Day 314

Day 314                                                                                               August 13, 2018

Though last night was not as quiet as the previous night and we were not able to witness the meteor shower, due to the lights, it was still a good evening.  Once breakfast was complete we began our five-hour drive towards Cedar Point.

The drive was long and boring with nothing exciting transpiring.  I spent most of it sad that our trip was coming to its conclusion for I really did not want to go back.  Now I need to figure out what to make of my life.  I have always been so sure of what I wanted out of life and now I am not so sure.  I still want to work within the wildlife conservation field but now the decision of whether to get my master’s degree or not is hanging about in my head. I think the only thing holding me back from that is the cost of school.   This question along with many others was on my mind the entire trip.

For lunch we stopped on a bridge in Ohio to eat and play skip-bo. The wind was blowing something fierce, but it was a beautiful day out.  It would have been a perfect day; however, both Jason and I were getting irritable near the end of it.  Eventually, we pulled into a Walmart for the night and went to bed.

Day 313

Day 313                                                                                               August 12, 2018

Wow! I cannot believe how quite this Walmart is!  I had awoken at one point during the night and there was not a sound to be heard: no vehicles, no people talking, not even anything on the road.  It was awesome and even more quiet then some spots in the woods.  Again, it was cold out when I woke so I had a long sleeve shirt on while I drank coffee.  At 07:00 am, we were on the road to Niagara Falls an hour north of us.

Once we found RV parking we were happily surprised to find out we didn’t have to pay $10.00 to park!  After Jason spoke to a helpful park employee we started off on the paved trail to the three sister falls.  Right at first glance of the might Niagara river I was blown away by her ferocity and size!  She was moving so swiftly and there was so much volume to her I could barely believe it.  When we arrived at the main falls there was a spectacular rainbow!  The falls were mind blowing at their size and just how much water there is.  We continued to walk around and by now it was 81 degrees out and I was sweating a great deal.

I had wanted to do the cave walk where you put on a poncho and special shoes to go down under bridal falls; however, when we came back to the are to purchase tickets ($20.00) the line was so long I estimated it would take about two hours! I was torn for I didn’t want to stand in line that long, but I felt like I was not really experiencing Niagara.  In the end we didn’t do it and I silently swore at myself for not listening to Jason when we said we should do it right away.

Leaving the park, we drove to the Robert Moses Niagara Hydroelectric power station where we received cool passes with our pictures on them and learned about the plant.  They had a lot of cool, innovative and interactive displays.  From there we drove to Whirlpool State Park to see the area where the Niagara river forms a massive whirlpool and when the plant cuts off water and lowers the levels the direction of the whirlpool reverses!

All day I had a headache and felt so tired so maybe that is why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.  I am also really dreading the end of this trip and hence the end of my journey.  I still have no clue what I will do afterwards though I need to make money.  I also love living on the road and I don’t want it to end.  I am writing all of this while lying in bed under a ceiling fan while Jason is mountain biking within Sprague Brook Park Campground.  By the time he got back to the camper I was already tipsy off of just one beer.  As he put his bike away we decided to just cook dinner here instead of at the Walmart.  So I started cooking up stuffed mushrooms and making our burgers which we ate at a picnic table while playing skip-bo.  Soon it was too dark to see anything I we were both being eaten alive by bugs so we packed up and drove back to the Walmart from the other night.

Day 312

Day 312                                                                                                           August 11, 2018

It actually got quite cold last night, and I had multiple dreams which were weird.  Our morning breakfast routine did not change although it was raining pretty good outside.  Though it was nice to hear the rain it did interfere with our hiking plans for the day.  Before our spot became a bigger lake, we pulled out of it and drove to Taughannock state park to get there before 10:00 am so we wouldn’t have to pay.  I honestly enjoyed the view we had of all the farmland covered in clouds and rain falling down everywhere.  The wildlife seemed to be enjoying it also for I saw two large hawks, a multitude of songbirds, turkeys and deer.

The falls were beautiful, and I got to test out the waterproof capability of my hiking boots and frog tog gear.  From there we drove south to Watkins Glen State Park where we ended up having to pay $8.00 to get in.  Although it was still raining out we put on our rain gear and went hiking on the gorge to Indian trail. The trail was very wet and at times the waterfalls practically ran unto the trail but neither one of us minded.  We truly enjoyed it and were in awe of the beauty of the gorge and waterfalls and amazed at how shallow the water was.  In total we walked 4.2 miles with 1, 403 feet of elevation gain in two hours.  At the RV once more, we ate a snack and finished watching Jaws before once gain hitting the road.

We drove back west towards East Otto, New York in search of free camping.  The homes in this part of New York are not much to look at; yet, the expanse of farmland is beautiful.  The hills and mountains seem to drop quickly away to low valleys full of corn fields and then rise sharply back up.  We grabbed some food at Walmart and passed on the wine for it was twice as expensive as everywhere else I have been.  After finding the camping area that we were interested in and seeing that it was full we drove around some more just to look about.  After some time passed we went back to the Walmart in flat, small town of Springville. There I showered while Jason cooked a pizza for us.  We ate while watching a movie based off of a true story about a gymnast who broke his leg and went on to win nationals.