Out with the old, in with the new

(I had to post this photo. Us with the mounties - in the CN tower-sadly no horses allowed in the tower)

Its all new, you know.

Currently we are residing in New England. However we have spent the last two days in upstate New York. When I last left you, we were in Toronto, suffering the all whites bowing out of the world cup.

From that tragic start to the morning, where Jason and I found a pub to follow the game, and Alister went to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Alister enjoyed the Hockey Hall of Fame. Seeing such legends as Wayne Gretzsky and Bobby Orr almost inspired him to find out a way to become a real hockey player. He had to settle for marvelling at the Stanley Cup instead.




So, we left Toronto and drove 123 km to Niagara falls. There we were greeted with a beautiful day and hundreds of people watching giant amounts of water cascade.

“It would be more impressive if the water went the other way” - Oscar Wilde

Thankfully, Mr Wilde is understating the effect of the falls. We took a tour on the : “Maid of the mist” boat respelent in our blue rain slickers.



Its hard to describe the falls, I'll try and be more eloquent than merely using the words awesome and fantastic.
The water doesn't fall from a particularly great height, but the width of the drop and the horseshoe shape of the falls create a waterier amphitheatre of spray and noise. We spent time trying to figure out, if (volume wise) more water went over the falls in a second, than the entire amount of beer the steamwhistle brewery produced in a year. We gave up our calculations pretty quickly and agreed that if the falls were made of beer, it would be awesome.



We then decided to leave Canada and heaed to the US of A. It took a bit longer than expected. The friendly people at border control decided we were so nice, we needed to stay in a room for an hour and a half with lots of other frustrated people. Annoying, but that's what international travel is like. Thankfully the actual processing took nary a second and we headed with glee into New York State.

From there we moved on to Buffalo. Buffalo is famous for two things – losing the superbowl four times and buffalo wings. We took the option of trying the second. So we went a “wing hut” - my name for this nice restaurant and ordered fifty buffalo wings and a plate of wedges. Here we also discovered the beer – rolling rock – which helped wash the wings down nicely. Fifty wings took a lot of eating – I'd like to take this moment to shout out to our wing eating champion.



Jason powered through the wings like a hawkes bay prop through a wellington backline.

The next day (Friday 25th of June) – was a sleepy little town in upstate New York. Cooperstown. We took a stunningly scenic drive from Buffalo, east across the top of state. I drove 200 of the easiest miles, whilst Jason and Alister snapped photos of the scenery. We arrived at the baseball hall of fame at 2.30 – and I died. Well, I didn't really die – but I did go to heaven. I took tonnes of photos. I won't write too much more here, suffice to say, its a brilliant hall of fame, up to date and I wanna go back.

However, the rest of the evening is worth writing about. We headed to Doubleday field – the place where baseball started. Alister and I had a go at the batting cages, suffice to say – neither of us will be professional baseball players (Jason may have a shot). We then sat in sunshine – and watched college baseball players play a decent game. We sipped beer in the stands and laughed as foul balls narrowly missed cars.



On Saturday, we headed out from our campground and started into New England.
(Aside – its a running joke on this trip that I love all things New York and dislike all New England sporting team. Jason has taken up supporting New England teams to antagonise me)

Vermont – is a beautiful state. It green, peaceful and not overcrowded. Its state nickname is the green mountain state – and its the 49th least populated state. It has many beautiful attractions, quaint traditions and charming people.
We drove straight through it, barely stopping. But at least I can say I've been there.

New Hampshire was upon us before we knew it. We found the racetrack in loudon and stopped to pick up tickets. The sights consisting of people tailgating, mustaches and Dale junior shirts. Yep, we were in motor racing territory. Where driver loyalties are fierce as the red on the back of necks. Where beer bellies are marks of a great life spent watching racing. Where speed is king and rubber queen.

NASCAR - After a night parked in the Walmart carpark, we got up and out to the track not much after 7am. After the initial shock of an early start, we were glad that we did this. Sitting back, mixing it with the fans in the parking lot was a great experience. Nothing is done by half measures up there. A few beers and some sunshine was a great way to get the raceday underway. After sending out a search party, Alister was located at the mechanising tents, and we got the the track. With our seats on the front straight away, we enjoyed an entertaining race with the other 100,000+ fans. A good clean race meant that we didn't get to see much 'action' (we all go to watch the crashes don't we??), but the last 30 or so laps livened things up. We talked Geoff out of buying a Danica Patrick t-shirt from one of the numerous mechanising trucks behind the stands, then headed back to the RV for a sit down and wait for the fans to leave. An experience well worth repeating we think.