Niagara Falls

Our campground near Niagara Falls was called Shangri-La Family Campground in St. Catharines, Ontario. It doesn't have wifi or sewer hookups, but does have water and 50 amp service which was very necessary with the humidity and heat during the day. TV reception with just an antenna was great, altho the stations came from Buffalo, not Canada. There is a dump station, but for $8 Canadian you can have the guy come to your site with a tank and empty your rig. They have been having a drought here much like California so the grass was pretty brown. Golf carts are also available for rent for $50/day.

Shangri-La looks a lot different than we pictured it.

We are staying for 3 nights so we have time to see things. The first full day we took the dogs to find a dog park but the directions were inaccurate and we never did find one. We drove around St. Catharines and found a cute farmer's market downtown. We bought a few fruits and veggies and some bread and then headed for Niagara Falls.

The last time I was here was when Ryan was still in high school (early 90s) and his school was in a band competition in Toronto. It was April and freezing cold. This day was beautiful and we were early enough in the day to not see big crowds or have trouble finding parking. Parking is $22/day Canadian ($16.69 US).

American Falls

Looking back from Horseshoe Falls toward the US 

Horseshoe Falls with Canadian boat up close 

Canadian boat going to Horseshoe Falls

Top of the Falls

Niagara River flowing to the falls

On the way back we drove to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a small touristy town on Lake Ontario. The shops all looked pretty pricey and there were huge crowds of people. It's a beautiful town and I wouldn't mind spending more time there.

We drove from there along Lakeshore Road which passes several wineries and vineyards. I did not realize you could grow grapes here...thought it would be too cold in winter. Wine and alcohol are sold in LCBO stores (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). There are also Beer Stores. Nothing in grocery stores.

                            

 

There is a nice little marina in St. Catharines where some people have spaces in an RV park of sorts right along the shore of Lake Ontario. They look pretty permanent, but may only be there for the warmer months. They had electricity and water hookups...not sure about sewer.

St Catharine Marina

Pop ups for picnicking on the Marina

Lake Ontario was so calm and clear

RV 'park' along shore near marina

Calm Lake Ontario...didn't notice the sign before (warning not to swim here)

We decided to go to the American side the next day without the dogs. I bought tickets online for The Maid of the Mist boat which only sails from the American side. We could have used the Canadian boats, but I didn't know about it at the time. Re-entering the US at the border was interesting and not so friendly. We really felt we were being interrogated and driving instructions weren't very clear. The Canadian border patrol was much nicer to us. We went early enough to be on one of the first boats so, again, no lines and no problem finding parking. Parking on this side is $10/day US. As we were leaving crowds were showing up and the weather was getting warmer. Perfect timing in our opinion.

View from the American side bridge

View above the boat dock for Maid of the Mist

Viewing platform 230' above boat dock

American Falls

Bottom of American Falls

Approaching Horseshoe Falls

Horseshoe Falls from the boat

600,000 gallons per second of falling water, 18 stories high

It was a thundering and wet ride but so much fun. 

Found these guys sorting through the "Single-Stream" Recycling bin.

Today, we're headed back into the States to avoid the Civic Day holiday.  EVERY campsite in this part of Canada was full so we had to leave the country or stay in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  Which, we understand, is also a favorite thing for Canadians to do.

Oh Canada!

Correction to the last blog: Ironwood, MI is on the border with Wisconsin, not Minnesota.

Since our plans were changed with the detours, we went a little farther into MI than Marquette and ended up at a KOA park in Newberry. Since we were only staying one night they only had a 30 amp site for us. The outlet didn't work very well and our a/c wouldn't run. They tried to tell us it was our equipment, but it had worked the day before so we knew it wasn't. The site was pretty strange with hookups near the front of the rig instead near the back so we had to use two hoses to reach the water faucet and two electrical cords.

                   

Newberry KOA, MI

 Fortunately the weather was mild enough that we only needed a small fan to move the air in the bedroom to sleep that night. They did have a laundry room and I managed to get four loads done as planned.

