New York (6/25/2015)

It is moving on day again.  Since we had our casino night last night (and I didn't do laundry), I was over at the laundry at 6:00 a.m. and got that taken care of.  So I had a chance to capture the sunrise and take a few pictures of this very nice campground.

Lake Erie in the Background

We had a little trouble with our electric cord hooking up to the car, so Joe had to mess with that a little to get the brake lights on the car to come on, but we were on the road about 10:00, a beautiful, sunny morning in the 70s.  We were on the hunt for fuel, and finally bit the bullet and paid $2.959 for some in Westfield, NY, then later saw a little area where gas was $2.599.  Our Gas Buddy didn't tell us that.

We crossed the New York state line at 10:35, so we weren't very far from New York in Erie.

We mostly drove Highway 5 through here, jumping over to Highway 20 looking for fuel.  We were going to hop up on I-90, but it was a toll road so we avoided that.  Coming into Buffalo was pretty too, with the city of Buffalo sitting right on the banks of Lake Erie.  I understand now why they frequently get large snowfalls here.  Although Lake Erie was on one side, the industrial area on the other side of the highway was mostly vacated, and the buildings were in disrepair.  There were some old steel mills, and a stamping mill (it might have been still operating).  All very interesting stuff.

We picked up the bypass here and worked our way around to the northeast side to the town of Lockport, which is part of the Erie Canal system.  We intend to take a cruise on that, going through the locks, while we are here.

As we drove around on the bypass, we spotted some buffalo statutes "grazing" but I barely got a picture of them.  (you have to look close between the trees)  I saw a few other buffalo statutes as we drove up to Lockport, so maybe I'll get a chance to take their picture later.

  We arrived at our campground about 2:00, and settled in for the day.  I even took a nap.  Marilyn has been busy trying to get us set up with campgrounds in Canada for the next few days, and we are all trying to get our ducks in a row to cross the border -- insurance cards, notify credit card companies, add Canada to our phone plan.  Get our passports out.  We congregated again and made our plans here for the next couple of days, and then Marilyn and I beat Joe and Collins again in Hand & Foot.

We only drove 127 miles today, but the drive was very pretty, tons and tons of grape arbors through here, and several wineries.

The Canada phone plan we chose only gives us 100 talk minutes and 100 megabytes of data, but unlimited text.  So anyone wanting to reach us after Monday should just text any of the three of us.  I'll have to watch for WiFi to get the blog posted because we won't be using our Hotspot either.  We think we will be in Canada for about a week, then coming into Detroit for a couple weeks before we head back to Canada for the long haul.

Today I should get to check off another item on my bucket list -- NIAGARA FALLS.  I'm excited that I am getting to finally see that.

Seeing Erie, PA (6/24/2015)

Today was our day to tour Erie, especially the harbor area.  Marilyn and Collins spent last evening doing laundry from about 9:00 until 11:00 p.m., but they were up and ready to hit the road before we were.  Of course, I spent an hour getting the blog updated, so that took care of my morning, and I let Joe sleep in.  Marilyn and Collins headed out first to see if they could find a Visitor Center, and to scope out the vet clinic where the Johnsons had an appointment this afternoon for Ar'gent.  We met up with them at the Erie Maritime Museum.  Outside this museum and library was a very nice memorial to 9/11.  The beautiful flag had the names of all the victims printed in very small letters, and the "steel column was recovered from the wreckage of the Twin Towers at Ground Zero in New York City following the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001."

The Maritime Museum was pretty interesting.  We first viewed a video of the battle at Lake Erie in 1813, and it was very engaging -- one of the more interesting films of this kind that I have ever seen.  There were lots of artifacts on display.  This building was an old generating plant, and some of that equipment was on display which Joe was very interested in and knowledgeable about. 

There was a large fish at the entrance to the museum, so Joe wanted Mazie to understand what a "big" fish looked like!

There were 2 floors of exhibits, and some other film clips.  I don't know what most of this stuff is, but I will post a few pictures.

different sizes of cannon balls

square sails

They had a nice display of knots.  Joe, of course, took a picture describing how to tie each one since he and John were trying to learn "a knot a day" while we were in Florida.

