For some reason, I thought that a Labor Day weekend trip to the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, and a visit to Niagra Falls was a great idea. And it did start out that way. Bright and early one Saturday morning, we piled into the car to begin our drive to Cooperstown. There was a special tribute to Charles Schulz at the museum, and I was eager to see the exhibit.
We arrived at the museum and spent a few hours visiting the exhibits and wandering through the special area dedicated to the work of Charlie Brown’s creator. There were images of Charlie and his baseball team and Charlie Brown as the manager. There were also photos of Charles Schulz and baseball memorabilia. We had a wonderful visit. After we left the museum, we headed to a quaint little diner on the main street of Cooperstown. Lunch was typical diner fare. There were burgers and fries topped with catsup. We ordered iced tea to drink and then sat and enjoyed our meal in a most pleasant country setting.
It was after five o’clock when we hit the road for Niagra. We wanted to get as close to the falls as we could before we stopped for the evening. It looked like it would be about a four and a half hour drive. It was a little after nine when we decided to start looking for a hotel for the night. Yes, I decided not to make reservations in advance. I thought that there wouldn’t be that many people on the road for Labor Day weekend. Boy, was I in for a surprise!
At each exit off the highway, we were told the same thing at every hotel, “Sorry, no vacancies.” My husband came out of one hotel to tell me that the desk clerk said there wasn’t a room available in any hotel for five hours! We would be in Ohio before we found a room for the night.
We pulled in to one hotel parking lot. It was a rather run-down, seedy looking place. The front desk clerk was a very large man sitting on a lawn chair on the porch of the hotel. I would not have been surprised if he had downed a six-pack of his favorite brew before he began manning the check-in “desk.” Yes, he had a room! For $250.00 for the night! We were desperate. The family convened for a conference in the car and we decided that none of us would feel comfortable spending the night at that hotel.
Then my husband made a suggestion. “What if I find a place that looks safe and we just camp out in the car. We can find a restroom to wash up for the evening and get what sleep we can.” He was right. It was already almost one o’clock in the morning. We weren’t going to get much sleep wherever we stopped. So we bathed at the next rest stop we saw and then settled down for the night in an elementary school parking lot just outside of Niagra.
The next day at the falls we had a wonderful time. We donned raincoats for the tour under the falls and we walked the bridge from the U.S. into Canada. We were a bit groggy and the kids and I slept most of the ride home, but it was a wonderful weekend. I would do it all over again, but I would most definitely make a hotel reservation before we left!
