Bring back the back roads

Route

Wednesday, October 14th. After a quick breakfast, we packed up the truck and headed back to Niagara Falls. This time we went over to Goat Island to see the American Falls from the other side. It was eerily empty early Wednesday morning; we had the place essentially to ourselves.

The sheer volume of water going over these falls is unimaginable. The bridge to Goat Island crosses part of it, and it's wild to think that all that water cascades over the falls every second. Together, the three falls carry about 3,160 tons of water a second. In 1969, the Army Corps of Engineers dumped 28,000 tons of rock between the mainland and Goat Island and shut off the American Falls from June to November to study the rock face. Which is crazy to think about.

We did a loop around the park, snapped a couple of pictures at the far falls, and got a good bit of mist on us. Then we sat in the parking lot for a bit to take calls and get some work done.

As we started heading to the Canadian border, I suddenly realized I didn't have my passport. All of this careful, methodical planning and packing, and I forgot the damn passport. I spent weeks getting the truck ready for this trip, and I couldn't even remember my passport! I made sure to bring Rhea's records and her microchip paperwork, which you need to get her back into the US, but I forgot my own documents. Steinbeck also had to turn around at the Niagara border, but because he didn't have Charley's vaccination records.

Lesson learned. Maybe I'm meant to follow his route rather than break off on my own after all.

I was planning to cross Canada and head up through Michigan into Wisconsin to see more of the northern Great Lakes. But a cold front is blowing in from Canada with wind gusts up to 35 mph, and peak foliage is already past up there. Instead, we're taking Steinbeck's route past Cleveland and Toledo, then west toward Montana. It's a bit warmer this way, and we gain two national parks: Cuyahoga Valley and Indiana Dunes. I'm a bit bummed to miss northern Michigan, but I'll get there eventually.

We bombed down I-90 for most of the afternoon. I've had longer days, but interstate driving takes the most out of you. It's boring, straight, exceptionally uneventful, and you don't get to soak up the country's culture. I don't like it. Bring back the back roads!

Rhea

Rhea woke up instantly on rabbit duty. I'm pretty sure she dreamt of them outside our tent all night.

At the falls, she was more interested in chasing squirrels and Canada geese than anything else. Which is typical. I still picked her up and made her take a couple of corny family pictures in front of the falls. She reluctantly acquiesced. People there were really taken with her. At least five or six people doted on her, asked what kind of dog she was, and even wanted pictures with her, which I find pretty funny. She put up with it for a while, then was ready to leave all at once after getting her daily dose of stimulation in a matter of hours.

Near Erie, we stopped for a roadside PB&J, with turkey snacks for both of us. Then we both took a quick and necessary power nap. This was Rhea's first nap in the truck! She's always on guard and watching; it's her Cane Corso nature. But now it feels like she's just starting to really get comfortable in the truck. Like it's her home on wheels too. It makes my heart so happy.