August 2002 was the big road trip. We had been planning it for a while, Tom even had spreadsheets with an itinerary which even contained suggested activities during each stop *rolling eyes*(which btw we did nary a one haha). The irony here is I think I’m usually the anal one who plans things in advance and tackles things in a way I think is efficient (I have lists which I tick off when I’m packing) but Tom was so excited about the trip that he wanted to start planning it from the second we decided it was a go. I appreciated him doing it and totally left that up to him because I hate that stuff (which again shows what a great team we make.) Part of the fun of the trip for me was that I was going places I had never been before, but for Tom it was retracing part of a big trip that he had taken with his family back when he was very small.
We had it planned out that we would meet up in Seattle spend the night there and they fly together to Syracuse. I drove my car down to Bellingham airport and grabbed a shuttle to Seattle from there. The parking is very reasonable there and it was the easiest place for me to get a bus, Tom of course flew in from California. There were a lot of really nice people on the bus and we all chatted and joked with the Bus driver which made the trip go by quickly.
I got there early so I wandered around a bit and then made my way down to arrivals to try and find Tom’s baggage carousel. I found the flight but couldn’t find him, next thing my cell phone is ringing and it’s Tom trying to find me. It ended up that we were probably only a few feet apart opposite each other but with the crowd it was hard to see so we ended up meeting by the Alamo rental car desk. After an enthusiastic kiss and hug session we traveled up to where you catch a shuttle to your hotel which in our case was the local Wyndham. We gratefully got on the shuttle when it arrived and started chatting barely saying a sentence or two and we heard the driver go… “Here we are!” We burst out laughing (so did the other couple) because it turns out the Hotel was across the street from the airport. To be fair it was the equivalent of maybe a couple of blocks but it did seem pretty funny that we took a bus.
The hotel was AWESOME!! Neither of us had ever stayed in a Wyndham before and we were really impressed with the digs. They had THE most comfortable bed I’ve ever had in a hotel and this really cool office chair that we were coveting. They had these Golden Door toiletries in the bathroom too! We promptly decided that our last night in Seattle after flying back was going to be at that same hotel! Sadly we’ve since seen that it’s no longer a Wyndham, guess they didn’t keep up their standards.
The next morning bright and early we hopped the shuttle (yeah yeah we were lazy) and then caught our flight to Syracuse (via Chicago). We picked up a rental car (which was a Mazda Millennia and Tom immediately regretted not getting an SUV) which I loved it was the perfect size for my share of the driving, and drove over to his Mom’s place. We ended up staying up past midnight chatting with her and giving me a chance to get to know her. She was so warm and friendly to me and is so proud and loving of her Children that I immediately took to her. She had a lovely Condo and so kindly put us up for the night only to see us off early the next morning to continue on our trip. We would be back to stay for another couple of days after we had headed up north for a few in the Thousand Islands. We stayed up in Alexandria Bay and had a wonderful time walking around, checking out the local shops and taking a boat tour of the islands. We were lucky that the weather was awesome the whole time we were there. Boldt castle was such an amazing sight and the history of it was so sad and romantic. We had a really nice dinner at a restaurant that overlooked Heart island and the castle which is illuminated at night, nice and romantic.
We drove back down to Barbara’s and spent the next couple of days taking some mini tours of the area, driving into Syracuse, visiting Theresa a friend of Tom’s who owns a store there and who is also the wife of Tom’s friend Pat. That first night back we took Barbara out to dinner at the Olive Garden which was the first time I’ve ever been and all I can say is YUM! It was nice chatting with her over dinner as well I loved hearing her stories. She though it was neat that we were retracing part of their journey so many years ago that she dug out her old trip journal for us to have a read of.
The next day we took a day trip up to Oswego so Tom could show me where he did the bulk of his growing up. We drove by his old house, old school, old workplace etc and there was a street market going on which we did a walk around in. The weather was so hard on me because it was so HUMID. To this West Coast girl it felt like I was breathing hot water and it made me feel very tired and dehydrated. We stopped and bought some bottled water that helped a LOT but I still was dying to get back inside the air conditioned car. I remember saying to Tom ‘You grew up in this?? YIKES!’ I guess you would get used to it but man!!! Tom managed to pick up a sweatshirt with his old School logo on it and we had a fish burger and chips at a roadside stand that he had frequented in his youth. It was funny to watch all of the seagulls eyeballing us and some of them were a wee bit more bold than others. All in all they were more polite than the ones I am used to here in Vancouver where they snatch things right out of your hand and then poop on you to boot.
The next day it was time to head back out on the road. We kissed Barbara goodbye and set off to head on up to visit our friend Lisa and her family in Ontario. We didn’t want to take the drive all in one shot so we planned to spend the night in Buffalo which didn’t really impress me too much! There was an incident at the hotel that I love to bring up to this day. After breakfast which we had grabbed in our rooms the following morning, I headed to the shower and Tom went to put the dishes outside the door for pickup. I was about to start the water when I heard this knocking at the door. I kept calling for Tom and was wondering why the heck he wasn’t answering the knocking and then I thought to myself…. ‘ I wonder….. Would he have?… nawwww!’ but thought I best check. I covered back up and peeked through the peephole and saw Tom looking rather sheepishly side to side trying not to look suspicious and knocking urgently on the door. I opened the door and called him a dork and laughed my guts out. He had been so worried that I was already in the shower and would get stuck out there for a while. (side note) I was laughing as I typed this and it brought Tom into the room wondering why I was laughing just now. He said he just knewwww I was saying something about him haha.
After I had stopped laughing and we had gotten ready to go we headed on up to Lisa’s. Lisa or ‘Shel’ as we first knew her, was the lady who is my old ‘net buddy from way back in ’98 and who was in the ‘room’ on the fateful day of Tom and my meeting. I had met her in person a number of years before when I had traveled out to Ontario, in fact I had been out that way twice before, had the opportunity to spend lots of time with her and her family and to this day she is one of my dearest friends. Lisa and her husband and family put us up in a trailer on their farm. We had a good time sitting and BS’ing with them and I loved getting to see the kids how much they had all grown up since I first met them. In the past used to stay a week when I was there, but as we had that spreadsheet to keep to (heehee) it was soon time to head back on the road again. Poor Tom caught a cold about this time on the trip too.
