Well this is it, the last day of the journey. The goal today is to see Niagara Falls, drive through Canada to Michigan, and then make my way back to Cleveland. I stopped last night in Syracuse, which was a bit further from Niagara Falls than I would have liked, but still manageable and I woke up a bit early to make sure I’d make it in at a reasonable hour.

In my previous entry into Canada from Minnesota into Manitoba to get to the Northwest Angle, the customs agents weren’t buying my 50 start road trip story at all and I was searched going in and coming out of Canada. This time it I didn’t have any trouble at all getting over the border (although a simple check of my trunk packed with tshirts and shot glasses from all over the country would have given me some pretty compelling evidence). I found a place to park in near the falls and took my $5 NYC umbrella (the best $5 spent on the trip) into the pouring rain to get a few pictures.

It was an easy drive through Winsor to get to Michigan and when I entered again it was no problem at all re-entering the country. Once I got the all clear from customs I entered Michigan and completed a drive to all of the lower 48 states plus flights to Alaska and Hawaii, however there was just a little remaining. I missed Michigan initially because I drove from Cleveland to Columbus and then to Chicago on the first day. I’m not yet 100% sure how far I drove in Hawaii, but it was somewhere between 140 and 160 miles, and I in order to make sure that I hit 19,000 miles I decided to drive the long way around Detroit.

After visiting all 50 states, I had however, only eaten in 49. I now needed to eat in my home state of Ohio. On the way back, foodio54 recommended O’Bryan’s in Ashland, Ohio. I had a french dip sandwich there and it was excellent.

After 50 states, 19,000 driving miles, and 6 flights, my journey was over. The was a fantasic trip, and I’d like to thank everyone who followed on the blog or Twitter. Overall Foodio54 gave excellent recommendations all across America, and that is what I’m happiest about.

Today the goal was to get to Niagara Falls by way of northern New York.

I started off towards New Hampshire on the same road that I took before on the test trip. I drove on these roads at night then, and they seemed much more out in the middle of nowhere than today in the day time. For today’s first meal of the day I stopped at Porfido’s Deli in Littleton, NH and ordered a meatball grinder. It was pretty good, and was priced about the same as Subway or Quizno’s. I think I’d definitely eat here over either of those if I lived in the area.

After New Hampshire I was quickly in Vermont, the 49th state of the trip, leaving only Michigan. I drove over a causeway on Lake Champlain and decided to eat just before entering New York in South Burlington at Orchid’s, which was a Chinese food place. Despite some warnings from twitter regarding Orchid’s I had the chicken chow mein and it was very good. I think this underscores the power of Foodio54’s recommendation engine, what might be a terrible place for one person could be great for someone else. Hopefully our system can sort that all out, and in this case did a good job for me.

As I drove through upstate New York it started to get dark and I started to look for some hotels around Niagara Falls/Buffalo, but to my suprise they either didn’t answer the phone, were as much as New York City, or were full. I’m not sure if a convention was going on or what, but I then tried Rochester and has the same results. Finally I settled on a Motel 6 in Syracuse, which despite the annoying $3 for wireless internet has been a fantastic value over the course of the trip considering I really just want a bed, shower, and internet.

One more day to go.

Today started off in Providence, Rhose Island at Chi Chi’s Italian Deli. I ordered a roast beef sandwich, and while I was waiting for my order I noticed a picture that I am very familiar with, however this was different. If you are a crazy Ohio State fan, I’m sure you’ve seen the picture of a probably 4 year old kid giving a one finger “salute” to Michigan, however in this picture the kid was wearing Red Sox stuff instead of Buckeye stuff, and was saluting the Yankees. Now I’m wondering if the one I’m familiar with is a fraud or if this one is (or maybe both). After a chuckle, I had my roast beef sandwich that was quite good.

I made my way into Massachusetts and then to the coast to have a good look at the Atlantic Ocean, I parked illegally and quickly headed to the beach to snap a few pictures and touch the ocean to complete visiting 3 oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, and the Arctic) and the Gulf of Mexico. I next had Foodio54 give me a recommendation and it sent me to Sylvan Street Grille in Salisbury, MA. I ordered a mushroom cheeseburger which was pretty good, but there was no comparison to the mushroom hamburger I had earlier at Mario Batali’s Carnevino Italian Steakhouse in Las Vegas.

