Post-vacation spam session

Fuck, college! I have to go to college!
10 days away- I don't know what to DO! HOLY SHIT!
I think I'll just lie around and do nothing.
Hyeah. That sounds nice.
*stretches*
Soooooo YUP! I'm back from vacation. It was the best of times. Way shiggity.
Sunday we drove and drove. The Dopps (Minus Randy) followed us to Niagara Falls but they drove home on Tuesday as we drove further on.
It was my first time entering Canada, or any foreign country. Canada really isn't much different from the States. Their speed signs are in kilometers per hour, they have different brands of candy bars, and everything is written in English and in French. That's about it. Oh, and there's a lot more foreigners. I think that if this country weren't so full of belligerent intolerant douchebags, that could be true for us too.
We ate lunch at a Steak n' Shake in Battle Creek, Michigan, the cereal capital of the world. We didn't eat any cereal, though.
So we stayed overnight in this Hampton Inn, a little away from the main drag. We saw the actual falls the next day...for a while. There is no way in hell I'm going back to the tourist district, though. It's the biggest tourist-trap I've ever seen in my life. It even outshits the Wisconsin Dells. The falls were beautiful, though. I admire what nature has made for us to appreciate...but not what mankind has done to the place. The Clifton Hill tourist district is littered with haunted houses, a launched freefall ride (RCT2 anyone?), a Hollywood wax museum (wtf!?), restaurants, gift shops, gift shops, gift shops, gift shops, gift shops, gift shops, and more gift shops. Tyler said for me to send him a postcard. So I got one. But I forgot to give it to Teresa to send it for me. Shshshshshit.
Monday consisted of viewing the falls, boarding the Maid of the Mist, and dawdling around in the tourist district waiting for the women to browse the various gift shops (which is frustrating for me, personally). And after that, we ate at this ridiculously overpriced restaurant that had an overlook of the falls and giapped us to no end.
Ride the Maid of the Mist. It's fucking awesome. Just avoid the tourist district ^_^.

