Headin' West

That pretty much sums up what we did today.... We started in New York this morning:

And then went west for a little PA-lovin':

We were only in PA for about five seconds (okay, an hour). We went across the top left square portion and then continued west:

Ohio. Is. Flat................

But, you can go 70 mph, so it had that redeeming quality.

We were in Ohio for a really long time. We stopped at two travel plazas and used a whole lot of gas across the Ohioan flatness. Plus side though, Ohio gas is (literally) 57 cents cheaper than NY gas.  Oh hey, look at that--two redeeming qualities...And we stopped for dinner at a....

Big Boy!  I've never actually been to one. Hadn't even seen once since the original Austin Powers (timeless classic that it is). Josh had been a looong time ago.  Really cool moment of the day: after dinner we grabbed the tripod so that we could take this touristy/cheesy picture with Big Boy himself. We were setting it up (in the middle of the parking lot b/c that's where the best angle was) when a guy came out and pretty much took the camera from us because, as he said, we were in the middle of the parking lot.  He was pretty funny....after he took a couple pics for us, he asked Josh how long he'd been in a chair and why. Turns out this guy had a C-5 injury a number of years ago (showed us his sweet scar) and was in a chair for awhile too. Then last year, he was in an accident that broke most of the bones on the left side of his body and here he is, fit as a fiddle and up walking around. (It was at this point when his friend chimed in and said they'd been friends for thirty years and the guy just won't die haha).  It's so very encouraging when those types of moments happen.  Meeting former chair users is so....i can't really think of a word that really encompasses what i mean. Hopeful. Meaningful. Encouraging....Peaceful. If you can think of a word that means all those things combined, let me know. It just kinda makes us feel like our tiny puzzle pieces of what we can see of our lives actually make a bigger picture.

Real time over. Back to sardonic reality. Because it's my favorite.... Now we're in:

And tomorrow we're gonna stop by:

We kinda creeped on DreamMaker Ann Arbor.  We went around the building to the back of the parking lot to take a picture of the trucks to send to my dad (because obviously the DMBK vehicle wrap would be new to him) and drove slowly by under the watchful gaze of security cameras. Hopefully they don't send creeper vehicle updates to the shop owners or they might not let us in tomorrow....

Foggy Falls

 We woke up this morning to rain which always makes sight-seeing rather tricky. But we did have rain gear so we decided to commence with our plans anyway.  We started out today having lunch at a Greek restaurant.  There's no other way to describe it except to say it's exactly like a traditional homestyle diner in Lancaster County with the exception of Greek food.  It was rather delicious.  Josh and I both had chicken soulvaki (just google it. I have no idea. but it's good.) We called the zoo to find out about the painting elephant. Turns out that he only paints in July and August. Sigh...artists...So instead, we went to the Honeymoon Trail Winery because it sounded pretty fitting for our trip and what better way to spend a soggy afternoon?  They had soooo many wines. And you could only try four (i'm sure if you paid more, you could taste more but we didn't try...).  They were pretty good. We're mailing some back home to ourselves haha.

All along the way to the winery, we kept passing these signs:

Wouldn't you be intrigued too? Seriously, at every intersection for about 18 miles, these signs were on a telephone pole. Naturally, I asked Josh to take us there after leaving the winery.  It turns out that it's an odd sort of thing...When we pulled in we first saw a reindeer! So we were excited...

But just kidding. It turns out it's an elk. But we didn't see the sign until we drove further. And after we got really excited. But that's okay.  There was also...

A toy soldier! And they also had a place to cut down your own tree. But as we're in a car until Christmas, there's no way to water a tree, otherwise, I'd find a way. I LOVE Christmas trees. I will find a way to have a makeshift tree in the car.  I just don't know how yet. Josh vetoed the Christmas lights hung on the ceiling already....which I can understand. It is harder to see when you're driving in the dark if there's lights on in the car. Okay anyway, we didn't stay at the Christmas Adventureland very long but the best part of it is the fact that not only does Santa employ reindeers; he also has....

Zebras! Bet you didn't know there were Christmas zebras too. Oh yeah. Reindeer won't do it for me next year. I'm gonna have to find a zebra...

We still had time left today so we went to Niagara Falls. Did you know that the Maid of the Mist stops being a boat after October? And you can't see the falls if it's foggy? Sometimes I swear our timing is absolutely impeccable.  But we still had fun. We walked down to Horseshoe Falls (a little over a mile, I think) and enjoyed looking at the Falls.

Foggy, but you can still see a portion of the awesomeness 

Anytime someone sees us taking one of these kinds of pictures ourselves, they always offer their services. I think we must look really uncomfortable or awkward or something but these pictures always end up being way more fun looking than a posed one.

