Day 5

Day 5:  Niagara Falls, ON to Lake George, NY - 357.8 Miles

Today I was moving slow, I stayed up way too late last night playing with pictures that I took at the falls.   So while Mom & Dad were getting breakfast I was trying to not snore anymore and get up and get ready.

We had planned on making it to Maine today, and set out of Niagara with high expectations.  But that was quickly met with construction detours through Buffalo just across the Rainbow Bridge.    Once we got moving good on Interstate 90, I had the great idea of getting off it and driving down by the "finger lakes" of NY.   So we paid the toll to get off the interstate and I get down to HWY 20 so we can see the local sites.   Well 30 mph speed limits do not permit for distance records and the we get hamlets (towns) and are met with traffic that lasts 2 red light cycles.   I was sorely disappointed in this choice.  

We get to Canandaiqua, NY and my disappointment disappears!   What a neat town, so reminded me of something straight off a movie script.   With wide streets and beautiful old and very large homes, this place is like the places you have seen referenced as the idealized home town USA.

Straight ahead down the main drag was the city marina which had a nice park and a historical marker for us to read.  The lake was, well, quite lake like.  

After staring at clouds and flat water for a bit we chose to leave and look for something to eat, we found it at the top of a hill just east of town, Akroplolis Family Restaurant.   This was neat little family restaurant where Mom, Rudy and I could all find something off the menu to please us.   When we finished eating we continued on HWY 20 until we got bored and turned back for the freeway.   By then the rain has started to fall and it would get worse as we moved forward.

a couple of hours later later and while on the small roads again we find ourselves in torrential downpours on very narrow roads so we decided to pull off and wait out the worst of the rain.  So we had a picnic in parking lot of the new Dollar General just east of Floyd, NY.    

The rain finally lets up some but it is still nasty out and the rain will return many times over the next few hours with a vengeance.    But while its let up we get back on the path that I have plotted on the GPS.   PSA: Review your route before accepting.   As the GPS had plotted shortest distance it took us on a little excursion, this was actually kind of fun as we found roads like this:

Which led me to a bridge with this view:

All in all this was a fun day, even if we didn't put that many miles behind us, we got to see Niagara Falls, the Finger Lakes Region and crossed the Adirondack Mountain park.   Ultimately, water logged and tired, we found a hotel in Lake George, NY that was actually open.  I think ours and maybe one other room is occupied right now.   It turns out that this town doesn't really open for business until Memorial Day weekend.   Yes the entire town.  This is a resort/vacation town, and I swear I hear music and see the setting and the actors from the Dirty Dancing in this town (figuratively).  But the hotel is clean and when I get to our room I wonder if I am on a cruise?

We had a great dinner at Mario's Italian Restaurant and made friends with the staff who were so impressed with our little road trip that they wanted to send us off with something to remember them by, a couple anniversary wine glasses.  

Well I say we made friends, it could be because it is not memorial day weekend and we were like a unicorn or bigfoot walking in tonight, just look at what I mean...

Seriously though, this food was likely a top 5 meal in a decade for me, yes that good!    

Tomorrow is Maine for sure, maybe even Saint Johns, NB time will tell!  Good night from Lake George, NY.