The Great American Road Trip: Days 62-64

To Detroit 2 at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Columbus, Ohio
Distance -212 miles
Time - 4 hours

To Syracuse at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Warren, Michigan
Distance - 430 miles
Time - 9 hours

My last day in Columbus Steve suggested that we go take a walk around the North Market and look there for lunch. It seems like an old warehouse that got turned into a neat full-time indoor market with a seasonal outdoor farmers market as well, with everything from spices, vegetables, and a butcher to all kinds of prepared foods, desserts, and drinks. I bought a chipotle apple pie spice blend from North Market Spices that I'm very excited to try either in a pie or maybe baked on an acorn squash with some butter and brown sugar ;) We toured around and drooled over all the many things on offer, eventually settling on getting pho and some rosemary focaccia (a time when free samples did successfully sell us on buying some of the offered product), then topped the day off with ice cream from Jeni's. Known for their creative flavor combinations (riesling poached pear sorbet, goat cheese with cherries), Jeni's is quickly spreading around the state and region - with good reason! I particularly enjoyed the sweet corn with raspberries - it tasted like cornbread with raspberry jam, and I think combined with the buckeye state (peanut butter with chocolate bits) you would have a pretty impressive peanut butter and jelly sandwich ice cream cone ;)

I said goodbye to Steve and got on the road to head back north to Detroit. Kate and family were having a chill evening watching horror films in the basement - I happily chatted and wrote some postcards while studiously avoiding looking at the screen. I caught a few glimpses of Psycho (the newer one from the 90s with Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates) but in general movies like that stick with me way too long so I try to not see the creepy parts and just laugh when everyone else jumps.

The next morning everyone was off to work and such, and I was off to Canada! I had thought my GPS worked in all of North America, but it admittedly was having some issues figuring out what road I was on once I went through the tunnel towards Windsor. I had a moment of "it's ridiculous how dependent on technology I am but perhaps in the interest of not getting lost in another country I should consider just driving back across and going around the lake" but then remembered that I'm tracking my trip on a real life paper map that, in a pinch, I could use for its intended function as a tool for finding my way. Is it a generational thing or are other people as dependent on Martha's dulcet tones telling them which exit to take? Thankfully the highways were very well signed (in English and French!) for the route to Niagara Falls and I was able to find my way just fine even with Martha thinking my car was magically not on a road at all. I've never seen Niagara before - what a sight! I wanted to stop and look around but I was still a good way from my final destination so I just savored from my car window, promised to return someday, and pressed on.

I avoided the toll road and had a nice winding drive on the tiny back highways towards Syracuse. My aunt Gale and uncle Steve have lived in the same house for as long as I can remember, a comfortable place out in a quiet neighborhood in Fayetteville. Steve's sister, my aunt Sue, arrived shortly after I got there, and we all sat down to a delicious dinner followed by the most amazing pumpkin-butter bars. Aunt Sue winters in Florida and was driving down with Steve and Gale on Thursday, but came over to Syracuse a few days early to see me before they all left - I'm going to go visit her again in December in Tampa.

Tuesday I woke up and went on a quick run around the neighborhood, then had a cup of coffee with Steve while we waited for the rest of the house to start waking up. My aunts and I decided that it was an excellent use of our time to go get our nails done, and we had a wonderful morning of chatting with the ladies at the nail salon. We went home to have lunch with Steve (Sue brought her wonderful baked eggplant with her from Albany!), then headed back out to visit Destiny USA. I hadn't heard of it, but it's a huge shopping mall that just opened, and it looked like they're building a whole community around making it the kind of place that people travel a long way to see. We had a very fun time walking around with Sue in the electric scooter - people got out of the way for her! There was a bit of a delimma with the elevator in Lord and Taylor, the scooter was just a few inches too long to fit inside, but we managed to wiggle it in with a bit of effort and a lot of laughter. ;)