My Van Life: Day 33

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Buffalo, NY (Niagara Falls!) - Burlington, VT

Aside from the fact that I saw Niagara Falls this morning, today was kind of a crap day. It was just one of those days. I have this theory about Wednesdays in particular. As of late, I’ve noticed that Wednesdays are either the absolute best day of the week, catapulting me into the remainder of the week and weekend ahead or they’re just the absolute worst. As they say, there’s no in between! Today unfortunately was more so the latter than the former.

We started the morning with a trip to Niagara Falls however which was pretty darn spectacular. Going into our trip to the Falls, multiple people had informed us that the view from the Canada side is better so we were kind of preparing ourselves to be let down in a sense at the view on the "American side." While I haven’t seen the view from Canada, I can tell you with certainty that the view from America did not disappoint in the slightest. I wasn’t expecting it to be similar to a National Park so imagine my surprise not only to discover that it is but that it’s in fact the oldest state park. In my head I imagined walking up to the Falls, seeing it, looking on in wonder and awe for a few minutes, snapping some photos then going about our day. Not at all. You could spend all day there. Bring a picnic, post up in the park and enjoy your lunch as you listen to the soothing sounds of thousands of gallons of water dumping every second. That sounded sarcastic but I mean it! It’s like a real life ocean sound machine only instead of the ocean it’s Niagara Falls.

Since we didn’t see a whole lot of Buffalo, New York I’m not exactly sure what to make of it. The area around Niagara Falls in particular is quite strange. A little bit touristy, a little bit like you’re in a foreign country – you are just across the border from one in theory – but again, just not what you’d expect. The heat and humidity in Buffalo though is unmatched. The air was THICK today and even with the slider AND the back door of the sprinter open and the baby fan blasting on my face, I stayed sweating all day long. I’m so ready for cooler temps, is it Fall yet?

After Niagara we headed back to the neighborhood Walmart for a safe space to land during the day. I had a pretty busy work day and thus needed reliable connectivity and a place we could post up for hours on end. While Walmart fulfilled one of those needs, my connectivity just would not give me a break today! Adam thinks I need to update my computer and that’s why it’s acting up because he hasn’t been having any connectivity issues but I’m also on calls and video calls all day long so I’m not sure if we’re able to compare our experience 1:1 or not.

Connectivity sucked, it was hot, extremely loud with all these random semi trucks plowing by and I had meeting after meeting after meeting and no time in between to make lunch. We dished up our lunches around 5pm EST which I guess isn’t that bad if our stomachs are still on PST but it’s been so long at this point since we've been on PST so I would imagine they’ve adjusted. On top of it all work was uber frustrating and I kind of wanted to just shut out the world and cry. Or run away, whichever would ease the frustration fastest.

I have this anxiousness building up inside too at our trip timeline. It’s currently August 11th and we have to be in Las Vegas by Thursday, September 16th. I know that seems pretty far away but you have to think we’re still driving toward Maine (hoping to make it there this weekend), then shooting down to Florida and exploring Florida before dashing back West to make it to Vegas. We still have a good amount of time but I just hate feeling the pressure of having to drive a ton during the work week. For example, I’m currently writing this as Adam’s driving us to Vermont. Vermont which is 6 hours away from Buffalo and we left at 6:30pm this evening. So much for my rule against driving at night. It’s worth it though and we adjust and make it work but man my heart was heavy with burdens this afternoon. Just heavy. I can feel that little flutter beating more and more rapidly inside my chest as I think about all the things that overwhelm me presently. On the outside it won’t show, but inside, it’s a beehive of flurried activity. Our ETA to Burlington, VT is just before 2am tomorrow morning. The good news is we’ll be landing somewhere where we feel confident about posting up for hours and the connectivity should be dependable on top of it. That’s what we’re telling ourselves at least. More to come tomorrow...