Niagara Falls Usa..song of the day : 'the long and winding road ..'

I have rented a 'small economy' car from a place in Catskill ; New York state , it is actually a pretty big Chevvy , like a lot of american cars are , also it is an automatic  and i have not driven an automatic for 20 years. As i walk out of the rental place to the car  a song comes on the radio that is playing  in thier office ;  'the long and winding road ..' 

 It would not go into drive and i suffered the humiliation of having to go back inside the rental place and he explained you have to have your foot on the brake to be able to engage drive  :-(

They do not drive on the right (correct ) side of the road over here , but still , the roads are FAR less busy than  what we have to put up with in the UK .

Carefully but with growing confidence i headed north towards Albany and then onto the Interstate motorway I87/90 , the Interstates have two lanes  and a speed limit of 65 miles per hour , in between the opposite lanes , unlike in uk/europe , there  is a very big central reservation , usually of grass .I covered 350 miles and amazingly found that the scenery was forest on both sides almost the whole way , i had never heard that New York State  is a forest state , but it definitely is , mostly deciduous  trees  and for as far as the eye can see.

There are service stations  every 20 miles or so which have junk food and also 'good' food  outlets .The petrol(gas) stations have an option to pay by credit card , but what i did was to go into the kiosk , tell them that i wanted $40 of unleaded on pump 2 , pay , and then go and pour it in , the pump cuts out at $40.

falls from canada side

Now travelling north west , still in new york state , the car coasted at 75 miles per hour which i knew would be fairly  safe in terms of not attracting police attention  , the car had AC and i tried about 7 radio stations on FM , but sometimes  just preferred the  quiet of no radio at all.

The driving is laid back and courteous , everyone gives everyone else a bit of space , only a few  were going any faster  than 75 , the car was comfortable  and i found that it had cruise control  and used it .The 'gas' (petrol) cost $4.10  per gallon (4.5 litres)   and the people here are bellyaching about it . In the Uk with our miserable 'new labour' government  we are paying double  the US charge , my car runs on deisil and i pay Eleven dollars  per gallon.

Canadian falls

Niagara was 350 miles , i had arranged thru a friend of a friend to get cheap motel accom and found it with a lot of difficulty on Buffalo avenue niagara falls , i am  not good at following road directions and to be honest , i could not understand all of the verbal directions i was given by the otherwise helpful  people i asked . More on that later .

I got the motel for two nights at $35 per night because of my friendly contact , it would have been $50 to anyone else and probably more for sat/sun.It was pretty basic , 1 room , a small attached toilet and bath/shower , a small microwave and a fridge  a few cupboards , a table and a tv with cable .Motels are everywhere and usually advertised  by signposts  before the motorway exits .It suited me fine , i drive 3 miles into town , along the Niagara river  and parkup next to the red coach bar and walk over to the falls  which are floodlit .

Falls

The American side (there is a Canadian side , also called Niagara Falls) appears to be a bit run down and under developed  , with some stores and houses unoccupied  and derelict  and has large open spaces , along buffalo avenue there are factories
but with vast unused open spaces around them .I could nt find Internet anywhere , except wireless  access and i dont have a laptop.

I asked someone and he said that Starbucks probably have it  and i go in there for a coffee , when i ask the guy , he  says ;'we have 3 way os' and seemed to nod in the direction of some seats by a wall , when i asked him to repeat he said the same again , i looked and there were no pcs only seats , goodness knows what he meant , i still dont .The coffee was lousy anyway , too strong and sour (americano) so i left after having only drunk half a cup.

For readers of this blog who do not speak english as a first language , it is better  for me to explain that it is rightly said of the Americans and English that they are ' divided by a common language'  .

Martians

If anyone does know what 3 way os  could be please  message me , although it is
now far too late .I used to have an american girlfriend  and also have long lost relatives somewhere in san diego and have been used to talking over the phone to people in the states , i can imagine  the problems the french/spanish/germans  etc must have in  finding an understanding  here.