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Niagara Falls (Canada!)

After the sad incident the day before we were finally going to go to Niagara falls. Of our current trip across america, this is the first encounter (and sadly the last because of a death in the family postponing the trip) of Canada. We would have been able to stay for more than a couple of weeks there, but we were very satisfied with being able to see it even for the short 5 hours we had. You may be slightly confused unless you are one of the couple of close friends and family that currently read my blog, so let me start at the beginning:

After we left Pennsylvania, our previous stop, we were on our way to our First Cousin Once Removed (I googled it) and his sons, our Second Cousins. The only stop between seeing them in upstate New York and Erie was Niagara Falls. We camped up in the morning and left by 9:00. One other thing I forgot to mention: School had begun. If you are going on a 7 month trip around the country you still need to attend school. So what did we do? Well, I signed up online for some Algebra and Writing classes and whatnot.

After we took off it wasn’t long until we got to Canada. We found a spot on the American side and we could hear the sound of rushing water all the way from there! We got out of the car and walked down the street towards it. On the way we met a man that needed some help with his vending stand. He was about 20 or so. He told us that we should stay away from the park because there were protesters getting rowdy over there over the civil war statues. We understood and took the long way. It was an exciting walk to Canada and we were ready to see our first wonder of the world. We first had to go through a station held by guards so we could get on the bridge. We gave him our passports and answered a couple of questions before entering. We could finally see the falls! They were huge. We could not even begin to imagine how in the world they could have been created! We walked over the bridge and looked over the edge while the extreme wind blew at us. We were almost half way through the bridge, meaning half way to Canada. We soon stepped over the line, marked between the American and Canadian flags standing proudly above, and held our breath as we did. We saw venders everywhere. I got an Ice Cream bar to eat as I bought a souvenir shirt from Canada. I got my good friend from Utah a gift (I don’t think he reads my blog) and spent the day there. There wasn’t much of a suburbs and everyone spoke English, but its still Canada… right?

The City by Lake Erie

Only a couple of hours had passed when we arrived late in the afternoon at our next destination (Erie, Pennsylvania). The beautiful, shimmering green leaves glowed in the light and welcomed us into its beautiful town by the lake. As we drove to the nice sized city, which was not small yet not too large, we were amazed by the beautiful sites that it presented to us. Our plan was to spend a couple of days there and visit some of our friends which we had recently met. Although there is not much historical value in the part of Pennsylvania where we were spending the next week or so we decided to just use it as a break to take inventory and get the rest of the trip settled. We pulled into the KOA campground that we had booked, which was full, and found our spot. I visited the gift shop as I always do in the campgrounds we visit, and spent time with some other people in the park. I met some other people that I got to talk to with my brother and that is how we spent the rest of the night. Eventually one of the campground managers made us go back to our camps because it was sleeping hour for the park so we did. The next day looked similar, and so did the next. After 5 days we moved to our friends house, a nice intelligent woman named Jan, to stay at her place. We parked in front of her house in her driveway, which was near the bushes, and met her neighbors. They were nice so we talked for a long time there. Jan’s house, as we soon found out, was beautiful. Her front yard was enclosed by a 7 foot tall (Maybe more) row of bushes that enclosed a grassy area, her patio that held 4 decorated shells (with seashells attached) along with a tree that was many yards high, possibly 20, and a trail that led to her backyard. In her back yard she had many bushes as well that left enough room for a very good sized soccer field (a short one though) or perhaps a baseball field. Her living room overlooked it and the front yard, and included chairs and 3 of its 4 sides were made of 90% window glass. Her nice two story house had a great luxury theme to it and was the perfect size for her. Bernard Waber, the owner and create of Arthur the Anteater, used to full-time live in her house before she bought it. His first book was written in her room. I know almost nothing about Arthur or his friends, but that’s still kind of cool and I guess you could consider him a celebrity. After a couple of days our friends from Pittsburgh visited us and we talked for a long time. This was the 3rd time we had seen them, but I have not blogged about the last time. Their cousins were there and we very much enjoyed their company as well. I got to know Sarah the best of them, and she had a good sense of humor. Max and Alex were just as nice as last time. When they got to our house, however, we were so excited to see them even a bit more this time. We had the most fun we had ever had. Music played and we all drank C0KES and DIET CR3AM SODAS (Both brands are copyrighted) while we talked. We had a great baseball game (which my team won 28 to 5) and a game of soccer (or football for some of my non-american friends) before going inside. We did manage to slip in a game of AMERICAN football, too. We put up some mattresses for them and hung out all the way past 11 or 12 o’clock. We saw them the next morning but they needed to leave. The day after we would need to leave, too. Sadly an incident occurred… My little brother, Aidan, was at the neighbors house. I was getting tired and wanted to go to bed and so did everyone else. I went to go get him and he didn’t want to come back. That’s when it happened. He was chopping wood for their fire and creating “Kindling bombs” with Ellie, the youngest one. I gave him a couple more minutes. He put them in the fire and it got bigger. One of the pieces fell out of the pi and… He tried to put it back in. All of the sudden I heard a yelp and I ran over to see him. The top joints of all of his fingers were black light the night sky that glared at us from above. It all of the sudden went away and we got him some burn control items from a first aid kit. All of the sudden it came. Our father, a retired Fireman Captain, claimed that it was a 3rd degree burn… the worst one possible. The rest of the night went badly and I was sad to need to watch my brother go through this. I went to bed before him and that was all for the night. I think I’ll draw the curtain and end the post there.