Ok, so I've already gone over that stuff. Moving on...
Tuesday. Another sweet day. The Dopps left for home as we drove northwest to near Cambridge, Ontario, for the lion safari. I took shitloads of pictures as we drove through the 6 or 7 large enclosures where the animals could roam free (sort of). The first enclosure was the lions, their namesake. They were all lounging around on a rock structure. Lazy kitties. Then we moved on to the cheetahs. If there's one thing that I've learned on this day of the trip, it's that cheetahs are REALLY REALLY CUTE! I wanted to pet one really badly. I wonder how it would have reacted.
The third enclosure was one of the best. It was full of baboons. CRAZY FUCKING BABOONS. There was a bus in front of us, and the baboons were CLIMBING ON TOP OF IT!! There was another minivan with about 4 climbing on it too. My mom wanted them to climb on our car. I could tell that my dad was shitting bricks ruminating on the possibility of them climbing on top of his car. They didn't, though. One of the baboons on the bus in front of us was playing with the antenna, watching it sway back and forth as he let go of it. He eventually BROKE THE ANTENNA OFF OF THE FRONT OF THE VEHICLE. So THAT'S why they warned us of potential vehicle damage! The fourth enclosure was also one of the best. It featured the herbivores of the African savanna, namely ostriches, zebras, antelope, wildebeests, giraffes, rhinos, and these large goat-like dudes. An ostrich walked up to our car! He was opening his mouth and shutting it in quick succession like he wanted us to feed him. At least that's what I thought he was trying to communicate. If you were a bird with no arms, how would you communicate that you wanted food? We got really close to a few zebras, too. There was a parent giraffe holding a branch in its mouth as a baby giraffe bit some plant matter off of it. It was cute. The next enclosure was full of Eurasian animals, and the last was full of American herd animals like elk and bison. And that was all. It was SO COOL.
Hah, I guess it came to exactly 6 enclosures. Now I know.
After that, we ate lunch. And after THAT, we waited to get in line for the safari boat cruise with the intention to see more animals. But then it started sprinkling, and we heard some thunder once. Ah, no big deal. Then, the girl running the boat cruise got a radio call and shut the boat down. For just a few sprinkles? Our optimism told us that it wouldn't get any worse!
But then our optimism was crushed, and it got worse. A hell of a lot worse. It started all-out pouring. All-out fucking poring. And it didn't stop for a whole HALF HOUR! The weatherpeople we saw on the news later reported totals of 50 to 60 millimeters of rain. My dad was like "MILLIMETERS?" in a wtf-y sort of fashion. 50 to 60 millimeters is 5 to 6 centimeters, which is about 2 to 2.3 inches. It rained twice later in the day. Thanks a lot, mother nature.
Garrett called during that first rainstorm, and we made arrangements to meet in Greek town around 5 pm. Around 4:15 we got in the car, because we figured that Toronto would be about 45 minutes away. It stopped pouring around that time, too. Well, we thought it did. When the rain started to let up, we walked out toward the car. Halfway to the car, it started pouring again. Fucking wonderful. And then, about 2 minutes later, it stopped for good. Thanks again.
We drove along 401 toward Toronto. It turned out that it was more like an hour to central Toronto with normal traffic. But it was just before 5pm. That meant one thing: RUSH HOUR. Whoops. And we found out later that because the city of Toronto has almost NO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM, nearly EVERYONE uses the roads. This was no ordinary city's rush hour. This was driving on a road that has 7 to 9 lanes moving in each direction at all times and STILL not getting anywhere. I have never seen a road with 7 to 9 lanes moving in each direction in my LIFE. I-290 in Chicago has 5 lanes at the most moving in each direction. This expressway was fucking HUGE and it STILL wasn't enough. (Don't worry, there weren't 7 lanes adjacent to each other; they were split into local and express lanes, each section having typically 3 or 4 lanes.) Plus, Greek town was on the east side of town, and we were coming from the west. So we had to go past the central part of town, adding more time to the equation. It was almost 6:30 when we got to Greek town. But we found Garrett okay. Hallelujah.
The story with Garrett is basically this: Go to Marines, hate it, desert, flee to Canada. He tells me that he could spend 18 months in the brig if he comes back to the states. This is the kid that I had been great friends all the way back from second grade, up to eighth grade. Then he kind of diverted and did some things that I didn't approve of, so I kept away. But he came out of it and we hung out a few times within the past couple of years. Then, he decided to go join the Marines. That was a smack in the face. This was the kid who didn't care when the numbskulled faculty at Traughber Jr. High school gave him a detention. He wouldn't bear it if he was under someone else's authority, especially if that authoritative figure was a moron. And he wanted to join the MARINES? Where it was inevitable that he would have to be subject to the authority of brutal and often unintelligent people? I knew this would be kaput. My mom knew it would be kaput. We told him that it would be kaput. But he went. And it ended up going kaput. So it goes.
Now he's in Canada and he can't come back. Or he doesn't want to, for fear of the consequences. So it goes.
No one's gone up to visit him, and he's been up there since April. Not even his parents. I think maybe he needs some guidance?
Nah. He's doing great up there. I think the fact that no one's visited him proves that he should have run away in the first place. Doesn't anyone care?
His little sister definitely cares. As soon as Jason posted the picture that was taken of me and Garrett, she posted a comment about her jealousy.
His girlfriend misses him, too. I'm sure of that.
I think Tyler does too.
All friends.
No parents.
Odd.
Or is it?

We ate at the Friendly Greek Souvlaki Place. Garrett told us that the ethnic areas in Toronto are really, really, ethnic. I noticed that even the street signs in Greek town were alternately written in Greek. Intriguing.
We talked there for about 3 hours. We got to the hotel, on the other side of Toronto, fairly late (it was after 10). We ate at Perkins in the morning and drove northeast on 401 around Lake Ontario.

