Finally Home!

We started today about 550 kms from home. We talked about leaving early and stopping for lunch at one of the Cracker Barrel restaurants along the way. Even with the stop we knew we would be home by around 3 pm. I also suspected that as we neared the restaurant we would make the decision to keep driving and just get home. I wasn't wrong.

The weather called for rain the entire trip, but, although overcast, the rain held off until the last hour or so of the trip
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Buffalo was the big city we had to go through today and we would be going through there close enough to rush hour to be concerned. I was pleasantly surprised when the traffic was steady, but not crazy.

As we were heading towards the city I spotted this van:

The edge of the Buffalo airport sits beside I90 and as we were passing it there was a big jet waiting to take off.

We really got the sense that we were almost home when we stopped for gas at Corfu, New York and there was our favourite coffee shop at the service center.

It was interesting to note that customer service definitely was not a part of the training at this location as I had probably the rudest person serve me that I have ever had. Being as I was a visitor in the country I did not cause an international incident by telling her what I thought of her attitude but it took all of the self control I had.


We passed through a small portion of the Seneca Nation Territory and I managed to get a picture of the Wampum belt that decorated the one of the highway overpasses.

The symbol represents the 5 tribes that made up the Iroquois Nation, one of which is the Seneca Tribe.


It seems funny to me that we can travel the same stretch of road several times and there are still new things to see. We drove by what I can only guess was a bird sanctuary and were alerted to it's presence by a statue.

We saw several slow moving or stopped cars and other people just walking along the road slowly looking at the trees. I kept my eyes peeled for an eagle or some other wonderful bird but did not see any at all. Maybe next time.

Our path this day also took us past the Old Erie Canal Heritage Park and parts of the canal itself. This will be an area we will revisit in a few years on our boat.

Although New York State still had a lot of green trees, there was still an impressive display of fall colours in some areas.

I spotted this little face in a field at the side of the road. They must have happy people in this state!

We continued on I90 past Rochester and then, to the north of Syracuse we headed north on Interstate 81 heading to Watertown. It felt like we were in our own neighborhood now!

We went past Tinker tavern Road near Pulaski New York and we said one day we would go back and visit the Tavern, just because we liked the name.

A quick check of the internet told me that there wasn't a tavern on Tinker tavern Road for us to actually visit. Bummer.

It was about this point that the rain started and the quality of the pictures got worse and worse as we got closer to home. I did manage to get a few more pictures of the scenic route, though. The sparkles in the pictures are actually rain drops on the wind shield.

When we made the turn off of Interstate 81 we stopped to top off our gas tank and I spotted a camp ground across the road with a cool sign.

We got our first glance of the St Lawrence river to the north and it told us we were getting very close to home!

We finally got to the border and, as always, we expected to be boarded and searched. That did not happen and we happily headed for our home, just 20 minutes away.

Our friend Laurie was waiting for us with a hot meal ready and our house restocked with food. It was great to be home!

Thus ends this years adventures with Meander. In many ways it was almost too adventurous this year but in a big sense I am sad to see it end.

For Rick and I our next adventure will happen in January when we head to Mexico for 5 weeks. We will not be taking Meander with us for that trip, but I think I will still bring everyone along for the adventure by writing about that journey. So stay tuned!!

The Path Home Gets Shorter

We got up this morning well before the sun and realized we were finally back in the eastern time zone. It has been almost 6 weeks since we left it and, just that one little thing makes us feel closer to home.

Today's travels will take us out of Indiana, all the way across Ohio and then through a little piece  Pennsylvania. We will end the day in Westfield New York, on the shores of Lake Erie. It sounds like a whole lot more driving than it actually is. in fact, it is just under 600 kilometers and should comfortably take us just 7 hours.

Our morning routine on travel days is very well established and we do it almost automatically - get up, have coffee while rechecking the day's weather along our route, then make breakfast, stow everything while Rick disconnects us and hit the road.

Cleveland and it's sharp turns is our big city for today. Interstate 90 runs right through the city but the traffic usually is not crazy. It is Sunday and we hope the roads will be quieter today. We have driven through Cleveland 2 other times so we are familiar with this route. I referred to it as "bendy" in my post going out west so I will try to capture some of this in my pictures.

For the third day in a row we had perfect driving weather and it was the warmest morning we had experienced since leaving Grande Prairie. We had a little more than an hour of driving before crossing the into Ohio and one of the first things I spotted was this building that had a mural painted on it.

We made a quick stop for gas in Howe Indiana and then thirty minutes later crossed the Ohio State border.

The traffic was a little heavier than i had hoped, but really not that bad.

Ohio is beautiful this time of year and Interstate 90 rolls through the countryside near, but not through many smaller towns in the northern part of the state. The drive was very scenic and uncomplicated.

We did notice that it was very, well, green for this time of year. Last year when we were returning, we noticed that the western states were pretty green and the colours changed as we headed east. This year it was the exact opposite.

Just past Toledo we crossed the scenic Maumee River

Ok so on to Cleveland. Below is a map showing how I90 winds through the city. 

There are 5 very sharp curves in the road and it can be tricky in 4 lanes of traffic. On this Sunday the traffic was light in the city so we navigated through it without incident.

While going through Cleveland I spotted the Goodyear Blimp.  It is pretty hard to take a picture of something in the sky while you are going over less than smooth roads. While attempting to get a picture of the blimp I took a perfect picture of the blue sky.

After several attempts I did manage to get the pictures

Part of I 90 in Cleveland travels along the shore of Lake Erie. We saw a number of boats that had been pulled out of the water for the winter. We did see one boat that was taking advantage of the beautiful day and having a lake season sail. 

If we had any thing that we did not like about Ohio, it was the land closures for apparently no reason. There were miles and miles of lane closures with no sign of construction at all. Then the lane would open up again only to be closed a few miles down the road. 

There were also a few interesting signs on their highways. 

From Ohio we cut across a small slice of Pennsylvania.

It was late afternoon when we entered this state and our shadow preceded us down the road.

We saw this strange pile of rocks that just appeared on the side of the road. Rick thought that it may have been old cement pavement removed from the highway. 

But our biggest find of the day.....maybe even the trip happened when we stopped for gas near Erie Pennsylvania:

That's right! We found Bigfoot!

Shortly after going through Erie we crossed into New York State. 

Our destination for tonight was Westfield New York. Up until this point all of the states we have traveled had mile markers that counted up. New York State was the opposite, starting at a higher number and counting down. It cause some confusion since we knew our exit was at New York Mile Marker 60 and that was quite close to Pennsylvania Mile Marker 60. After 8 hours on the road it almost caused a little detour. 

We did get to the proper exit and headed for the camp ground. The road took us along the shore of Lake Erie and we passed the Barcelona Lighthouse.

It was a beautiful evening and there were a lot of people out and about in the park. Several stopped by and chatted with Rick as he got us hooked up. I made dinner, we both had showers and then sat with the door and vents open, enjoying the warm evening air.