The Town

As I have mentioned in one of my last blog posts, I am a little bit behind. I believe that was actually the name of it. Since I have recently revealed that I will be creating a book, possibly called A Young American’s Travels, I must say that I need this blog to have all of the details, as I will be using it for not only you guys but for my book, as well. The reason I have stated this may be unclear, so I’ll rephrase that: I’m going to be blogging every day now. Without further ado, how about I begin.

We soon saw a different scenery that the past couple of hours being trapped inside our large (but with a small-feeling interior) vehicle; A small town. After leaving Pittsburgh we faced regular hills and grass on the car-less highway while the tall buildings disappeared behind us. We drove in and looked around as we found our campground, and then soon after our spot inside of it. The park was beautiful! Although the entrance/exit didn’t lead to much, it was still great. The little town, the closest one to our destination (Erie Pennsylvania) included a couple of buildings including a furniture store and a photography HQ. Would not visit them until we went walking the next day. That night we used some of the parks activities after we walked around the large lake and the fountain like the small shuffleboard. I’m happy to say I won. The next day of course, we took a long walk and then came back to drive our car to a nearby diner where our parents started to argue if the eggs were processed or not. My brother joked that they were made of cardboard. The meal was good, but I’m sad that I can’t give credit to them. There is a small chance that anybody from that town would be reading the post right now but still. We eventually left the campground after taking showers and got back onto the road to Erie.

I’m a little behind…

As some of you may have noticed I have not been blogging every day. Good news: I’m going to. I’m starting today. I am two weeks behind so if anybody sees a post without words (just a title) than I have moved on. I am hoping to create a book about my adventures, called A Young Americans Travels, or something of the sort. Today I have not been blogging in a professional context, using basic words instead of searching and spending more time to put more elevated text into my blog post today. I have just decided to warn my followers: I may be a little bit late on stuff that is happening. Please, please, please, bear with me. Another thing to talk about- I am scared that our trip will be canceled because of Irma. I am afraid that others will need to give their lives because of it, so canceling our trip would be nothing. If you are in an area like Florida that is going to be hit with the worst tornado in known history, stay safe. My family and I are praying for you. I am afraid that we were a year too late… we may not be able to see Orlando or all of those other places, not meaning to be grave but… they might not be there anymore. I am very discouraged and very nervous about the situation. UsaThroughOurEyes.com, an amazing blog that is traveling similarly to our adventure, I am hoping you guys are OK in North Carolina. Stay safe everyone, and I’ll see you in the next post.