Both sides of Niagara

Niagara Falls, American side – 28/05/10

We left Montecello, NY this morning and headed straight up the highway too Syracuse, New York. In Syracuse we changed onto the Interstate 90, also known as the New York State Thruway. This is a toll road, known here as turnpikes. They’re cheaper here though. This road took us straight to Buffalo and Niagara. This is the first time we’ve spent any time on a turnpike and on the along the way we finally saw some decent-sized trucks.

90% of all semi-trucks in the USA are single trailers and most of the rest are what they call Pup Doubles. These are like a baby Road Train, with 2 tiny (26-29ft) trailers. They are no bigger than a full-size single trailer unit.
But here on the turnpike we saw a Rocky Mountain Double, which is a full size (53ft) trailer with a Pup trailer behind. It is about the same size as an Aussie B-Double, but lighter-weight.
Also saw the big daddy of them all for the USA, which is the Turnpike Double. These units may only operate on certain turnpikes, hence the name. They have 2 fullsize (53ft) trailers one behind the other. It is like the Aussie Double Road Train, but again, lighter-weight.

The scenery we passed through was again very, very pretty with lots of rolling green hills, very densely forested, and glorious mountain streams and rivers everywhere.

We got a great campground in Buffalo, on Grand Island, right near Niagara Falls.
The falls themselves are simply stunning. We stayed on the US side today. There are 3 main falls: American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls are on the US side, while Horseshoe Falls circle around (in the shape of a horseshoe, duh) with half on the US side and half on the Canadian side, eh.
The USA/Canada border runs right down the middle of the river.
You can (and we did) walk all around the river edges as they lead up to the falls and again, as at the Grand Canyon, we were surprised to see safety rails at a minimum and never more than thigh-high.
The power on the current as it approaches the falls is amazing and the water is super-clean and clear. It is glorious.
You can stand on the edge of the cliff 2 feet from where the falls go over and it’s just amazing.
There is also a viewing platform that has been built out from the US side so you can get another perspective of the falls. Maybe they were tired of people saying the view was better from the Canadian side? Either way it is an astonishing view, and the viewing platform has an elevator which goes down more than 200 feet to the bottom shoreline, where you can board the Maid of the Mist, the ferry that runs right around the bottoms of all the falls.
Based upon my mom’s advice (and she thinks I don’t follow her advice, hah) we rode the Maid around the river and got well sprayed. It was awesome.
The mist that rises from the bottom of the falls is extremely dense and actually rises half-again higher into the air than the falls themselves drop. I’m not sure how that could be physically possible, so I’ll have to read up.

The whole area is NY State Park (the oldest State Park in the USA), dating back nearly 200 years. And it looks like a State Park should. There are lovely walking trails everywhere, leading from one fall to another and there are great amenities (not too expensive, either) and there are beautiful lawns stretching to forever. And admission’s free.

In the early evening we sat on a manicured, sloping lawn overlooking the Horseshoe Falls and had a take-out dinner. It was picture perfect.

We stayed into the late evening and saw a bit of the “light show” but even though it was pretty, it was nothing compared to the beauty of the falls themselves.
Today has been one of the stand-out days of the trip so far. It was so amazing. I certainly hope that we can remember it (and how it made us feel) forever.

The view of Canada from American Falls

Niagara River

A rainbow amongst the mist

One of many 'Maids of the Mist'

Crazy people walking up to the power of Bridal Falls, otherwise known as
'How to get saturated and blown away in 2 seconds flat'

Horseshoe Falls and its ever rising mist

Niagara Falls, Canadian side – 29/05/10

This morning we got a late start. Not because we slept in, but because we had to do some laundry. The campground we stayed at had a laundry but we did it in the morning and it took a couple hours so we used the time to catch up on yesterday’s blog and make friends with the owner of the place. We gave him an Australian 10c, 20c and $1 coin and he gave us a couple dollars of US quarters, some of them were one we needed for the collection.

