Yesterday (I'm writing yesterday's blog this morning) we decided to skip the Pit Stop in Pittsburgh and head to Buffalo with the hopes of seeing Niagra Falls and checking into the hotel early. We had really good intentions, but we chose to detour a little bit and check out some of the covered bridges in Ohio. They were soooo cool!! We stopped at 3 bridges for pictures. I really enjoyed this part of Ohio, it was very beautiful country! (Pics will come in a future blog, as I didn't bring my camera into the room last night to upload the photos.)
After seeing three bridges, we thought it best to head to the Falls. One side note here…we stopped 5 times looking for maps in Ohio and never found one! Two gas stations, a grocery store, a drug store, and an office supply! The office supply actually had a road atlas, but I wanted foldout maps. GPS, what have you done??!! So when we crossed the border, we stopped at the visitor center and picked up a map of Pennsylvania. And in New York, I was able to find a state map as well as a Niagra Falls map. Sometimes you want to see beyond the 4.5" screen of the GPS…!
We crossed the Peace Bridge into Canada! It was a bit of a wait, but not bad. Although we did have a grump behind us as someone tried to get into the line in front of him. When we got to the border, the border agent was grumpy, too! Geez! Find something else to do! He let us in after a thorough interrogation and having me remove my sunglasses.
Oh, Canada! I soon discovered I didn't remember how many k/m per hour equalled mph from my Bermuda days! And BlackJack only displays mph! Lol! I was finally able to configure the GPS to k/m, and we were good! It took us a while to figure out the parking situation, but finally parked and walked to see the Falls. It was incredible!!
(I'll post the pics from my camera later…)
We had hoped to do the "Journey Behind the Falls" tour, but the next available tour wasn't until 5pm, and we needed to head back by that time. So we just took our time, did some shopping, and had some lunch. While we were eating, the US MINI and Canadian MINI drove up to get pictures with the Falls in the background! The Canadians were planning a MINI Invasion into Buffalo to join us for MTTS. A small delegation from our group was chosen to meet up with them as they crossed the border. It was pretty cool to see them gearing up for it! As we were leaving the parking lot, we unknowingly joined in with them! I soon realized it, though, and thought we'd better drop out of line since we weren't supposed to be included in the official "parade". BlackJack is pretty dirty by this time, or I would have considered "sneaking in" with them!
We crossed the Rainbow Bridge back into the US, again with a bit of a line, but not too bad. And again, a grumpy border agent!! C'mon, you guys!! A smile goes a long way!! I tried, but could get nothing but a scowl from these guys, both Canadian and American! Maybe they need to drive a MINI…
We took a quick power nap at the hotel before the Evening Event. This time it was held at an area surrounded by old grain elevators, and the smell of cereals filled the air! It smelled pretty good! There was live music by The BBC, covering songs by the Beatles, Stones, Byrds, and more. They were really good! We left there to join a few other Miniacs at a little ice cream/candy store for a late night sweets fix. I was so tired by then that I didn't even want ice cream…can you believe that?? I did buy some candy for the trip today, though.
So back to the hotel where I couldn't even think about opening the laptop to blog. I'm sure I fell asleep within 5 minutes of closing my eyes. I'm blogging this morning while Cindi is getting ready. I'll try to get the rest of the pictures posted later today.
Heading to Bethlehem, PA today…only two more wake-ups and MINI Takes The States will be over. It's been an incredible journey!!
I like your prescription for the grumpy border agents -- "Drive a MINI!"
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