Niagara Falls

Sorry we are bit behind with the blogging.  It has been so difficult getting decent wifi when we have been in more remote areas.  The campsites are advertised as having wifi, and they do, but......
The "but" being that it has to be shared with all the campers, and they all want to use it at the same time as we do, - in the evening.  Couple that with having precious little mobile phone signal in between mountains, and you will understand the issues.

So apologies for the late arrival of Niagara Falls blog post!  It was too important to skimp.

We arrived at Niagara Falls on 6 September, 2016 at about 2 pm.  The drive into Canada was exciting from the point of view that we had made it to Canada.  The towns of Buffalo, and Niagara themselves are nothing to write home about.  Both are quite large towns.  Both have some non-desirable parts!  Customs control was not a problem going into Canada.  They seemed very relaxed.

The drive into Niagara Falls, Canada was pleasant enough.  As we approached the Falls, we could see mist ascending from the river.  At first it was a bit of an anticlimax as we looked at the river bank we were traveling on.  Then, we rounded a bend and were immediately at Niagara Falls!

WOW!

It was incredible.  No stopping on the road to view this wonderful sight.  We drove on to look for a parking space.
Nothing doing!  We tried a couple of places, until we were directed to a coach park just a bit away from the attraction.  Brilliant!  Plenty of room for Harvey, without having to worry.
A short walk back down a hill of hotels and restaurants and we were back at the river bank.
Looking out ahead we could see the Falls.  Not very impressive, I thought, then realised that these fall were the American Falls.  Pretty, and having a charm of their own.  But not what we came to see.

American Falls

Then it became clear that we had to walk half a mile or so to the REAL Niagara Falls.  It was simple. Follow the crowds.  That's what everyone had come to see.
Each step brought with it an increased WOW factor!  We snapped away merrily with the camera, and paused every few metres to appreciate a gradually improving panorama.
The noise was increasing with every step we took too.

Rainbows emerged as the sun refracted through the mist being thrown up by the Falls.
It was one of the most wonderful sights we have ever had.  Beautiful, grand, majestic, awesome, vast, timeless, constant, thunderous, noisy, magnificent.  All adjectives are not able to express the awesome-ness of the Niagara Falls.
Our pictures will give a little impression of a big experience.

On the way back from Canada, we decided to have another look at the Falls before heading back south.  This time was on 8 September, two days later.
The weather was not so good, and it was overcast and humid.  Temperature was still in the mid 30's (deg C).
We decided to take a ticket for the "Journey Behind The Falls".  We had to take a lift down into the caves and tunnels below.

An open area with a viewing platform was our first call.  We had to wear a throw-away yellow poncho!  We could feel the spray soaking us as we stood in front of the Falls.

Then we walked a hundred metres or more through a tunnel to view the waters from behind the Falls.  Awesome indeed.
It wasn't what we expected.  We had expected there to be like a verandah type of panoramic walkway with the Falls in front of us.  What we experienced was a small opening in the rock face with a railing to stop you getting too close!  It was like being at the back of your garage with the up-and-over door open, and a wall of water tipping down over the opening, with you at the back of the garage.

Behind the Falls, as close as we could get

Still very impressive though.
An amazing experience at Niagara Falls.
Having walked into town twice from the river bank to Harvey, we were surprised in a disappointing way to discover what the most part of the town is like away from the Falls.  It is like Blackpool on Sea, only more of it.  Casinos, amusement arcades, fairground rides, pizza, bingo and the like.
The best view is most definitely from the Canadian side.  A view from the USA side would not be half so grand.

Coming back into USA was interesting!
We got pulled over and briefly interrogated.  He shot off quick-fire questions to Tim about where we had been, when did we arrive in USA, where were we going now, who's RV was it, where do they live (that was a bit of a complicated answer!), why was Harvey registered in California (I DON"T KNOW), were we carrying any guns on board, any fresh vegetables (we could probably have made a fake gun or something), and more.
Fortunately, Tim was able to have his wits about him, and successfully answer all of the questions, - except "What is the licence plate number".
Arghh!  You got me there buddy!
Then we were back in USA, no problem.
Awesome is the only word for Niagara Falls.

Dinner on the train.

One thing I've always wanted to do is to have a romantic a meal on an old train. Well, on our trip back from Canada we went through Wellsboro again. This is the lovely town we had a meal in an American diner and busked. We knew there was a dinner train there and Tim, being the wonderful man he is, suggested we booked to go for the evening.

We travelled from Wellsboro station VERY slowly to the dam of the Tioga-Hammond Lakes. It was beautiful! The scenery started with a power station and a milk factory, past woodlands where BEARS live. We came out into the most beautiful scenery. What a great way to spend the evening.






The meal was really good. We had the last seats as we only booked it that afternoon but we were quite happy! We started with a salad (it had a name apart from 'salad' but I can't remember it), then had a lovely pork meal with mashed potato with bacon and other things (not sure what), and mixed mediterranean veggies (I saw peppers). It was hot and well presented. The portions were good too. it was served with a choice of homemade lemonade, water, or sweet tea. The desert was a blueberry cheesecake. It was all very tasty.

There were four carriages. Each carriage was slightly different, and one was open sided. The whole journey was 2 hours and so after the meal, we went to the open carriage. It was lovely! Lakes, eagles, sun going down and a refreshing breeze. Perfect!

The open carriage

Corn Hole

Labor Day over here is a public holiday.  It is the first Monday in September, and we were advised that the campsites would be fully booked, and we needed to book in advance or else we wouldn’t stand a chance of a campsite.  The whole Labor Day thing occurs over not just the Monday, but actually starts on the Friday before and extends to the Monday.

So, we booked ahead for four nights in Covington Pennsylvania on a lovely site in the top of a mountain.

Our neighbours looked a bit unsociable and didn’t want to acknowledge that we even existed, - or so we thought.  The following day I was checking the oil on Harvey, and the neighbour’s dog decided to see if I was interested in a game of playing with his bone!  I stopped to wrestle with the beautiful black Labrador puppy and the neighbour started up a conversation about the dog, etc, etc.

Neighbour Jason and his wife turned out to be thoroughly nice guys and not how we first thought.  He is a teacher and was most helpful to us.  In fact, on the Saturday afternoon of Labor weekend, he invited us to play Corn Hole with him, his family, and other campers in the gap between all the RVs.

Ruth lobs her bean bag

Tim's go

Flying red bean bag

Corn Hole not something we’ve ever come across before.  It reminded me of the French game of boules.  Not because of the things used to play the game, but because of the sociable nature of the game.  Anyone can play it.  It’s not complicated.  And it bridges age, gender, and all levels of expertise.  It basically can be a game that just doesn’t matter how you do.  Or it can be deadly serious stuff with leagues and competitions.

The rules are simple.

You have four bean bags.

You endeavour to throw your bean bags across a gap of 27 feet, onto a board of wood with a hole in it.

Basically, whoever gets more bean bags in the hole wins.  There are consolation points for how many bean bags hit the board and stay on the board.  But getting bags in holes is the name of the game.

Ruth proved herself to be a handy dead-shot.
Better than Yahtzee!!