We Changed Directions

First, let me say that we have not been in WiFi range since we left Macinaw City. We talked and decided that this trip was not the one to go visit the Michigan U.P. We were starting to get saturated with very large lakes and lots of trees. Perhaps we will go visit the U.P. on a future trip when we visit our friends in Ely, Minnesota.

We decided go on to Niagara Falls, NY instead. We entered Canada on Aug 11, camped one night, and arrived at the falls on Aug 12. We camped on the American side in a campground that “had WiFi”. The signal was so weak we could not post anything, so it was as if we had no WiFi. This is the first post in a week… sorry about that.

The day we got there, we went back across the bridge in the truck to the Canada side, because we were told that the best view of the falls was from there. We found a place to park ($), and walked about 4 blocks horizontally and about one block vertically to get to the viewing area. It was beautiful. We took lots of pictures and then went back to the campground. See pictures below.

The next day, we went to a visitor’s center on the American side and purchased tickets that allowed us to ride on trolleys that went all throughout the falls area. We could get on and off at will (wristbands). The $30 ticket included the trolley, entry into a 45 minute movie of the history of the park, and aquarium, cave of the winds, and a ride on the Maid of the Mist. The Maid of the Mist boat trip was the best. It went right past the American Falls and right up into the center of Horse Shoe Falls. That was amazing. I got a little nervous when we saw very large rocks sticking out of the water, about 30 feet from the boat, but all went well. We stayed in the center of Horse Shoe Falls a full 5 minutes, which is a very long time when millions of tons of water are falling down almost 200 feet, about 100 yards from the boat. The falling water created so much wind that it was hard to stand up in the boat, even holding the rails. We were all issued blue rain ponchos that had a hood and covered you almost to the floor. They were made out of the same thickness of plastic as the covers you get over dry cleaning. Needless to say, the wind and the blowing “rain” from the falls got everything very damp. We managed to get pictures and videos before we went into the maelstrom of “mist”. The water was relatively smooth, but was moving at 30 miles an hour we were told.

The next day, we left and went east to visit a friend in central New York. From there, we headed back towards home. We are now camped about 10 miles outside of Corning, New York. We will tour the Corning glass factory tomorrow, and their glass museum. Then I expect to play golf the following day, and then we will head generally toward home. I expect it will take another month to get back.

OH!!! I forgot that I was going to keep you up to date with the weather up here. In Michigan, they were having very “cool” weather for the season. The day before we left Mackinaw, the low was 48 and the high was 72. We have had the furnace on several nights in a row now. Temps in the low 50’s at night makes it hard to get up without a furnace to turn on for a while. We have not been rained out yet on this trip. We have had some showers, but nothing that prevented a planned activity, or made it hard to drive. Right now, it is 4 pm eastern, and we are parked under some very large trees in an RV park, with all the windows open, enjoying the breeze. It is 72 degrees inside the rig. Sandy had only brought one long sleeved blouse, and she has been freezing. She corrected the situation at a recent “shop” near Niagara Falls.

Well, we are having lots of fun. We hope most of you can travel at some level when you finally get to retire. It is worth the price of the fuel. I put this first so all the pictures show up after the writing. Don’t forget to click on the pictures to see them full size. This is especially true of the panoramic shots.

Dutch and Sandy