For those who don’t know (probably most of you all), the US over the last few years have issued commemorative quarters (25c coins) for all of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and the 5 territories. That’s 56 collectable coins in general circulation. Lucy, our niece, collects coins and we decided (about in Florida) to try and collect the whole set of Commemorative quarters for her. We have most of them now, but not quite all. Today we also added a couple of Canadian quarters but I’m getting ahead of myself…

About 10 or 11 this morning we left our lovely, quiet campground on Grand Island, Buffalo, NY and drove the 20 minutes or so to the Rainbow Bridge (International Bridge), through the toll gate ($1 US), a few metres to the customs guys (a quick look and they passed us through – no passport check, no van check) and then across the bridge we progressed. Along the bridge and into no man’s land. But then we hit the Canadian check point. Passports at the ready and ready to have the van searched. But, the van wasn’t searched. Our passports were scanned and Pia’s was stamped (Mark’s American wasn’t stamped, much to his dismay, Pia two, Mark none). And then, on into Ontario, Canada.

We decided to follow Suzi and BJ’s idea of finding your accommodation first and then setting out to enjoy the sights. So that is exactly what we did. We made our way down the QEW to Fort Erie (south of Niagara Falls, Canada) and registered our camping sight for that night. We checked out where we hoped to spend the night and then set off to Niagara Falls, again, but this time to be seen on the Canadian side.

We had some fun trying to find a parking place, but eventually found one up the hill from the falls and paid about half the price to boot. We set off on foot and made our way down to the falls and were yet again blown away by the majesty of these natural wonders. They really are just incredible. And it is true that they are better seen from the Canadian side. You get the full view of both falls and the smaller (much less noticed) falls.

You could really notice the difference between the US side and the Canadian side. Yesterday, on the US side, it was a Friday and the crowds were really minimal. The state park made it very pleasant to walk around and you really felt you got the most out of the falls and its surrounds. Today, on the Canadian side, it is a Saturday. There seems to be an awful lot of tourists around today, from all over the globe. We swear we have heard accents from every Continent and then some that we couldn’t even recognise. But there were too many people for our liking today.

We enjoyed a hotdog for lunch and then moved on. We walked from the beginning of American Falls and made our way up to the amazing Horseshoe Falls. The view from the Canadian side truly did amaze us both. We have been having many of those moments, you know the ones. ‘I can’t believe we’re in Canada’. After getting sprayed on, considerably, by Horseshoe Falls, we made our way slowly back towards the van.
Along the way we walked along the length of “Tacky Street”. It is named this (by us) because it is a two block long tourist trap with nothing but theme restaurants and gift shops etc.

In the evening, we returned to our campsite, the loveliest so far, and enjoyed a bottle of Australian red wine by the campfire, by the lake, with our gourmet canned pasta. Late in the evening, I (Mark) went to the neighbouring campsite and helped them put up their tent in the dark. It was almost 11pm.
They were a young(ish) couple who had emigrated to Canada from Poland. We agreed to share a campfire and a drink later.

While they were sorting out their campsite, I got bored and began my usual boredom-relieving game of pestering Pia in some way. While she was putting something back in the van, I got a hold of her headlamp (a little flashlight on an elastic strap that you wear like a miner’s lam) and, holding it by the elastic, began to spin it around very fast, delighted that it made a whir-whirring sound just like a bullroarer.
Of course, Pia grumped at me behaving like a child and at that moment, I lost my hold on it.
The momentum carried it high into the air, where it inevitably lost it’s brief contest with gravity and arced down gracefully into the lake about 5 feet from shore, in about 5 feet of water. It floated briefly, then went to the bottom.
Feeling bad about losing a very handy headlamp and also littering in a beautiful lake, I resorted to stripping to my underwear and wading in after it.

So I’m standing up to my thighs in a Canadian lake in the middle of the damned night wearing nothing but my Superman-red underpants and trying desperately not to slip and fall on the algae-covered rocks, thus splitting my noggin open, when, with all of the perfect timing typical of my life-experiences, the nice ex-Polish couple from nearby came wandering over to our campsite. There were wide eyes and a stunned silence, eventually broken by Pia’s laughing.

While I was standing up to my waist locating the missing headlamp, the fellow I’d helped with the tent earlier, came barrelling past me and dived straight in.
Imagine my surprise. It turns out he is a mad-keen diver. After a few minutes of teamwork, we located and recovered the headlamp. And although it was never advertised as being waterproof, it still works fine.
We joined them around their campfire. And warmed up drinking beer and wine and talking into the early morning. Good fun.

Mark and Pia with American Falls as a beautiful and powerful backdrop

The Edge of Horseshoe Falls

American Falls in all its glory

Horseshoe Falls in all its glory - and how small does the Maid of the Mist Look?

King Kong on Tacky Street, the name we gave the street.

