Sitting in that parking lot, my plan was to call a couple of college friends, work on the bike, dry all my stuff out and find a place to sleep. Not only was all of that accomplished, but also when I called my friend Marc, he (with no notice) upgraded our dinner plans to “how bout you stay with us” plans. I had met Erin while I was in school and while Marc and I had always been big fans of the other, we’d just always run in different circles. So that these two to put us up for the night, did it with zero notice and on a night when they had plans…unbelievable. We met Marc and Erin at their place as they returned from a retirement dinner and things went so well that we must have hung out together for 4-5 hours. Sometime in there, the idea of spending the day on Thursday was passed around as there was going to be a free concert in the park. And of course, we’d have to stay after the concert as well! So what started as a last minute call for a bite to eat, turned into a three day and two night marathon of fun in Buffalo. The concert was a blast; we met some really fun people and were practically waited on like kings. To top it all off, Cosmo the cat was our friend to hang out with and provided plenty of entertainment as he had more energy than any cat I’ve ever met. He was also a professional climber. Not only did he like to climb anything and everything, he was a huge fan of climbing upside down and sideways…like on the back of a couch or the underside of a pull out sofa bed! Cats rule, dogs drool… I know, I said it.

In a final act of host-ly greatness, Marc and Erin demanded that we take about 500 pounds of food from their house. They had just started a new diet and convinced us that we would be doing them a favor by ridding their apartment of all this food. So, well fed and supplied we left on Friday morning for Canada…unfortunately needing to leave our Five-Star Hotel behind. Hats off to a really great time with some amazingly fun people.