Then, we were back in America. We crossed on a road that became Interstate 81 (gmts). Then we drove on a bunch of back roads to reach our cabin/motel/whatever in Indian Lake, New York, in the heart of Adirondack Park. I used to think New York was all about the city life. I'll never think that again, after seeing the beautiful wilderness of the "North woods," as my dad calls it.

On Thursday, we just hung around and did wilderness-type stuff. We went hiking toward Rock Lake and found a bunch of interesting wild mushrooms. Yellow ones, brown ones, red ones. It was only about 70°F there. Even so we went to a beach and swam in a nice, clean lake. It was cold, but not as cold as you might imagine with the air temperature barely breaking seventy.
My mom and I went to the quaint grocery store and picked up some items for breakfast the next morning. Then I went outside the store and took the picture you can see on the front of the 3rd album of pictures I uploaded of the trip onto facebook. I still have no idea what the shape of the state highway signs is supposed to resemble.
Thursday was full of what I love about traveling. Living away from home, getting along on your own, going out and having a fun time, and flying by the seat of your pants, all while being able to sleep at night, of course.

Friday was Vermont day. This day had too much driving in it.
We drove north to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid to see what it was like. No big whoop. Lake Placid is another tourist trap with gift shops and stupid shit. We didn't stop there.
We drove on the road up to Whiteface Mountain with the intention to see the view. It turns out there's a toll booth on that road that wants $6 per passenger. The toll booth wasn't on the map or any information we had. When the woman asked for the money, my dad replied, "screw you!" Then he made a U-turn. I found it amusing.
Then we drove to a ferry across Lake Champlain. When we reached the other side, we were in Vermont, the second least populous state in the Union. In spite of that fact, we ended up in THREE traffic jams within two hours of entering the state. What the fuck? Since we were low on time, we decided to screw Montpelier and turn around to go to the Ben & Jerry's factory. That was ...pretty cool. It used to be awesome. Now it's just another corporate basket of bureaucratic bullshit. The ice cream was good, though. I got to buy Tyler some Vermont maple syrup, too. Vermont is a BEAUTIFUL state: just don't drive through it. The roads are TERRIBLE. They aren't striped properly, and hey, I got into THREE traffic jams, and there isn't even a lot of people living there. Enough said.
I drove back to the cabin from B&J's. I took Vermont Route 17. Don't make that mistake. The road had more twists and sharp turns than you could imagine. We had to climb up and down a mountain along that road--that's why. My mom was shitting bricks in the back seat. She was seriously moaning, "oh god, we're going to die." My brother made fun of her for it from then on until we crossed back into New York. By the time we did, it was dark. At one point, when we got to the summit of the mountain, the road made a sharp turn from upward to downward, and just before we reached the tip, all you could see was the sky. It was amazing. Well, I thought it was amazing. My mom thought it was terrifying.

Saturday and Sunday were nothing special. Just a shitload of driving. This is excepting one very special occasion: I visited Michelle in Cleveland Saturday night. We ate out at a Chinese restaurant and watched the Olympics on TV. Nothing's really new with her I guess, because she's been working all summer.

I've decided to start a new collection. I'm collecting a picture of one state highway sign from every state in the U.S.A. It's always been my dream to visit every state in the Union, so why not adapt my sign collection idea to fit with that? I think it makes more sense than what I'm doing now, actually.

So I've added Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, and Vermont to what I'd had before, which consists of Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and North Carolina. I decided to add an Ontario provincial highway sign in there, too. So that makes 10 states and one Canadian province covered. I don't have Indiana at this point, but at U of I, I'll be less than 1 hour from Indiana. So that shouldn't be hard.
Now I just need to conquer America! In a not-Dr. Evil sort of way.

It feels weird to be home.
But it feels good.
Pressing enter after every line
can make things look poetic
But if you aren't really a poet
Then it can look pathetic

Holy shit that rhymed.