Oh, Canada! How I love thee!

My friend Tara invited me to join her and some of her family (there ended up being 21 of us in all) on a trip to Niagra Falls, Canada. It was her Aunt's birthday trip. I was honored and eager. And took her up on the invite after Shawn graciously lent me the money to go. Not that we could afford it, we used bill monies, but I went. And man, oh man... it was so worth it.

We left at 6:30 a.m. Friday. (The 5th I think) We had Lee, a friend from work drive us to the meeting point for breakfast and our pick up. Man, what a ride that was. Tara and I haddn't gotten any sleep. We were too excited. We started to sleep in the car, well, Tara did... I was a little nervous. For starters, it was raining and Lee's windshield wipers had took a shit. I am a paranoid passenger to say the elast. And his track record and bad wipers put me on edge. Then, I noticed the vehicles in front of us stopped, and Lee glancing out his window, foot firmly on the gas. Finally I yelled as I tried to jump out the truck door. he hit the brakes and we came to a squeeling halt half on halff off the road maybe half a foot from the car in front of us. Neither I nor Tara slept on the way to bob Evans.

Not only was that scare enough to keep us awake. But my goodness. I don;t know what tara ate, but she has this terrible bout with gas that would singe the hairs off your entire body. And it was so cold outside, so having to open the windows repeatedly was not cool.

By thew time we got to the restaurant, I was terrified of smelling like Tara's latest passed gas pocket. But oh man, was I laughing Hysterically so, that when I started to get out of the truck in a hurry after smelling Tara's latest rotten egg operetta, The wind hit the door poushing it shut. I was doubled over from laughing sdo hard it hurt. I sounded like a damn hyena and everone was staring. Lee and I had locked Tara in the truck to marinade in her own stench. She was begging us to let her out, tears streaming down her face. Man, were we in for some good times...

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Now, I must say that I was rather worried that I would be too wild for Tara's family. I am by no means shy or calm. I never have been. So I was worried. Even when i think I am being tame, I'm still obnoxious to some. But over breakfast, where her Mom, Gram, Laura, sister Tonya and Aunt Rosie met us, I learned quickly that I fit right in. Breakfast went well, and afterwards, we were eager to hit the road.

So we grabbed our bags, bid Lee goodbye and piled into Laura's van. We swore the trip should only take 5 or 6 hours. But just getting to Detroit took forever. We met up with the rest of her family there, and we ended up waiting there for 1.5 hours. they were still running errands. man, were we a bit peeved.

When we finally hit the road, Tara and I were exhausted. She laid down on the floor of the van with a pillow and I snuggled my coat to my head and zonked. I woke up briefly several times, but only on and off until we hit the Canadian border. At this point, I was on edge. I heard horror stories about people having problems at the border. I have some misdemeanors on my record and was worried.

When we finally got to customs, anbd it took forever, they took our id's and not long after sent us on our merry way. I was in Canada. We did it. A new country. Excitement overcame me.

And then hunger set in. We got gas then stopped at Montana's cookhouse. Man, what an awesome place to dine. Very country like. Inside it looked like a lodge, and in the bar section, there were these huge barrels of peanuts with little buckets to fill and take to your table. When ya shelled the peanuts, you threw the shells carelessly on the floor loike it was nothing. We thought that insane, but fun. We lopped them over our shoulders, in graceful sweeps, and sassy slams.

The food was good, and they knew it was Tara's Aunt Joanna's b-day, so they made her don a HUGE set of viking style horns, stand on a chair and sang to her. Oh the look on her face was priceless.

We were all in high spirits. But still had 4 hours to Niagra. UGH.

We got lost a couple times, our moods were lsightly irritable. But we FINALLY made it. We found our motel with luck. A damn miracle I tell ya. Everyone else was waiting there for us. We had seperated. We checked in and stored our bags.

The motel was terrible. Although we were only maybe 4 blocks at best from the falls and 4 blocks from the strip, the shower was broken, the rooms were kinda dirty and small, we made due.

We hit the strip as soon as possible. Hitting every bar until we went to Rumours. A true meat market nightclub that was hoppin and rockin. We had a blast. What no one bothered to tell me until I was so intoxicated I could barely walk, was that Canada doubles the alcohol content of their alcohol. So one of thewir beers equals two of ours. Wowza.

How I made it back I'll never know. I stumbled and staggered 5 miles behind the rest of the crew. I begged and pleaded for them to slow down. Finally, they sat and waited for me. Gleeful to actually get the chance to rest, I sat just as they stood back up to rush on again. The injustice! So I rolled off the hill and clambored to my feet.

We finally made it. We sat up and talked, ordered in Pizza (They deliver 'til 3 a.m. there! =) And then everyone went to bed. I stayed up, hit the shower, wrote in my paper journal and stared off the balcony at the stars for awhile. Then settled into the bed Tara and I had to share for 2 whole hours.

I awoke to find Tara sleeping in two chair she fit together to form a bed. She said she woke up and I had been "cuddling" her./ I asked what more she wanted. I'm used to sleeping next to Shawn. We all got a good laugh.

And with 2 hours of sleep behind me, I was ready to hit the pavement. I ahve money to burn, pictures to take and there was fun to be had...

ahhh yes, so much to see and do and limited time. The story of my life...

Stay tuned!

Sara