Upper Mid West USA & a little bit in Ontario

Hello Everyone:

Doug and I decided to go to Niagara Falls after all, so when we were in New York State we made our way up to see Niagara Falls USA first and then we planned to see Niagara Falls Ontario next.   We camped near the falls in the USA side and got up early and drove up to see the falls.  It was packed with people, and to go across a tiny platform to see the falls at a better site they wanted $17.00 each!
Everywhere we looks is was buy this buy that, all they seem to want is your money!!
So the pictures you see are from the side lines, not from the platform. LOL  Cheap Canadians we are!

That is Niagara Falls Ontario in the background.

This is the Maid of the Mist, which goes close to the falls, look how many people they pack onto that boat.  Both Doug and I just were not interested in jamming in with everyone, no thanks!

So we went back to the campground and got the trailer and headed for customs and Ontario.

The "Rainbow Bridge" as they call it cost us $11.25 toll to cross and about 1 1/2 hours to get to front of the line.  The custom guard could of cared less who we were, and what we had.  What was so maddening is that we were so Legit, it was funny.  We had hardly any booze, no fruit, no Veg and no 

tobacco...was a breeze, I wish they would have searched us over and over as they would not have found anything!  This time LOL

This is Niagara Falls Not taken from the bridge.  We were planning on staying a night or two, and went to a tourist information centre right after we crossed the bridge to inquire about getting a campsite.  They phoned the local KOA that was in town and they wanted $102.00 a night!!!! Are you kidding me!!! Doug just about had a fit, so bye bye Niagara Falls, and on to a more reasonable place to camp.

We ended up at Pinery Provincial Park.  It was huge, about 1000 different sites, and it is right on lake Huron.

One thing that we both have notice is that the Great Lakes are massive, and crystal clear.  They look to be sandy bottom, and therefore a lot of people have cabins and houses on these lakes.  It is reassuring how clean these lakes are now a days, as it seems all the lakes in Alberta have turned to swamps.

These are some of the signs that we came across as we were driving around the Park.

Not sure I am a fan of this one, but we did not see any snakes, lucky us!

Lake Huron and its sandy beach

Sand dunes going down to the lake

how clear and clean the lake it!!

So into Michigan we go.  We see a lot of "Corn Fields" and other crops, not sure what they are, I think they are sugar beets.  We stopped at a tourist information place, and they told us about the

"Worlds Largest Christmas Store"!!  Yahoo!! I am so there.  (Brian would be proud) So off we went and camped around this town. It is done in a German Theme and brought back memories of when we went to Germany, and the Christmas Store was Amazing.  This store was located in Frankenmuth Michigan.  Wally Bronner founded this store in 1945, he passed away in 2008, and the store is packed with workers, and tourists

The music, lights and decorations were absolutely beautiful!!

Everyone there were in a great mood, and we bought a few things for Christmas.

This place is also known for having the longest covered bridge build in this century.  It was cool to drive over it, and something to check off our bucket list.

Did not get a ride in this carriage as it started to rain.

As we made our way up the centre of Michigan, to the upper Peninsula, we learned a few local tidbits

the people of the lower peninsula are called "Trolls" and the people of the upper peninsula are call

"Yoopies".  I think we are just called Canadians!  This is the bridge, which is 5 miles long, that goes from lower Michigan to the upper Peninsula.  Of course it cost money - toll bridge $8.00

First glance of Lake Michigan, clean and clear like all the other great lakes.

So as we were sitting outside of our campsite, we met a old fellow who told us to make sure were go to Kitch-iti-kipi lake.  It was totally free, and it was a crystal clear lake that has the depth of 40 feet, with large lake trout swimming around.  You go on a raft that is manned by anyone who volunteers, and slowly make your way across this spring feed pond and back again.  It was almost magical and absolutely beautiful, how it could be so clear, and the fish swimming around without a care in the world.  The raft would hold about 40 people, and goes at a snails pace across the pond.  One of the little things that we have come across talking to the local people. Wonderful! 

The raft slowly making it way

how clear the water was, you could see the bubbles from the spring that feeds the pond.

Trout swimming around, some would be at least 15 pounds.  This is a something that the state of Michigan is doing right, as it was free, and absolute a joy to see and do.

We are now in Wisconsin, and slowly making our way west.  We have left the waters of the ocean, and the waters of the great lakes and looking forward to seeing the prairies again.  It does not seem that we have been gone 3 months, but it has.  Hope all is well with everyone, and we do enjoy hearing from you when you got a minute.

Narrisa & Warren -  a note to you that Shauna went and saw Dana perform in Edmonton, and she is now known as the girl who missed her plane LOL, She loved the show and is one of her biggest fans!

