Thurs, May 30
Today Canada!
That's about all that I had considered.
We are going to drive to Canada today. I have my passport and
that's all that I need.
What I didn't think of was that our
phone service plans with Verizon only cover the US. And we are using
the phone and IPAD for backup navigation. Our primary GPS navigation
is the Garmin. Guess What? We don't have maps for Canada in the
Garmin. So, within a very few miles after entering Canada, nothing's
working right. All of a sudden we have to rely on paper maps. It's
been a while and we have to revisit old technology.
Later I remember that we have a stand-alone program on the IPAD of Rand Mcnally GPS with maps of Canada, and we get along just fine.
Oh, and they post their speeds in
kilometers/hour, so I am constantly looking down at the little
numbers on the speedometer (which are real little) trying to make
sure that I don't speed.
It takes a little getting used to, but
I think I've got the hang of it.
We finally figure it out and call
Verizon and get a little data coverage for Canada so at least we have
access to the internet while here. It will cost!
We drive up the west coast of Lake
Huron to the little port town of Goderich (God-a-rich) and the Point
Farms Provincial Park on Lake Huron.
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| Goderich Lighthouse on Lake Huron |
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| Lake Huron |
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| Sunset on Lake Huron |
We settle into the campsite, get the
motorhome set up and head back to Goderich for the afternoon. It's a
nice little town right on the Lake – and they have a YMCA. So
after touring the town and its waterfront, I go to the Y and Clara
goes shopping. Afterward we have a nice dinner overlooking the lake
and return to the campsite. Clara sets up in the swing and we are in
for a nice, quiet, dark night in Canada.
Fri May 31
Rocky Point Provincial Park
This morning we left Point Farms
Provincial Park and headed Southeast across this peninsula for about 5 hours to Rocky Point Provincial Park on Lake Erie. This
is about 1 hour from the Niagara Falls area and we plan to drive the
CRV there tomorrow.
This is a large, heavily wooded
campground on a peninsula sticking out into Lake Erie. The shore
is rocky, thus the name. Although we made reservations, it doesn't
appear that was necessary, as there are many open sites. We just
weren't sure what the situation might be. We found out today that
the schools here are not out yet, therefore summer vacations haven't
started.
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| At Rocky Point Campground and Lake Erie |
We've gotten the bikes off the back of
the car and have ridden around a bit this afternoon. Mostly we slept
and read.
Sat, June 1
Today we got an early start for the
hour drive to Niagara Falls (Canadian side). We have talked to a couple we met here
in the park who are from that area and they had given us some idea of
where to park, get a bus, what to see, etc and it was very helpful.
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| The American Falls on the left and Canadian Falls on the right |
Frankly, I did not expect much. I have
always heard of Niagara Falls, but expected a tourist trap. We were very pleasantly surprised. The falls are quite spectacular, and easily
accessible. It was only about a couple hundred feet from where we
parked until we were able to peer down on them.
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| The power of the water is tremendous |
As advised, we immediately purchased
tickets for the bus shuttle and a package of tickets to four of the
popular attractions.
First we saw what someone referred to
as a 4D movie about how the falls were formed. The theater was round
with screens all the way around. I wondered why they gave us
raincoats when we entered the theater, but it didn't take long to
figure it out. As the movie progressed, there were a variety of
water features, including fog, mist and rain that came along with the
tilting movie screens. Quite interesting – reminds me of some of
the rides in Florida.
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| Maid of the Mist approaches the Canadian Falls |
Next we went to the “Maid of the
Mist” boat trip up to the falls. This was another wet ride, but
this one was the real thing. It is quite spectacular to ride up to
near the base of the falls. It was impossible to keep entirely dry.
In fact, as we approached the falls, it was like standing in a
driving rain storm and the flimsy plastic raincoat became useless.
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| We were provided plastic raincoats, which lost their effectiveness quickly as the wind created in the gorge by the falls blew them over our heads |
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| Maid of the Mist in the mist |
An observation; as we had been told by
the people we met in the RV park, there are mostly international
visitors this time of year. We heard and saw just about every part
of the world represented.
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| Niagara Falls is an international destination bringing together diverse cultures. Here, Indians pass an Amish family resting on the wall. |
Next, we started walking what we
thought was going to be a short walk to the next attraction – a
walk along the Class 6 rapids through the gorge. Turns out that the
short walk ended up with hailing a taxi.
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| Class 6 rapids in the Niagara Gorge below the falls |
The rapids are classified as the most
treacherous, Class 6, the most dangerous category
rating.
We ended the whirlwind tour for the day with a
cable ride across “the whirlpool”. The river takes a 90 degree
turn here, and over the millions of years, the river has carved out a
large basin where it creates a huge whirlpool. The cable ride of
about 15 minutes on this 99 year old attraction is shunned by many
people as too dangerous, but we found it interesting.
All in all, the trip to Niagara falls
was well worth the time.
We headed back to Rocky Point to a
quiet evening. The couple who had advised us on Niagara came by and
we shared our adventures. They were very pleased that they had
helped us have a fun day.
Sunday, June 2
It rained all night Saturday night. Sunday morning it
seems that everything is covered in water. I have to wade through several inches of standing water to disconnect the electric line to the motorhome - with some trepidation. This ground must be of a
clay material that does not soak up water very well. A lot of fields
are covered in water.
And we head back to the USA, glad to be able to read the large numbers on the speedometer.
