Day 2 New York to Ohio

DAY 2

We sluggishly both woke up at about 8 a.m. Brian was already cooking breakfast and the house smelled of bacon. Brian had prepared a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, and fruit. It was a wonderful spread. Jess, Brian and I ate breakfast and chatted. Shortly after Andrea arrived. It was neat sitting and sharing time at Jess’s Gran's house. It reminded me of my grandmother’s house on Cape Cod, right down to the smell of the house. It was very nostalgic. It was neat to spend some time looking through old photo albums of the Gals and their years in Fairbanks. I really enjoyed the pictures. I couldn’t get the thought of the waterfall and Brian volunteered to lead Jess and I on a walk down to the stream. I had heard so many stories of this magical place but when we got to the bottom of the ravine I was shocked. It was jaw dropping beautiful with ferns growing up the sides of huge slate and shale cliffs. There wasn’t much water in the stream and swimming and bathing under the falls was a no go. The river bottom was solid slate, smooth to the touch from years of weathering, and slippery. I felt the need to explore. This was to the chagrin of Brian who was pleading me not to go. He was afraid that if I slipped I would be no good to drive and help on the rest of the trip. I couldn’t stop myself and explored anyway. What a magical place is right. I wish we had more time and I would love to go back some day. I can only imagine what this stream looks like in the springtime. On the way back to the house Jess and I discoved some bear tracks in the side of the cliff. We had both noticed and talked about the bear scatt we saw on our walk down to the ravine. I'm not sure Brian believed there was a bear in the backyard but I am, and Jess was too.

When we got back to the house we all took a ride over to Brian’s house. He lives in the midst of wine and farm country and the landscape is beautiful. We shared some more good conversation and it was time to be off. We left at 2:00 in the afternoon and only planned on driving about two hundred miles for we were both tired. Instead we drove a fairly long day. We drove through the rest of New York, all of Pennsylvania, and decided to rest for the night in Ohio somewhere outside Cleveland. Jess called RV parks and campgrounds right off the highway. We were looking for a place to stay where we could have an electric pick up to charge our phones and to plug in a fan Brian had given us to cool down both the cats and ourselves. We alternated between the two. It was fun getting to the campgrounds and seeing the looks on people’s faces. First the bus caught their eye, and then they saw the cats in the cage, and finally the Maine license plate. All three were conversation pieces that reoccurred throughout the trip. Jess asked her Uncle Brian for a sarringe without a needle. That way we had a way to force water into the cats if they didn’t drink, I was so happy we didn’t need it. The cats started to settle in and feel more comfortable; at least to the extent you can live in a cage in all that heat.

The driving that day was fairly uneventful, and there wasn’t much to look at. It was funny that we started a pattern on the first day that seemed to re-occur throughout the trip. Every time Jess would be in the driver’s seat we hit road construction. I am sure she didn’t find it all that funny but I did. Day two down no big issues and the bus ran great. 65 MPH steady down the highway steady, we couldn’t ask for more.