Sept 7th

Ready for the mist

At about 9:30am or so we headed to the falls – Niagara Falls that is.  I just discovered today that I was misspelling it so I went back and fixed at least a couple of places.  The first thing we did was take a ride on the “Maid of the Mist” boat to the foot of Horseshoe Falls.  There are several “Maids” with a pair operating out of each side of the river below the falls, i.e. the American and Canadian sides.  The boats leave the dock every 15 minutes throughout the day in season.  They give each passenger a “souvenir” poncho to wear for protection.  They don’t tell you that you are going to need it and that you probably need some waterproof boots too.  Here is a slide show of our visit to Niagara Falls.

After the boat ride we had a Starbucks coffee and waited for the IMAX show about Niagara to begin – Carol loves IMAX movies and I do too.

Niagara on the Lake

After the IMAX show we got back into the Tracker and headed east to the little town of Niagara on the Lake.  This place is a must-see for anyone in the area.  Picturesque

One more ride past the falls and then back to the coach to plan for tomorrow – we still have no firm plans – and back to the States.

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Sept 6th

Fall flowers

We left the Montreal area around 8am and drove all day arriving at Niagara Falls, Canada at about 4pm.  Rain threatened all day but all we got were a few sprinkles here and there.  Fall is on the way – we saw lots of trees beginning to turn color and the fields between and beneath the trees were glowing with golden flowers – probably not good for those with allergies but beautiful to look at.

When we started the traffic was pretty light but as the day wore on it grew heavier and heavier.  Part of the traffic increase was because we had to go through the Toronto area but it was probably mostly due to people returning from the last weekend of summer.  The drive through or rather around Toronto was pretty hairy.  At one point Carol counted 15 lanes of traffic coming at us and the highway we were on was at least 6 lanes wide in each direction.

We are staying at Scott’s Tent & Trailer Park just down the street from the KOA on Lundy’s Lane.  The internet access here is good compared to the last two stops at KOA’s.  The KOA’s had very slow connections and the last one even limited the amount of data you could transfer.  I don’t know if all KOA’s are like that or not but this access is much better.

Horseshoe Falls lit up

We heard the the falls at night were a must see and we hadn’t had enough driving yet so we went into town to see them.  It was crowded and very tacky with lots of souvenir shops and lots of high-rise hotels and even a casino overlooking the falls.  There was no information or maps available so we just wandered around in the dark and eventually had to stop and ask for directions.  We will try again tomorrow with a fresh start and maybe a map?

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Sept 5th

We got an early (for us) start on our trip to Montreal.  Carol had looked up what the guide books said about what there is to see and talked to our friend Frank (a native Canadian and, therefore, expert) for his opinions.  We got to the city and were parked for free by 9:00am.

Free parking is something to talk about in Montreal because the city has a computerized system for paying for on street parking.  Each parking spot in the city is numbered.  To pay for parking you note the ID number of your parking spot and go to any – and there are many – parking payment machine, enter your parking spot ID and buy up to two hours at twenty-five cents per quarter-hour.  You can do this at any parking payment machine in the city.  If you park at a time that is free the machine will not let you enter a payment – you must wait until you owe money.  So you can wander around without worrying about getting back to your car.  The downside of this is that you must wait until your previous parking period – free or not – has expired before you can enter a new payment.  If you wait too long after the period has expired you will get a ticket.

My LOVE

Turns out that today was the day they held the Montreal Marathon and there were more than 2000 runners expected with races right through the city.  We found a nice Tim Horton’s donut shop right on the race path and had coffee and donuts while watching the runners go by.

We toured the city according to the suggestions we had gotten and decided that it was too windy and cold (it was probably not that cold but the wind made it feel cold so it was) to hang around much.  We took about half of one self-guided walking tour and decided to call it quits and go back to our coach.  We did drive up to Mont Royal Park before we left and it was quite nice.  Here is a slide show of the few photos we took.

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Sept 4th

A short (about 3 hours) trip to our next camp site at the KOA nearest to Montreal.  We had thought that the Canadians wouldn’t be celebrating Labor Day, at least not on the same day as the US does but we were wrong.  It is a good thing that we found a camp site.

The drive was easy – just straight down highway 20.  The weather is cool and rainy but we don’t care about today because we are just kicking back and resting a little.  Tomorrow we will head into Montreal for a visit to Old Montreal.

No photos today – we’ll try to do better tomorrow.

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Sept 3rd

Montmorency Falls

We decided to take a look at Montmorency Falls just east of Quebec City.  The falls are higher than Niagra but tiny in comparison.  We made the mistake of paying to park ($9.50) when we could have just parked and walked in.  The best view was from the highway (40/440) at the bottom – oh well.

Quebec Funicular

We drove back into the city and parked at the cheapest place available – $7 for 12 hours – and walked downhill into the city.  We walked all the way down to the waterfront again and had some lunch, coffee, and gelato.  We rode the funicular back up from the river to the main city level.  Just spent time sitting and people-watching – fun and relaxing.  Tomorrow it is on to Montreal.

