September 10-13, 2009 Merrily we Roll Along….
Leaving Upper Michigan and journeying to Ontario, Canada – Niagara Falls region.
Thursday we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge. This is one great expanse – 5 miles from beginning to end; Lake Michigan on one side and Lake Huron on the other. We stopped, once across the bridge, and finally purchased the obligatory FUDGE. It wasn’t anything too special, but we are eating it and some salt water taffy, non-the-less. Another nice day of driving along the lakeshore, Highway 23 leads us through some nice scenery and small towns along the way. We have enjoyed staying off the interstates for the most part. Lunch was a great surprise. We found a Bob’s Big Boy Restaurant, circa 1960s. Just as good as we remembered, Big Boy combo and of course a chocolate shake, be still my cholesterol ridden heart.
Friday was another nice day tooling along the road. We put about another 200 miles on the MoHo enjoying stops along the way in Vassar, Michigan. We Stopped for the night in Port Huron – just a couple of miles short of the Canadian border. Spent the night boon-docking behind a strip mall, all went well until someone set off an alarm at one of the local establishments and woke us up.
Saturday, we arose early and headed across the border. We were all prepared with our passports, licenses, and dog’s records. We thought we were passing with flying colors until they asked us if we had any firewood --- oh yes we had wood, had bought some at the last campground. Well that had to be dumped, because of a problem with bark beetles. We guess because we had to pull over to dump our wood, they would just take a “look see” to check us over. We got out of the rig, with the “Boys” and stood and waited for about 10 minutes. We could see the guards looking in our closets, drawers etc. Guess they were satisfied that we weren’t suspicious and we finally got back on the road. We drove the 100+ kilometers to our campground, where we set up, had lunch and then struck out to see the area. We took a nice tour, seeing the town of Niagara on the Lake, many beautiful vineyards, wineries, gardens, homes and drove down to the area of the falls. We watched the falls as the spot lights were coming on and also enjoying the view from the Sky Wheel ferris wheel 175 feet above the falls.
Sunday we started the morning off with a fantastic helicopter flight over the falls, we saw the Niagara Whirlpool, the river, gorge, much of Queen Victoria Park and of course the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls. This was a quick flight, only 10 minutes or less, but what you saw was well worth it. We then took a nice leisurely stroll through the Botanical Gardens, followed by some more strolling and shopping along the street of the posh and very nice Niagara on the Lakes town. We completed our afternoon with some wine tasting at Pellar Winery, where we had a very nice Gamay Noir. This wine region caught by surprise. Over 80 wineries in the Ontario region, who would have guessed that this area would be so good for viniculture? The fun just keeps on coming. Tomorrow back to the USA.