Day 1: Travel Day

May 2, 2009
Home (Pickering, Ontario) to Bridgeport, WV

Our trip started out as planned: out of the house shortly after 8 am and to the US border (Buffalo) in about 2 hours.

We crossed the border with very little hassle. The usual questions: Where are you going? Flying or driving (a lot of folks from Toronto drive to Buffalo to catch flights because the cost to fly from Toronto is much more expensive)? What are you bringing with you?

Our first pit stop was at the travel centre south west of Buffalo for a diaper change and a bottle.

We ended up having to make another pit stop just across the PA state line for another dirty diaper.

Drove on to Meadville, PA for our first of many lunch stops at the Cracker Barrel. I've been waiting for Cracker Barrel to have their chicken fried chicken, but decided to have a soup and sandwich instead. As good as the chicken is, it is too much food for lunch.

We continued on our way with one more pit stop before we made it to Bridgeport, WV.

I had booked a Hampton Inn as we have stayed at the chain before. The rooms are usually a good size, but this one was a bit of a disappointment. Seems like the hotel needs to give the room a fresh coat of paint.

We tried to go to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner, but the wait was over an hour (there were a bunch of teenagers dressed up for prom outside the restaurant) and it was well past 6pm. We ended up at the "Eat 'n Park." Service was slow, the food was not so great but the waiter was friendly and the pies looked good (even though we didn't have any).

We all hit the sack at 8:30ish. Janice and I were still getting over colds and we really couldn't do much without waking Graydon.

Overall day 1 was a good day. Graydon did better than expected in the car and I was hoping it would be the trend for the car trip.