Almost There

We find ourselves safe and sound and yet another Best Western. This one near Hudson, MA. It's a pretty nice hotel that Rance has managed to track dog poo into on his shoe. Hopefully they won't track it to our room, the smell is concentrated on the welcome mat right inside the door back door. Usually this sounds exactly like something I would do, I'm glad to share the mishaps with him.

Niagara Falls was fantastic. We couldn't have gone at a better time. We got there around 10am this morning, well before the majority of the crowds. The weather was near perfect and Rance got some really good shots. I got some mediocre shots with the digital camera and I also shot some video. I looked like a total touristy geek walking around with all the camera equipment, but I love taking video and trying to piece it together into something fun. We talked about stopping at Niagara Falls on the way back to Chicago later in the summer. If we do we're going to go on one of the boats that take you on the water closer to the falls.


One thing has been made abundantly clear on our drive. There must be some sort of private state contest for "The Best Rest Areas" and I can assure you the Eastern States are kicking ass. Those of you reading in Oregon know that out west the "rest areas" are often nothing more than a glorified outhouse and if you're lucky some mom and pop from the local Lions club trying to push their watered down lemonade for a quarter. Last year as we drove though state by state to arrive in Chicago we noticed that the Rest Areas/Travel Plazas/Service Plazas got progressively better as we traveled East. Before this trip I mistakenly thought Iowa was winning the battle with their well lit, clean, large, well stocked Travel Plazas. But now I know the true battle is between NY and MA and I have to say Massachusetts has got my vote. Though each one we stopped at on the MassTurnpike had mostly the same elements, they were grand in scale. With a McDonald's, Ben & Jerry's, Annie's Pretzels, travel store, huge clean eating area, and big clean bathrooms that like any fine restaurant had a floral arrangements below a mirror at the entrance. Rance remarked that it seemed like the place people might go after they die. They were always full of people so maybe we do all go to a Service Plaza on the Turnpike after we die and this is all a dream.

Speaking of which, the gauntlet of dreams last night that had me waking up with a start several times during the night did not come to fruition today. If anybody out there can interpret dreams please let me know what your thoughts are on why both Rance and I would have such a fitful night of sleep. Thankfully, I feel like sleep will come easy tonight.