Niagara Falls! Now Checked Off Our Bucket List

It is Saturday the 12th, we are hunkered down in a safe spot right now as some severe storms are moving through the area. This will give me a chance to catch up the blogs for Thursday and Friday!

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It is Thursday morning, Aug 10th

We have now put on 810 miles, and our next stop here on Thursday is going to be Niagara Falls! 

This is something that had been on both of our "Bucket Lists" to get to see it together. Steve had been to the Falls as a child, and I had been there 40 years ago. Now it was time to get there together. But not from the US side, this time from the much more picturesque Canadian side!

We packed up from Rock Point Provincial Park and drove 43 miles into Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.

We had searched ahead of time and asked on various Facebook groups for recommendations on place to park an rv. Our problem was that we were going to leave Binney in the RV and so we needed somewhere with shade, where we could leave a number of windows open and a fan blowing on her. The temperatures were only supposed to be in the mid 70s. We didn't want to park far away in an RV park and take a shuttle, nor did we want to park in some obscure little lot behind a casino or wherever as some people were suggesting from our Winnebago group.

So instead we googled for City owned public parking lots. There are four of them but only one of them will accept RVs. We know we can fit in a regular car parking space if our overhang goes backwards over the grass if the curb is not too high. But trying to explain that to a parking attendant trying to get into a busy parking lot might be a whole different problem.

So what would take an RV was called the Riverside City parking lot is 1.2 miles away from the area of Niagara Falls to view Horseshoe Falls. That would be easily walkable for us! So that is where we set our sites to drive to.

We get to the entry gate and there is absolutely nobody there! All of the booths are empty and all of the gates are up. The parking lots are completely deserted!

On the website it said parking for a car was $37.50. it didn't even say what the fee would be to park an rv! So we were going to just bite the bullet and pay whatever they were going to charge just so we could park close enough to walk there and back.  We also read that the shuttle pass would be $17 per person one way. So that meant an additional almost $40 to take a shuttle bus for the both of us?

Well, with nobody taking our money and nobody issuing us a parking pass, we decided to just find a good spot under the trees in the shade and park!

Just as we did, the forecasted weather caught up with us. We were just about ready to put on our good walking shoes and head out when a downpour erupted from the skies. 

It came down fast and furious! But that gave us time to have a leisurely breakfast while it was pouring outside. We were all alone in a huge complex of 14 parking lots. And nobody around. 

In about an hour, the rain had stopped and the sun started poking out. Might I also add, it was extremely humid!

We set the GPS on the phone to a walking path to see the best way there. 

Out of the corner of the parking lots there was a path that led to these stairs, leading down to the next intersection of the road along the river. So it was a great shortcut instead of walking around on the sidewalk alongside the street.

The beautiful stroll along the river was totally empty. The paved brick walkways with little resting benches here and there as we neared the falls were inviting and easy to walk on. Much better than alongside the road. 

We wound our way past the big public works department that handles the huge generators that manufacture electricity from the falls. Some of the buildings were very old. And some of the bridges that had been rebuilt recently within the last 50 years we're still made to look old fashioned. That way they matched the big buildings. 

Halfway through our walk, we spotted some object in the river caught up on a pile of rocks and trees. At first we thought it was a house! But there was a plaque nearby stating that it was actually an overturned boat hull. It happened a long time ago and it's been there for many many years. The power of that water is just not enough to dislodge it and send it over the falls?? 

As we were getting closer, the roaring water was getting louder and louder. We decided to stop and take a selfie before reaching Horseshoe Falls. Just in case there are crowds were too thick and we wouldn't get one right in front of the waterfalls. We are such "typical tourists" aren't we?

Soon we reached the edge of the falls, I guess it's called the precipice? The water crashing over the edge was deafening to the ears as it hit the rocks below. It was amazing on how fast it was flowing. I can't imagine how people survived that going over in a barrel? Some did. Some didn't.

We made our way down to the viewing platform where there were other people standing around. Now that the rain had stopped I would say there was about 200 or 300 people in an area that probably could easily hold a thousand or more. So it was easily accessible to get up to the railing and snap some photos. 

We moved down the railing a bit to the Horseshoe Falls edge and we could see around the corner to the American Falls. There were a few different groups of people trying to take family photos, but then it would mean one person was left out. A number of times I graciously offered to take their photos for them. One gentleman handed me a very expensive camera. I told him "Don't worry, I won't run off with it. I'm an old grandma." Then Steve added "Yeah, she can't run very fast!" Lol lol I just like to think that I helped some people create better family memories by having everyone in their photo. It put a smile on my face. 

And of course, because we could reach the railing easily, we had time to do a selfie ourselves. So here is our obligatory standing in front of the waterfalls photo!

Way down below, we watched the Maid of the Mist float over to get by the Canadian falls. Our kids had taken this same trip last year and did the boat ride. It really didn't interest us. Plus we didn't want to leave Binney alone that long. We didn't know if the skies were going to clear up and it was going to get hotter and more humid for her waiting in the motorhome. 

We walked a bit further down the viewing deck to get a better glimpse of the American falls. Also that bridge in the background to the left is what we were going to be crossing later on with the motorhome. We figured we would get a good view from the bridge if we could of the American Falls that way. 

The sky started turning dark and we checked our weather app on our phone. There was another huge clump of rain clouds coming and we knew we better get moving. It said by 5:00 p.m. it was going to be a big storm! So at 4:30 we decided to start hoofing it back down the same route we had come. We actually went on the other side of the street this time to catch part of the botanical gardens and crossed a few little bridges with some pretty little feeder streams that were flowing out into the Big River. If it hadn't been threatening such horrible weather, we would have taken our time and enjoyed the view as we walked back.

