Our RV Adventures

After some of the delicious coffee made using the coffee bean grinder our son Chris and daughter-in-law Linda gave us for Christmas, I drove over to the Good Sam RV Rally about 11, first to look around, and second, to take care of a computer problem for my GMAC Insurance agent, Chris Yust.

After I got her printer working I walked around a bit and checked out the vendors, I had a couple of new collar tags for our cats, Mister and Emma, and a neat moose ornament for Jan.

About 1 Jan and I headed out on our door prize scavenger hunt. Today was mostly follow-up calls to places that told me to come back the next day. We picked up a good number of prizes and only have a few more to check out tomorrow.

Our last two stops were at Red Lobster and Golden Corral to pick up prizes, and then on the way home, we stopped off at Sam’s Club for Kitty Litter, and so Jan could have her new glasses adjusted at their optical department.

We got home about 5, and then pretty quickly we all headed out to dinner at Mimi’s Café, a national chain we’ve eaten at several times and really enjoyed. Jan especially wanted to have their Broccoli Cheddar Soup which is the Soup du Jour on Thursday.

We had a great meal and were also able to thank the manager who had given us some door prizes for Mimi’s.

Tomorrow we’ll try to hit the last few places, and hopefully wrap things up. But we’ll see.

Since this is another short post, I’ve reposted our visit to Niagara Falls in 2009.

——————————————————————————————————————–

Thought for the Day:

Rome did not create a great empire by talking, they did it by killing all those who opposed them.

——————————————————————————————————————–

asdf

Niagara Falls – For Trudy . . .

Originally posted on September 24, 2009

Today we drove about 30 miles from our park to visit Niagara Falls.

The title of today’s blog says ‘For Trudy’. Trudy was Jan’s Mother who died in 2007. She always wanted to visit Niagara Falls, but never got the chance.

So Jan said “This visit is for Mom”.

After following the signs coming into the city of Niagara Falls we ended up on Goat Island, the home of the American side of Niagara Falls.

Goat Island and the Falls make up the Niagara Falls State Park. Established in 1885, it’s the oldest State Park in the United States.

Even before we got to the Island, Jan saw the mist rising from Horseshoe Falls, named because it’s shaped like a big horseshoe, of course.

But before we could see the Falls, Jan had to feed the a squirrel a Kashi bar.

Squirrel 1

The 2nd squirrel had this deal where he would lay flat on his belly and then slowly crawl toward you begging for food.

Walking over the small and looking down on the Falls was amazing. BTW Most of these pictures can be seen larger. Just click the picture. If there is a larger version, it will come up. Click the Back Arrow to get back to the blog.

Niagara Falls 2s

You can walk right to the edge of the falls and look right out at the water going over.

Niagara Falls 3s

And then looking straight down thru the spray and the rainbow you can see the Maid of the Mist heading into the base of Horseshoe Falls. Looks like fun!

Niagara Falls 4s

After spending time at the Horseshoe, we walked over to the other falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls.

Niagara Falls 9s

After stopping to look at the many flower beds, we got in line to tour the Cave of the Winds.

Niagara Flowers 2

Cave of the Winds is now kind of a misnomer. The actual cave, named because the sound the wind made blowing off the falls, disappeared when the ceiling collapsed in the 1920′s.

What you have now is an elevator that takes you 180 feet down to the base of the American and Bridal Veil Falls and lets you walk on a wooden walkway thru part of the falls themselves. They give you plastic ponchos and sandals to wear, but they don’t really keep you dry.

You will get wet!

Cave of the Winds 4s

Here’s Jan standing where part of the falls comes over the walkway. Jan said she looks like a banana. I think she looks cute.

Cave of the Winds 5s

This is the Hurricane Deck where you’re actually standing in the Falls. I went up there while stayed kind of dry on a lower level. It’s impossible to get pics up there. My camera’s not that waterproof.

Hurricane Deck 1s

Here’s what the walkway looks like from the Maid of the Mist.

Cave of the Winds 6s

One amazing thing about this is that workers disassemble the walkway every fall and rebuild it every spring, otherwise the winter ice would destroy it.

