Barely internet

Today we woke up around 11 a.m. Rather than gettting up and being productive, we decided to watch Inception (Sierra hadn't seen it yet.) I made pancakes and coffee...breakfast and a movie :p

Around 1 we started cleaning our camp a bit more. After an hour or so we decided we needed to go to town and get some bug bombs. The Walmart that was 40 minutes away turned out to be a building that looked like Walmart, yet was a mattress store...damn GPS. And I just updated the maps before we left. We went into Dollar General, got the bug bombs and about 40 dollars worth of other things...A gallon of Sunny D was only a buck...tell me how you can pass that up? Everything was so cheap! We got rice and mac and cheese and everything else you can think of. We shouldn't have to grocery shop for another three weeks at least.

We drove back to camp and set the bug bombs off and then cleaned out the van. Friends of our neighbor showed up and we chatted with them for a while. Next we took a walk and we saw 35 or so deer. The bugs were as bad, if not worse, than the peak of black fly season in Maine. Loads and loads of bug spray weren't even holding the bugs off. Our neighbors showed up with ATV and gave us a lift...THANK GOD! It's okay, I repaid them with spending an hour and a half fixing their garage after it got ran into by the ATV. I didn't mind though!

Now it is 11pm our time and 12am your time and we are cooking dinner. All and all a good day. Leaving after breakfast tomorrow.


-Adam

R&R

Well we are alive…don’t worry! We are safe and sound at camp in Illinois, enjoying some R&R, yummy food, and a nice shower. We drove for nearly eleven hours yesterday, not settling in until about 10pm, and then not eating dinner until about 11, therefore we were exhausted and fell asleep without writing the blog…sorry! But yesterday was basically what I said…eleven hours of driving. We did stumble past some very beautiful places, however, on our drive. Massive corn fields, and wind mills, horses, and cows were highlights of the day…as well as tornado warnings, massive winds and rain, and then as we were a half hour away from camp, a gorgeous sunset to welcome us in. Upon arriving at camp we realized we had a bit of clean-up to do, and spent the night at the beautiful next-door camp (thank you Mike), and today we found ourselves waking up and taking our time heading next door to vacuum and sweep. Overall it was a nice relaxing day, meeting new people, and enjoying the animals, birds, and other sounds of nature. Tomorrow we feel like we may just do the same, but perhaps take a drive and see how many deer we can count and maybe photograph, who knows…on this road trip, every second is an adventure. Well, hope you all are enjoying yourselves as much as we are!

Good Night!

- Sierra

Delicious bowl of chicken alfredo, the work of Sierra.

A rock from a good friend that Sierra left behind at the windmills.

Niagara and Carrousel's

We started out this long day about 30 miles outside Niagara falls at a rest area off I-90. When we got to Niagara, we were a little taken back by the amount of development and tourists...sad that such a beautiful place is overrun with sleazy sales people offering %50 on hotels, and souvenier shops everywhere you look. Even finding a spot to park ruined the atmosphere, the parking attendants wave orange flags at you and hold their hand out telling you stop and enter their lot, as if you have no choice, so that  you don't park in another lot. However, if you ignore the touristyness, the falls are pretty spectacular. We spent about an hour there and then moved on down the road to the carrousel museum.

The museum was interesting, but drinking a few old fashions cola's out of glass bottles and going on the carrousel ride was definitely the main event. We made lunch in the museum parking lot, chicken noodle soup, and then headed on our way towards illinois, windows down and James Taylor playing.

Route 90 hugs Lake Erie, naturally we had to get off and see it. We stopped for about an hour and let the waves lap against our bare feet. In town we stopped at a Walmart and picked up some supplies...We finally filled our cooler! Thanks Donna for the gift card! We've talked to so many random people about our trip already, people just smile at us at stop lights so we say hi...

Now we are stopping to make coffee and then we keep on trucking. A little over 500 miles to go before we get to the camp in illinois. Hoping to be there tomorrow afternoon.

-Adam

P.S. gas prices are 3.48 here...not to shabby.

A piece of sea plastic we found.

There is something about driving down a highway unknown at night with a new destination in our minds…Niagara is next after an eventful, yet relaxing day. 

We awoke bright and early, threw our things in the van and headed to church with Donna, Rick, and Val.  Let’s just say it was a day of making dreams come true from the very beginning. Val and I rode in the back of the van playing guitar and braiding hair while Adam drove.  As we giggled and Val was so excited, he just smirked and rolled his eyes.  Who knew dreams were so easy to make come true.  After church, we blew bubbles in the church parking lot, making more dreams come true as little kids asked to try, and as they floated all around, we could see them trying to pop them, it was very fun and entertaining. 

