canadian or the American side. We knew that we couldn't go to Canadia because we don't have our passports, but we somehow misread the GPS and pulled into the Duty-Free store on the American side of the Peace Bridge, half of which is in America and half of which is in Canadia. Well, the thing about this particular Duty-Free store is that once you pull in it becomes a one way street into Canadia, and you can't get back into the U.S. without going through customs. And, as the crew soon discovered, starting today, June 1 2009, you can't go through customs without a passport. Yep, the law literally went in to effect today.
So as we were headed over the Peace Bridge toward Canadia, I suavely pulled a quick U-ey on the bridge and decided that we would just have to brave it through border control. The officer in the booth didn't seem to think very highly of our plan, and his displeasure really came through when he searched us and the pathfinder for weapons, drugs, and booze. Luckily, all he found was a pack of cheese crackers and the big plastic skull from Shipwreck. He even played a super fun game of 20 questions with us, asking friendly questions about where we were born and what we seemed to be doing in this neck of the woods. It took a while, but we were eventually able to win him over with our kind eyes and confident smiles. He ended up giving us some kind of non-compliance warning and letting us go, making that twice in the last few days that we have dug ourselves in deep holes with law enforcement and promptly fineagled out of it. That brings
my popo sweet talking record up to probably about ten for twelve. Barrett is one for two. Hayden doesn't drive much in light of certain safety concerns.
We eventually did make it to Niagara on the U.S. side unscathed. It was pretty remarkable. True to form, we didn't pay for any sort of tour and we didn't stay for long, and before we knew it we were back on the open road headed for the city that has a tourism industry based entirely on Lebron James: Cleveland.
Gasoline Purchased Today: 15 gallons
Sleeping Accomodations: Cleveland Airport Marriott
Tomorrow's Destination: Chicago
Potential Stops en Route: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, somewhere to scam free WiFi
Potential Problems: It's Hayden's day to drive...and we'll be in Chicago
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