'Why so serious?' - Wax cast of Heath Ledger's Joker

Our beautiful campsite

(the blog doesn't like to change the layout, so am being a little tricky with it)

Oh, Canada – 30/05/10

We got up this morning, thankfully hangover-free, but I had about a litre of soon-to-be-second-hand beer demanding my attention. It was a glorious morning, already about 20-degrees at 6am. We walked under bright blue skies around the lake and got washed in the bathhouse. Most of these campgrounds have really good bathhouses. For breakfast we had granola bars and mocha boiled on the gas-cooker. Yummy.
No, seriously, it really is yummy.

We had another chat with the couple from last night and wished them all the best. We were very sorry to leave the Windmill Point RV Park and Campground. It is simply the most stunning spot to relax.

We drove west, destination: Windsor, Ontario. We were on the back-roads and old highways all morning, passing through really fertile, green farmland. It is quite flat here but the farming countryside has its own beauty.
We had burgers for lunch in a modest little rural greasy-spoon.
In the mid-afternoon, the road we were on, Provincial Highway 3, came down to the coast and we drove for a couple hours along the north shore of Lake Erie. Surprisingly, the southern shore (Pennsylvania, USA) is not visible from here. It’s water all the way to the southern horizon.

More surprisingly, it turns out that Pennsylvania is not where the pencil was invented.

And before anybody asks, we haven’t gone to any Amish villages, but we have seen Amish and Mennonite people around from Virginia up to here.

In the later afternoon we stopped at a lovely campground called The Ponds RV Park, near Windsor, Ontario. Again we are camped by a small lake, stocked with carp so numerous that you could just about walk across it without getting your feet wet. There is a white, cotton-ey substance floating around everywhere on the wind and it covers everything. It’s the seed pods from the local variety of poplar tree. It’s like dandelion seed pods but much finer. It’s very pretty.

Tomorrow we plan to head through Windsor, cross the bridge into Detroit, Michigan, USA, and head south for Ohio, to see Aunt Edna, Gary and Norma again. We can’t wait to see them.

PS: The proprietrix (I just invented that word. You like it?) of this park has warned me not to go swimming in the lake here in the middle of the night as the snapping turtles might get cranky. Good advice, I reckon.

Lake Erie (drive by Photograghy)

Up, Up and Away & Six States of Separation– 26/05/10 & 27/05/10

Up, Up and Away - 26/05/10

We left DC this morning and drove out to Dulles airport, where the Steven Udvar-Hazy centre of the National Air and Space Museum is located.
The centre is a very large hanger with a slightly smaller one tacked on.
The collection of aircraft (and spacecraft) in this building is just staggering. There must be more than a hundred planes in here and they’re only half the collection.
Among many other craft on display, there’s the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Also an SR-71 Blackbird, a Concorde and the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

For me, the Enola Gay was a highlight, because I had previously seen the Bockscar, the other B-29 that dropped the other atomic bomb on Nagasaki. These aircraft have an aura.
The SR-71 Blackbird is simply one of the most bad-ass planes ever built.
And I’ve always wanted to see a Space Shuttle.
But there were so many other aircraft of every shape and size. It’s an aviation geek’s dream come true.
I felt bad about dragging Pia all over the place all day but she had a ball too.
Between us we took 350 pictures.

At the end of the day, we found a really nice campground off I 66 and enjoyed dinner at a local Cracker Barrel. (Thanks Jim and Debbie).

Six States of Separation – 27/05/10

We left the campground this morning with the intention of driving up to New York City. But the closer we got the more we didn’t feel like going. We were both reluctant to return to a big city when we’ve spent so much time in big cities recently. And, of course, New York’s as big as it gets.

We had a lead on a motel in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But when we got there and saw the neighbourhood, we turned around and drove straight the hell out of there. It looked like a pit and the drug-addled sexworker plying her trade right outside the motel put us off a bit too.

Plan B was an RV park in Jersey City who wanted $60 a night, just to park and sleep in our own van. And everywhere else we’d seen was charging extra for parking on top of their room rates. We tooled around New Jersey a bit and saw Manhattan across the river, with the Empire State Building in the distance.

But at the end of the day, our hearts weren’t in it. For myself, I only wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. But it wasn’t to be. Everywhere we looked it was filthy and squalid and packed with people with dead eyes. So we fled.

