After the "walking streets" of Boston we made our way to Newtown, CT which is the birthplace of the game scrabble. Newtown is a really neat small New England town, with lots of interesting history and beautiful landscapes. We had three shows at the Junior High, and then stayed yet once again at the Wellsley in Danbury, just up the road. This time around in Danbury we actually found "the town" or things to do, like the cinema, Borders Books and Panera. We tried to go to the movies but when we found out that it was $10 we high-tailed it right over to Borders where all the books and magazines are FREE to look at with no obligations. It ended up a great night reading, coffee, and live music.... On Saturday we took "Ugly Betty" to get serviced. This led us to the Danbury Mall (who knew!) We ate lunch, and window shopped, while the van got an oil change. Immediately following we took off for Lake Placid, NY. We drove and drove (in case you haven't noticed that is the theme of our blog) through some of the most beautiful scenery NY has to offer. It began to rain on the way, but it didn't really dampen our spirits. Thanks to our late start it got dark and a little bit spooky when we turned off the interstate and down the two lane state road that led to Lake Placid. I don't think that Melissa's references to the scary movie "Lake Placid" and the dark winding mountain roads, helped matters any. We eventually arrived safely at the KOA, and were led to our campsite by a security guard who was quite the jokster. We manuevered, "Ghost Rider" between two trees that overlooked a bluff, and set up camp for the night. This wasn't too hard since all we had to do was grab our blankets, recline the seat, and lock the doors! In the morning we woke up, stretched, walked to the bathhouse and then checked out. A short and pleasant stay at Lake Placid KOA (or as Melissa likes to call it KO8). Hopefully someday we'll get to go back and enjoy the facilities for a longer period of time. The morning was cool and crisp with a light drizzle, accented by foggy mountain tops, crystal clear rivers, stony bluffs, and painted forests. That was cheesy, but seriously it was absolutely beautiful! We spent the day in downtown Lake Placid, the home of the 1930 and 1980 winter Olympics, and now the Olympic Training Camps/facilities. We got to see the ice rink where the 1980 USA Hockey team won gold (refer to the movie "Miracle"). We found Lake Placid and walked out on the "boat owners only" dock, where we were thoroughly freaked out by once again Melissa's movie references and the smooth muddy waters of the lake. On a side note, Melissa has never actually seen the movie, but still knowing that there is a horror movie about a man eating reptile/sea creature in Lake Placid was enough for us.
Next stop...Plattsburgh, NY where we found an America's Best Value Inn, watched TLC all afternoon, and even found a coffeeshop called, "A Different Blend." CRAZY! We didn't actually get to go, but it's there! We drove the next morning to Champlain, NY which is on the border of Canada, and basically the furthest Northeast that you can go in New York. We did two shows there, and then drove to Ellenburg, where we did two more shows.

Rhode Island to Boston

So, finally I'm at a motel with wifi, and have the time to update the blog! Here goes about a month of craziness in two paragraphs. After leaving Rhode Island we drove down the coast and actually did get our first glimpse of the Atlantic along the way. We drove and drove, only knowing that it was Labor Day weekend, and had the next five days off to do as we pleased as long as we found ourselves in Montrose, NY on Tuesday morning. So without a place to stay, and adventure on our minds, we decided that maybe we could camp somewhere along the way. So as all things spontaneous go we saw a sign for a campground/beach, and got exited. Unfortunately it wasn't quite what we expected, and once again we found ourselves driving and driving. We did get to see Mystic Pizza, which if you recall was the setting for an old Julia Roberts movie. Someday when we're not driving homeless we'll stop and eat there. After a long evening of motel searching and no luck we decided that we would sleep in the van in a New London Wal-Mart parking lot. So with a little Ben and Jerry's and our friends from The Office for company we settled in for a night in the van. After a fitful night sleep for both of us, we attempted to start the van to get on with our day, only to find that the battery had been run down by the radio that we thought was turned off. Eventually we got the van running again with the help of a walmart auto center manager. We spent the morning exploring Downtown New London, the oldest port on the atlantic coast, and even found a cute little coffee shop by the pier. While we were there, we noticed it was a cruise ship port, so we decided to buy some tickets and go on a cruise. It was a short one down to the Bahamas and back, but we did have 5 days off...:) Heres a picture of our ship.
We later found ourselves in Danbury, CT for the weekend. It wasn't the most exciting weekend, we did find good pizza, and even better homemade ice cream. After the weekend we stayed in Patterson, NY with the Pastors from New Life Christian Chuch. It was very refreshing to get to stay in someone's home rather than a hotel or the van.

So, we have a lot of catching up to do, so we're going to make this brief....after NY, we headed toward Boston MA. After our school we decided to do some sightseeing on the very streets that Steve Tyler from "Aerosmith" walked. Needless to say, Boston wasn't really what I had expected. It's called the "walking city," the streets were so crowded and people were walking everywhere! They paid no attention to traffic lights or crosswalks, they would just cross the street when or wherever they felt the need. We walked along the freedom trail, which is a paved red brick path throughout the city that leads to different attractions or historic sites. We don't remember any history of the US and couldn't tell you what in the heck we saw except for the Paul Revere statue that we have a picture of and the USS Constitution, because we got to go on board. Oh yeah, and we also saw some foreigners becoming US citizens and some hip-hop/break dancers. Over all, Boston was fun and we walked and walked and walked, but I guess it isn't called the walking city for nothing.
"I think I'll go to Boston
Think I'll start a new life
I think I'll start it over
Where no one knows my name
I'll get out of California
I'm tired of the weather
Think I'll get a lover
And fly him out to Spain
I think I'll go to Boston
I Think that I'm just tired
I Think I need a new town
To leave this all behind
I Think I need a sunrise
I'm tired of a sunset
I hear it's nice in the summer
Some snow would be nice..."

