The Cubicle is empty!!!

8 – 7 – 06

Well, our stay in Utica, NY was a pleasant one.  We both had a lenghty sleep recovering from our long travels.  Maria is doing better with her cold.  All the medicine is finally taking effect. 

Today, we leave for Vermont to see the McDermotts (Kevin, Carol, Connor, Kelly, Jake).  It’s been two years since Maria has seen her friend and it’s been three years since i’ve seen the family when they were passing thru from Colorado to Vermont. 

Our route took us from Utica to upstate New York across Lake Champlain to Burlington and then to Barre, Vermont.

The Adirondecks were just beautifull!!!  It’s really a reminder of Door County for us, except in a very large scale.  The main feature in this area is Old Forge.  It’s like Door County combined with the Dells!!!  Which means alot of antique shops along with the water slides and putt-putts.  There are tons of people here even for a monday.  The resorts that are prevelent in this area are full as indicated by kids riding their bikes and skateboards all over the shoulder.  Joggers are also prevelent on the shoulders.  Of course lakes dots the whole area.  The scenic highway is cut thru the woods and in some instances trees are cleared to offer scenic vistas.  The mountains are gorgeous and very green! 

Road construction are everywhere in this strech of road.  Our longest wait was about 15 min. when a resurfacing job was going on at Tuppers Lake.

We stopped at Lake Placid for lunch at a greek restaurant and had a great lunch of olives for starters and souvlakis sandwich.  This is an awesome restaurant.  Of course as everyone knows, this city is the site of the ’32 and ’80 winter Olympics.  The Miracle on Ice happened here when the collegiate american all-stars beat the soviet pros and went on to win the gold medal in ice hockey!  I remember that game distinctly as I was getting a filling in my tooth while the radio at the dentist was on with the game live.  I already knew the final score but watched the game on TV that night and heard Al Micheals immortally described the feeling of the moment.  Incredible moment in Olympic history. 

We didn’t get to see any of the particular venue sites, but we did pass by the location of the ice track where Eric Hieden of Madison won I believe was 5 gold medals in speed skating.  We also could see in the mountains the location of the ski runs where the competitions were held and where the future ski olympians train. 

Again the vistas with the mountains and streams were spectacular.

I took us another 1 hr and 30 min. to go from Lake Placid to Port Kent.  We arrived at Port Kent and they were loading the ferry to take us across Lake Champlain to Burlington.  Luckily, there is plenty of room to board.  After we paid $19.25, we boarded the ferry. 

I was wonderfull to be top-deck and feel the breeze and watch Burlington get bigger and bigger as we approach her.  The ride was fairly smoothed.  It took exacly an hour to cross the lake.

We found the McDermotts house with no problem whatsoever.  Their house is beautiful and is located in a cul-de-sac and sorrounded by trees and beautifull view of the Vermont mountains. 

We arrived there around 4:30 ish and gabbed with everyone until 11pm.

Overall a great day to start our visit with the McDermotts.

8-06-06  

Needless to say Maria and I slept in today after the long day yesterday.  We got up around 7 am and got out of the door by 10 am.  Yeah, we hit the snooze a few times.   Before we checked out.  I made reservation for our stay tonight in Utica, NY.  The Best Western hotel.  

We again headed for the Falls to take the boat tour into the Horseshoe Falls itself.  I was excited like a little kid in a candy store for the first time.  Another adventure.   

We bought our tickets and lined up to get to the elevator to go down to river level.  The elevator ride didn’t take long and soon we were handed a blue plastic raincoat.  After a 10 min. wait we boarded and set sail for the falls.  One thing of note.  The “captain” mentioned safety and location of the lifeboats and/or life jackets about 3/4 of the way into the boat ride!  Glad to know he really cared about the passengers.  I thought it was just another money making operation.  There are 4 boats total from the American and Canadian side.  Each boat takes about 20 min to complete a tour.  Staggering number of people go on these tours.  It seems like the boats are always full of tourists.  

Anyway, the tour started with the view of the American Falls.  Then proceeded to the Horseshoe Fall.  This is the time when you really get soaked.  Unfortunately my raincoat was riped open by the neck area as I tried to tie my hood shut so my hair would not get wet.  Well it didn’t until the wind blew it back, but the whole front of my shirt was soaked.  The boat was actually pretty close to the waterfall.  That was pretty exciting to feel the roar of the water come crushing down and I could hardly see anything because of the brightness and water in my eyes.  But manage to sneak a peek here and there to get the feel of the power of the falls.  It was an awesome feeling being that close to the falls. 

I hopefully wish that I will do this again sometime in the future.   It’s a beautiful day and after sitting a bit on the park to dry up, Maria and I headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for some lunch.   

After lunch, we crossed back into the US thru the Rainbow Bridge and into Niagara Falls, NY.  

Our trip across NY, passing thru Rochester and Syracuse was uneventful.  Took the I-90 thruway (tollway).  Except for one moment when ………………………..   I was cruising nonchalantly at about, say really past the speed limit.  Passing slower cars here and there admiring the view.  After passing two cars on a crest, all of a sudden a sheriffs car was right next to me and I looked and it took a few seconds to register and wham! I thought OH S—, big time ticket.  BUT, this sheriff car, after slowing down to look at me, just took off and was gone in a flash.  I mean in a flash.  He must have been easily going 100mph.  I did notice he had a few “passengers” in the back seat and it looked like he had pressing matters at hand.    After drying my seat, j/k!!!   After taking that all in and waiting for Maria to stop laughing about the whole thing.  We just kept going along.  I did slow down once we were 20 miles from Utica.  Just to get our direction right.  

We got into Utica around 5 ish.  Got settled in.  Didn’t want to push it today since this is Sunday.  A day of rest.  We just made a few phone calls, plan for tomorrow, and reserved our room in Barre, VT.   

Went out to a nice Italian steakhouse and treated ourselves a bit.  We will be relaxing tonight and getting more sleep.  Hopefully Maria will recover from her cold soon.   We will be in Vermont from Mon thru Thur morning.  Then our plan is to head home via Toronto.