We drove straight out of New York City on I 80 and turned north. In the evening we pulled up at an overpriced motel in the small town of Montecello in upstate New York, a couple hours south of Syracuse. It felt good to be driving through the beautiful countryside again. I guess we’re just not city people. Who knew?

Over the course of today, we started in Virginia and drove through West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and finished up in New York.
Six states in one day is a new record for us.

Vought F-4U Corsair

5th Wheel 40-foot caravan towed by semi prime mover with quad runner riding piggyback. Seen in upstate New York.

Space Shuttle Enterprise

Ultralight from Operation Migration. This was the real one that inspired the movie Fly Away Home.

Victim's-eye view of a P-40 Kitty Hawk.

B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay

Us with Enola Gay

Concorde

Breakfast at the campsite

SR-71 Blackbird. Still the fastest jet-powered aircraft ever made.

The Sound of Silence

Is anybody out there still reading this?
PS: Update coming soon.

Hail to the Chief - 25/05/10

For our final day in downtown DC, we began by going to the National Archives to view the original documents of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights and the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s heady stuff to be two inches from a piece of paper that directly cost tens of thousands of lives and changed the fate of the entire world for centuries to come. The only downside is that the documents are fragile and there are no photographs allowed. So if anyone wants to see them, they’ll have to wait until we get home…hehehe.

Having seen the White House yesterday, we decided to pay a visit to the White House Visitor Centre. Not only was it really informative to learn about the history of the building itself, and all the furnishings and art, but as we stood outside, some police swooped into place and blocked the intersection while the President’s motorcade drove by. For a few moments, the President of the United States was only 20 feet away.

Perhaps because the President isn’t born and raised to that position like a member of royalty, because he is a normal man of common background who steps up to the toughest job in the world, that makes him all the more impressive. Provided he does a good job, that is…

After that we went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, where we saw several great displays through the history of the USA to the present, both politically and socially.

There were displays on pop culture, art, transport, war, you name it.
But the best thing by far was a flag. It was the 24 x 32 foot (originally 24 x 42 foot) flag flown at the Battle of Fort McHenry during the war of 1812, against the British. During the battle, this very flag was seen flying over the battlements by the amateur composer Frances Scott Key and he was so moved by it that he wrote a song called “The Star Spangled Banner”. Many years later, of course, it became the national anthem of the United States.
Today it is simply know as the Star Spangled Banner.

For those who don't know, the words go:
"Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

We returned to our hotel for our last night in DC.

Us in the White House Visitor Centre

Old Peterbilt in the Museum of American History

Guess who's in there?

Julia Childs' kitchen

Monumental – 23 & 24/05/10

23/05/10

We began by visiting the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), part of the Smithsonian. It was amazing and took most of the day to see. All of the Smithsonian museums open at 10am and close as late as 7:30pm. The NMNH was absolutely awesome. We love museums.
We spent the last half of the afternoon in the Air and Space Museum, which is apparently the most visited museum in the United States. Wasn’t too busy for us though. We had a great time, saw the Wright Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the bell X1, the Apollo 11 capsule, and many other important aircraft and spacecraft. There are interactive displays and there’s a heckuva lot to see. It was one of the best days ever.
We left the Air and Space Museum at about 6:30 and returned to our hotel. Dinner at the International House Of Pancakes next door. Yummy.

24/05/10

This morning we returned to the Air and Space Museum for a few hours to finish seeing it all. While there, we also saw a movie at the planetarium about black holes and another at the IMAX in 3D about the Hubble space telescope. Talk about brilliant.
We also spent a couple hours walking around the national Art Museum.
In the afternoon we walked around downtown and saw the Capitol building, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. It is all very humbling. These monuments have been built to represent an ideal. A way of life. Admission is free to all these places because they belong to the people. They are very meaningful and it is great to have seen them. As I said, humbling.
On another note: The parks here are really thick with squirrels, ducks, geese and other critters. They don’t seem interested in us humans at all. Don’t seem real interested in the monuments either.

Back at the hotel we had beef gyros from a local Afghan restaurant for dinner. Yummy again.

You've seen this place before, right?

Washington Monument across Reflecting Pool

Abe and Mark. Same hairdresser?

Maybe next time they'll invite us inside.

The Wright Flyer. Not a replica.

Lindberg's ride.

EVA suit. Alien reflected in the visor.

Bell X-1. First aircraft to break sound barrier in 1947.

Apollo capsule. Also not a replica.

T-Rex. Impressive hardware.