Play safe everyone and until next week

Doug & Judy

Eastern USA

Hello Friends:

Well we left Maine (and the sea food) and headed to New Hampshire.
We did not get very far and Doug said "We have a big problem", and as I looked out the mirror
all I could see was smoke!.  So Doug stopped right away, on a Highway with no shoulder, and on a curve to boot.  We pulled into somebody's yard, and of course they were not home, just our luck, but the man across the street came over to help us out.  The duel tires were touching each other, not good!
Paul the man across the street had phone numbers to call, and we got in touch with a RV place not too far away.  They sent a man out named "Johnny", you just had to laugh at him, he was such a "Red Neck" as anyone could be.  He had a moustache like a foo man chew, but he knew right away what the problem was.  It was a broken spring on the back rear tire....to make a long story short.  They fixed the spring, and charged us a lot, and funny thing is that the yard that we pulled into, the people never did show up, so they never knew we were even there LOL
So that put us back a bit, but not our spirits.  We have found in our travels that people are really nice and are very helpful when you are in need.  We have talked to and asked advice to a lot of really nice people along the way.

 Then  off to Vermont with a lot of excitement as we heard that Vermont is beautiful.  As we do not have maps of these states or camping guides, we were first looking for tourist information in each state we travelled thru.
It was impossible to find any tourist information in New Hampshire, or where to go for the information we needed?? so we travelled right on thought,
Vermont was the same.  We asked everywhere we stopped for a map?? or camping guide?? with no luck.  They do not have tourist information places like we have in Canada.  When you are travelling blind so to speak you don't know what you are missing?? but have to choice but to plow ahead as you have no information about what to see??
Vermont was very hilly and with thick forest, so we could see how beautiful it would be in the fall when all the trees turn colour!

One of many covered bridges that we have seen.

We did notice how big the houses are that are everywhere, old Victorian stye houses, and they all seem to have porches with rocking chairs, but they are huge.

A lot of the small towns have these big stone churches, that are beautiful!

So we drove thru Vermont and headed for Massachusetts and on the way we came across this bridge of flowers.  It is a abandoned trolly bridge, that the town of Shelburne Falls turned it into a bridge of flowers.  It was beautiful, and most of the flowers were in full bloom. 

A strange tree wrapped around a pole?

then not too far away we came across this covered bridge! I thought all the covered bridges we painted red! like the movie "Bridges over Madison Country" my personal favourite movie!  but they are mostly natural wood, they usually have a name, and what year they were built.

We like to camp in state parks as much as we can, and so with the limited information we had, there was a state park called Savoy forest state park in Massachusetts.  We drove about 20 "miles"

on a gravel dirt road with hopes that they would have room for a big trailer!  They have one site only for a trailer the rest are for tenters, and we lucked out and got the only site there was!  It was amazing, and very remote and quite!  We stated 2 nights and enjoyed every minute.

They had 2 ponds that had swimming in it and the ponds we crystal clear!

The "Erie Canal"

So as we were looking at a map of where we should go next, Doug sees "Cooperstown, New York State" and says!

"that is where the baseball hall of fame is -  we should go there as we are so close!

So of course we went!!

We drove to a  park and ride, and for a all day pass for $2.00 a trolly picked you up and took you to the highlights!

The entrance to the baseball hall of fame!

Now, not really being a baseball nut, let me tell you, there are people that were there, that think these players are right up there with "God".  The amount that they worship these players, and the fields that they played on to me was quite humorous.  I had to remind myself not to make fun of this, but to bite my tongue and just enjoy what was around me!

38,000 bats, balls, uniforms, gloves etc.

130,000 baseball cards

2 million research files

500,000 black and white and colour photographs

12,000 hours of recorded media

and we were there!

Of course there was a whole room dedicated to Babe Ruth!

There were on so many "signed Bats", "signed Balls" and "Gloves" a person can look at before they all look the same!

This was funny, it was statues of famous fans that were dedicated to their teams!  Mostly older folks!

They had a whole room dedicated to who was named to the "hall of fame" and what year they were name, I could not help but notice that this guys nick name was "Judy" - bet he was a great guy I am sure of it!!

After the Hall of Fame we went to a winery, and a couple of local breweries, which is always fun.

You meet all kinds of people there and get all kinds of advice of what you should see and do. 

When we were going across northern New York State, just below Lake Ontario, there were hundreds of corn fields.  They use the corn for feed for cattle.  Also lots of Apple orchards, cabbage crops, and sugar beets.

We are headed for Niagara Falls and are going to cut across lower Ontario to Michigan, and head home from there.  Probably won't be home until the middle of September.  We have put on

15,000 Kms on the truck, and are having a most amazing time.

Play safe, and chat next week

Doug and Judy