What I did on my summer vacation

Yeah it's a little early but I can't afford to really travel so it'll be the occasional day trip or possibly weekend away if I were to get a lot of generous passengers. Got up bright and early (yeah right) on Saturday June 23rd. By the time we figured out who was coming with us and what we were going to do, it was almost 10 am. Headed for Cobourg so I could deposit my paycheque and get some US currency. Next stop was the gas station and $45 worth of go-go juice later we were on our way with my sister, my nephew and youngest niece. The older niece and our house guest stayed home to dog sit.

A stop at the service centre in Trenton and at the one in Odessa on the eastbound 401 and we reached the border at the Ivy Lea Bridge around 1 in the afternoon. Showed our ID to US Customs and onto Interstate 81 we went, but not before another stop at the Travel Center. After our bathroom break my nephew said he was hungry. This was after the donut shop next door to the gas station, Mini-Oreos from the Trenton service centre and sharing some chicken and fries with my niece from KFC at the Odessa service centre.

The nice tourism lady said all they had were soda vending machines outside but at the next exit there was a bait shop that had snacks. I told my nephew we would buy him some worms to eat and he said "No. Worms are for fishing." I don't think he liked that idea. Anyway, we continued south on I-81 until we reached the Coffeen St exit and pulled off and headed west. We were searching for the mystical Watertown International Airport. Lo and behold, we found it. Looked rather small for an international airport but there were cars in the parking lot and we saw a small Cessna-sized plane attempt a touch-and-go, or the pilot just screwed up the landing. In either case the plane took off again, circled and made a good landing a few minutes later. My nephew was very excited to see the planes and helicopter parked there, so we thought we would head inside to see if you really could get on a commercial flight.

We thought we would, but we couldn't because the door was locked. Yes, at 2-something on a Saturday afternoon, the "International" airport was locked. So we settled on this nice picture of my nephew and you'll note the words on the building.



After our exciting time at the airport, it was time to let the women loose to go shopping. We approached Watertown from the east the whole time my nephew was asking when we would see Watertown. Unfortunately, we got clogged down in a construction zone right as we were getting to our first stop. We did notice that Watertown now had a Target store but we didn't go there. Our first stop, as it almost always is was at the Big K-Mart. My mother loved that store and she was heartbroken when all the Canadian stores closed down. So the last couple times we went to Watertown, I made sure we went to K-Mart.

Our next stop shared the same parking lot and that was Hannaford Brothers grocery store. We picked up a few things there like some Little Debbie snack cakes. Yes I know I am on a diet but they sponsor Ken Schrader so I have to do my part. Bought some other LD stuff at K-Mart as well. Much bigger selection than the stores around here.

Our penultimate (thats a $5 way of saying next to last) stop was at Friendly's. It was dinner time and after some driving around and discussion we finally chose a restaurant that didn't have plastic cutlery and paper plates. The food was good and the portions were large so we'll probably go back. Maybe next time I'll try some of their ice cream.

Our last major stop was at the new Wal-Mart Supercenter is Leray. I thought it was just part of Watertown and it is near Fort Drum which is home to the US Army's 10th Mountain Division. But my debit card statement says Leray so we'll go with that. Wandered around the store a little bit and bought some Red Baron frozen pizzas to bring home. Again, they sponsor Ken Schrader when he races his dirt late model.

That was our day in Watertown. We made a quick pitstop to re-fuel at Sunoco, although they insisted we paid cash before we pumped and they didn't offer me one of those "offical fuel of NASCAR" stickers. We made it through Customs unscathed and back onto the 401. One last stop at the Camden East service centre and everyone else in the van fell asleep. All-in-all a good, but expensive day was had by all.

Before I forget, there was a very cool trailer hitch decoration we saw on a pick-up truck while we were stuck in the construction zone. It was a deer that looked like it was sitting on the trailer hitch. When the brake lights came on, the deer would raise it's "arms" in surrender and you'd see a target painted on it's belly.