Friday, October 2, 2009

Great sleeping weather….think lows in upper 40’s…great to huddle under blankets. Probably would have slept later had not the phone rung at 6:30 a.m. It was Malia, thinking we would be up and about as we usually are - but not this morning. Of course we are now in Easter time zone, but I think our internal time clocks have not adjusted to that yet. The worst part about it was having to get out of bed to answer the phone - it was cold!!!

Forecast calling for rain today…yuck. Having electrical problems with RV - noticed it bringing in the slides a couple of days ago and the battery indicator is all over the place from good to recharging. Jerry called manufacturer and they suggested we get battery tested, etc. so spent the morning and a good bit of the afternoon messing with that. Jerry went to local RV dealer down the street to have battery tested and it is OK so he replaced a terminal that was bad…now we will see. He also bought a portable electric space heater which should help. It’s a good help!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Left campground around 8:30 or maybe a bit later. We did sleep pretty well - cold nights and lots of blankets usually make for some good sleep for us! It makes getting up very hard though b/c it is so nice and toasty in bed, neither one of us wants to get up and get the coffee going. Hit the road again heading to Niagara Falls. Originally planned to see the falls on the return portion of the trip so we could get to Vermont and New Hampshire faster, but travel distances said this was the better way to do it. Besides we were almost at the falls anyway. Arrived at campground about 12:45 and got our stuff set up, then headed for the falls.

All I can say is "WOW!" It is a very impressive sight if you have never seen it before. We walked into the park that is right at the falls. We could see the mist from the falls miles before we arrived.! We walked out to the edge of the American Falls and it was very loud. LOTS and LOTS of water spilling over the top! We then walked along the top of the gorge looking at all the "Maid of the Mist" tourboats taking people out to the falls. They all looked alike wearing their blue ponchos provided by the tour boats. There were boats leaving from both the Canadian and American sides. Our plan is to do a tour tomorrow since we felt that we would be too rushed to get it all in this afternoon. Our friends Frank and Barb Grainger said the tour that picked them up from the campground provided all you needed to see and do for the afternoon or morning - takes about 4 hours.

We paid our dollar to walk out on the Observation Deck and that provided some more great views. We had to take turns going out there b/c of the dogs. After that we walked across the bridge to Grand Island to see Horseshoe Falls. Those falls are on the Canadian side and they are the ones providing the towers of mist we could see from a long way off. It was most impressive.

Turns out Kudzu must be something of a star….several times we had to stop for Japanese tourists to take pictures of him. His digital image will be traveling thousands of miles - there were more than one photo ops we (I should say HE) was part of. I can see it all now….this is photo of real, live cute American dog! Oh well, who am I to deny Kudzu his papparazzi moment!

We went back to the RV and Jerry napped while I read my book and checked email. We had dinner reservations in Canada at Skylon Tower - a very tall tower w/ revolving restaurant on top. They shine lights on the falls at night and the lights change colors. We had a wonderful dinner w/ a spectacular view!!! It was awesome! The plan is to come back to Canadian side tomorrow and get pix of the falls from there as you can see the falls better from there. We brought back our to go boxes (my salmon and Jerry’s prime rib) and went to bed.

Wednesday, September 30

I slept very well - Jerry woke me at 7:30. Dwight fixed a great breakfast "stew" as he calls it and we hit the road right after we ate. It was an uneventful travel day, but long. Roads are kind of rough and we were on interstate the whole way. We wanted to get as far as we could and arrived at Geneva State Park in Ohio around 5 p.m.

The park is on the banks of Lake Erie, but the RV sites are a bit away. We walked over to the lake and it was a nice walk. The dogs loved it - Gabby almost got in trouble rolling in a fish skeleton, but fortunately Jerry caught her in time. Water was extremely rough and it was cold as well. As it was cloudy and water was rough it was also dirty colored. Again, a nice walk and back to RV for dinner. Ate some of the taco soup I made and I christened the oven for the first time. Made some cornbread and it was a bit brown on the bottom - everyone says these ovens are notorious for cooking poorly and I guess ours is no different. Kind of cooks from the bottom up. Oh well, it hit the spot anyway.

Jerry poured over maps for the rest of the evening and we decided to go ahead and do Niagara Falls tomorrow instead of on the way back. Travel distances are a bit far to backtrack that much and do it at the end as planned. So short drive tomorrow and will probably spend a couple of nights depending on how much we want to do and see in the area.

Turned on the heat in RV to take chill out and Jerry left it on last night. Should be great sleeping.

Tuesday, September 29

Up early and left house around 8 a.m. Plan was to drive to Indiana and spend the night with Dwight and Rosalyn Ladd again. That was a wonderful start to our summer trip and Dwight had been to Piedmont to see Jerry just the week before. It was a wonderful time as always. You meet the nicest people on the road…we had met them in Alaska two years ago and stayed in touch. Getting to know them better has been a joy and a blessing. What fun we have with them. Rosalyn fixed a wonderful lasagna, salad and homemade breadsticks. Strawberries and ice cream for dessert. The dogs love running all over their property - so much to sniff and smell.