Thursday June 28th - May I see your passports please?

Now that title might seem a bit strange because our first trip of the season is to Niagara Falls…….Canada.

But another year, another adventure with the GPS.

This time with a positive spin.

In February, Alex had a hockey tournament in St. Catherines. We came for a quick drive by the falls to see how far it was. Ottawa to St. Catherines was only about 6 hours, so I figured pulling the trailer, the usual 100 stops or so, probably a late start, and we were looking at 9 hours (if we could avoid rush hour in Toronto. But the GPS had other ideas.

We left a little earlier then expected. Xavier wasn’t feeling well, so we decided to keep him from school and leave early. We managed to be on the road by 9:40.  The trip was fairly uneventful until we got to the end of the 416 and the GPS told me to get off at the exit. Once I did, I realized that I wasn’t on my way to Kingston and the 401, I was on my way to the US! I pulled over briefly and asked Guylaine what we should do. I wasn’t sure this way was best, but the GPS said we’d be there in 4 hours. We had to try it.

The US Customs officer told us that she had a trailer and that many people go this way to Niagara Falls because it is shorter. Who knew?

One year ago today, you may recall, my first little foray into New York state had somewhat of a little incident. You know…..the biker dude who wanted to kill me…..so I can’t say crossing over didn’t make me a little nervous. But this part of NY is absolutely beautiful. Eventually we tied into the I-85 which is how we go to Rochester ever year for hockey, so nothing new and certainly far from spectacular there. We made decent time. We hit rush hour in Buffalo and the border was a little busy, but we made the campsite by 6:00pm. We paid extra to get a site by the river and it was worth every penny. The scenary is spectacular. Setting up seems to come naturally after all the practice I got in the Maritimes last year. We managed to squeeze in a fire, a BBQ and a trip to the park before we got the kids to bed about 10:00pm. That’s when I found out we have no internet. (I’m sure you’ll read this someday.)

Sammy has a fever of 100.4 and really wasn’t feeling well when we arrived. He slept for a bit and took some Advil and seemed to feel better as the night went on. Xavier seems better also. Not sure if we’ve got something going around. I hope everyone is good tomorrow. Big day planned.