The Week In Review...

Ever heard of Wilbraham MA? probably not, did you know that it was close to CT probably not? Well we found out the hard way...So on Wed. 8/26 we set out for Minnechaug Regional Middle School, from our very classy Motel 6 room! Somewhere along the way with the help of a friendly neighborhood gas station clerk we got LOST! It might have been early in the morning but when you read a welcome sign to an entirely different state (WELCOME TO CONNECTICUT!) you suddenly perk right up like you've just drank several triple shot espressos! It was at this point in our venture that we implemented the five minute rule...whatcha gonna do??? call KAREN! (our boss) so at 3 am LA time Karen helped us wind our way back into MA, and into the town of Wilbraham!!!
(THIS IS PROBABLY HOW SHE LOOKED WHEN WE CALLED....naw...j/k)

The show started on time, and all was well in CAMFEL world, aside from a little missed sleep. After the show we found a quaint little cafe/general store, where we enjoyed some breakfast, and the best iced mocha ever with coffee ice cubes! We then took a little walk to the Library to use the internet to book lodging, after finding the library we found out that it didn't open until noon on Wed! JUST OUR LUCK!!!! So back we went to the cafe/general store to ask about WIFI only to find that they had it there all along. So after a nap on the couch and a booked hotel room later we set out for Rhode Island!

Rhode Island (aka the Ocean State) was not quite what we expected. We stayed in our first Hotel emphasis on the H not the M if you don't know the difference feel free to ask! all courtesy of priceline! we basically chilled out in RI however we never quite found the ocean, so we chilled in our room, at the mall, and later at our favorite place Panera. We did 3 shows there at two different schools! The first was bit crazy since we had to carry our equipment (which is practically a ton) up two flights of stairs, and then set up the huge three screens on a stage with stairs! thanks to the students, particularly an 8th grader named Chris, and some 2x4's and duct tape the show went off successfully We even got some help from the kids taking our gear back out 2 flights of stairs. Later that afternoon we found ourselves greeted by about 10 super excited JR. Highers over at the Parkview Middle School. We were running a little behind schedule, but by some miracle we were able to get the show off on time!!!! Drenched in sweat and thoroughly exhausted we made our way back to our hotel, and relaxed for the rest of day!!!! Our show the next day was re-scheduled, so we took advantage of that and slept in, went to Panera (that's our office) then made our way down the coast through CT to our next stop....
(SOME OF THE STUDENTS WHO HELPED US)

Our First Show

We made it to Lockport High School on time mind you, but once inside we pretty much needed to mapquest the office! We wandered around for awhile until we found a cafeteria lady who then led us through the kitchen to the office. We found out that we were showing the video for their freshman orientation. The screen set up was easy, but it took us awhile to get the projectors lined up. While we were trying to line up our projectors this band started carrying in their equipment and set up shop right in front of our center screen. hmmm?? We weren't really sure what was going on, so we kept working. A few minutes later they decided to start playing. This would be fine, except that now we had to yell in order to hear each other and time was counting down.... hey, it all worked out though and the show started on time. Woo-hoo! One show down....really not a clue how many more shows to go!
To celebrate our success, we treated ourselves to Panera (really it was the free wifi that drew us in) we tried to book some lodging, but didn't have much luck, so we decided to head to Niagara Falls. We drove through the ghetto to get to the falls and we were wondering if we had the right Niagara Falls the whole way there b/c it seemed as though it should be more lavish or pristine? Upon our arrival we were given a coupon to redeem a free area map and Niagara Falls souviner. Of course we were excited and headed right into the gift shop. Our free souviner?....a nice circa de 1975 post card of the falls. They must have made about a trillion copies in 1975 and still have extras. We actually think our parents most likely recieved the same post card when they visited on their honeymoon in 1977! We'll take what we can get, so off we went in search of the falls. The falls were amazing! Amazing isn't even really a good word to describe them...never seen anything like it. We took some pictures for some Russian girls who were really nice and a little too curious about if we could get into Canada. I was a little scared that they wanted assume our identity and sneak in, but we told them that unfortunatly we couldn't enter Canada either, b/c we were on company time. On our way out of the park, we saw a trolly that said "Scenic Tour of the Falls," much to our surprise, it only cost $2 to ride the trolley, so we decided to give it a try. We were on somewhat of a time schedule, but hey for $2 we couldn't resist! Shortly after boarding the "scenic trolley" we soon realized it wasn't much more than a glorified parking lot tram and people mover. We did however learn on our trolley ride that on the danger scale for the rapids, 1 being beginner...5 being deadly, niagara ranks a 6. Also the first person to go over the falls in a barrel and actually survive was a school teacher from Michigan. When asked why she did it, she said to celebrate her 63rd Birthday! (she must have been deranged) On our way out, we did stop to pick up a Niagara Falls magnet, and a frozen custard from "Twist of the Mist" who could resist...ha! that rhymes. http://www.niagarafallslive.com/daredevils_of_niagara_falls.htm
They speak for themselves
this picture looks so superimposed! Erin is all smiles and I'm wondering when the lady is going to snap the picture already!