The humidity was taking a real toll on my lungs, as well as the 2.6 mi we were walking in about two hours time. 

I was never so happy to see those metal steps appear again knowing we were almost back to the parking lot. Just as we got up to the top of the steps and started crossing over the pavement, the sun poked out for a little bit! There was our motorhome, safe and sound. There was one other RV parked nearby and they were having a little picnic lunch under the trees. So we weren't the only ones there even if the gates were wide open. 

Binney was comfortable and safe sleeping in her bed and the temperature inside of the motorhome was only 74°. We had left a 12 volt fan blowing on her and she was a pampered princess taking her afternoon nap. 

We stripped off our damp wet clothes, from both sweating while walking as well as the mist from the falls and slight drizzle from the sky. I hopped in the shower right away to hose off. It is still strange trying to get over the idea of taking a shower in the middle of a parking lot. LOL

Nobody had come around and we didn't see any ticket or anything on our windshield. So we figured we might as well just start up the engine and head on out of the parking lot. I guess we saved ourselves $40 or so parking fee as well as another $40 worth of shuttle buses. Perfect for people who are on a retirement budget and want to see Niagara Falls from the Canadian side!

Now we wound our way out of the parking lot and through the downtown area to get to the rainbow Bridge. It was quite a procedure, that we would have never attempted with the bigger motorhome. This little Winnebago View works so well to maneuver through the throngs of people and the narrow streets.

Soon we were up on the bridge waiting our turn in line. There were only two lanes of traffic heading towards these Customs booths. There were only three open lanes as you can see by all the red signs of all the ones that were closed. Over our shoulder, leading into Canada, almost every lane was open. Out of about 12 lanes, I think 9 or 10 were open going into Canada. Now it was about 5:00 p.m. so I suppose this is rush hour traffic on top of it!

But in a way, it was okay that we were stopped on the bridge going slowly forward. It gave us a chance to get good views of the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. We could see the storm clouds rolling in over on the Canadian side. So this was the perfect time to snap some pics before the rain began. 

I even videotaped a little bit and posted it here on YouTube. It kind of gives you the idea of how we were sitting and waiting for the Customs booth as people are walking by back and forth on the bridge. I think some of them are parked in the United States side and walked over to get a view from the Canadian side. I would imagine they had their passports with them just to walk over the bridge and back. 

The railing was low enough that we could look right down into the river. We could see the boats loading up and launching away with their crowde of people to drive into the mist. It was pretty interesting watching them go up and back, each taking their turns. We really had no desire to do it nor to walk up on viewing platforms wearing plastic raincoats in this hot humid weather! 

We were inching forward bit by bit, and we were on the bridge probably for 20 minutes total. It really wasn't that bad after all. There was a specific lane that said RVs and campers as we got close to the Customs area. 

We looked back over our shoulders and saw the start of storm clouds rolling in. Things were starting to look pretty fierce. The winds were really picking up. I'm glad that we left when we did and didn't spend any longer. We saw what we saw --- been there done that. 

Now we can cross Niagara Falls off the bucket list before the storms dumped on our heads!

We got up to the border guard and handed him our passports. He asked where we were from and we said Wisconsin. Then the only other question he asked was did we bring any firewood with us! No questions about alcohol or guns or food or anything else. Just firewood??

He told us to have a great day and we were on our way.... Back in the USA.

We wound our way through the streets of Niagara Falls on the US side. There's a lot of little areas of road construction so we had to cut over and back a number of times to find our way out of the town. We didn't want to hop up on the expressway yet because we were hoping to stop and fuel up with diesel somewhere reasonable within the next 50 miles or so. We don't like to let the tank run too low.

We found a gas station between a Walmart and Sam's club. Diesel was only 4.17 per gallon! So we pulled in and waited our turn at the pumps. Once we reached the pump we found out we could only pump there if we had a Sam's club membership card! We didn't know that. So we drove on to a Mobile station a few miles further down the road. It was 4.39 a gallon there. Oh well.  

We fueled up and calculated our mileage. It was our best one so far 16.15 miles per gallon! This sure is a far cry from the seven or eight miles per gallon we were getting with the big Safari. 

Now it was getting kind of late. We decided we would stop at a Cracker Barrel that I had pulled up on Google maps. We made our way there and realized it was right next to the noisy interstate.

Now for plan B... So we were thinking maybe it'd be better to go back down the same road because we had passed a Walmart and a Home Depot in getting there. 

So we headed back towards Home Depot. It was located nice and far away from the street and the lot appeared to be very quiet. Just as we were picking out a nice level spot we noticed all of the posts in the Home Depot had notices of no overnight parking and we would be towed!

So on to plan C, we drove further up the road to the Walmart. As we drove in, again it was set nice and far back away from the road. We were looking for a quiet spot to park that would be level. Uh oh, what is that? Big signs again posted all over on the light posts of no overnight parking and we would be towed!!!

I guess we were right back to plan A and going to the Cracker Barrel after all! There had been no signs there. So we reversed our route again and headed back over to the Cracker Barrel for the night. We got there just as they were closing so we weren't able to actually have a meal. But we took advantage of their hospitality offer of staying in their parking lot for the night. The lot was perfectly level and we were backed up with our bedroom slide out over the grass surrounding the parking lot. We happened to be located next to four big garbage dumpsters that were fenced in behind some gates. And I will leave this blog right there until the next morning at 5:00 a.m.. use your imagination!

77 miles driven today,

 940 miles total so far.