Days 1 & 2

Day 1 - Southampton, PA -> Niagara Falls, NY ->Buffalo, NY

Our epic adventure kicked off from Southampton, PA at 5:23am to Niagara Falls. Despite getting only 3 hours of sleep, the 7 hours drive went by very easily because we were so amped up for the adventure to begin. FUN FACT: Niagara Falls is NOT in Niagara, NY. To make things worse, we couldn’t actually find the Falls on the GPS and had to follow the river downstream until we found it. The falls themselves were very cool and very much worth the trip.

Then we went to Buffalo, NY, a surprisingly cool city, to meet our first CoushSurfing.com host. Nina was very cool and showed us incredible hospitality. We hung out in the “hipster” area of Buffalo and visited book stores and coffee shops. We were exhausted and went to bed early that night, eager for the next days adventure.

Day 2 – Buffalo, NY - > Erie, PA -> thru Ohio - > Michigan quick -> -> thru Ohio -> thru Indiana - > Chicago, IL

We woke up the next morning and Nina made us a wonderful breakfast and even gave us an accordion lesson! Then we set off for Chicago. We made a quick stop in Erie, PA to pee in a Great Lake. Then, continuing West, we considered stopping for lunch in Toledo (the gem of Ohio) but then decided against it. Instead we traveled to Michigan for lunch. We got off the highway and ate lunch on the side of the road next to a wheat farm. You could literally hear the wheat blowing in the blustery Michigan wind.

We continued West and began getting weary from so much driving. Although we didn’t know it at the time, the GPS failed to take time zones into account when calculating arrival time and we had to drive an “extra” hour. Then we got caught in Chicago rush hour traffic. We had been driving since before all the rush hour commuters even went to work. Needless to say it was a frustrating half hour. Finally we reached Chicago after an 11 hour drive.

Travis’ close family friends were kind enough to host us and they made a fantastic chicken parm dinner. Then we went to bed looking forward to a very exciting Day 3 in Chi-Town.