Here’s what the area looks like in February.

Niagara Ice 1s

After drying out we rode the trolley over to the Maid of Mist dock. These boat tours have been running since 1846, almost 40 years before the place was even a state park.

The boats take you right into the whirlpool at the bottom of Horseshoe Falls, fighting the current all the way. It’s like being in the middle of a hurricane.

Maid of the Mist 5s

One thing I found interesting on the boat trip was the remains of Nikola Tesla’s Niagara Falls power plant, built in 1896.

Tesla Power Plant 1s

This plant was the first to harness water flow to generate electricity, and demonstrated the superiority of Tesla’s AC electrical system over Edison’s DC system. Many people don’t realize we owe our entire electrical to Tesla. But back in the late 1800′s, there was a big legal war going on between Tesla and Edison over whose system was better.

By the early 1900′s Niagara Falls was lighting New York City.

Leaving the Maid we walked out on the observation tower

Niagara Tower 2s

to a fantastic view of the entire Falls area.

Niagara Tower 1s

A fitting end to our great day at Niagara Falls.

Walking back to the toad, we saw something I’d never seen before.

Black squirrels.

Black Squirrel 2

And they were very aggressive. When I turned and walked away, and then looked back, they were following me, stalking me.

Leaving the Falls area, we drove down to near Buffalo to eat dinner at one of our favorite BBQ restaurants, Famous Dave’s. We always have great leftovers.

Then it was home for the night.

Tomorrow is an errand day.

asdfasdf

I got up at 7:15 so Jan and I could be at the local IHOP at 8am to talk to the General Manager about  donating Gift Certificates to use as Gypsy Journal Rally door prizes.

He was kind enough to help us out, and Jan and I did have a delicious breakfast while we were there, but still . . .

Seven Fifteen ???

But not wanting to lose out on my beauty sleep (obviously I need all I can get), I went back to bed for a couple of hours after we got back to the rig.

Then about 1:30 Jan and I headed out on prize patrol again, this time east toward the Foothills area of town. We picked up a number of door prizes, along with several ‘Come back tomorrow and I’ll have something for you then”s.

Our last stop out in that area was at Chocolate Crafter’s just south of I-8 on Foothills Blvd. And strangely enough, it was the only place we visited that Jan wanted to come in with me.

They’ve moved around the corner into a new, larger location with even more great chocolatety things. My two favorites are the Kona Coffee Chocolate and the Chocolate Candied Orange Peels.

I think Jan’s favorite is pretty much everything. They were nice enough to give us four gift certificates, but we also bought $41 of chocolate stuff.

It would have been cheaper for me to have just bought four gift certificates and given them to Nick. Kind of like overnighting at Wal-Mart, thinking you’re saving money, but forgetting you’re going to spend 50 or 60 dollars while you’re there.

Think maybe that’s what they’ve got in mind?

Leaving Chocolate Crafter’s and seeing a small barbershop next door, I decided it was time for my semi-annual haircut. And this time I was going to get both of them cut.

Turns out my barber was an RV’er and will be leaving Yuma in a couple of weeks, along with most everyone else. He said pretty much all the snowbirds are gone by the middle of March, with the last of the stragglers gone by the end of the month. Said the place turns into a ghost town.

We got home about 4:30 and Mister and I sat outside for a while. He was watching for coyotes and I was watching the Marine Corps Harriers and Ospreys fly over.

lkjlkj

Even saw a hot air balloon off in the distance.

But Mister was completely bummed out that he still didn’t see any coyotes.

About 5:30 Nick and Terry, and Jan and I decided to try out a new (to us) Mexican place called Las Herraduras (The Horseshoes), and boy, was it good.

Nick had a Chicken Quesadilla, and Terry, Jan, and I had the Macho plate, with a homemade tamale, chile relleno, cheese enchilada, and a taco. The tamales were so homemade we had to wait a few minutes for the latest batch to be done.

But it was certainly worth the wait. Very flavorful and really delicious. We’ll go back before we leave.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Thought for the Day:

"Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.

fasdfsd