And Now for Something Completely Different

Day 16 (Sunday, June 23) was another travel day, but this time we had an end destination in our sights, as I said in the last blog. We got going by 8:40 and spent the day driving through outstanding scenery, mostly the White Mountains. As R.J. said, it’s like driving from Lewiston to Winona 80 times in one day. Lots of ups and downs, for sure!  We finished our time in Maine and went on through New Hampshire and into Vermont. We stopped and went grocery shopping in a Shaw’s store in New Hampshire. It was fun to shop in pounds and ounces again, after converting from grams for a week, and the selection of products was more familiar. We took US Highway 2 through northern New Hampshire and Vermont, and then picked up Interstate 91 in eastern Vermont. Wow, those were some amazing vistas, along with some incredible rock cuts. It was work to make that road!

We went off the beaten path to get to the rustic cabin of our destination. Any set of directions that includes going through TWO covered bridges is definitely off the beaten path! The road went back and forth through the woods like a pendulum. What fun! (Of course, I was just the passenger, not the driver....) We finally arrived at the cabin at around 2:45 in the afternoon. We settled in to our hideaway, with me tromping around the woods to explore a bit. It was a bit hot for us, especially coming off a trip to northern locations, so we didn’t do too much. This is a great place for relaxing. The inside of the cabin was fully equipped with everything we would need, thanks to Darva’s kindness. We had water to wash and to drink, kerosene lamps and flashlights, beds with bedding, and a loving note to greet us. We passed our evening with a little of R.J. reading Anne to me and a little visiting.

The next morning, we got up early to get a jump on a big day of driving. Day 17 would take us to Niagara Falls, Ontario, after passing through the rest of Vermont and getting across New York again. The first part of the morning brought delightful scenery as we made our way through more mountains. Way too soon, though, we were past the mountains. I have been spoiled by the scenery of the past two weeks; this stretch or Interstate did not seem very interesting to me. Still, it was a good day of driving, with breaks here and there along the way. We made it to the Buffalo/Niagara area at about 3:00 in the afternoon to find lots of traffic as we made our way to the Rainbow Bridge across the Niagara River. We had reservations on the Canadian side of Niagara, so we got ready to cross the border again. This border crossing was quite different from our previous ones. With lots and lots of traffic and lots and lots of lanes for the crossing, it was kind of crazy!

Crossing into Ontario

Little did we know that “kind of crazy” was about to become our theme! We missed the quick turn to our motel on the first try, so we wandered around Niagara Falls, Ontario for a while before finding our way back. Our motel is nestled in a very handy location to everything we want to do – mainly, see the Falls! It is a five-minute walk, so our car has just stayed in the parking lot for our whole visit here. However, what our motel is nestled in is a hotbed of activity. It’s kind of like we landed on the midway of the state fair: loud “barkers” (recorded messages on loudspeakers) beckon us in to each storefront we pass by. Fast food is everywhere.  We see a ferris wheel from our parking lot. Outrageous designs cover the buildings.  It was such an extreme contrast from the unplugged night in Vermont, that we just settled in our motel room and kind of hid for the night. I did venture out and get a burger and fries (at Wendy’s, across the street) and felt lucky to make it back intact. The other excitement of the evening was that we were surrounded by two coach-busses-worth of high schoolers, on a trip of some sort. They were definitely having a great time, running back and forth between rooms, screaming, and knocking on all the doors as they passed. Made me feel OLD! They quieted down early enough, and we had a good night’s sleep.

View from our parking lot

We awoke on Day 18 (Tuesday, June 25) to our day at the Falls. We decided to eat breakfast quickly (continental breakfast, served in the Ruby Tuesday’s right next door to the motel) and head down to the Maid of the Mist for our up close look at the Falls. I had purposely only glanced at the Falls on the way in, to leave the full experience for the following day. We knew that the first scheduled departure of the Maid of the Mist was at 9:00, and we intended to be on it. We stood in line with a couple of tour groups, all of us decked out in “Maid of the Mist” blue ponchos. It’s not called Maid of the Mist for nothing! Soon enough we all were on the boat and ready to head to the falls. It was windy and that mist was whipping in our faces. At times, it was impossible to see a thing, especially because we both wear glasses. Still, it was an adventure and I found it extremely funny. I kept wiping off my camera lens and even wiped off my glasses once (wasn’t sure it was worth the trouble). We went past Bridal Veil Falls (the bigger one) and Horseshoe Falls (slightly smaller) and then headed back to the port. It wasn’t a long ride, but it can be said that we fully experienced Niagara Falls. We saw it. We smelled it. We heard it. We felt it. Yes, we even tasted it! And, for the rest of the day after that, my hair did the best Bozo the Clown imitation ever. No matter what I tried – Bozo.

Our ride on the Maid of the Mist

We spent a little time walking through the gardens beside the falls. There were many beautiful flowers! We also walked up and down the walkway beside the Falls, to get some different views of it all. Then we walked up and down our street, labeled “Clifton Hill, The Street of Fun at the Falls.” We shook our head at the many novelties we observed. We later discussed the fact that we understand why this would be appealing, and we decided we would probably have enjoyed it more if we had kids with us. However, we generally prefer fun that is “less populated.” The whole experience was overly commercialized. Still, it was an adventure! During the afternoon, we spent some time resting up for another big travel day to come, venturing out to get me an ice cream cone at one point, and again at night so I could get some pictures of the Falls all lit up. I updated pictures on Facebook, in spite of the fact that this we had a really terrible Internet connection. It took about 1.5 hours to do what would normally take ten minutes. Therefore, I did not attempt to post a blog.

Wednesday, June 26 (Day 19) was here before we knew it. We wanted to get a fairly early start, knowing we had to wait for an 8:00 breakfast start time. We got ready and took a load of things down to the car as we headed to breakfast.  We were on the road by 8:30, but this was not to be our ideal travel day. First of all, we had a hard time getting out of  Niagara Falls itself. After stopping to reorient ourselves, we finally chose a road we thought would work. One thing we wanted to do on this leg of the trip was to see Lake Ontario (second of the five Great Lakes). We pulled off the main highway to get a better look, thinking we would find a scenic overlook. Not so much. We pulled into a marina parking lot and I snapped a few pictures. Then we got back in the car and looked for something else. Finally, about five miles later, we found a little park called “Nelle’s Beach Park” in Historic Grimsby Beach. We walked down to the water and I took a few more pictures. Lake Ontario – check! We weren’t back on the highway for ten minutes before we were in a traffic backup, due to an accident up ahead. We crawled along for about an hour and forty-five minutes. This was a long travel day in the first place, so we did not need to add to it! In the grand scheme of things, though, this was the first traffic backup we have encountered in all our travels, so that’s not too bad.

Us, on Lake Ontario

We made our way across Ontario toward Sarnia, where we would cross into Port Huron, Michigan. This was our best border crossing yet. We came up to the toll bridge, and I had exact change (in Canadian coins) so we went right through. And then we only had to wait for one car ahead of us at the border crossing. We are back in the USA once again! We finally arrived at our motel in Mackinaw City just after 6:00. We checked in and went to our room. I thought it would be nice, but I didn’t know it would be THIS nice! It is an amazing treat to be in a room – a suite, really – like this. We have a beach view AND a Lake Huron view AND a bridge view AND a Mackinac Island view - in addition to the cool room. Oh, and we will also have a sunrise view tomorrow morning. Guess who is getting up early? This is the life!

The living room of our suite

The view off our deck