Leaping Tiger

Black Panther (Jaguar)

Actual Carcharidon Megaladon jaws. In life he was about the size and weight of a semi trailer.

I'm standing about 1-foot behind it.

THE Hope Diamond

Huge Elephant in lobby of NMNH.

An early ancestor. Lifelike eyes.

The Road to Washington - 22/05/10

With heavy hearts we said goodbye to Jim and Debbie at lunchtime today.
They have welcomed us into their home and their family. We are so humbled and grateful for their kinship.

We drove north from Staunton to Bridgewater and visited great Aunt Mary again. We stayed for a couple hours and had a really great chat. Boy, she is one amazing lady.

After that we drove another hour north to the town of Strasburg. This is where Hugh’s daughter Diane lives with her husband Alan and the three youngest of their kids, Shawn (Shaun? Sean?), Nathan and Bonnie. We had a great catch up and went out to dinner together. Not too surprisingly (for this family) they were very welcoming and friendly. We had a great time.

After dinner, we hit Interstate 66 and drove east into Washington, DC.
We’re staying in a nice hotel in the historic neighbourhood of Alexandria.
We plan to stay here for the next few days to check out the Smithsonian museums and the monuments.

Family Matters - 19th - 21st May

19th May

This morning Pia and I went for a drive to Virginia Beach. It is very built up. Unfortunately we were there on a cool day in the middle of the week. So it was pretty dead. I can see though, that it would have a real vibe on a hot summer day, with people everywhere. We got lost in downtown Norfolk and made it back to Williamsburg for a late lunch. In the evening, we had a quiet night in.

20th May

Today we loaded up and left Williamsburg. We followed Jim and Debbie in their car out west over the Blue Ridge mountains to the small town of Staunton (pronounced Stanton). This is their hometown and they have a house here. It is just the prettiest little town ever. If there was ever a picture-perfect middle American town, perhaps this is it. It may even be our new favourite place in the US. We had lunch at a little place called Wright’s Dairy Rite. It is an independent diner, open since 1952. We ate inside, but you can park and order at the speakerbox, and they’ll bring your food out to you on rollerskates. Cool, huh?

21st May

This morning I had to take the van to the local garage which Jim uses. The proprieter is a friend of his. I've been hoping to delay this, but unfortunately it can't wait any longer. There is considerable vibration in the front end at highway speed and it gets very bad under braking.
As it turns out, the front brakes were completely shot. Rotors and Pads, and one of the tires was ready to pop. The other 3 tires were great. Just one was damaged.
So new front brakes and a new tire: $475. Ouch. I guess that's about the same as it would cost at home. It took me by surprise a bit because everything else car-related is so cheap here.
I guess I have no right to complain about it on a van I bought for only $1100.
On the bright side, the price of gas has just dropped as low as $2.45 per gallon.
I guess that works out at about Australian 60 cents per litre. Hope it lasts.

In the meantime, we went with Jim and Debbie to see Jim's mother, my Great-Aunt Mary. Today was her 99th birthday. Boy was it great to see her. It's hard to believe that she's 99, she looks and behaves like a 75-year-old. And a pretty well-preserved 75 year-old at that. She is as sharp as a tack and very spry. She seems to have a little arthritis, but not too bad, and she walks with a stick she doesn't seem to need, particularly. Boy, I hope that my mother and sisters and I got those genes.

We went out for a birthday lunch at Cracker Barrel, Great Aunt mary's favorite restaurant (and Pia's and mine, too). The service was unbelievable and the food was excellent. So that's normal for Cracker Barrel.

When I got the van back in the afternoon, the brakes seemed excellent. It hurts to spend that kind of money on maintenance, but I guess brakes are probably important.....

Tomorrow, we'll be on the move again. It's very sad to leave our wonderful family here. But they have lives of their own to live and someone told us that ther are still other things for us to see in North America. Apparently.

Peterbilt 387 I liked in Staunton. I'd like one of these for Christmas, please...

Rail bridge in Staunton

The main street through Staunton

Great Aunt Mary, Pia and I, on Mary's 99th birthday

Jim, Mary and Debbie

Jim and Debbie's house in Staunton

Follow that Cadillac. Following Debbie and Jim out of Richmond on the way to Staunton.

Fountain in Staunton.

This was the second Psychiatric hospital in the USA, opened in 1828. Now it's apartments and shopping. The picture doesn't show it, but this place is HUGE.