Flight to the Falls

22 August 2016


This morning we expected to awake as the sun flooded in our windows, invigorated and ready to go. But at 3 AM we awoke to a loud siren noise that echoed through the silent house. It was my phone. A tornado warning was issued for Middlesex county. Though the rain pounded down, there wasn't a whipser of wind in Wayland and we went back to bed. There was, as we found out, a 10 minute tornado in Concord that did quite a bit of damage.

When 7 AM finally did come around we started our preparations for departure. And we managed to be rolling out of the driveway 9 minutes early.

The first leg of the journey is one I know very well - wayland to Palmer on the MassPike. Once we got out past Palmer we were on a rather lonely section of the pike that continues to Stockbridge and into NY. The view from the road was nothing special for New England, but stunning all the same. The road cut through huge rolling hills and eventually follwed the Mohawk river.

Once we got into NY and had gone about 150 miles and had about 275 until we reached a turn to the border. The area surrounding the road got less and less interesting. Until finally we reached the turn for the Rainbow Bridge, Canada, and Niagara Falls.

When we arrived in Niagara Falls we had gone nearly 500 miles and it took us almost 9 hours (including stops). After dinner we went down to the falls because I had only seen them in the daylight and dad wanted to take some pictures using his newly acquired night photography skills. They were lit up from enormous spotlights starting that would change color as different color screens came across - red and white for Canada, followed by sticking in some blue for USA, and then purple, followed by yellow.

And so the first day was a success. If the rest of the trip goes just as smoothly...well I don't want to jinx it.