American Adventure

New York and Niagara Falls

Thank you very much to my friends at Kinko's of North Syracuse, NY

Starting on July 23, 2002, 8:31:10 PM

Well, I didn't get to see the Adirondack Mountains quite the way I had hoped. It was raining the whole way past them so I just kept going until I got out of the rain. Heading down Interstate 87 I stopped into Albany to see if I could maybe get on line somewhere, somehow. It had stopped raining and I was still quite soaked. I thought for a moment and decided to just get something to eat and move on. With a few isolated sprinkles I didn't feel like getting everything out and then having to put it all back together.

I stopped at a restaurant there and got a kick out of people watching me walk by with the squishing sounds that were coming from my feet as I walked. I know I must have left a wet spot on the chair where I was sitting having my lunch.

Later on down the road it looked as if I was out of the rain. I pulled off and decided to dry some things off. I removed all the cover off of my gear. I removed my socks and jeans and other wet clothes and hung them out to dry on various parts of the motorcycle. (Don't worry, I had sweats on under the jeans.) A little helpful hint. When hanging out clothes to dry on the rearview mirrors and other parts of a motorcycle, socks usually take approximately 40 miles to dry while jeans take about 120 or so. And they do attract a lot of interesting attention from other drivers. Especially the socks, as they tend to wave and dance around constantly. After they are dry they do attempt to slip off and escape from off of the mirrors.

By that time I had gone as far as Syracuse where I stopped to try to get on line again. This is getting a little tough sometimes trying to find a place to connect. I've tried a few libraries but I keep running into some problem. You see all my information is on my laptop and I need to connect using it. Although most public libraries have internet access many of them don't always have accommodations for a laptop.

I found a Kinko's there where I was able to get on line for a while and have some copies made of my handout. Which, by the way, you can now get the PDF file here on my web site at: AAdventure.pdf
Right click on it and save it. Check it out, print it, and hand it out. It really looks much better in color but when the Kinko's is being so generous as to print off a bunch of them for me, I don't complain, and black and white looks just great.

The mosquitoes are all over the place. Everywhere I go I seem to be swarmed by them. But, as I stated before, for some strange reason, they just don't bite me. I don't have a clue why and I'm not complaining but I still feel a little left out and unwanted. But here you can see that they do try to take it out on the motorcycle. Now I feel like I should get some bug repellent just for the bike. If those things are that tough they might start going after the tires.

Here's a close up of a bull thistle that was on the side of the road where I decided to take a little nap. Ouch!

Niagara Falls

And now on to Niagara Falls. I didn't get a whole lots of pictures of the falls this time. I didn't feel comfortable walking too far for too long. I didn't have anywhere to store my things so I feel somewhat tethered to the motorcycle and all my belongings. However, I was at Niagara Falls back in April and got quite a few nice pictures of the area. You can browse through some of those pictures and some awesome panoramic shots in my daily pictures and panoramic sections of my web site.

Just up the Niagara river from the falls you can see the water really start to get going.

Seagulls are all over the place there at the falls area. Be sure to duck when they fly over, and don't look up. I'm not going to make that mistake again.

Looking west across the edge and into Canada you can see the mist rising from the water below. Canada is actually the best side to view the falls but I didn't go over there this time. There are some really nice shots from my other trip.

Some more shots from just up the river. The whole park is really something spectacular to see. I would definitely recommend it for a vacation spot but I wouldn't say that it would be the best for the traditional honeymoon attraction. I would think that a tropical island would be more suited for that. But then again, if you already live in Buffalo, NY, and don't have a lot of money to spend after all the wedding expenses, well then, baby,
Niagara it is!

Here's looking over the edge of the Horseshoe Falls and then down below you can see one of the "Maid of the Mist" boats that take tours right up to the edge of the falls. That's definitely got to be a wet experience. I haven't taken the initiative to do that part of the experience as I feel that it just wouldn't thrill me all that much. Besides, I still wasn't completely dry from the last two days.

The American Falls, below, are not quite as spectacular as the Horseshoe and, for the obvious reasons, doesn't make for a good ride over the edge in a barrel. Yeah, I'm not going to make that mistake again either. When you reach Goat Island, turn left. Not right!

So now its off to more, new adventures. You never know where I might turn up next. Look out your back door, I may soon be found rummaging through your garbage for leftovers.