After eating in Massachusetts I headed to Maine. In Maine I went all the way the the furthest eastern point in the US, which is ironically in West Quoddy. As with the southernmost point in Key West, there was a marker (however I wasn’t able to find a marker on the northern or western points). The lighthouse that was there was closed for the day, but I was able to look around a little, there was a very loud fog horn that went off every few minutes and looking out into the ocean it was definitely needed. I then found a stairway down to the “beach” that was a lot more like the Arctic beach with just dark stones instead of sand. After going to the fourth directional extreme of the lower 48 states, I headed to Bangor, Maine. The last time I was in Maine everyone hounded me for not eating lobster, so this time I was sure to not repeat that mistake. Foodio54 recommended Captain Nick’s. The lobster was extremely fresh and wonderful. I’d have to say that unless I happen upon some amazing seafood in Vermont or Michigan (pretty unlikely), that Key West still holds the best seafood title, followed closely by Maine, and then Alaska. All were excellent, but the Maine lobster, while fantastic, wasn’t as good as the salmon in Key West.

Because I had missed eating in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, I had to make an odd path to get to Rhode Island. I decided to aim for Scranton, and eat in New Jersey along the way.

For the first meal of the day I stopped at Smokehouse Barbecue and ordered some ribs. They gave a massive portion of ribs, and I’m not sure how but I did finish them. They were pretty good but overall I think Cruiser’s Cafe 66 in Arizona had better ribs, but still New Jersey’s were very good. Next up was Fratelli’s Pizza in Scranton. Fratelli’s pizza was excellent, however they need to make the front door not look like an entry way if you go there you enter the side door

After eating in Scranton I headed for Providence, Rhose Island. This was along I-84, which I had taken previously on the weekend test trip that I took in April where I drove from Cleveland to Maine and back. Instead of trying to eat four meals today, I decided to get dinner in Connecticut and have breakfast tomorrow in Rhode Island. Foodio54 recommended Costello’s Clam Shack. Costello’s was way off the beaten path, but well worth it. I ordered a clam roll (like a clam sub), and it was really great. I don’t eat many other items with clam so it’s difficult to judge, but based on this maybe I should eat it more often The restaurant itself was right off of a marina, which was also very cool.

I finished the trip in Providence. I’m picking up states at a record pace in New England

Today I was in New York City all day. I wasn’t able to get to eat at the Hello Deli yesterday because it was closed, so I went back up town, and none other than Rupert Jee was at the cash register! Rupert Jee has been involved in all sorts of David Letterman bits over the years in which usually Letterman tells him to annoy random people. I ordered the “Letterman” which was a tuckey and ham sandwich and was very good.

For the rest of the day I walked around NYC making my way from the Hello Deli on 53rd Street down to Battery Park looking out to the Statue of Liberty. I went by Times Square, the Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, and Ground Zero, and then found myself outside of Battery Park when it started to rain very hard. Luckily there was a woman selling umbrellas for only $5, and I think this was the most useful $5 I spent on the entire trip. I made my way into Battery Park in the rain to try to see the Statue of Liberty, which was visible, but a little hard to see details because of the overcast and rain. Even still a very impressive sight. On the way back up town I went past Wall Street and the location where George Washington was first sworn in as President.

For New York City, Foodio54 recommended Lupa, I took a cab to get there on time for my reservation and I arrived a little early so I had a beer at the bar. When my table was free the waiter went over the specials and I could tell that this place, in terms of service, was really leaps and bounds better than anything else on the trip, the guy was extremely knowledgable. I looked over the menu and decided on the linguine with a salad. The salad was excellent, and in just the opposite of Maryland where I had to steal silverware, when they took away my salad (with the fork), someone appeared moments later with a new fork. I never had to ask for more water or anything really the wait staff were always available, but not in a bothering way which really good. The linguine itself was also fantastic, and while I did really love the lasagna at Bella’s in Savannah Georgia, I have to hand it to Lupa for the best Italian food of the trip, and the service was competely unrivaled.