We were so cold after that so we came back to the hotel and unearthed all the leftovers from last nights wing buffet.  But mere wings as wings just wasn't good enough. So we made wing soup! It was pretty darn good. And cheap. All we added from our own food was broth, water and onion. Not bad...not bad at all...

A Full(s) Errand

We are in New York again.  We figured on driving up the coast of New England and then coming back across upstate NY to see Buffalo and Niagra Falls. Which we are.  Tomorrow.  We took our sweet time getting here.  We were in Massachusetts to get Josh's handcycle aligned and we went to grab dinner on our way out.  Mike, the handcycle guru, recommended the Creamery. It just so happens that the tiny town of Cummington, MA is super awesome.  They trade favors for each other. For example, handcycle guru (Mike) made a human-powered grain mill for Sal and Sue, the two plumbers (both women by the way) in return for a plumbing favor (I have no idea what. Plumbing has never been my strong suit. Ever.)  Over 500 of the 900 residents are part owners (in a Co-Op fashion) of the Creamery.  The owners of the tiny grocery/cafe/restaurant/deli/organic farming extraordinaire decided that they wanted to continue owning the business but didn't want to work as hard anymore so the community came around them and more than half the town owns part of the business now and everyone  chips in. It's amazing, right?! It's so....awesome. I can't think of a better way to describe it.  Anyway, Mike's neighbor has cattle. But not just any cattle. Scottish Highland Cows. Ever seen one? Neither had we. They're like giant cow-shaped sheep dogs with horns:

I tried to feed one...let's call her Mary Lou...she wasn't having any of it.

The sign says Highland Cattle

We went on to the Creamery for dinner. We were informed that you can't miss it as it has a giant cow on top. Sure enough...

And then we hit 2000 miles! Believe it or not, we drove about 700 of the last 1000 in Maine. It's a big state. And we may or may not have gone up, down, up, down. Sweet.

And yes, the maintenance light is still on but it's just confused. Don't worry.

We spent a day cleaning out and reorganizing the FJ in Albany and then today we drove from Albany allllllll the way across the state to Buffalo. We made a little detour to Tipperary Hill. For good reason. Just wait for it....

This bar is awesome (right pic). It has two phone booths. Why is one so small you ask? It's for leprechauns. Reread that if you have to. I'm not joking. They have a tiny door beside the human-sized door into the bar for leprechauns too. Whoa.

And now here's the part you've been waiting for.  Examine the following two pictures very closely.  Notice anything slightly amiss? Or different? 

Red light....                                                           Green Light!

And now we are in Buffalo. And you can't be in Buffalo and not have buffalo wings, right? That's what we thought too. And we got a recommendation from one of our friends at the wedding on a place to go for authentic wings, Duffs. So we went. And feasted.  We ordered fries, 30 wings with four different sauces. Josh had a local micro brew and I had Loganberry, which as the waitress described it, is fruit punch on steroids. I'm waiting for the sugar crash as I type. (Oh, and I had a 5 Hour Energy today so that I stopped falling asleep while driving, so it's like a double crash).  It seems that that was a little ambitious of us (Note: We decided that ambitious had the most positive connotation instead of using the term 'stupid'. But let's be honest, it really was the latter).

Before it all began...

                    

Final breakdown: 19 napkins. 1 beer. 1 loganberry. Josh ate 9 or 10. I ate 5 or 6. (There's a missing wing in there somewhere. We can't remember who ate it...) 1/3 of the fries.  8 pounds of leftovers.

I was too full (fool) to even manage an awesome pose. Holding myself up on the sign seemed like a good idea.

Josh got the pose down much better though...Duffs!

 All around, an excellent culinary option! Not sure what's on the docket for tomorrow. I heard a rumor about an elephant that paints at the Buffalo zoo...

A Tall Tate Tale

Sam's busy playing Cut The Rope, so... it's my turn to blog. I'll be forthcoming and honest about my upcoming dishonesty, the following events may or may not have occurred exactly as I am telling them:

We left South Portland and headed for Massachusetts to get my handcycle aligned and Sam began jonesin' for some caffeine so we had to stop at a rest stop and get Starbucks:

I began taking pictures of the sunset, as it was so pretty; then before Sam came out a family of bears started attacking the travelers! Sam being oh so brave, saw what was happening outside and remembered that chai has a magical power over bears and she ran out and threw her Starbucks all over the bears and they turned to obsidian! 

We then traveled to the land named after Wor-chester-shire sauce and checked into a smelly "Quality" Inn.

