Day 12 | Niagara Falls to Cortland, NY
Checking out of the luxury of the Giacomo means breakfast in the dining room. Lovely quirky place that it is it is sad to leave after our shortened stay. We lost a night in the blizzard but we’ve a schedule to keep. So, no chance to check out the falls again. There is more snow forecast this afternoon and where we’re going is at a higher altitude and we don’t really know the scale of the roads.
Stopping in at Walmart on the way to get some better snowballing gloves means we all go in and get distracted with the variety that they have here. There’s nothing they don’t have and the prices are reasonable.
Following the I-90 Thru-way until Rochester then south to Cortland. It is a toll road and has an option for cash. Taking this lane through the booth an attendant wordlessly gave us a slip. At our exit, 200 miles and three hours later, we hand it in to another attendant for less than $5.
We stopped once for fuel and Angus was outraged that Tim Horton’s thieved $3 for a cup of unexceptional coffee. The ladies did comment on the clean and fresh bathrooms but the guys had the opposite experience. They followed a couple of truckers in and overheard one of them comment “jeez, my eyes are waterin’” it stank so bad.
We need to go south through the 11 finger lakes that the area is named after. The road from here is mainly country two-lane road with snow layered countryside everywhere, punctuated only by farm buildings and two-story farm homes. The road remained clear of ice and snow and everyone had a little drive.
We got to Cortland and checked in and got the gear up.
Scoping out the town for dinner options we went to Garcias Mexican, which was delicious and though Angus was concerned it would be too spicy hot it was actually pretty mild. The waitress had a bit of difficulty with our rapid fire Kiwi-Australo-English request for a side of sour cream.
Cruising around town after tea shows this to be a lovely town, home to a State University (7000 students) with associated dorms and houses. Some of the family homes have the snowmen out front and there’s already lots of Christmas decorations up. Somehow in the still it isn’t as cold even with all this snow about.
Back to the Country Inn – ooh, free cookies at reception.
Highlights:
Angus | Taking photos of the Town Hall at night with all the snow
Rosie | Watching the kids have snow ball fights in the snow, who knew snow would be such fun
Jemmz | Snow fight and McKay stacking it in the snow
O’Regan | Snow fight out front of City Hall
McKay | The windy trip (farty)
