First things first. Don’t forget, this is the Week Of Dave (WOD) and it is going strong. To recap, we saw David Benoit last week in D.C. performing with the Symphony Orchestra in front of the Capitol. Friday we saw Dave Letterman in New York. Saturday we drove to Boston and stayed with our friend Dave. Sunday we saw Dave Matthews. Monday we took a Duck Tour of Boston and guess who was loading our duck? That’s right, Dave. Today we hit the Falls, Niagara Falls that is, Canadians and one really big swimming pool. On our way into the falls we stopped at an information booth and signed up for a tour that included a jet boat ride to the whirlpool, a visit to the Horseshoe Falls, and a trip up to the top of the Minolta Tour. The tour departed from the Sheraton Four Points Hotel at 12:00. We arrived approximately 15 minutes early. Our bus arrived approximately 15 minutes late. Guess who was driving? WOD. Poor Dave, a bus broke down that morning and he was now trying to play catch up. He kept radioing to his base station trying to give them updates and get information back and like an I Love Lucy episode the messages kept getting mixed up and garbled. At any rate, we finally picked up all 12 passengers and headed to the Canadian border. A Canadian border agent boarded the vehicle, asked about everyone’s citizenship, then took four visiting Dominicans off to stamp their passports. Ten minutes later the agent returned with the family and informed Dave that they did not have the proper Visas. This man runs the largest bank in the Dominican Republic, has been to more countries as I’ve been to states, but because his Visa was European and not Canadian, they would not let him in to the country. Exactly what they are afraid of, I don’t know. At any rate, we had to turn around and return the family to the stop we picked them up at, but first we had to go through U.S. Customs, despite the fact that we never actually made it into Canada.
Apologizing profusely, Mr. Jiminez and family disembarked the bus at their hotel and we headed back to the Canadian border, with all eight passengers on board. We made it through (thank God) and picked up our remaining passengers about an hour late. Meanwhile, Dave’s looking like he’s going to have a nervous breakdown. We high-tailed it to the jet boat, arriving only about 30 minutes late. Our pilot, Dave (not our bus driver), gave us quite a thrill ride as we jetted up the river and back doing 180’s—or Hamilton’s as they’re called. The thing is literally a huge Sea-Doo, only this bad boy has three Volvo Penta 6-cylinder engines powering three separate jets to put out about 1500-1800 horsepower. Those are the same engines Volvo uses in their big-rig tractors (and we had 3 behind us!) more power HO HO HO!!
Needless to say the jet boat was exciting, although we would still like to ride the Maid of the Mist, which goes right up to the bottom of the Falls. Next time. Dave is feeling much better now and we continued our tour without event. Details of that are best read on the web site where you can see the corresponding pictures.
We left the Niagara area around 8 I think it was and headed south to Chattanooga, TN. Around midnight we switched drivers and due to our late start and my night-owl nature, we drove until about 3:30AM. Not wanting to have to pay for a motel for only 5 hours, we pulled into a rest stop in Southern Kentucky and slept surprisingly well until about 8AM. I even remembered to lock the doors AND roll up the window this time.
We arrived in Chattanooga, TN mid-afternoon on Wednesday where we are staying with some friends of my family, The Fischers. Yesterday we went boating on the Tennessee River in X9, the Fischer’s high performance boat. Perhaps I should say what used to be their high performance boat. Yes, fun follows THE ROAD SCHOLARS around and as we were heading back into dock the engine sputtered, coughed once, gave us the finger, and quit. Talk about the Midas touch. Chris and Mike (Fischer) were over the side before I knew it, pulling the boat to the dock. If you ask me I’ll tell you the distance was measured in yards. If you ask Mike’s karate class, I’m sure they’ll say it was miles. Regardless, they only pulled us a few feet before another boat came along, glanced quizzically at us and asked, “what are y’all doin’?”. I looked up plaintively from the engine (as if I could fix the damn thing) and said “pushing”. He gave us a good tow, we arrived at the shore without a hitch (pun intended), and I’m sure Mike will keep us posted on what the problem was. We did luck out though, not only did we miss the thunderstorm that was brewing, the boat waited until we were literally a stone’s throw from the dock before dying. St. Christopher strikes again.
See ya’ in N’orleans,
-Sean
Labels: New York, Tennessee, wod
This was probably one of the most enjoyable days of the trip so far. We've seen and done a lot of things, but until today we were always on our way somewhere or going to do something. Chattanooga gave us an opportunity to be on vacation. Mike took us out in his 54' yacht to Lake Tachamachahatciewoogle on the Tennessee River. We managed to miss the thunderstorm and we postponed the boat trouble until we were ready to return to shore. All in all, it was a very relaxing day.
Relaxation is not without education, however, and we are the ROAD SCHOLARS. While out on the lake, we made some new friends and learned some new things. One of our new friends, Christina (seen here on the far left, we couldn't get any closer because the water was too shallow) gave us her tip of the day:
How to keep your cigarettes dry when spending a day at the lake--in one easy step.
Step One, place entire cigarette package inside bikini top (right side). Very impressive (trust me).
Other bits of knowledge from the day:
- Mondo REALLY likes my sleeping bag.
- It is possible to get a teenager to do dishes.
- The Fischer's have so many remote controls you could set up a cool photo-op using a digital camera
- We're really from Baywatch.
- I have a really bad farmer's tan.
Labels: Tennessee
A night at our five star hotel was just what we needed to recuperate from our long day at Niagara and the long drive that followed. Actually, the Monte Carlo was a lot more comfortable than I expected. Plus, we didn't have to worry about checking out or packing up, so we were able to get on the road to Tennessee rather quickly. We arrived at the Fischer's mid-afternoon on Wednesday. The accommodations were a slight improvement over the Kentucky rest area of the night before, at least we had our own bathroom.
Mike is an old friend of my dad's who lives in Chattanooga, TN with his lovely wife, Carolyn, two darling children, Dalton and Rachael. and a host of pets, including Charlie Barker and General "Jack" Jackson. Mike and Carolyn showed us a night on the town in downtown Chattanooga, including some of the locals, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, and the kinds of things they do for fun on weekends.
Labels: Tennessee