From Newberry, MI we headed toward Sault St. Marie (they call it 'Soo') and Canada. We decided we should stop at a WalMart on the Michigan side because we didn't know what prices on food would be in Canada. It started raining while we were in the store so it was a mad dash back to the RV with no coats. Bruce thought he could just turn around where we were, but, no, we had to disconnect the jeep again so we could back up a few times. We are getting good at that! Turns out that the exchange rate is in our favor right now so we get 25% more for the US $.

The bridge into Canada was $16.40, including the jeep, and the backup to get across and through Customs was pretty long. I tried to take pics from the coach but since it was cloudy outside, they didn't come out too well. There was one ship in the locks and a cruise ship docked across the bay.

  When we got to the port of entry we were asked if we had any guns, or liquor. We told them no on the guns and yes for wine. The agent told us we were only allowed 2 bottles per person and since we had a case on hand, we better return with 8. Huh? He told us we would have to pay customs on it going back into the states. I'm not sure that's true, but I doubt if there will be that much left to declare when we return. He didn't even ask us about the dogs so I'm thinking we really didn't need the certificate from the vet stating they had all their shots and were healthy.



Our first campground in Canada was at Chutes Provincial Park in Massey, Ontario. Provincial parks are like our state parks with few hookups.

We didn't realize there was no water hookup until we had gotten the rig into the site, which was no easy feat. Thinking we had enough in the coach, we didn't bother to go get it filled up. That was a mistake...we didn't have enough for even a day. There were outhouses nearby and a spigot for fresh water pretty close so we made do with what we had. The shower house was a short walk down the road and it was pretty nice. There were individual rooms instead of stalls you see at most parks and plenty of water for no fee. It was nicer than the RV showers as far as roominess goes. Chutes has a rapids that lead to a crashing waterfall and beach on the River aux Sables and some pretty trails to walk the dogs.

We thought for a while we had an alternator problem as alarms were going off and lights on the dash were flashing that hadn't been on before. One was an alternator indicator that we thought was saying the alternator wasn't working properly. After many calls to RV repairmen, truck repairmen, and even a repairman back in California, and thinking we would be stuck for about a week waiting for a replacement alternator, Bruce figured that the alarms were supposed to have been going on when the air pressure was low before, but just hadn't. Why they are now, we don't know. But they stop when the pressure is where it should be for driving. It's very disconcerting when alarms sound with no reasonable explanation and it's a Friday afternoon at 4 p,m, and most of the repair places are closing or closed. Another lesson about the motorhome learned!

 

We had planned on going to Niagara Falls next, but as we started calling parks in the vicinity we found nothing available until after the weekend. Since we were leaving Chutes on Saturday (our reservation was up) we had to look farther away from the Toronto area to find another spot to camp.

                   

  
What's a milk bag?

We drove around the area a bit on Friday to see the sites and found a little community on Lake Huron called Little Current with a cute little marina and fish and chips place.

                  

 Little Current

Then we stopped at Long Lake off the road a few km. There are literally thousands of lakes in this province.

We opted for North Bay on Lake Nippissing, just east of Sudbury, Ontario and still north of Toronto. This park is kind of in a neighborhood but right on the lake.

                       

  

The lake is quite big but doesn't seem to be a tourist destination as there are no souvenier shops or big hotels. The campground appears to be quite old with some permanent trailers set up with cabanas attached for extra room. I think the owners come up on weekends and fish and stay in the RVs.

                      

  

As it turns out, August 1 is a Canadian Holiday that we didn't know about until we talked to some people at Chutes. Rick and Barb Eles came by often to chat and walk their black lab and we learned quite a bit about traveling in Canada from them. They live in nearby Sudbury and had taken a trip down old Route 66 in the US last year and had lots of experiences to talk about. Anyway, the big holiday is on a Monday this year so ALL the parks (read: EVERY campsite on this side of Canada) are full for that weekend as well. We were able to get a reservation near Niagara Falls for three days this next week and then we will return to the US until the holiday is done as there is no place available anywhere in Canada. We found a couple of spots and got our reservations made.

More later.