We got up early and made our 9:30 AM appointment at the Discount Tire for our tire rotation. OK, so maybe 9:30 AM is not that early but we love to sleep in and it is not unusual for us to get up after 9:00 AM and by the time we get our teeth brushed and breakfast it is almost lunchtime. By the time the tires got rotated we just stayed in the Discount Tire parking lot and had lunch. Our last bit of maintenance done it was time to get serious about heading into Canada. Canada was allowing vaccinated tourists in but we had to have a PCR Covid test within 72 hours before crossing the border. I went online and found that Walgreens had free PCR Covid tests that provided results within 2-3 days. The earliest appointment was at 9:30AM the next day, Saturday so I booked that. Figured it might be in time or not but since it was free it was worth a try. There were private testing labs that guaranteed next day results but those cost over $150 per test.
In the afternoon, started driving towards Buffalo and along the way we passed through the town of Westfield, NY which had a very pretty dock so we pulled over to stretch our legs. There we met a young East Indian couple who was admiring Rover and we got talking. They lived in Detroit and were on a short vacation driving around New York State. When we mentioned that we had spent the last year in Mexico they expressed concern about safety in Mexico to which my reply was “Dude, you live in Detroit!”
After our short break we continued to West Seneca on the outskirts of Buffalo, NY where we stopped by a FedEx office to pick up our mail. We have been full time travelling now for almost 2 years and this is the first time we picked up our mail at a FedEx office. We had always waited until we were in an RV park for a week and had our mail forwarded us at the RV park while we waited anxiously hoping the mail would arrive before we left.
I had been thinking about where we would stop to get mail when it suddenly struck me that our mail forwarding service could ship FedEx and if it might be possible that a FedEx office could hold it for me. A quick call to a local FedEx office near Buffalo confirmed that they would indeed be able to hold a Fedex package for me, no charge. Boom, one of the major headaches of travelling was suddenly resolved. We could just forward our mail to a FedEx or UPS office to a city ahead of us and pick it up whenever we got to the town. No more anxiously waiting for our mail to show up. Almost two years on the road and we are still discovering how to do things better.
Afterwards we found a Camping World what provided free parking, electricity, water and dump. This was great as it was a free RV park for us. We arrived in the early evening and settled in for the night.
The next morning we went to the Walgreens drive through and did our Covid test. It was quite simple, they passed the tests out the window and we did the nasal swabs ourselves. Test done, we had at least a couple of days to kill before the results came out. Lucky for Olivia, Six Flags Darien Lake was only an hour’s drive away and we were able to get there just as they were about to open at 11:00 A.M.
The Six Flags Darien Lake is one of the smallest Six Flags parks and was originally a Six Flags before changing branding for a few years and returning to the Six Flags brand a few years ago. As such it did not have many of the signature Six Flags rides such as Batman, Justice League or the Joker. There was also fewer rides in general but there were enough rides for a day’s fun. There was also a small water park included as part of the main park and not as a separate Hurricane Harbor like in other Six Flags.
The great thing was that even though the weather was sunny and perfect it was not too crowded even on a Saturday. As members our parking, entrance and meals were free so it was going to be cheap fun for us. Darian Lake had a couple of food options not found at other Six Flags, namely Buffalo wings and a Mexican place. On the downside, they did not offer our favorite food option, Turkey Legs. We tried to make the best of it, sampling the Buffalo Wings but they were overcooked and not very good. We didn’t even finish the wings we ordered.
Late in the afternoon, Olivia wanted to go to the waterpark before it closed at 7:00 P.M. so we returned to Rover to get her changed into her swimsuit. On the way out there was a promotion stand giving out Kiwi fruit. Although most people got just a few Kiwi, when Holly expressed how much she liked Kiwi the promotion lady gave her an entire box of fruit. This made Holly very, very happy since they were New Zealand Kiwi and can cost up to $1 each at the supermarket and the box had probably 60 Kiwis. Not sure how we are going to eat that much Kiwi but they were delicious.
Olivia and I went to the waterpark while Holly stayed in Rover and we arranged for her to bring towels and a change of clothes for Olivia as the park closed. As closing time approached Holly came in with the shower stuff and we waited as Olivia finished her last waterslide just as the park closed. We went to the only bathroom that had showers in the park to find that they closed it as we were walking up. It was exactly 7:00 PM and they refused to let us in to rinse off Olivia. This got Holly really mad because in every other Six Flags waterpark the bathrooms remained open for quite a while after the water attractions closed to allow guests time to rinse off and change before leaving the waterpark. No matter how much Holly argued they would simply not allow Olivia into the bathroom to rinse off. In the time they took arguing the matter Holly could have rinsed Olivia off and we could have been on our way. Good thing for us we are in an RV so we took Olivia back to Rover and just rinsed her off there. We had just filled fresh water that morning so we had plenty so in the end it was not that big of a deal but we were still upset at how stupid the park staff were. I looked up the email addresses of the CEO, VP and Park Operations VP and sent off an email complaining about their stupid policy of closing the only showers exactly at park closing. Never upset an IT guy, we will always figure out a way to get back.