July 9, 2010 – Day Sixty-three

We’ve now been on the road for nine weeks! I wonder if I’ll remember how to get to my house again. . .

It began raining last night and now it was still drizzling, and I was afraid that when we’d get to Niagara Falls we wouldn’t be able to see anything.

We left the dogs in the trailer and headed west to see the sights, and the closer we got to the falls, the heavier the rain got. As we approached the building that proclaimed itself the Niagara Falls Visitor’s Center, we were being waved into their parking lot by guys in those orange reflective vests, the kind of guys that look governmental but are really part of a well-oiled commercial enterprise. Being a dude from California, I wasn’t going to fall for that one, but after driving once around the block we didn’t find any available parking spot, so we had to become the tourists that we were and take advantage of orange vest guys, and their $10 all day parking fee.

Because of the size of our truck and the additional height of the kayaks on top, we didn’t fit into their parking garage, but instead were escorted to a great parking spot mere steps from the entrance to this visitor center.

Once inside, my deepest thoughts were reconfirmed: the lines waiting to talk to the “volunteers” were merely lines to hear the sales spiel to buy expensive combination tickets to the various attractions around the city. The ground floor of this building was just a huge gift shop with every imaginable schlock item available for sale that has anything remotely to do with Niagara Falls, including a Niagara Falls toothbrush – who’d a thunk it?

When we got to the head of the sales spiel line, we were steered toward purchasing a bargain ticket that would get one into and onto all the attractions for only $69.95 per person. When we asked how long this would take, we were informed it would take at least six hours to get through everything. When we told him how that we only had about an hour to spend, and asked how much it would be to ride just the “Maid of the Mist”, he became condescending and said that it was at least a 10 minute walk to just the ticket booth, and then the boat trip was only 10 minutes long. But how much was it I asked? $13.50. Great I said, I’ll take two of those. Unbelievably they didn’t sell those tickets here, so he quickly sent us on our way in order to give his spiel to the next group in line.

The visitor center did offer one free attraction, a view of the falls and the surrounding area from their top floor. Upon exiting the elevator we stepped into yet another gift shop, this one occupying the entire top floor of the building. If you didn’t find the kitsch/schlock on the ground floor, you were given ample opportunity to find it all over again on the top floor. I still didn’t buy the Niagara Falls toothbrush.

Because of the rain, the low hanging clouds and the moisture laden windows our view was obscured what to what would have been some fairly nice views.

We only stayed a short while before we decided to find the “Maid of the Mist” ticket booth closer to the Niagara River. As we left this visitor’s center, the rain really started pouring, we opened the little umbrella we had purchased earlier in Florida, but it definitely wasn’t a two-man umbrella, and my big butt and left shoulder was getting really wet.

Nevertheless we went to the falls overlook to shoot some photos, when we saw almost every one wearing a thin, cheap plastic raincoat with hood. We learned that these were given to all the passengers who boarded the “Maid of the Mist” boats. As the rain was becoming more intense we hustled into the “Maid of the Mist” gift shop – it was us and about 100 other tourists trying to get out of the rain. The place was extremely crowded and about every ten minutes or so there was another wave of tourists entering. It was then that I discovered that folks disembarking from the boat tour were forced to go through the gift shop to regain their freedom.

Well, I needed a souvenir from this place, maybe another T-shirt, when I discovered 60” golf umbrellas for sale for just a few bucks more than a T-shirt. This would be the perfect memento on a day like this, so, I am now the proud owner of a 5’ diameter umbrella with a “Maid of the Mist” stencil on the fabric. Much better than another T-shirt, and I could use it right away to keep my entire body, from shoulders to butt, dry. But because of the rain and puddles, my feet were still getting soaked.

We purchased our tickets for the “Maid of the Mist” and headed out on their nine story high observation deck which gave a great view of the falls, the Freedom Bridge, and Canada, but it was still in the rain with the accompanying low hanging clouds. An elevator took us down to the river and the boat dock. Just as we entered the boat, we too were handed our very own thin blue plastic rain coat – the uniform of the day!

We were only couple of about a half dozen people that elected not to go on the top level of the boat, where we would be at the total mercy of the elements. This also offered just as a clear view of the sights just like the folks on the top deck, without having to jostle the masses in order to get to the side of the boat with the best view. Plus we were able to hide from the worst of the elements when we needed to. Taking a picture soaked your camera, so I was continually wiping my lens with a tissue.

The boat ride took us right up to the American falls, where the winds, spray, and water turbulence was very intense. The boat stayed there a bit so everyone could get our photographs looking up at the falls rather than down at them. We then motored over to Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side and hung around there a while too. This would be our only excursion into Canada, even though we would see this foreign country several more times on our odyssey. And the best thing is we wouldn’t need to go back through the long customs line when we returned to the U.S. side.

About 20 minutes later we were back at the dock and took the elevator up from the river to the overlook, where we proceeded to get probably the most dramatic photographs of the falls, since the rains had abated and the clouds were dramatic.

As we headed back to our truck, the rains started pouring again, but we each had our own umbrella. Other than wet feet, we stayed relatively dry.

Back at the campground we just relaxed in the trailer, catching up on email, and watching one of the two channels we could receive on our TV. Later that evening I tried watching our Netflix DVD of the movie “Amelia”, but about halfway through it I gave up from sheer boredom and disinterest.

That night we spent our second night among the European tourists; tomorrow we would head for Ohio.