Dry Run Road Trip - Entry #3

Ben arrived in late June, and we spent several days on the boat I live on during the summers getting ready for the trip - battening down the hatches, cleaning out the refrigerator, washing and detailing the roadtripmobile, and getting some fuel in for ourselves, as well. And Ben got to meet Trojan, who loved him instantly - as did my family, as he joined us on Father’s Day for a dinner on the deck at the cottage.

Ben had agreed to trust me with all of the planning for this trip, so I had planned the shit out of it. It would include meetups with three of my best friends: Michael, Rob, and Matt. All had been extremely supportive during my first year as a cancer patient, making regular trips to the boat to visit me, bringing me groceries and other items during COVID lockdowns, and boat sitting for me while I was in surgery and, afterward, recovering elsewhere. Ben had been just as supportive from overseas, via FaceTime calls and Telegram chat groups, and he’d become acquainted with those closest to me online. Now it was time for them to meet.

We’d begun the trip with a day in Albany, NY, with Matt joining us for the trip. It was a chance to show Ben what a day on the road in a Tesla really looks like, complete with a wrong turn that left us with just 11 miles remaining when we got to the Supercharger. A visit to the Chinese restaurant at the food court at the mall there, where we’re 99% sure we were overcharged but still enjoyed it, allowed the car to top up on volts, and another supercharge on the way home would leave him with absolute clarity: this trip would be about charging, driving, charging, driving… you get the idea. There was still time to back out!

Matt made the visit fun, and Ben later said the charging was just a minor inconvenience. Besides, we’d found other things to do while the charging took place. We’d just have to try to do that for the rest of our trip.

Day One was ready to begin…

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For our first day, I’d planned a drive around Niagara Falls, where I’d spent my freshman and half of my sophomore year in college. I wanted to take a drive to O’Shea Hall at Niagara University, and perhaps see the Lewiston Bridge and maybe even drive into Lewiston. Ben agreed to join me on this trip down Memory Lane…

Day #1 would be the day we’d discover how road trip schedules actually work. We’d neglected to pack everything, and we spent most of the morning bringing the supplies from the boat to the car. It took longer than I’d expected, even with Ben doing (more than) half of the work. I’d hoped to get a few hours in Niagara Falls, but watched that timeframe dwindle down to the point that it eventually became obvious that we’d have to skip the NU portion of the trip, or start Day #2 with that visit.

That’s because our first night would be spent with Mike and Rob at their home in Buffalo. I’d had to have several of our Amazon Prime packages - CPAP charger, bedding, etc. - shipped there, instead of to my home, as Prime for them means 1-2 days tops, and it was showing five days for me. (They have a distribution center down the street, whereas I apparently do not).

We drove to Buffalo at a leisurely pace, arriving about 30 minutes before Mike and Rob were due home. Mike’s partner Will showed us to our Amazon packages, and we filled the time conversating and trying to figure out if the CPAP adapter was going to work. (More on that later). The plan was to go out to dinner and then to Niagara Falls State Park, where Ben would get to see the falls for the first time. We were excited!

For dinner we went to the Anchor Bar. Ben was shocked to discover that world-famous Buffalo wings actually originated in Buffalo - thus the name. In fact, they got their start at the Anchor Bar! The original location downtown spawned a number of others, including the one that we went to Lackawanna. We had 150 wings between us, split between medium and BBQ. It was absolutely delicious…

We’d go from there through the car wash, and then straight to Niagara Falls State Park. In between we’d run through swarms - I mean, swarms - of bugs. As we watched bug after bug smash against the windshield of my friend’s truck, I warned Ben that was probably what was in store for us our whole trip. We’d been spoiled by our ability to take the Tesla through the automatic car wash nearly every day on my ‘unlimited’ plan… we’d have to pay for washes on the trip. Or settle for a dirty car in the pictures. We both agreed that we could afford to wash it a few times…

Ben had never seen Niagara Falls before. We arrived at 9:15 p.m., and though the sign said that there should be a charge until 10, there was nobody at the ticket booth and the gate was open. Score! Mike, Will, and Rob had been here many times before and knew all of the good viewing spots, so we got to see the falls from nearly every angle…

It was an amazing way to start the road trip - a ‘dry run’ at the site of a waterfall that flows more than 150,000 gallons per second. We’d begun our journey with one of the Eight Wonders of the World - by some accounts, anyway. Would we be able to top this?

On the way out we discovered a statue of Nikola Tesla. How appropriate! For those who don’t know, Nikola Tesla designed the first hydroelectric power plant, at Niagara Falls, which started producing electrical power in 1895. This was the beginning of the electrification of the United States and, eventually, the rest of the world. We walked through the original gates to that plant - all that is left of it more than a century later - with a special sense of appreciation for Mr. Tesla.

What an appropriate way to begin the StageIVTesla road trip!