Day 5: Cooperstown & Niagara Falls

We made it to a hotel with decent internet access, so I can now post about Day 5. For the one person who follows this daily, this one's for you!

Let's see what I can remember from yesterday...

Well, I wanted to be out of NYC and on the road to Cooperstown by 8 a.m. That all depended on the arrival of our passports by FedEx. Waking up at 6:50 didn't bode well for our chances. We went to breakfast downstairs and asked the woman at the desk about the package. She called down and had someone bring it up to us. We were in the car at 8:28. All things considered, not too shabby.

Again, Pat, you are THE MAN. Right behind Stan Musial, Albert Pujols and Harry Connick, Jr. Maybe now I'll remove any reference to you in this post. Maybe not. But I did get you a present at the HOF.

A Public Service Announcement
Cooperstown, New York is not the easiest place to get to, just so you know. Should you ever decide to go on a quest to visit the land of baseball awesomeness, never plan such a journey during Hall of Fame Induction week. Duh! This was the first time we ever:

• Had to wait in a line of cars to turn onto Main Street
• Had to pay to park
• Had to wait in line to get into the HOF to buy tickets
• Had to weave through the obstacle course of Main Street jay-walking pedestrian traffic

Needless to say, many worshippers descended upon the town. I think there were 708,938,274 people there. It was a whirlwind tour, to be sure. We were in and out in about three hours, including a visit to the HOF museum. Chop! Chop! People! We got a road trip to do!

RIP: National Pastime
It was truly a sad day for me. I lost a good friend. National Pastime, one of my favorite all-time places, is no more. Apparently, a lease dispute with the owners led to its demise. For me, it's really a different place without it. Thanks for being jerkfaces, greedy owners. Gordon Gekko was wrong - in this case, greed was bad.

And onto the land of our neighbors to the north... We actually got to the Rainbow Bridge on the NY side about 7:4o. They finally let us in after we answered the series of, "Why would you possibly want to visit our country when yours is clearly superior? How long do you plan on gracing us maple-leaf loving folks with your presence? And How much illegal crap do you plan to smuggle in and out?" type questions.

After about 45 hours, we finally got up to the room. Julia's platinum status got us a falls view room, which rocked like a Jovi concert. See the awe-inspiring fallsy joy below.

The Canadian side has a MUCH better view of the falls, based solely on its geographical placement. Other than that, it's a cheesy mini-Vegas atmosphere complete with millions of flashing, seizure inducing lights, chain restaurants and weird haunted houses and crappy wax figures that look like I made them in my basement blindfolded with my arms tied behind my head.

I'd say our number one pet peeve on this trip, besides forgetfulness, is people. In general, we've realized just how much people suck. I can't count the number of times we were walking along and people suddenly stopped in front of us for no apparent reason.

What's with parents letting their kids run amok these days? They run all over the place being kids, not realizing how ridiculously annoying and mannerless they are because they're kids. But where are the parents? They have no such excuse. Not paying attention to their spawn is where the parents are. Like the stopping, I can't count the number of seeming lost or unattended children running into us from all sides. At one point, we were as far to the right as we could be without skinning our shoulders on the building. A family was walking at us, not in single file or staying to the right, but directly at us with their 6 year-old daughter dangling in our path gazing down at her Crocs while chomping on her hand like a free sucker from the drive up window at the bank. How many germs did she just consume? Enough to kill a herd of antelope in Montana, most assuredly. And you can bet that her extremely responsible and attentive parents make her wash before dinner. She finally looked up when her bangless forehead got jacked by Julia's purse, which, if it were tucked into her person any further, would have to be considered an additional appendage. Only then did the parents notice the child and had the nerve to say, "excuse me!?" as though we had somehow impeded on their Niagara Falls family fun getaway.

And speaking of personal space, whatever happened to it? Are we not allowed that imaginary bubble around us anymore? The answer, I have found on this trip, is a loud and resounding NO. As I mentioned in the kid with the forehead smashing by purse story above, people don't stay to the right anymore - they walk in walls directly at you. I now play chicken with every person who dares to walk directly into my path and I win every time. Either that or I crush them with my extremely broad and muscular shoulders. Believe me, you don't want a piece of this.

And, once again, we owe it all to Bono and his ingrown hair surgery. If not for his weakness, we would have been finally finding what we were looking for at the Meadowlands. But, alas, we now must wait until July 20, 2011 for that. Thanks again, Irish man child.

Departure time: 8:28 a.m. EST (from NYC)

Arrival time: 8:30 p.m. EST (in Canada)

Today's mileage: approximately 450 miles

Total mileage: 2120 miles

Tolls paid: $17.65 (for a total of $42.75)

iPod Playlist: Songs That Make Dave Happy (like the Energizer Bunny, it's still going)

Playlist highlights:

• Don’t Forget My Number – Milli Vanilli
• I Wonder – Prince
• Kiss Them for Me – Siouxse and the Banshees
• I Ran – A Flock of Seagulls
• Mr. Siegel – Tom Waits
• Patience – Guns N’ Roses
• Star-Crossed Killer – Boy in Static (dedicated to Blind Brother Simpson)
• Good Ole Boys – Waylon Jennings
• If I Had $1,000,000 – Barenaked Ladies
• Faith – Violent Femmes (dedicated to The Christians)
• Swinging on a Star – Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello (dedicated to Mom Cousin)

Number of Times Bono has mocked us with a U2 song on the playlist: 14

Fun Photo of the Day:

To see the rest of the photos from Day 5, click HERE.

Next Stop: Day 6 takes us to Pawtucket, Rhode Island where we’ll meet a cousin that I found through my family research and see a Pawtucket Red Sox game.