June 28th; We had no chance to sleep in after our reasonably huge day. Check out times can suck. But, as I say, no rest for the wicked. We headed out of the Chelsea Star Hotel and set off towards the one I had booked the night before. Thinking ahead, that’s called.

We arrived at about noon. ‘Check in doesn’t start until four.’ Bastard! What were we going to do? ‘Is there somewhere we can put our bags?’ I asked.
‘Downstairs. Locker room.’
Where the hell are the stairs, I wonder. We stood in front of the elevator for about three minutes. The button didn’t light up. It went from the top floor to the bottom. Then it got to ours. We got in. It started taking us to the top floor. We got off. We got on when it was coming down. I’d figured out the stupid elevator. It goes from top to bottom. Bottom to top. It doesn’t stop unless a button is pressed, in which case it keeps doing it’s thing until it gets to that floor. It also has a tendency to shudder and open it’s door a little bit when it goes past a floor it’s not stopping at.

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June 27th; An early today. Wake up call from Pum is at four thirty. ‘Wake up four thirty. In the lobby five o’clock. We leave five fifteen!’ Repeat that ten times.

First stop was Thousand Islands. In the tradition of the Hundred Years War and other such things, there are in fact just under two thousand islands. Seventeen hundred or thereabouts. It was a fairly long bus trip there, filled with fitful and unlasting sleep. Bus seats are better than planes, but still not great. The day they invent soft windows is the day I can sleep well on a bus. Having an armrest, window sill and curtain rod poking into various parts of your upper half never helps. Neither does Pum yelling. I still think he’s a big cuddly bear though.

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June 26th; Today is a small day, really. We are going to a glass museum, and then to Niagara falls.

We got up early, fell asleep on the bus, got woken up for breakfast, fell sleep, ended up in a place called Corning. I don’t where that is. There is a glass museum though. It sounds lame, but it’s cool when you go inside. It’s kind of like a more specific version of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It’s specific about glass. It has plenty of modern glass work, which is undoubtedly cool but a little sad when you read the plaque stating it was a life work. Glass knives, glass cubes, glass towers, all sorts of crazy things. We had to kind of speed through the history section, since Pum saw us and yelled us through to the glass making demonstration. An older fellow narrated and occasionally stepped in whilst the younger guy did most of the work. It was cool, they showed the blowing and the reheating and the shaping and molding. Not bad at all. Glass can be fun.

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June 25th; Our tour starts today. I don’t care what the weather is going to be like. I’m on a bus. Some contraption with wheels on. Wheels which go round and round.

We all woke up at about five thirty. Ben had the first shower. Ryan had the second. That was at about six o’clock. you can imagine my surprise when I woke up at six forty and Ryan was nowhere to be seen. ‘Dolt!’ I thought. He didn’t tell me he’d finished his shower. Not the best thing to do when you’re in a rush to get on a tour bus which will leave with or without you. We all got ready, met downstairs, walked to the subway, jumped on, changed train after a while, got off in Chinatown and started hiking to the address. It wasn’t a long walk, but the blocks and house numbers go a bit wonky, so it was a little confusing. I was navigating, as always.

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The site has been down for quite a long time. It was a hosting problem, you see. We were down for about a week.

I just put up five or six updates for you to read. If you don’t read them all, you’re a bad friend. Hopefully that guilts you into it. Day Seventeen to Twenty One are up.

If it happens again I might have to kill someone. It might be you, but more likely somebody at the hosting company.

But still maybe you,

Much love ex oh ex oh
Jack