After eating, I walked back down to Ground Zero. Without getting into a long story the first time I saw Ground Zero it was only a week and a half after 9/11. I went back to Liberty and Broadway to a big red cube structure where I had been back in September of 2001. It’s always an odd feeling being here, because in 2001 it was very difficult to get to the World Trade Center site because of the police and national guard barricades, and this was the first complete look I was able to get of Ground Zero, although in retrospect I believe that I did see rubble that was probably building 7 or the North Tower, but it was difficult to determine. Broadway was closed off, and so I was able to get down Nassau St and I could go down the east-west cross streets to Broadway (but not along Broadway). I turned the corner on Nassau and Liberty and then walked down to Broadway where I could clearly see the South Tower with firefighters spraying water down into the ruins. Also I should mention I didn’t sneak past any other barricades or anything. Whenever I return to NYC, I always come back here.

Today I needed to get to New York City, and I needed to be at the Ed Sullivan Theatre by 3pm to pickup my David Letterman tickets. However, I needed to eat in Delaware at least and hopefully also in New Jersey.

For breakfast I went to the European Bistro in Wilmington, Delaware and I had an omelet. It was really excellent, and if you knew my fondness for McDonald’s breakfast you would know that this is a huge compliment, if I lived in Wilmington I might get an omelet here over an Egg McMuffin sometimes. After eating the traffic was a little heavy and so I decided to put off New Jersey until later and went right into New York City.

I’ve been to NYC several times before and I have to say it is really an amazing place, however driving in the city for a tourist is not easy. Right when I got to my hotel I accidently (really!) made an illegal left turn with a police car right behind me. The officer yelled at me for a few minutes, but in kind of a way I might have taken offense to in Cleveland, but in NYC that’s just how I would expect someone to talk, but then let me go with a warning once he realized I was just a dumb tourist who missed a no left turn sign (well technically three signs as he pointed out to me). I gave my car to the valet afterwards where it will remain until I leave the day after tomorrow.

My hotel was the New Yorker Hotel which was a just few blocks from Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building, and after checking in because I was running pretty close I took a cab up 20 blocks or so to the Ed Sullivan Theatre and picked up my ticket. They said to come back in 45 minutes and so I decided to walk down to Times Square and back to mean time. This was actually good because it provided context to one of Letterman’s jokes that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Apparently NYC closed several blocks around Times Square and people were sitting in the middle of the street in lawn chairs, and then on Letterman two people came out while he was talking and sat in front of him in lawn chairs and told him Mayor Bloomberg said they could sit there.

Going to see Letterman was an interesting experience, they had all sorts of people clapping and cheering as you entered to try to pump up the crowd. Interestingly when they said no photography I abided, yet a few days earlier in a remote patch of Nevada desert in front of an almost certainly armed guard with signs saying things like “no photography” and “deadly force authorized” outside of the infamous Area 51 facility I was snapping pictures like crazy Yet some college kid with a clipboard says no pictures, and I listened… this could make an interesting psychology paper perhaps The Letterman show was pretty good actually, and instead of a random Hollywood celebrity pushing their latest movie he had on former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Conner (pushing her latest children’s book). Overall it was very funny, and then afterwards by chance I went looking for the Hello Deli and I walked out to see David Letterman leaving the theatre and took a few Paparazzi pictures

After the show I had dinner at my all time favorite pizza place in NYC, Ray’s Pizza>, which serves enormous slices of pizza.

So far I’ve not had a single day without hiking up mountains, driving hundreds of miles, or flying over oceans and tundra, so I had penciled in today as a “rest day,” and this was not what I had in mind for resting My hotel was just a few blocks south of the US Capitol Building, and so I though well I’ll just walk around DC.

I started off pretty well sing the Capitol Building, the House offices, the Museum of Natural History, the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and Korean War Memorial. The I started to head over to the Jefferson Memorial and I think it was then that I managed to tear a hole in one of my socks which made for a very uncomfortable situation. After seeing the Jefferson Memorial I need to run a quick errand for Drew, which required me to go back over past the Capitol building on the other side of town, and I was not looking forward to walking anymore so I took the DC Metro. After taking care of the errand I then headed back to the hotel to get some new socks and rest for a few minutes before heading back out again.

