The annual cartel meeting was held at CMU this year. I was on the fence about going but less about going to work. Our own Happy Valley. I rolled out of bed and went to the airport instead. I only missed a few hours of the meeting. Pittsburgh looked better than I last remembered.

I was less enchanted about returning home and enjoyed the downtime of having driven past Seattle airport. Paul told me Yoko was at Niagara so I went there. Although one would be able to spot her a mile away she wasn't to be there for another couple of weeks. I had never been there.. what an odd place.

In fact, I never really spent much time upstate. Upstate for me is anything north of White Plains being from much lower Westchester and all. I've been up 87 and across 90, but for some reason there was always this feeling of having to get back to New England, really fast. So I was surprised what I found when I took the time to explore a bit.

I did the obligatory walk into Canada. There were fireworks. Canada charged me to leave so I guess they're desperate to hold onto people. Dani says I should have gone onto Toronto. She's a Torontonian. She now lives in Palo Alto.

Out of Niagara I found US20, the same road that I drove in Corvallis and Idaho Falls that also happens to terminate in Kenmore Sq. After bopping around the Finger Lakes region I eventually hit I81 and decided to see what was at the top. I found this little place called Alexandria Bay. It could pass for a small New England town.

I had my 28-70 2.8 Nikkor lens while walking around. It scares small children. Doug Kranz, a local photographer spotted it a block away and so we chatted about digital photography. I was just getting into scanning and printing but didn't have the equipment to do real digital photography (without film). I later picked up a 5 mpx digital and it's getting closer although I haven't removed my attachment from film.

This was also the beginning of the "War of 1812" signs. Could it be there were still people up here fighting? I thought we won that one (Dani disagrees) so I tried to find out. The signs took me all the way up NY37 but I didn't see any battles. Maybe it was their day off.

It was at this point I had the words to Drops of Jupiter memorized as it was playing constantly on the radio (I forgot my pjbox!). Everytime I hear it now it brings back images of the St. Lawrence. It's not a bad driving tune.

While I was in high school I met some girls from Ogdensburg once. I didn't mean to get you in trouble. It was all Paul's fault. He's now a cop.

The locks at Massena are cool. I've never seen a big ship change altitude before (the Charles doesn't count). Can't find a cup of coffee but at least there's one bar that serves Guinness.

Home at last. Not really, I'm on the wrong side. I won't get home for another 8 hours by taking US7 to US4 (no snow on Killington) then jumping onto I89 to I93. That's enough driving for a while.