Day 9 - Back in the U.S. of A. and Celebrating the Ice!

Our brief remaining time in Canada was spent with a breakfast in the room which significantly reduced the cost of food for the day. Why didn't we think of doing this earlier? My new idea -- for the next trip, let's see how cheap we can travel - buy food/not eat out, the cheapest hotel rooms possible/of course this may mean sleeping with the lights on, etc. This type of trip would definitely be a challenge. Probably not a good idea because numerous unhappy Gouldings would not be a good scene. But, I digress....

breakfast in the room

We packed the vans and were ready to head out, then the McCoskey's van wouldn't start. Our two mechanics (David and Mark) looked at it, and I'm not sure what they did, but it started and we raced for the border. If there's going to be a breakdown, it has to happen on American soil.


Our next challenge was to find the bridge to the US. Remember that signage problem? It was still there. We headed to where I thought it would be and ended up under the bridge. Ah, but we did find small signs on the the light posts that led us where we needed to be.

I think Frankie was the only one sad to see us leave the Falls

I won't expound too much here, but you'll have to ask Lisa the story about going through the border check. As we pulled up, Mark mentioned asking the guard to hold Frankie for a photo, but at the last minute changed his mind since the guard wasn't all that sociable.  We pulled up and handed over the passports. The guard asked how long we had been in Canada and after everyone started tossing out numbers, I dug out the handy dandy GGLT book and let him know that it was six days.

Yes, it exists.

For the trip, Abby wanted to dance her way across every state/country border line, but since most of them were crossed at 60+ mph, this didn't happen. We stopped for a moment and let her dance today. We're counting this a a state and country dance. (ha!)

I think everyone was happy to return to the U.S. and be 'home even though we were only across the river for the past few days.


We wandered about 30 minutes trying to find Power Vista - a hydro-electronic energy plant and while we didn't find it, we did had thoughts of the Griswalds in East St. Louis as we drove through some areas. We also all expressed out dismay about how Canada's Niagara Falls is much more of a tourist mecca than the US's.  This thinking would change somewhat later.


We found our way to the lookout point and the US version of N.F. The US does not have the commercialism that Canada does; it's more of a national park - WAY LESS crowded, quiet, natural and much closer. I would guess we were about 30 feet from the actual fall, and we could also see numerous rainbows in the mist. Now I know why the bridge we came over is called Rainbow Bridge.

Below is the shot from the Canada side. You walk out onto the concrete ledge. 

lookout point view from Canada

Shows how close we were to the American Fall

at the lookout point

Mark, Abby and I went to the lower level lookout point, snagged used ponchos, and hiked up the stairs. I know that I keep saying 'amazing' but it truly was an incredible and amazing sight and experience - the power of the water coming over the ledge. This is definitely a 'force of nature' to see. We were all really glad that we stopped.

Mark and Abby

 Just a note that we were not the only ones dressed alike. My camera was on the wrong setting, but we saw a family dressed in matching tie-dyed t-shirts.

We picked up mom on the way back to the van as she decided not to go to the point with us but sat in a rocking chair outside a souvenir store with her book to wait.

snagged a pic of the hand holding

Once in the vehicles, I plugged our next stop in to DD and off we went towards Buffalo and our first sighting of Lake Erie (#5). Not putting our feet in yet.

First Lake Erie sighting

Frankie's first glimpse too!

Our stop was the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY - the original home of the buffalo wings, and Dave and my 'stop' on the trip.

Dave and Frankie

Nikki and the waitress

Our toast to ice!

This was also our first restaurant back in the US where our pitchers of water were half filled with ice, and we also got ice served in the glasses sans water! It was a celebration! We may not have the commercialism of Canada's N.F., but by-golly, we've got ice!


Ordering up the wings-I think our total was 70-80 for the group. Dave and Luke each had 20 which had Nikki begging for a white flag to hoist in the van when the situation required. Lisa said they wouldn't have to stop for gas because there would be plenty inside with David and Luke there!


I will say that these ARE the best wings ever!

Digging in

Dave's chicken dance after finishing his 20

it's a proud moment!

We had to buy t-shirts of course. Molly asked what mine was - which says 'bite me' on the back and I think made some comment about buying the tackiest one there. Well, it is a vacation t-shirt after all.

the t-shirt selling girl with Frankie

We finally made it to Jamestown, PA - the home of Lucille Ball. Our first stop was a visit to her grave site and again - only a Goulding moment. After our first miss, we finally pulled into the cemetery. There were three teenage boys on bikes and to save time, I asked them where LB's grave was. They said it was kind of hard to explain so they would just show us. Only on the GGLT can you get a bike escort through a cemetery for two vans going to see Lucille Ball's grave!

The boys posed for a shot with Frankie. I gave them $10, told them thanks and to go grab some ice cream. They high-tailed it. The side-splitting laughter was worth every penny of that. Lisa and I had tears running and laughed even more when we thought about anyone seeing us and thinking that we were distraught about LB's grave. On a more serious note, here it is. I think she would appreciate the humor of including Frankie.

We also had to take this shot because it was the first headstone we saw and just too ironic to pass up.

"Griswold"

We proceeded on to the Lucy museums and saw the murals on the building walls in town.

kids looking at Lucy scrapbooks

We keep missing all of the 'events' at our stops!

We made an executive decision to skip the Zippo Lighter Visitor's Center because we would have been there after the 5:00 closing - bummer - but we have many more to come anyway!

Traveling on to our next stop was definitely a road trip through nature. We went through two national forests including the Alleghney on our way through Pennsylvania. By this time, I was driving which is always exciting for the McCoskeys because I do not drive like Mark. Coming down the mountain, you can coast up to 80 mph without problem! This is when I would step on the brake, but if I had been alone and in my car.... : ) Just kidding, Mom!

As we're cruising down I-80, we cross the highest point on I-80 east of the Mississippi at an elevation of 2,250 ft. Woohoo!?


Our last stop of the evening is Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, Home of the World's Largest Hamburger as documented by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Nikki, Frankie and the menu - which is extensive!

Luke in a Luke-sized chair

The burger - I don't think this was the biggest that they have.

We arrived at our motel in Clarion, PA at 11:00 p.m., and after finally finding Door A, crashed for the night.


On another note - Canada runs credit card charges at the table which saves a lot of time in getting out of a restaurant. American restaurants could use this idea.