If anyone wants to learn how to tie any other specific knot, let me know -- I have pictures.

We finished up here and drove over to the Bicentennial Tower.  "The Bicentennial Tower is an observation tower located in Erie, Pennsylvania and features panoramic views of Lake Erie, Presque Isle State Park, and downtown Erie. The tower was built to signify the city's bicentennial year 1996. It is 187 feet tall and has 2 observation decks."  First we had lunch at a very nice seafood restaurant, Smuggler's Wharf," at the foot of the Tower.

 

This was a lovely restaurant, with outdoor seating along the water, and on the patio which was filled with beautiful pots of flowers.  We ate inside, but we did have a nice view of the water.

You can see the Tower in the background, but here is a better picture.  There is a snack bar and gift shop at the bottom.

But the real treat is the view from the top.  You can walk all around it, so you get the full panoramic view of Lake Erie and the town of Eric.

There were a few different kind of boat cruises available here, including a paddle wheeler that was picking up it's load of passengers while we were up here.

And we spotted a tugboat pushing a barge out.  Collins noted that the barge was riding pretty high in the water so it must have been empty.

Dave opted out of the trip to the top (I think he thought it would be cold up there, and it WAS), but we kept an eye on him.

We left here and drove Dave and Mazie back to the campground so they could take their dog to the vet to get her certification papers to cross into Canada.  Then we headed back out to Presque Isle -- there was an interpretive center we wanted to go to, and Joe wanted to walk on at least one of the beaches.  We ran into Collins and Marilyn on the way to the Center and joined them there.  That was more of a science center than we expected, but there was a film, and lots of displays about the fish, plants, etc.  Joe spent some time in front of the fish display trying to match up the pictures with the fish on display.  

Then we headed to the beach.  He needed a soda, so we stopped at a drive-in restaurant where everyone was eating orange/white ice cream cones, so I decided I had to have me one of those.  It tasted like a dreamsicle (my personal favorite of the popsicles/fudgsicles-type ice cream), and it was probably the best one I had ever eaten.

We ended up driving the entire island again, but we did find a beach not far from the parking lot, and we walked over to it.  I knew I needed to put my toe in the water (even without Mazie), so I removed my shoes and socks and just stood in the water, which was quite chilly.  Joe said the water temperature here is around 65 degrees, not an Arizona pool!  I wasn't too sure about walking over to the beach, I kept thinking I should get back and do my laundry, but it turned out to be a very nice respite.  The water was beautiful, the sand was nice, and then I found a bunch of flat stones that I just knew would come in handy, so I filled my shoe with some of those.

I've now had my feet in one of the Great Lakes!

Joe said he was looking for a blue heron?????

We probably spent a very enjoyable half hour or so here.  Made us wish we had another day just to spend here at the beach.  (Think how many more shoes I could fill with flat stones)

In addition to driving, walking, biking, you could also rent segways or surreys to enjoy this island.  We didn't see anyone on segways, but we did see a couple of surreys.

Finally, we left, and Joe had his own Excellent Adventure.  Just off this peninsula or island is an old fashioned amusement park which we have passed several times.  With a wooden roller coaster.  So as we got beside it again, he decided he needed to take a ride on that roller coaster.  So into the parking lot we went to find out the price and see if it was even running.  It was, and for $4.50, he could have a ride.

Joe is second row, in the gray shirt

Since Joe had his great adventure, he graciously offered to take Mazie and me to the casino tonight, so we went back to the campground and picked her up, then headed out to Presque Isle Downs and Casino.  Joe bet on 3 horse races, lost the first one by a nose, the second one by a neck, and the third one his horse threw the jockey into the chute, then when he was reloaded into the chute, he was rearing up when they opened the chute and he came out last.  So Joe lost all 3 races.  Mazie didn't fare much better at the slots, but I think I came out $5 ahead.  We left there about 8:45 (sun hadn't set yet), and came on back to camp.  Needless to say, my laundry is still waiting to get done.  Hopefully, I can get up early in the morning and get it finished before everyone is ready to move on.  Tomorrow we are heading to NEW YORK!  (I've never been to New York).