Day 30 - Buffalo to Ithaca, via Niagara Falls

We drove the half hour between Buffalo and Niagra Falls around midday to experience our last nature stop of the trip.

At the Niagara Falls tourist info centre we asked about where to go and, more importantly, how easy it was to travel across the border to Canada for a different view. This lady tried to tell us that we could see everything from the US side. We all detected some patriotism, so decided to check out the US side then cross the border anyway.

When it was our turn to be questioned by the Canadian border patrol officer Jon seemed to forget he wasn’t sitting in the driver’s seat and shouted the answers out as Malena answered them like it was some competition to be heard first. After a “one at a time please” from the officer we were able to clarify we were not people smugglers, just a bossy Aussie traveller and his two companions, and we were allowed through!

After a quick bite to eat at a Canadian Tony Roma’s we headed down to check out the falls. Without a doubt the Canadian side was much more spectacular.

We spent the night in Ithaca, a small university city in the hills, apparently surrounded by forests and beautiful waterfalls. We got in after dark and left the next morning so didn’t see much of the scenery. Instead we went to a tapas restaurant. The wonderful American free-pours continued to impress when our pre-dinner glass of wine came out looking more like half a bottle.

Day 29 - Chicago to Buffalo

This was the last of our extremely long drives, which was pretty uneventful except for the massive truck rollover about 100 kms out of Buffalo. From what we could see, it looked like the truck had collided with a car and then somehow turned over. The car, as you would imagine, came out second best. It was no surprise though. During the 9000kms we’ve covered so far we’ve experienced plenty of crazy truck driving first hand. 

Day 28 - Chicago - surviving the 'Bomb 'o Genesis'

A few thunder strikes and some heavy rain is all the ‘Bomb o’ Genesis’ delivered. Most of this happened in the early hours of the morning while we were all asleep. We turned on the weather channel the next morning to hear the latest, and to our disappointment the ‘Bomb o’ Genesis’ had been downgraded to the ‘Fall Fury’. They threw a ‘tornado alert’ in there for good measure though, which made us feel a little better, until we realised the alert was only in effect until 11am, precisely when we were watching the update. We were now just starting to understand how much the weather channel really blew the wind up this story… it’s not like the Americans to be over dramatic!

That evening we enjoyed some quality tapas before donning some dorky glasses once again for our second 3D film in as many days.