Great...Lakes.

Today was a bit slower...I guess I mean less traveling. We tried to skate a park in London, ON but they were doing work on it and it was fenced off. After walking around and looking at it, we weren't supper sad to not skate it.
After that we moved on the Chatham, ON. This park was a bit of a street-plaza type thing...so I was a bit out of my element. But it was still a lot of fun. When we were sitting in the van after skating, just about to leave, I watched a little kid roll his ankle pretty good. Being the nice guys we are, we brought him a bag of ice fresh from our cooler.


I feel like we paid it forward a bit with the bag of ice and were rewarded with a very smooth border crossing...the guard even liked out drawing machine decks we are making. Although, he had very little good to say about Detroit...even using a bit of cursing to describe it.
The first stop in Detroit was a little skateshop on the outskirts of town called Refuge. It's a good shop with a ton of product. And enough non-leather shoes that I just couldn't help but buy a pair. We asked the guy about skating in the area and he sent us to a park that we think was called Riley (?). A pretty great park with bowls and street stuff...and it's on Rich's favorite street in America:So it's been a good trip so far...a good amount of skateboarding today even though it's been incredibly hot.
Tomorrow we're off for Chicago for most of the day.

Well Isn't That Just Great Lakes Tour

Well the semi-annual skateboard trip is back on this year after a brief lapse last year. Blame the economy...blame Rich's new job...blame Canada...last year we just didn't pull it together. But this year is starting off with a bang.
We met up in Portland on Thursday night to pick up a little retirement gift for my parents:


I put a lot of time over the past year into making this strip canoe...it's too much to go into in this series of entries. So I'll save them for another week.
To our surprise, the boat stayed on the roof for the entire ride back to Syracuse and proved to be a conversation piece at rest stops...making me want to stop less.
It was good to get to my parents house and celebrate 24 years of hard work by my mother...I think they liked the boat. Good food was eaten and tasty wine was drunk.
This morning, before leaving Casa DeRosia, we took a walk back in the woods to Brickyard Falls. An old favorite swimming spot from my childhood, it was a good warm up for Niagra Falls.
Rich had never seen Niagra Falls. It's a pretty amazing sight. 675,000 gallons a second pour over the Horse Shoe side...too much to fathom.

Customs has never been my favorite part of going to Canada. Two trips ago I was accused of being a male prostitute. But today wasn't too bad. Sure the van got searched...but I kind of expected it after Rich told the agent about the knives in the van...oh and really, who's not going to search a dented, white package van with two guys in it and don't know where in Canada they are going to that day/night.
Oh well, it really didn't take that long. Now we're in lovely Woodstock, Ontario for the night. Tomorrow beings the actual skateboarding part of the trip with a few stops in Ontario before venturing back across the border to Detroit. 8 mile?