Monday March 10 - Cleveland to Western New York

Yesterday was quite a day. As the clocks were leaping forward an hour, I was worried about not waking up at the right time so hardly slept and then my alarm went off, as set, at 4.30 am!! I ordered a taxi for 5.15 as the hotel was only about five minutes from the Amtrak station. Of course, I had been viewing the train tracker and there was no update on the arrival time in Cleveland. Well it was only half an hour late arriving, some sort of record!

I checked my main bag so only had the two others plus my small cooler bag to worry about. I was lucky enough to find a seat on my own and I actually fell asleep and manage about two hours so it did help me a wee bit. We arrived in Buffalo abut an hour late and there was Irene (LadyDoc) to meet me. It snowed very lightly for a short while but nothing to write home about! 

We picked up my bag which managed to survive another trip on one wheel and then Irene took me to one of the iconic Greek Diners for breakfast. We then headed home and I unpacked and sorted out my dirty washing before sitting down in the lounge. I sort of made friends with Sneakers and I managed to fall asleep and doze a couple of times, I was very tired! I put my cat socks on, sent to me by a chatter, and the cat heads actually make a noise. Poor Sneakers could not work out what was going on!!

I then got a second wind so watched some TV, "Chopped" and "The Mentalist" before heading to bed. As soon as my head touched the pillow I fell asleep.

I never woke at all during the night and woke up about 10.20 am today, I feel so much better after that sleep!!! After a lazy breakfast we headed to the bank where I changed some currency into US dollars so I will survive through the rest of my trip. 

i took a few photos of Sneakers and am slowly making friends with her.

We then went for lunch at a lovely old fashioned place - Sweet Ecstasy Bakery, Cafe and Bistro - it is a classic post colonial building and has quite a history as a Bank, a Club, the Regional Arts Council and now the Cafe. 

The owners have retained the original look inside so it was a pleasant place for lunch. After lunch we had a quick wander around the attached small Art Gallery - three photos from there are named: Time Flies, Grandma's Boots and the Lions were, incredibly, in cross stitch!! We then went home via Walmart and Target (for a Starbucks coffee!!!)

I went for a short walk as the sun was out a wee bit and it was definitely not so cold today. It is a very rural setting with lots of trees and some very nice houses, well out of my league!!

This evening, we planned our visit to the Buffalo Zoo tomorrow. I also found something I had forgotten I had, a video of SpiderCat - Ganache!! I have uploaded it to my Flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/47636090@N06/13072224933/ - enjoy!!

The last thing I did tonight was look at the weather forecast for Buffalo and then Bryan. Wow, Bryan is forecast to have temperatures of 60+ degrees for the early part of next week, I can wear those shorts I brought with me and I gloated about being able to do this!! Then, I looked at Defiance, something not right here - oh dear, I had picked up Bryan in Texas, darn it!!!!