Day 1 - Saturday 7/14

We were fortunate enough to be able to pick up the RV on Friday (a day early at no charge) so we thought we were way ahead of the game. We spent most of the day on Friday packing everything that was not attached to a wall in the Besterman house into the RV. Shari being the placement of items coordinator, packed every cabinet, drawer, and nook so strategically that if you take one thing out you cannot possibly fit everything back in. We noticed on Friday afternoon that the fridge did not seem to be cooling down…first phone call in for help. Alex took the RV back to Peekskill and they replaced the thermostat. They sent him on his way with assurance that it would be fine. Several hours later, we have a packed RV and a hot refrigerator. We spent Friday evening on the phone with “the guy” following instructions and trying different things to make it work, including moving the house on wheels to a flat service. Those of you that have been on our driveway are laughing now and who knew RV’s should always be on flat surface. After a few hours of sleep we woke up knowing that we had to go back to Peekskill. We loaded everyone up said our goodbyes to Cat, the pups and our bon voyage crew (aka Pattie and Mark D’Alesio, throwing bird seed at us might I add) and headed out of dodge…..to Peekskill. This time they replaced the circuit board that controls the fridge and sent us on our way…finally. As the saying goes “everything happens for a reason”….while we were twiddling our thumbs in Peekskill, Alex was enlightened with a thought about passports and Canada. Back to Yorktown we travel, to pick up our passports and of course, given the opportunity to make another list, items that we had left without the first time around. To be perfectly honest, while Shari was twiddling her thumbs in Peekskill she found a few hidden places to put more crap. Now we say goodbye again to Cat and the dogs and promised to not return again until the end of the month. It is now 11:00 am and we are two hours behind schedule. We head to Corning, NY which is our first destination. We went to the Corning Museum of Glass (because we are so artsy) and looked around a little before our glass making class began. I would like to point out that we did make it through the museum without breaking anything or having to buy anything. That is huge for us! Shari and Christopher made some glass wind chimes, Steven made a glass bead (smallest thing of course) and Andrew made a holiday ornament. Andrew’s was the most interactive, he was able to do glass blowing.

We had to quickly get back on the road in order to be in Niagara by dark. Our drive to Niagara was uneventful and we arrived at our first KOA of the trip. We ate a quick dinner and the boy’s road around on their bikes and checked out the place. We ran over to “The Falls” to see them illuminated at night. We looked around a bit, took some photos and then the rain began. Thank goodness Shari had us wear the rain gear (so we could look like everyone in the tourists books that she had been scouring). It rained most of the night and we were very happy being in our RV and not in a tent. This is definitely the way to go. The only downside to the rain meant no campfire or smores for our first night. We made it through our first day and that we are happy

about!!