Niagara Falls Or Bust!

In July of 1985 Kelly Jo and I were living in an upstairs apartment of a house in Wilmington, Ohio. It was our first house. Kelly Jo's great-uncle was living in the ground floor portion of the house with his wife. They took a trip and came back talking about where they had been. They made Niagara Falls seem like the most awesome place in the world. 

We decided right then and there that as soon as we had the money we were going to Niagara Falls. Kelly visited there as a girl with her familiy but we determined it would be one of the first places we would go. It was Niagara Falls or bust!

Fast forward over 29 years. Kelly Jo and I have now been in all 48 states in the continental United States. We have been in many of those states multiple times and have sang and preached in many of them. We have visited a couple dozen National Parks and have been completely up and down both coasts.

We have driven literally hundreds of thousands of miles on the interstates, highways and back roads of our nation. 

With the exception of the few months we lived in Florida and the nearly 4 years we lived in Kansas we have lived less than 420 miles from Niagara Falls most of our married lives.

Yet, as of yesterday we had never been there. In spite of making up our minds over 29 years ago that we would go there as soon as possible and in spite of traveling nearly every where else, we had never made it to Niagara Falls that had so captured our hearts as newlyweds.

When I realized several months ago that our route from northern Vermont to Ohio would take us directly through Buffalo, I knew we had to finally fulfill our promise to each other and see the falls. It is less than 25 miles from Buffalo to Niagara Falls. It was Niagara or Bust!

We left Jay Peak early Wednesday and drove 440 miles arriving in Niagara Falls a little after 5:00.

In just a few minutes we were face to face with the place of our dreams. It was everything we imagined it would be and more.

The bridge into Canada.

The elevator and viewing platform. 

It was overcast and rainy as we boarded the Maid of the Mist to get up close and personal with the falls but it was still awesome!

Afterward the sun came out and set the falls on fire.

What an awesome afternoon after 29 years of waiting. Niagara Falls is absolutely amazing! We finally made it!

Davy