We left from Donnas after a bit…(and thank you once again D-Train, for everything)…and followed Val’s interesting map towards the finger lakes of NY.  After a scenic drive through lots of wine country, we stumbled upon the house where our dear friends grew up. We followed the “map”, attempting to find an old cabin in the woods (on private property), but decided to turn around and head into Walkins Glen.  Once there, we found a beautiful gorge that our friends had told us about and we stumbled, climbed, and ventured up winding staircases built along massive ledges, through caves, and over bridges.  We simply giggled and found ourselves at a loss of words; it was amazing to say the least.  Eventually, we meandered back down, and hit the road again…now we sit off of 90 in a little rest area blogging to all you back home.  We miss you, but we are definitely enjoying ourselves.  Also Happy Fathers day to both our dads!!!  We agreed that we are both extremely blessed, thanks for all you do for us, we love you! 

A few tech tips: If you click on the pictures we post it will bring up a higher resolution version of them, so if they seem small, go ahead, click em. Also, when commenting, many people are using “anonymous”, this is either because they long to be mysterious, or because they don’t know the other way to do it… If it’s the latter, just click “name and URL” then put in your name or whatever you would like, and leave URL blank.

Well, I suppose that’s all for tonight…Niagara you better be ready for an old 85’ VW van!

Good Night all!

-Sierra

Pictures from today/tonight

Forgot to post to the blog last night...I hope you all were able to sleep...we'll try not to let it happen again :p

Yesterday morning, I awoke to a frantic and wide-eyed Sierra. She let me know how happy she was that I was awake, as a half hour prior, somebody was apparently banging on the side of the van...

We arrived at Donna's yesterday morning around 10:30 and found a roomy, quiet and cool house all to our selves for the day. After we revitalized our bodies and spirits with a little hot water and soap we ventured out to Carquest about 20 minutes from Donna's abode. We stopped at Walmart to pick up some supplies, and McDonalds for coffee. Naturally the van stalled in the McDonalds drive-thru with a line of cars behind us. An embarrassing minute passed by before the van had had enough fun at our expense, and it started once again.

We picked up a part at Carquest and then headed back to Donna's. Soon Donna arrived, followed by her significant other, EHE (e-harmony Eric), and we chatted and watched TV for a while. After dark we had a fire out back for about 5 hours. Val and Rick arrived at 12 am and we sat by the fire for about another hour, and finally got to sleep around 1:50 am.

Today, Sierra and I awoke to the pleasant ritual of Donna and Val doing "steam roller!" on Sierra. After an appropriate amount of lazing around, we got up and went to work on the van while Rick and Val started remodeling the kitchen (their reason for coming). Sierra and I spent an ample amount of time scrubbing the van with soap and water, it now looks marginally better. While Sierra reorganized the entire van I changed the cap and rotor hoping to fix the stalling problem....no go. I then spent a very frustrating hour and a half changing the thermostat. At least now we feel a little more confident in the van. Still a few more quirks to work out...For instance, the heat is stuck on...something I thought I fixed with a shut off valve. However, it seems when we use the valve, the heat goes away as desired, but the van overheats. Hoping to fix that charming little addition to the van. If not, Nevada and California and such may be a bit warm....

Our plan is to stay here tonight and head out tomorrow for Niagara Falls. From Niagara, we are off to Illinois and than Minnesota. Then out west!

-Adam

An Adventurous Day Two....

 Well, this morning we woke up in a Walmart parking lot, and now, after an eventful day, we find ourselves in another one, tucked in and ready for some shut-eye.  The day began with reorganizing and getting some misc. supplies, chowing down on some oatmeal, and doing dishes directly in the lot.  We then set out for Salem.  In Salem, we found ourselves meandering around and going in and out of different "bewitching" shops simply smiling and giggling at the freedom we have.  Later, we stopped by a witch dungeon museum and enjoyed a reenactment of one of the trials as well as a tour of the dungeon.  Next, we set out for what we thought would be a nice trip to Amherst on the way to Albany, but instead we spent the entire afternoon getting lost, thanks to the GPS, but maps ultimately prevailed....after a lot of confusion and u-turns.... we also were blessed at an intersection when the gas  pedal disconnected from its linkage, we stalled at the busy light. People honked and yelled and eventually Adam drove us away using his right hand on the gas pedal linkage and his left foot on the clutch, as I attempted to shift....not our best moment. But we managed to stop to play on a swing set, and then eventually found our way to route 90.

As we get into a routine, we think we are going to try and post to the blog every night with a select few photographs. Throughout the day, you might also find quick updates via facebook, and maybe even a larger photo array at some point.

Good Night!

-Sierra

Waaaayyyyy to much ice cream.

All buttoned up and ready to sleep.