New England Vacation – Day 2

If you missed out, you can see Day 1 by clicking HERE.

Day 2 of our two week vacation to New England started with us awaking from a night’s sleep on the train.

We showered in our own little shower, and then dressed for breakfast.

We headed to the dining car (white tablecloth, vase of flowers on the table) and enjoyed a hearty breakfast at no charge – as a sleeper passenger, meals in the dining car are included.

When we returned from breakfast, we saw that our “car attendant” had tucked our beds away. Now our room was ready for daytime traveling with 2 cushy seats.

From our boarding the train in Chicago the previous night, we had traveled through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and finally into New York state.

In Rochester we got off the train, picked up our checked bags, and then found a seat at the train station.

We called our car rental place to let them know we had arrived, and they came and picked us up and drove us back to the rental place to sign the contract for a new shiny black Nissan Altima. “Black Beauty”, so dubbed by Harland, would become our little home away from home for the next 2 weeks and we came to love that little car.

After signing away our lives on Beauty, we went to WalMart to pick up some supplies. It was there walking the aisles that the nagging sore throat that I had been trying to ignore for the last few days blossomed into nausea, headache, and general BLAH. With plenty of past experience to recognize the symptoms, I announced to Harland that I had a sinus infection and needed to go to a doctor and get antibiotics. What a bummer.

We ate lunch and while eating we searched for Urgent care facilities on our smartphones. By the way, travel with a smartphone is a must. We used ours to access the internet, find hotels, restaurants, and just about everything else. I took pics of everywhere we went with my smartphone because you can pull up the pic later and attached to the image is the exact location and date and time it was taken, which works great for for recounting our vacation play by play for you. Our favorite app was the google maps app. Because it knows where you are at all times, all you have to do is ask for a list of the nearest lodging, restaurants, parks, or in this case, Urgent Care. Once you select a place from the list, it will give you turn by turn directions. Makes life so easy.

And that’s how I ended up sitting in an exam room at Rochester General Hospital on August 26 at 2:11 pm.

After an extensive exam, and lab work, I was told I had a “viral infection”, ie, allergies, and I was sent on my way with a bottle of Flonase. I was skeptical and still thought it was a sinus infection but I have to admit that over the next few days of Flonase use, I did feel better. But what a bummer to spend several hours in a hospital on one’s vacation. Blah.

It had rained “like a cow peeing on a flat rock” during most of my time in Urgent Care, so we wouldn’t have been able to see much of the outdoors and the waterfalls we wanted to visit anyway.

So we headed out on the road. At 3:07 p,m, we were on our way headed east towards Ithica.

One of our goals in New York was waterfalls. They’re a rarity in Kansas, but very common in New York.

Our first one was Taughannock Falls near Ithica.

With a 215 foot drop and surrounded by 400 foot high cliffs, it’s a real beauty.

Here’s a short video I took of the falls:

I’m sure this is a spectacular sight when the fall foliage peaks.

By 7pm, the light was fading fast and a light drizzle began. We packed up our gear and found a hotel for the night in nearby Ithica. We were beat.

The next day started with a unplanned visit to a hardware store as Harland’s tripod needed urgent repairs.

Stay tuned….

See DAY 3 HERE!!

See DAY 4 HERE!!

See DAY 5 HERE!!

See DAY 6 HERE!!

See DAY 7 HERE!!

See DAY 8 HERE!!

See DAY 9 HERE!!

See DAY 10 HERE!!

See DAY 11 HERE!!

See DAY 12 HERE!!

See DAY 13 HERE!!

See Day 14 HERE!!

See Day 15 HERE!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo