Second City to Niagara Falls …and Did I Do That?

Yep, Chicago was GREAT! Next stop: Niagara Falls by way of Cleveland. No worries, easy drive. Two-eighty, stop off at a retired coppers place in Fremont. We don’t even have to wake up early for this one. Everybody can sleep in, right? Nope. Late start is actually delayed due to technical difficulties. UGH! Later start. That’s okay, only two-eighty, right? Wait. What? Construction on the highway leaving Chicago-land? Uh…we changed time zones? Dang. Nobody knew? Gary, Indiana has the worst potholes on their streets and highway system? By the time we got to Fremont, the streetlights were coming on. And our hosts, as gracious as they were, were early-to-bed-early-to-rise kinda folks. “Sorry about that, Chief,” (insert Maxwell Smart voice here).

The HB was crackin’ the whip! “Look. We’re outta here by eight. If you’re not up and out, you can find us on Life 360.”

She had Doctor Francois and Samantha Stevens so scared, they slept in the front seats of their motorhome, with Stephanie keeping watch on the dashboard. They were up and out at 7:30!

Everyone was ready at the specified time.

As the leader, I lead…right past our connector to the I-480. Oops. Did I do that? (Erkel voice) We spent three hours driving in circles around Lorraine, OH looking for an onramp to the highway. We fell so far behind schedule that I could feel the HB’s eyes burning a hole into the side of my face (I dared not look).

Back on the highway, we could see Lake Erie from the streets of Euclid, OH as we drove up and down looking for “Ritchie’s” house. McCroc would not let on to where his boyhood BFF lived. Mrs. McCroc was lighting matches and holding them to his favorite Crocs, the periwinkle colored pair, as an incentive, but he would not bow to the pressure. All we wanted was to hear the true stories about how they tipped cows and stole Mrs. William’s rhubarb pie cooling from the window sill as teen aged scallywags.

We drove the rest of the way to Niagara Falls disappointed. But arrived at a time that was a

cceptable for the HB. BONUS: There was a Yoko Uno sighting today. Ever since she got her internet, she’s been in their RV working her little fingers to the bone.

Upon our arrival at the campsite in Niagara, there was a Costco run. Of course, Dr. Francois and Cmdr. McCroc had to don matching outfits, bags and crocs for the trek, but I was surprised to learn that the Professor is also a shopaholic. He was only slightly disappointed to learn that Dr. Francois and McCroc had matching outfits and didn’t tell him about it. He turned his frown upside down when they promised to find him an outfit that wouldn’t clash with theirs. There were squeals of delight when he came out of his motorhome and sashayed in front of them as if he were on a catwalk at Milan.

The Centurion and I just sat back and shook our heads. We’re not shoppers.

One band, one sound.

#coffeehousechronicles