With a pair of new socks and a little rest I felt like I was totally refreshed and so I walked back to the Capitol, and then over to the National Archives where the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are kept. While waiting in line a girl who worked at the archives came out and asked if anyone had any questions. Someone asked if they were in the right line for the Declaration of Independence, and she responded (and not kidding), yes, but all of you people aren’t just waiting to see a few documents right? Did you know we also have Shaq’s shoes? I wasn’t the only one more than a little horrified by that statement and a few jokes went around at her expense in the line, but otherwise she was very nice and answered a lot of other questions. As cool as Shaq’s shoes might have been, the country’s founding documents were really what I wanted to see When we finally got inside, they had several signs, and several announcements “no flash photography, it will over time damage the documents.” No problem right? It took about 3 minutes before someone’s flash went off, and I looked to see if that someone was about to be tackled, but unfortunately they weren’t that strict about it.

Next on my list was the International Spy Museum, and unfortunately no tours were available when I got there, so my final destination was the White House. The last time I was at the White House was when Clinton was in office, and my brother threw a stick into the bushes past the fence (don’t worry, the President was in no immediate danger), however it did prompt Secret Service guys to come out to see what had happened, which was amusing to a couple of elementary school kids This time there were no shenanigans. I had actually expected to see protests because of some developments in Iran, however the protests I saw on the news must have ended before I got there and there was just one lone hippie with a no nuclear weapons protest underway. Washington is another place that I could have spent days and days in, but I wanted to find somewhere to eat in Maryland today and so after walking around the White House I found my way to a Metro Station and headed back to the hotel. It wasn’t until later that I had learned that a DC Metro train had crashed earlier and several people had actually been killed. Luckily for me, I wasn’t anywhere near the crash.

I had Foodio54 give me a recommendation for outside of Washington DC in Maryland and it sent me to the Moose Creek Steak House. I ordered the steak and crab cakes, and that’s where things started to go wrong. The salad was a salad bar, and while at the bar I could hear the kitchen staff saying “Are we closed yet? No? Awwww Come on!” and visions of the movie “Waiting” started to play in my head. Then I realized that I had no silverware, and my waitress was nowhere to be found, so I stole some from the next table over. After waiting forever my waitress came out and took my salad plate, but also grabbed my only fork and when she came back with the food I was forkless. I then had to steal another set of silverware from another table because again she was nowhere to be found. Aside from that, the food was actually pretty good, the crab wasn’t as good as the crab in Alaska, but since it was prepared quite differently I don’t think that’s really a fair comparison. Overall maybe if I had come at a different time it would have been a better experience.

Today the goal was to get to Washington DC, but in a roundabout way, by first going west into West Virginia, then through southern Pennsylvania and finally south through Maryland.

The day started off by going through the mountains of West Virginia which provided many amazing views, although after seeing mountains in Alaska, Colorado, Montana, and elsewhere, I have to say West Virginia seemed to have just big hills Regardless, it was still great to see. I then drove to the college town of Morgantown and Foodio54 recommended Mountaineer Pizza. The pizza was pretty good, which is probably easy to expect of pizza place with competition for lots of hungry college students. After eating I headed through a bit of Maryland before going into southern Pennsylvania.

I’ve been trying to visit places of historical interest in addition to ones of culinary interest, and it seemed appropriate to visit the Flight 93 Memorial outside of Shanksville, PA. This is the location where United 93, the fourth hijacked plane on 9/11, was crashed when the passengers figured out what was going on and tried to retake the plane in midair. I’ve been here several times before actually, however always on or within a day or so of 9/11, and I was really surprised by how many people were there today. When I first arrived there were probably 40 or 50 people and then just before the park ranger started to tell the story of what happened a bus pulled up with another several dozen people. Right now they still have a temporary memorial, although they said that the new permanent memorial will be started this November, and they hope to have it mostly finished by 9/11/2011. The site of the crash itself is off limits for now, and is a few hundred yards from the memorial demarked by a fence bearing an American flag, the permanent memorial will allow visitors to get much closer to the actual crash site. The temporary memorial has benches with the names of all of the passengers and crew along with various plaques and a wall of items left by visitors.