We then decided to go out and eat at a cool local spot,

 apparently the Aztecs settled here in the land of W-sauce:

 

Not wanting to go back to the smell of quality I offer up a challenge to Sam,

A scavenger hunt of sorts. 

She needed to find:

• A vista overlooking a densely populated area
• figure out what they love 
• find a unique Christmas light set-up
• discover what this place is famous for
• and watch some television outside

I know it's a pretty tall order but Sam was up for the challenge!

She found a vista and took an artistically blurry picture:

And took a picture to prove the population density satisfied the requirement:

She discovered that they love their street names:

Found a tropical light display in bitter-cold Massachusetts:

Now she found this board that displays what this place is famous for but we disagreed on what it is depicting. If you look closely Sam says it looks like a whale farting, I think it look like a dinosaur farting either way this place has a pretty unique claim to fame!

Not to mention Gas Station Prime Time!

Thanksgiving at the Stevens'

Today we spent the day with Nicole, my old college roommate and her family in Falmouth, Maine. (How fun is it that they live in Falmouth too? Only they actually pronounce it better as opposed to the PA way of pronouncing it "Foul-mouth" haha). It was so nice to spend it with a family--even if it wasn't our own.  It felt almost like being home. It's always fun to watch how other families interact with each other and discover their traditions for the holidays.  We arrived a little late (I know...surprise, surprise) but Nicole's dad, Alec had ramps set up for us and got us right up into the house.  We sat down to eat pretty much immediately.  We had turkey, stuffing, smashed red potatoes, brown rice, carrots (fresh from their garden!), green beans, pearl onions, and peas.  Lots of delicious food and they even made gluten free yummies!  Josh and I made some gluten free blueberry and cherry muffins.  We used the tiny oven in the hotel room and it was....interesting and rather challenging. And i broke a bottle of oil.  But the muffins turned out alright anyway....

Their pet bunny, Nuzzle. He was so cuddly!

Jasmine, the cocker spaniel. Such a sweet and soft puppy!

Who is also very well trained and does lots of fun tricks

And also likes to cuddle with her humans

We discovered one of the Stevens family traditions is a contest of sorts to see who has to pick the meat of the bones of whatever is left over.  Whoever is eating around the table has to participate--friend, family, guest or foe as Alec phrased it.  They play rock, paper, scissors over and over.  If you manage to get something that beats everyone else around the table and are the only one with that figure up, then you are out and safe from having to pick the chicken. It takes awhile to get the first person out, just with the sheer numbers.  After the first person gets out, it goes pretty quickly.  Nicole was the first one to be safe this year, which is nice since apparently she's been it for about five years running.  Nicole's younger sister, Karita was next.  Then her mom, then her dad and then it was just Josh, her youngest sister, Austin and myself left in the running.  Josh quickly got out which left Austin and I going head to head. And wouldn't you know it---I lost. So I picked the  turkey.  I'm still debating whether or not I should mention this game to my own mother so she doesn't get stuck doing the dirty work every year....perhaps.... :)

Pickin' the chicken (because it rhymes better than turkey)

Everyone helped clean up the dishes before sitting down to pie. And when I say pie, I mean pie. Chocolate mousse, lemon meringue, apple, strawberry rhubarb, pumpkin...i think i'm missing a few. But they rocked. Then we sat and chatted for a bit and played Taboo which was a lot of fun too.  We took a short break to skype with my family back in PA.  The internet connection was a little tricky so whatever they said didn't match their expressions until four seconds later which was rather entertaining.  It was good to see them all but made me miss them quite a bit. I'm definitely looking forward to Christmas when we get to go home for a few days and spend it with each of our families.

Nicole (right) and her youngest sister, Austin

We got hungry again later and they even made us a second meal--tacos! I love tacos! And that's when Nicole's older sister, Crystal came and she showed us her awesome dance moves.  She's taking a hip hop dance class and showed us her latest routine which really was pretty cool. And then we just spent time catching up on life and talking about things that matter--life, love, relationships, God, idols, the church....it was good stuff. Good for Josh and I to talk to people other than each other haha.

I combed over Josh's hair. He looked kinda preppy. Not that he liked it so much. Can you tell?

They are such a wonderful family...so proud of one another and eager to showcase each other. It was really special to see the four sisters love each other and be delighted friends as well as sisters. We felt so grateful to be a part of their family for a day enjoy their traditions. We're so lucky to have such wonderful friends!

The Stevens girls: Austin, Nicole, Karita and Crystal. Yes, I know it's not focused. Still learning that whole photography thing apparently.