Byron, NY ( and side trip to Niagara Falls)

Today we traveled as planned from Port Huron, MI , across Ontario, thru Niagara Falls, and on to Byron, NY. We used Canadian Hwy’s 402, 401, 403, Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway, QEW, 406 and US Hwy’s 104, 98, and 262. It was a 255 mile drive. We passed thru Paris, London, and Niagara Falls all in one day, the same day the Royal Wedding was happening. Now we’ll stay 2 nights in Bryon at the Southwoods RV Resort.

The trips thru International borders today were like the last time. Good going into Canada, and bad coming back into the US.

Going into Canada first thing this morning a young woman, Customs Official, had a conversation with us after crossing the Blue Waters Bridge in Port Huron. She quickly said, “Go ahead and have a nice day.”

Getting into the US at the Lewiston, NY border crossing there was a delay in traffic of over an hour. Then, once we made it up to the gate, the US Customs Official questioned us and took the time to go thru our RV. Shortly thereafter he let us proceed thru. We didn’t have any of our produce or dog food confiscated this time.

The highways thru Ontario were very good compared to those in the western Canadian provinces. It sprinkled all along the way. Most of the sites we saw today were of farmland and golf courses, except for Niagara Falls, read on. Oddly enough we passed two places along the highways today where we saw men practice driving Trotter horses like those you’d see at Scarborough Downs. I got a blurry picture.

Anne drove most of the Canadian portion of the ride today, about 175 miles worth of it. I had to pull her off of the steering wheel today. I did that when we exited the highway and had our lunch. I don't remember where we were but it was somewhere along the QEW highway, somewhere between Hamilton and St. Catharines, Ontario.

We witnessed the wind storm devastation that happened here yesterday near St. Catharine off of Lake Ontario. Huge trees were blown down or snapped, some caused damage to houses and power lines. Most of the problems were seen after we entered the US and followed Hwy 104 from Niagara Falls to Byron, NY.

After crossing the border into the US I exited the highway and scooted maybe 5 miles over to Niagara Falls. We parked on a city street and I got out to walk over to see the ‘Falls’. Last time I saw them we stayed on the Canadian side. That’s definitely the better view but I don‘t remember getting as close to the Falls as I did today.

Our engine light came on today as we sat in the traffic jam at ‘Customs’ coming into the US. We'll try to have this checked out tomorrow. Maybe we’ll be lucky and the light will go out over night tonight.

The owners at Southwood’s RV Resort, Sue and Mike, had been great to us on the phone up until now, and even nicer now that we’re here. As we got set up Mike stopped over and introduced himself. Then he asked me if our unit was wired for Cable TV. When I said ’yes‘, he offered to hook us up with a long cable running over from the next site. He said he has just made a deal with Time Warner Cable for the Resort, but they don’t have all the wiring done yet. So, that’s a nice fringe benefit and a nice thing for him to do. The internet signal works great here too.

Now I'll try to add some pictures to this blog.

We'll leave here tomorrow, Sunday, May 1. We’re planning to go to Johnstown, NY to stay at Royal Mountain Campsite.