After the Flight 93 memorial I headed east to Gettysburg, for another historical site. Gettysburg has simply too much to see in the very small time I had available before sunset. I had a general idea of how the battlefield was setup, however I at first I could not figure out where the Union line was as I kept on finding Confederate historical markers. Then I remember that this was mixed up and the south attacked from the north west and the north defended the south east and everything was much easier to find Because I had to be very selective of what I would see I decided I would try to find the spot where in the movie Gettysburg the unit that was primarily followed in the movie (the 20th Maine) was ordered to hold the extreme left of the line and ran out of ammunition causing their commander to order a bayonet charge to stop the Confederates from flanking the line. On an off note, for proof that Jeff Daniels is the best actor ever watch Gettysburg immediately before watching Dumb & Dumber He has quite the range of characters Basically I knew that this took place on little round top and that was it, so I used my iPhone to pull up a map of the battlefield and once I had identified where I was it was pretty easy to find. The site had just a simple marker, and another set of markers explaining what had happened. I then found my way up to the top of the little round top hill and the sun set which was my que to get moving to DC. I had planned on eating in Gettysburg, although unfortunately everything seemed to be closed.

I started today in Santee, South Carolina and my goal was to make into West Virginia or at least get fairly close. Additionally I wanted to swing by the Yorktown battlefield site (where George Washington trapped Cornwallis with the aid of French troops and a French fleet in the last major battle of the Revolutionary War).

First things first, I needed to eat in South Carolina. I had Foodio54 give me a recommendation for Florence, SC and the site sent me to Shooki’s Deli. I got a hot turkey sandwich and it was perfect for an early lunch meal.

Back in Helena, Montana I had a lot of difficulty finding places open during lunchtime and I ran into the same problem in Raleigh, North Carolina. Finally I gave up and instead went to Rocky Mount and Foodio54 sent me to Mayflower Seafood Restaurant and ordered some flounder. It was pretty good, but not in the same ballpark as Key West or Anchorage for seafood.

I made it to Yorktown, however everything was closed although I was able to see the battlefield, a monument for the victory, and the ramparts used in the siege. I think one part that is somewhat lost today is the French contribution to this battle, and especially from the monument that was very heavily emphasized.

After Yorktown I headed to Richmond_VA to eat. It was getting late, but Foodio54 found me a bar called Border and I got a roast beef sub. The sub was excellent, and the bar was pretty cool as well with live music. Although I will say now that Ohio has banned smoking from bars there is a world of difference when it is allowed (and it was at Border). In the end I’d have to say I’d rather business owners be able to choose the policies of their own establishment, even though I’d much prefer a non-smoking policy myself.

The goal today was to go from Key West to as far into South Carolina as I could.

Going south down to the Florida Keys I took the toll road almost the entire way because my Garmin told me to After looking at my backup paper road atlas it seemed as though I-95 went parallel to the toll highway for a significant chuck of the way. While I normally leave the directions planning mostly up to Garmin I decided that I would try to get over to I-95.

My Garmin was not pleased. Everyone who has one of these things has missed a turn and heard it say in an increasingly annoyed tone “recalculating” when it determines how to get you out of the mess you just got yourself in. In this case though, I was doing it on purpose. The Garmin told me at just about every street “turn left,” “turn right,” “make a u-turn” until I was almost right to the entrance ramp for I-95 (about a mile separated the two highways). Finally it recalculated and had me go along I-95, but a closer look showed that it wanted me to take the first possible exit and return to the toll highway. I was a bit worried that maybe there was something I wasn’t seeing, but once Garmin finally gave up and sent me along I-95 the estimated time to get to my destination dropped by one minute. This leads me to conclude that Garmin and the Florida Toll people are in cahoots with each other

I made it to Georgia and decided to get a recommendation for Savannah. Foodio54 sent me to Bella’s Italian Cafe. I’ve wanted to get just some lasagna for a few days now, but the opportunity hasn’t presented itself before today. The lasagna at Bella’s was fantastic. For some reason I will either love or hate lasagna, there is no in between, and I think it all comes down to the cheese. Additionally Bella’s makes their own bread and it’s almost like eating a donut instead of typical restaurant bread that is mostly only acceptable for birds and fish I would suggest that they hire maybe one more server (and in fairness I have no idea maybe someone called off), but it seemed like all of their servers were running all over, but were still a little slow because they had too many tables. Overall that’s really no big deal though.