Day 1: Manchester, NH to Niagara Falls, NY

Here was the plan. Pack the car for the most part last night, get up at 7, leave by 8, with a stop for lunch and gas, be in Niagara at my motel around 5ish. Here's what really happened....

The day started of on track, I got up at 7. This is where things start to stray from the plan. Apparently I ha decided to take alot more with me than I thought. It took a good hour and a half to finish the packing job I gave up on last night. I left quite a few key parts of my life at home, primarily my bed and TV. I can't wait to get a job then an apartment so I can get those vital lifelines back. 9 o'clock finally rolled around and I was putting the angry finishing touches on my car while standing in the rain. Oh the rain... I'll get to that in a bit. So 9 o'clock, I'm on the road. After a quick tank fill, the GPS says an arrival time of 4:15 (HA!).

First mistake of the trip: I was unaware of taking rt. 3 and bypassed the exit to 93. GPS quickly recalculates the path, no time time difference (lies, all lies). Apparently the government didn't get my letters of not doing construction until I leave. 93 had massive back ups due to construction leading to 1 lane. A quick GPS detour says to go to 495. Makes sense, 495 to Mass Pike. After an hour I finally get to Mass. I went by same crappy town that had a Child's Plaza with an adult bookstore. Good location, guys. I finally make it onto 495 after my GPS realizes I'm on a road too new to map. But hold on, some tractor trailer decided that straight highways weren't fun enough and decided to jump the median into the Southbound lane causing traffic to stop completely. http://www.thebostonchannel.com/mostpopular/16976224/detail.html (after reading that seeing someone died I feel a little bad about my last comment). After sitting with my thumb up my ass for 15 minutes, a cop came by and directed everyone off the highway. GPS detour again takes me 95. But theres plenty of traffic to get to rt. 128. One more detour (I swear), takes me back to rt 3 and onto 90 for smooth sailing. So far the GPS is in the doghouse.

Alright, I'm on the Mass Pike after and hour of traffic delays, but I'm ready to sail into NY. BAM. Terrential downpours. I thought I was going to die. After traveling at 35 mph I made it through. And just a mere 3.5 hours later I made it to NY. GPS says time of arrival is now 6. The plan was to stop at the welcome center and eat lunch. Too bad NY is a huge jerk and doesn't have one on 90. "Continue on I-90 for 209 miles." The first stop is an hour into NY. Lunch at 1:30, great.

Last night I looked up some roadside attractions. I decided on two. The world's smallest church in Odieda and a two-story outhouse in Phelps. With the crazy traffic I decided I could only see one, although I forgot to write down the address. So I headed to the next rest stop with WiFi, but not before I get stuck in another torrential downpour. When I get to the rest stop, I go inside and sit down in front of a TV (it had been like 15 hours and I was getting withdrawals). The news was on talking about the Epsom and Durham getting attack by tornadoes (hope you guys are alright and still made it to Hilltop Fun Center). I told the guy watching I came from there this morning (a little white lie never killed anyone). Regardless, he could have cared less and gave me a dirty look, probably because of my Red Sox hat.

I plugged the address for the two-story outhouse in and followed it to nowhereville, NY. I got to address and didn't see anything. I looped around the block and realized it was inside a close museum. With apriori knowledge of what it looked like (a brick tower), I don't know what I was expecting. But if I hadn't known this, I would have thought there was a two story two on the back of this lame-ass museum.

Back onto 90, ETA is now 6:25. Another torrential downpour (this time featuring lightning) pushes it to 6:30. I'm at the point now where I just want to get to my motel and relax. 6:30 rolls around and I finally make it to ...... what looks like a fort I made behind my garage when I was 12. I make a good decision and turn around to get a room at the Days Inn across the street. Good intentions don't seem to work well for me. The only vacant rooms are a king suite and double queen. Each for $110. Too much and I decided to try my luck back and the shanty motel. I pull up and 2 guys, 1 in a jumpsuit and the other in overalls walk out of a trashed room with tipped over furniture. Apparently they work there. After 3 attempts to find me a new room because they misplaced the key for the room I reserved I started to have more doubts about staying there. But I continued on. The kicker was once he gave up finding a room, he said he would let me in and if I left I would need to find him to get back into the room. I immediately left the lobby that was full of flies.

So now I'm in my half-way decent motel room. Too discouraged to go out in this crappy town. I'm going to eat a sandwich and junkfood for dinner then bring all my valuables inside. On the agenda tonight is probably watch a movie on my laptop. If it's nice out tomorrow morning I'll go see Niagara Falls and take some pictures. If it's as shitty as it was today I'm heading straight to Cleveland to stay with Bryan.

Scale of 1 to 10, I'd give today a 5 capped with a 2. This trip can only get better (knock on wood)