Read earlier entries from August, 1999.
The house is very clean after we took everything out.
We caravanned with Dad in front and used CB radios. I rode with Mom and the dog and the trailer. We took the Mass Pike to the New York Thruway and paid lots of tolls. We were joking about breezing through the "E-Z Pass" lane on the way out without paying the toll, and telling Massachusetts to kiss our butts goodbye.
We just made it to Weedsport, which is half an hour west of Syracuse.
We think somebody has been "illegally" dumping (ice cubes) in the pool in the Niagara Falls campground. It's just about as cold as a pool in Florida on Christmas Eve.
We managed to get upstream of Niagara Falls on the Three Sisters Islands. When we hiked up, we saw the Niagara River. It's a lot bigger than you think. The river current is humongously strong.
Later, we went to see the Niagara Falls "laser light show" which was very disappointing. It was just some floodlights shining colors on the falls, such as red, white, blue, and green.
First we visited Goat Island. It was named Goat Island because a goat farmer thought his goats would be safe from the wolves if they were on this island. Goat Island separates the American Niagara Falls from the Canadian Niagara Falls.
Next, we visited the hydroelectric water pumps. These take water out of the Niagara River at night to be used to make electricity at the hydroelectric plant down the road.
We saw a rusty dredging scow that had been saved by some quick thinking. There were two people on the scow when the tugboat that had been pulling it broke loose. There were two men on board who were thinking that was the end because they were very close to the falls, and the water at that point goes 20 mph. Then, one of them remembered that there were giant loading doors on the bottom. When he opened them, they bottomed out and stopped.
Next we visited the Skylon Tower. The observation deck is 775 feet above the falls. We took a "Yellow Bug Elevator" up to the observation deck. We went outdoors onto the chain link deck and took a few pictures. Then I went into a gift store to look at all the worthless junk.
After Skylon Tower, we went to a gift shop where I bought an "Official Canadian Mosquito Trap," which is basically a miniature bear trap with no jagged edges.
Then we took the "Great Gorge Adventure" down into the rapids. When we got there, we found out that they were classified as type six rapids, too fast and dangerous to do anything in.
I saw an almost pure black woodchuck eating a beechnut.
We drove along the shore here in St. Ignace and we all thought that Furf would love to be with us. I went skipping rocks in Lake Michigan. I picked one up, half the size of a cinderblock and told Mom that I could skip it. She laughed, so I threw it at the water three feet in front of me and it hit the water and bounced off the bottom five or six times and looked like it was skipping. It was very convincing. We all laughed.
Today we let Furf swim in Lake Michigan. Mom and Dad were brave enough to try pasties (rhymes with nasties) for lunch. A pastie is a pie crust with meat, turnips, onions, carrots, pototaes, and spices in it.
When we pulled in here, Dad and I got to use the sauna and pool.
We saw an idling steam train that was a working exhibit. We also saw a displayed railway snowplow. It was a train engine with a giant V-shaped front to plow the snow out.
Our trip odometer on the trailer hit 1,000 miles today.
Later we visited the Mall Of America. We shopped until we dropped and then shopped some more.
There was a shop called Alpaca Connection. They sold Alpaca fur wall hangings, bedspreads, and pillows. The fur was shaggy and intensely soft. It was also easy to clean.
There were some funny novelty shops such as "Bow Wow Meow." There was a Chrysler PT Cruiser 2001 which I fit into quite well.
The best part was Legoland. I looked at everything in the store for over a half hour. I bought a motor that can run some of my Lego kits. I've already run my car and my helicopter with it.
We developed my film at the Mall, but all the negatives came out blank. My camera isn't winding the film when I take pictures. Now I won't be able to put those pictures on the website.
We got to eat lunch at Hooters (which dad has been promising since a year ago in Texas). Dad bought a new boomerang at a store called Air Traffic Toys And Games.
We ate dinner at Dave's Famous Bar-B-Queue joint.
Before bed, we went mosquito hunting with the Canadian mosquito trap (see July 25th) and the flyswatter. These mosquitoes are vicious.
We crossed the Continental Divide today in the eastern part of South Dakota.
We saw wheat, soy, corn, and sunflower, all growing in fields. There are lots of cylinders of hay (or Tootsie Rolls, as we call them).
Wall Drug is like South of the Border: you see signs like "Keep screaming kids, only 300 miles left!" After all the time it takes to get there, it's just a tourist trap. Wall Drug became popular during the Depression because it was a store in the middle of nowhere that offered a free glass of ice water.
We also drove through Pierre (the capital), which was about the size of Marlborough, MA. The capitol building had a black dome.
Continue on to August, 2000.