Day 2- On to Niagara Falls, NY

We left Cooperstown, much the same as we entered, by way of rolling pastures of horses and cattle mixed among fields under cultivation although eventually all things must come to an end. We crossed the Erie Canal and merged onto the traffic of the NY through way, Rte I-90. Our original plan was to stop at one of the many service areas along the way for the night but when we stopped at the last one, just outside of Buffalo, Carl found he still had another hour or two of driving in him. His spirits were further lifted when he found out there were fire works over the falls tonight. So we continued on until we found our way within a block or so of the falls. Parking once more turned into an exciting proposition although we “lucked out” when we found a parking lot with room for us. Of course, instead of the $5.00 per car, they had to charge us $15.00. They didn’t do us any favor because with all the extra cars, it was a real chore to get out when the fireworks were over. I hadn’t seen fireworks in many years so I wasn’t sure how to go about photographing them. I already had my flimsy travel tripod with me because of wanting some night shots of Niagara with the lights on them. It was amazing and gave me an hour of practice playing with shutter speed and aperture settings. I always use my shutter release cable when I use this tripod because I don’t have to touch the camera. By the time the fireworks started, I had the f-stop at 3.5 with a one second shutter speed. It was great. I only had one issue. Don’t laugh now. I couldn’t find the right knob to adjust the up and down aspect of the tripod so I just tilted the whole shooting match back until I framed where I hoped most of the burst would end up. You be the judge… We arrived at Wal-Mart #2 at about 11 that night and I don’t mind telling you, we were both over tired.