Tuesday 6th June – The return to Canada

In a change of plan, we decided to head to our friends’ place in Toronto a day earlier than originally scheduled.  And why not?  We were close enough to make the journey comfortably in a day and we’d get to spend an extra evening with them.

We started off by heading two hours east into Buffalo, New York State having passed through Pennsylvania very briefly for a very important lunch time pit-stop – sandwich number 8!  Being back in New York meant that we were in the same state as we stayed in on our very first night on the road in the RV, full circle.  As I drove, Simon did some research and identified a specialist restaurant for exactly what we were looking for – Beef on Weck at Charlie the Butcher’s Kitchen.   

US sandwich number 8 - Beef on weck

Here, they carve the beef in front of you for the sandwich.  Weck is the name of the roll, which here has salt crystals and fennel on top, stacked high with beef with a pickle on the side.  The other necessary ingredient is horse radish.  This was supplied on the table and I probably slapped it on a little too thickly meaning that my eyes were watering after several mouthfuls.  But that was my fault and the rest of the flavours were delicious, so I gave the sandwich a good score of 8/10.

Onwards towards the border and Niagara Falls.  We have been lucky enough to view the falls from the Canadian side in August 2015 when we were over here for Ben and Charmaine’s wedding.  So, today was an opportunity to view the landmark from the US side!  We drove the RV over to Goat Island which is right in the middle of the Niagara river.  Here the calm waters of Lake Erie start to bubble and foam as they converge at the head of the Falls:

The 'steam' must be where the main falls are....

Getting closer...

One of the tourist boats, The maid of the mist, heading into the spray

An unexpected find - a piece of the cable used by Nik Wallenda during his successful 1500 ft, 26 minute walk across the falls on 15th June 2012, becoming the first to do this right over the top of the horseshoe falls

View towards the Rainbow Bridge - our crossing point into Canada

It was a pretty grey and dismal day but the air around here is always full of the spray from the falls in any case, so it’s always raining by the Falls! We are bringing Simon’s parents to experience the Falls this weekend on the Canada side, so we didn’t hang around for long in the hope that the weather then will be more suitable for tourists!

Crossing the rainbow bridge, flags indicating the US and Canadian sides respectively

Plus, we had no idea how long the process of crossing the border into Canada might take and we wanted to reach Toronto by 6pm. We crossed the Rainbow Bridge (above) and followed the signs directing RV drivers to pull over into bays.  Oh dear, we have to get out and go to speak to the border guards again. But, this turned out to leap-frog us ahead of all of the people sat outside in their cars and was the easiest crossing yet! We pulled out within a few minutes of arriving, fresh Canada stamps in our passports.

The journey into Toronto was slow due to rush hour traffic and rain but we still managed to make it to the Franklins’ for 630pm.  So, parking?  We managed to find a spot large enough for the RV on their one-way street, but Char had to go online to get us a temporary parking permit and they spoke to a couple of their neighbours as we didn’t want to get them in trouble.  You know how people are about parking around their neighbourhood sometimes!  

You wouldn't mind this parked outside your house would you?!

The original plan had been to go out for dinner but we all agreed that a night in with a few drinks and a Thai takeaway sounded just the ticket. After a good catch-up and plans for the next few days discussed we let Ben and Char get to bed – they’ve still got three days to work this week.

A brief explanation of our relationship with Ben and Charmaine - Ben is one of Simon's best friends from the same neighbourhood in Southend, so they've known each other for about thirty years. Ben and Char used to work for the same company - Ben in London, Char in Toronto - so this is how they met.  They married in August 2015 after years of a long-distance relationship, followed by living together in London and then returning to live together in Toronto. Simon was Best Man at the wedding.

Sunday 4th – Monday 5th June – Geneva By the Sea & the shot glass collection

There was some noisy thunder and rain overnight that disturbed us early in the morning but then we were left alone until it was time to get out of the car park at 1130am.  We had intended to head to a State Park to enjoy a couple more days of sun and lakes, but the weather this morning along with the forecast for the next couple of days changed our minds.  If we’re going to be stuck indoors, we may as well have WiFi and all mod-cons available.

We identified a Sun Resort that was also a PA site only an hour’s drive away at Geneva by the sea.  Thankfully bagging a great deal for a full hook-up for $66 for 2 nights.  Indian Creek RV resort is huge and has everything you can imagine going on, from fishing, pickleball (?!) and mini golf to an outdoor pool.  

A major success of the day was booking all the accommodation for whilst Simon’s parents are with us next week.  No risk of driving around trying to find somewhere to stay during their limited stay!  Hopefully we’ve booked a good mix of provincial parks and privately-run camp sites to give them a full taste of the RV lifestyle.

Time for further reflection, as we finally got around to unwrapping our North American shot glass collection – all 37 we have purchased so far!  To see if we have successfully covered the US and Canada in a balanced way, we attempted to place the glasses on the location of their purchase on the road atlas:

The Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas

Florida Everglades Alligator

It is densely populated in the north-west, but it appears we neglected the deep-south slightly!  There are some classic, individual styles and many that just bring back good memories of places we have visited but nearly forgotten about already:

The Banff Beaver

The O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona

It appears that Geneva doesn’t follow the conventional rules of the weather reports.  Instead of torrents of rain, the sun came out in perfect time for an afternoon swim.  Approaching the noisy and busy pool containing small children with water pistols, I was massively relieved to discover another, over-21s, adult pool behind that one – ideal!  I did some lengths and read in the sunshine until it became too cool, when I then enjoyed the site’s hot power showers.

The sunshine remained into the evening, so we took the opportunity to have a go on the 18-hole mini golf course.  I would describe my form at this game as randomly inconsistent!  But, surprisingly, I was on form tonight and despite Simon being 4 shots up at one stage, I managed to pull it back to destroy him by 2 shots!

Monday was a lot greyer, but it didn’t rain.  Having done some more blogging and RV preparation I went out on my bike to explore Geneva a little.  Sadly, there was a plague of midges that chose to join me.  I went to take in a view of Lake Erie but swarms of the bugs made it a very brief glance before I quickly moved on.

I cycled down to another lake-side park but the same problem remained.  I cycled along with one hand over my mouth and nose in case I accidentally inhaled a bug.  They were everywhere:

A tiny percentage of all of the midges out today!

I rapidly made the decision to make it a brief bike ride before heading for the shelter of the resort’s very basic ‘gym’ to continue exercising.  I love this resort – it’s got everything and seems like a proper little community with many of the mobile homes looking extremely permanent.

Spot the Harvey...