Day #2: Route 5
Dry Run Road Trip - Entry #4
We woke up the morning after our Buffalo, NY/Niagara Falls visit determined to do better keeping on schedule. Our first day had been fairly lackadaisical, and we were determined to get more road tripping in going forward. After a nice pastry/coffee breakfast provided by our overnight hosts, we unplugged the car and headed off to hit up Niagara University on our way out of town.
Just as COVID has prevented our traveling to the Canadian side of the border the night before, it would prevent us from stopping in to see the hydroelectric dam visitor’s center on the outskirts of NU. If you haven’t seen it, you know it’s an impressive sight, showcasing the interior of one of the biggest hydroelectric projects in the world, as well as its history. We resolved to catch Canada, and this exhibit, on a future trip, then headed in to the parking lot for a little reminiscing, as I recounted my college days to my recently-graduated friend.
Niagara University seemed almost exactly as I’d left it nearly two decades before - it was uncanny how little things had changed. The only different, I noted, was the addition of a Chargepoint EV charger. Nice! We had yet to charge at a non-Supercharger on our trip - although we did plug in overnight at our friends’ home. How appropriate that I should take a little electricity from the college that gave me practically nothing…
We found, though, that while the Chargepoint charger appeared to be fired up and ready to go, it was, in reality, a non-working charger. It didn’t appear in the app, and we couldn’t get it to interface with my iPhone. Symbolic? Yes. Malfunctions and a failure to interface basically sum up the time I spent as a student at NU.
Moving on…
After a quick trip to Lewiston - which was not as beautiful as I’d remembered - we were ready to roll.
We’d decided to skip taking a highway on our way out. We figured by the end of this road trip we’d be ready to hightail it back, and the interstates would be our friend. But for the first half, we wanted to hug the shoreline as much as possible. We’d be headed along Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, and - if time and energy allowed - Lake Huron. We might even get to see Lake Ontario on the way home, since it’s just a half-hour from my house. Four of the Great Lakes on one trip? Surely the interstates should be avoided.
Route 5 offered exactly what we wanted: back roads through small towns and countryside, with what we’d been told would be lots of viewing opportunities - and, perhaps, photo ops in front of - the Great Lakes. We headed straight for it, and were not disappointed.
One of our first stops on the tour would turn out to be an adorable little ice cream stand in Derby, NY. Super Freeze Drive-In offered ice cream, hamburgers and hot dogs, and more mid-century memorabilia than I think I’d seen outside of a museum.
After some good-natured clowning around - don’t worry, Texaco, I still need an entire fuel truck to gas up the boat - we got back into the car and continued west, driving through farmland, reservations hawking tobacco of every manner, and, eventually, our next small town. In it we found a public beach, a boat ramp, and a small pier - the perfect spot for a photo op, our first so far on Lake Erie.
We’d only been parked by the pier for a few minutes when curious onlookers began to approach the car from different directions. First came some teenage girls and their mother in the vehicle to our left.
“I told you it was a Tesla,” one whispered. The other held her camera discretely by her thigh, the camera lens pointed in our direction. I suspected she was taking a video.
Next up: an elderly couple in an SUV. They parked to our right, and despite this scenic vista in front of them, stared hard in our direction.
“Maybe they’re mad that we took the best viewing spot,” Ben suggested.
“Are we parked in a disabled parking spot?” I wondered aloud. (I have a pass, due to the fatigue often felt as a result of this disease, but try to use it as little as possible.)
“Definitely not a disabled spot,” Ben affirmed. “Maybe they’re looking past us, at something out on the lake?”
We finally got out of the car, and the woman pulled right up to us. She told us that she’d seen our car pass from her front porch, and she and her passenger had gotten into the car and come down to check us out.
“I saw another one of these years ago,” she told us. “That’s the only one I’ve seen come through here.”
“Just one?” Ben asked, and I giggled a little. The woman went on to explain that she’d followed the other one, too, and that the driver - a woman - had spent “hours” showing her all of the car’s features.
“Get a Tesla owner talking about their car, and they can definitely go on for hours,” I said, sparking laughter from the gentleman in the passenger seat. Then I realized that we didn’t have time for me to do that. “Mine’s the base model,” I told her. “Nothing too exciting.”
“The other one had the doors,” the old lady continued. “Does yours have doors?”
“Mine does have doors,” I told her. “But I suspect you’re referring to the ‘gull wing’ doors. That’s the Model X. Mine is the Model 3. It doesn’t have the doors.”
The old lady glanced past me at my car, less impressed now. I wondered if she felt like she’d been ripped off, following us all the way through town to this pier with no gull wing door demonstration to show for it.
“The other lady offered to speak at my Rotary meeting,” the old lady said. Then silence. I wasn’t sure if she was inviting me to speak, or just letting me know that she preferred the Model X owner over me. The old man was chuckling again. I glanced over at Ben, who was smiling at my predicament.
“Well,” I said, finally. “That was nice of her. We’re actually going al the way to Holland, MI. Not sure when we’ll be coming back, or if we’ll even come back through here.”
“Well, where do you live?” she asked me.
“In upstate New York,” I replied, not fully aware that we hadn’t hit the PA border yet. (It seemed like we’d been driving for hours!)
“What part?” she asked me.
“Geneva.”
“Well, why don’t you just say Geneva, then?”
The old man was laughing some more.
“Do you know Geneva?” I asked her, surprised. Of course she knew Geneva, she told me. Geneva was beautiful. I should be proud of being from Geneva, and should lead with that - not “upstate New York.”
We ended the conversation with a discussion of our later route, and then they left. They’d return a few minutes later to share some additional information they’d forgotten: avoid a particular stretch of highway, because it had been freshly paved.
“You’ll ruin that beautiful car, sweetie,” she warned.
We’d later discover her information was either outdated or just wrong, as the road we’d take instead was literally being paved as we drove through it. But we appreciated the effort.
Later, I wished I’d offered to join her at her Rotary meeting - I think that would have been fun.
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READ ALL ABOUT THE ‘DRY RUN’ ROAD TRIP!
[Dry Run Road Trip] [Outfitting The Tesla] [Day 1: Niagara Falls] [Day 2: Route 5] [Day 2: Presque Isle] [Day 3: A Screeching Halt in Erie, PA] [Day 3: Just Another Day in Paradise!] [Day 4: Time to Go…] [NYC & Post-Trip Wrap-Up]
