Unfortunately, when I went to unhook the trailer, the hitch would not open up. And we could tell that the handle was loose/broken? Finally opened up the RV and got on line and found the phone number for the Reese Hitch Company. After discussing our situation with them, they emailed a list of Reese businesses in the area. I called the first one and explained my problem. The serviceman (Jay) asked where we were staying. When I told him, he said: “Oh, Don Stanton lives there. He helps us out a lot.” So I went to the office and asked the CG manager if Don was in the CG. He called him and he came right over to our site. He took my screwdriver and pried the jaws open so that we could unhook. Once we got setup, I drove to the Reese RV store (Manelli’s). Got lost of course and finally asked a guy who was getting his mail how I could get there. He told me that the street and road names change and that I was on right road. So I continued on – needed gas so I stopped at a station – about that time the skies opened up and the wind blew so hard I had to stand behind a pump to keep from getting soaked. Finally made it to the shop and Jay took the hitch out. He said that there were two problems – a clip had come off which made the handle feel like it was broken. Also the frame was bent. He knew of someone who could straighten it and arranged to get it taken care of. When I told him about our touring the Falls area, he also mentioned seeing the Lockton Canal and taking the boat ride thru the locks. He also suggested Reids, a popular hot dog drive inn that has excellent food and is cheap.
The next day we drove to Niagara Falls for our tour. We caught our bus at a Super 8 and left our truck there. We drove to various areas to see the falls:
Here we are just above the Falls.
We took an elevator down 18 stories to get to the walkway below the Falls. At this point we are on the walkway about to climb the stairs to the top. Check out the 'fashionable footwear!! Everybody gets to wear them.
At some points you were so close to the water that it was rushing over your feet. I kept looking at the construction of the stairs and platforms and wasn’t too sure how it was put together to hold all of the people that were there. But we survived. Here is our 'after' picture.
We also took the boat tour right up to the falls, again with raincoats on.
Had it been windy, we would have really felt the spray, but it wasn’t bad at all. Apparently, with all the new buildings that have been put up on the Canadian side, there is not as much wind around the Falls and therefore, not as much spray. Our tour guide said that in the 160 years that the boat tours have been taking place, there has never been a single accident, so we were it!
Our tour took us to some islands above the Falls - here is Mom on a bridge.
After the tour on our way home, we stopped at Reids and did indeed have two great sausage sandwiches, onion rings, and two drinks for $8.15!!
When we got back to the CG, we realized that someone had left three logs in our fire pit so we sat outside, burned all of our ‘shredder’ paper and ate s’mores.
The next day I picked up my hitch from Joe at Manelli’s. He lubed everything up, sprayed silicone grease on my slider hitch, made sure that it worked properly and then said have a good trip. I said, wait, what do I owe? His reply was, oh, give me $10 bucks!! Can you believe that? All I had was $20, so he got that.
In the afternoon we left for our second tour of Niagara Falls. Took a larger tour bus and it was full. We crossed over into Canada but first had to go thru customs. Since we had foreigners on the bus, we all had to get off and go into the customs office with our passports. No problems, but it just took time. We then toured the city and area by bus. Some of our group took the Maid of the Mist tour from the Canadian side while we went up in the tower to see the sights. WOW – both Falls are fabulous from this side. Later we picked up the boat people and saw the American and Canadian power plants. According to our tour guide, the American plant supplies electricity for NY City while he gets his electricity in Niagara Falls City from Pennsylvania. Go Figure!!
Later he dropped us all off to go behind the Falls. We donned rain coats again and then took an elevator down to these tunnels that take you to the back of the Falls.
Very impressive. Then we came back up and watched some fireworks which were very impressive as well.
By the time we got back to Niagara Falls and everyone got dropped off at their respective hotels, and we drove back to the campground, it was after midnight.
End of Niagara Falls trip....
L&J
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing your trip and adventures. Doubt I would have ever seen Niagara if not for your generosity. Really love the text and photos it's a vicarious vacation for us.
You guys look like you are having a blast.
Be safe.
Love ya
Lee