Road Trip: Days 1 and 2

A while back while sitting at working doing nothing, I realized I had an abundance of vacation time to use so I decided that a road trip was in store. Going by myself would have been fun and all but I chose to ask my moms instead and she said yes. The only question remaining was destination. I asked her SW or NE and her response was along the lines of "Arizona is too damn hot, I won't make it." NE it was. For the 7 readers out there, this is our adventure.

Day 1:

Start: Madison, WI
Finish: (HOLY they once beat Michigan) Toledo, OH
Miles: 397
States: WI, IL, IN, OH

New Hotness has been putting in work!

I'm guessing this is going to be the least exciting day of the trip as the only things we did were drive and pay toll after goddamn toll. Illinois/Chicago were as terrible/boring as one would predict except for the time I had to cut a FIB off to make an exit. What goes around comes around. Other than that, it was an awful time.

This is for states with toll booths!

After Illinois came Indiana. It was more of the same pay this toll, pay that toll BS but we made it through. I have been told that Indiana Dunes State Park is pretty cool so that might be an option on the way back. The only other memorable thing about Indiana was that it seemed like every sign on the highway had been hit by Katrina.

Went 6 miles on empty, little nerve-racking. 

Ohio was next on the list and as it was dark the whole time I couldn't tell you much about it. The Wright Brothers and a couple of Presidents are from there if you didn't know.

Day 2:

Start: Toledo, OH
Finish: Watertown, NY
Miles: 546
States: OH, PA, NY

Day 2 started with a bang when my mom discovered she could buy a magnet for every state we were going to visit at one gas station! Next came Cleveland. I called Lebron on the way to see if he wanted to kick it but he was away on business so we just rolled on through but not before checking out Lake Erie. This was the first real excitement of the trip and I can now check it off the list of Great Lakes.

Lake Erie

Spending a little over an hour in Pennsylvania doesn't sound that exciting but we did see our first hill since leaving WI!

On came New York, more tolls, and more driving. Buffalo looked super depressing and that was even before they get 20 feet of snow dumped on them. Go Bills........

The highlight of the trip so far was Niagara Falls and I would definitely recommend the Maid of the Mist boat tour if you visit. For $18, you can't go wrong. The whole time we were right up in the falls, I was rooting for somebody to go overboard just to see if they would get sucked under Titanic style. The only thing that could have topped that would have been somebody going over the falls in a whiskey barrel. Oh yea, I saw Canada for the first time and I would guess that the boat entered Canadian waters at some point so I have now been there too!

American Falls and Niagara Falls

A couple of hours later we ended the day in Watertown, NY. I do have to say that upstate NY is whole lot like WI minus the farms and fields. It's nice and relaxing.

Upcoming: Lake Placid, Lake Champlain and more (tolls)!

PS: I know this was hastily and poorly written but what do I care, nobody will read it anyways.