After a day of rest from our long day on Sunday, we arose early today to head to Niagara Falls for the day. As we left there was a heavy mist of humidity lying over all the fields and the sun was just coming up; a huge red-orange ball. It was a spectacular sunrise, but without filters the splendor could not be accurately photographed.
We knew that it would be a hot day when, by 9 AM it was already 810 . But we figured that we would spend the day near water and getting sprayed, so it was a good day for hot weather. We hit another toll road coming into New York State.
It is interesting that you can’t really exit these toll roads, so they have occasional “Service Centers.” They are like glorified rest stops with restaurants, fuel etc. We stopped at one where we walked through an overpass (over I-90) into a food court with an espresso place, McDonalds and more. These service centers are usually pretty nice, but often very busy.We drove through Buffalo NY prior to Niagara Falls. This is a cold place in the winter.
We very much enjoyed our day at Niagara Falls. We got an all day Discovery Pass so we could “do it all.”
We looked over the scene from the Falls Observation Tower, the only place in the Park to view both Merican and Horeseshoe Falls at the same time.
Below you can see where we will be going to take our next tour. Ellen loves heights like this!
We then enjoyed the up close look of all of the falls on a Maid of the Mist boat trip where we soon found out why we were issued rain ponchos. We took many pictures, but it was difficult to get proper pictures with spray and mist (or should I say…buckets of water) being thrown at us.
This was before the ride.
This is after.
We also took an elevator down to Cave of the Winds. Here we were issued both a souvenir poncho and a pair of water-proof sandals. We were wishing we had done this attraction first as our shoes were soaked from the boat ride. The sandals would have come in handy then too.
We watched a live sea lion show at the aquarium and learned the history of the falls in a 40 minute IMAX film at the visitor’s center. We did a lot of walking around the beautiful park, but also took the trolley whenever we were tired of trekking on foot. The trolley driver would usually give facts about the falls as we drove along, such as over 75,000 gallons of water flow over American Falls each second, and a horrendous 681,750 gallons rush over Horeseshoe Falls each second with 2,500 tons of force as the water hits the base of the falls. No wonder most of the dare-devils who tried to ride over the falls never made it! We enjoyed the falls from many angles, look close for the rainbow.
and even took an afternoon break to enjoy a gargantuan ice-cream cone. Only problem was that we had to lick fast as it was so hot outside.
We’ve met some very nice people in this camp-ground that we hope to meet up with in Florida later in the year. For now Ellen is busy getting her classes ready for fall and Marv is keeping busy with jobs around the park. We leave here on Monday, 9/6 to head back along Lake Erie toward Goshen IN for an Escapade (rally) with the Escapee’s RV Club. Then back to West Virginia to another solar job, then on to Washington DC. There is just not enough time to see everything, even when you live on the road.
We also took an elevator down to Cave of the Winds. Here we were issued both a souvenir poncho and a pair of water-proof sandals. We were wishing we had done this attraction first as our shoes were soaked from the boat ride. The sandals would have come in handy then too. We watched a live sea lion show at the aquarium and learned the history of the falls in a 40 minute IMAX film at the visitor’s center. We did a lot of walking around the beautiful park, but also took the trolley whenever we were tired of trekking on foot. The trolley driver would usually give facts about the falls as we drove along, such as over 75,000 gallons of water flow over American Falls each second, and a horrendous 681,750 gallons rush over Horeseshoe Falls each second with 2,500 tons of force as the water hits the base of the falls. No wonder most of the dare-devils who tried to ride over the falls never made it! We enjoyed the falls from many angles, look close for the rainbow. and even took an afternoon break to enjoy a gargantuan ice-cream cone. Only problem was that we had to lick fast as it was so hot outside.
We’ve met some very nice people in this camp-ground that we hope to meet up with in Florida later in the year. For now Ellen is busy getting her classes ready for fall and Marv is keeping busy with jobs around the park. We leave here on Monday, 9/6 to head back along Lake Erie toward Goshen IN for an Escapade (rally) with the Escapee’s RV Club. Then back to West Virginia to another solar job, then on to Washington DC. There is just not enough time to see everything, even when you live on the road.
We were amazed at the expense of driving in this park of the country on toll roads. In an 80 mile stretch we had paid $15.00 in tolls.
Ellen also enjoys all of the various old barns we see in this farming land.
There was a wind generator for power at the harbor at Conneaut and very nice township park. Here we watched a bald eagle having a fish lunch high up in a tree. When he was done he just dropped the big fish head to the ground. (Look out below!)
We drove for about 20 miles along the lake until we arrived at the town of Ashtabula for an early dinner at Bob Evans, a restaurant we hadn’t tried before. They always look busy and the food was excellent.
We watched an Amish carriage come through the bridge and head up a very steep hill. We were amazed that one horse could trudge up such a steep hill with a carriage and a family of five.
We will be here for 3 weeks doing work and seeing the sites.
They were sleeping soundly and showed no desire to give us a show.
We walked around the town taking in the many wonderful old architecture and local flavor.