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Sept 2nd

A gate to old city

We had scheduled a motor tour of the city with Old Quebec Tours and figured we use the tour as an overview so we would know what we wanted to go back and see later in our visit.  Our tour guide was named Phillip and he was quite pleasant with a slight, but not bad, French accent.  He did talk fast however, and since he had so much information to give us it was pretty overwhelming.  Carol called his dialogue a “Berlitz Blitz”.  When the tour was over we returned to the KOA for lunch and to pick up our tow car and return to the city.

We conducted our own walking tour of the city and the waterfront area with various stops for a Starbuck’s coffee and cookies and some gelato..  We ended our grazing with a small but tasty pizza at a small restaurant in the waterfront area.

Cirque du Soleil

After our pizza dinner we hurried to an area under a couple of freeway overpasses where we had read that there were daily shows by members of the Cirque du Soleil. We have seen Cirque du Soleil performances before in Las Vegas and really liked them.

On our way “home” from the show we passed some public buildings and a fountain along with a long series of old grain elevators that serve as sort of artistic movie screens at night.  The photos are in this slide show.

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Sept 1st

Today begins our second month on the road.  After 6 really nice nights at my sister Diane’s house in Friendship, Maine we moved on to Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.  The trip took us about 8 hours – we are really slow but we have a good time – and we passed some spectacular scenery in Northwest Maine.  Carol saw a moose but I missed it and it was not advisable to slam on the brakes and turn around so I will have to see it through her eyes.  Sorry but no pictures today – fell down on the job.

All went well until we reached Canadian Customs.  They decided that we looked suspicious or maybe didn’t like my answers to their many questions and they told us to pull over for an inspection.  Two serious looking customs agents wearing bullet proof vests and sidearms came out and told us to “stand over there away from the RV” while they checked it out.  We didn’t know what they were looking for but we were very nervous that they would find it.  After about 15 minutes they came out and said to follow them to the Immigration department to pick up our IDs – and they complimented us on the beautiful job on the interior.

We drove the rest of the way to the Quebec KOA wondering what that was about.  The heat was bad all of the way from Maine to Quebec.  It went from low 80’s to 90 and very humid.  The coach performed really well and the engine temps stayed in the 190-210 range with the AC on all the way.  The drive wasn’t as hilly as others we have had but there are some pretty good hills on the way.

When we got to the KOA we found that we needed more than the 25 feet of electric cord to reach the 30amp service.  I connected my additional extension and turned on both AC units.  Within about 10 minutes I was still outside emptying the holding tank, etc. and I heard a loud, sharp buzz and the AC units quit.  My regular power cord was so hot I couldn’t touch it and when I finally could one of the probes had been so hot that it melted the plastic around it.  I moved the coach so that the single cord could reach and we are living with one unit running.

We made reservations with a tour company that one of the GMCnet members recommended and we will take the shuttle to it tomorrow.  Hopefully, I will have pictures tomorrow.

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Aug 31st

We went grocery shopping for dinner – we cooked for Diane, her father-in-law John and her neighbor Karen.  We cooked fresh haddock – the best white fish in my opinion and it was wonderful.  Found some Mobil1 15W-50 at a NAPA store – seems like WalMart has quit carrying it.  Had a couple of cups of cold-brewed iced coffee – for us, a new way of preparing coffee – delicious.  We will try to learn more about how to do that.

After we got home we went for a swim but the water was way too cold for Carol and me.  I know that, being a long way from the open ocean, the water is as warm as ocean water gets in New England but it was way too cold for me.  After jumping in and then out of the water we decided that another kayak ride was in order.  This time I did much better.  It turns out that the kayak has a rudder that I didn’t use on the first try.  It is much easier with a rudder – fun.

Packing to leave for Quebec in the morning.  We hope to be on our way by 9:00am.

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Aug 30 – Not much going on today.  Everyone is just kicking back and getting ready to leave.  Davin left today for Massachusetts and Diane will be following in a couple of days. We could stay here and just kick back but I think we are anxious to see more of the country and Canada and Carol is wanting to get to Niagra Falls.  We took a look at the map and what Streets and Trips says is a good route and we should be able to easily get to Quebec City in one day.  I asked for advice from people on the GMCnet for camping sites and for suggested activities and so far have some good ones.

Now for the clams.  Whenever I come to the East Coast I want to have some of the local seafood.  That is because I grew up in Western Massachusetts and we got seafood from the  Boston area all the time.  Having lived on the West Coast and the Southwest for 31 years I know that there is no fresh seafood available there and I miss it.  So far this trip I have not hat much of my favorite dish: clams.  These clams must be local to the New England Coast because everywhere else they are unavailable.  The type of clams that I am talking about are Ipswich Clams as opposed to Littleneck Clams which are more common – they go by other names too but they are not available anywhere else.  They are great steamed or fried but I have had the fried version twice now but no steamers.

Diane bought about 4 pounds of clams and cooked them just perfectly.

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Aug 29th

Today we took a trip to Damariscotta for a little shopping trip.  We bought some clothes and miscellaneous other goodies in the local Reny’s stores.  Reny’s is a chain of discount stores that have locations throughout Maine – great prices on some good brands, worth the stop if you are in Maine.  They even had one of my favorite candy bars from when I was a kid – Sky Bars by NECCO – I had not had one of those since I was a teenager.

Carol is a "natural"

In the afternoon, Diane and Davin helped Carol and me into kayaks for a short excursion on the river in front of their house.  Great fun – we may not want to go home.

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