Day 55 - Lockport, New York

The Erie canal runs from Albany, NY to Buffalo, NY. In the 1800's Lockport was one of the most important cities on the canal because it was where the locks that were necessary for travel from one end to the other were located. The original lock system consisted of a series of 5 locks in each direction (10 total) and would only allow boats up to 15' wide X 90' long. They were quite an engineering feat in 1825 when the canal opened. Today there are only 2 locks to do the same thing and they will take boats 45' wide x 328' long.

Picture 2 shows the canal with a boat from yesterday and one from today. Note how narrow the old boat is. Picture 3 shows the original west bound locks, which today are just used as a spillway. Today's 2 locks replaced the 10 original locks in 1917.

Day 54 - Niagara Falls, New York

Niagra Falls is a beautiful area and, of course, the falls themselves are breathtaking. We did all of the normal "tourist things" here. We went to the Cave of the Winds, which takes you to the bottom of the American falls (Bridal Veil), went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride to the very bottom of the Canadian falls (Horseshoe). The first picture shown shows the international bridge from the US to Canada and you are seeing the Canadian side. We enjoyed this stop very much!

Day 53/59 - Cambia, New York

We settled into an exceptionally nice campground here (Lazy Lakes) for the next week. We are just about 15 miles from Niagara Falls and will be able to visit this entire region from this location.

Day 46/52 - Parish, New York

Parish is located about 30 miles north of Syracuse, New York. We are staying in this campground because it's very inexpensive for us. The campground is beautiful but it's kind of in the boonies. they have a wonderful little cafe that is really inexpensive and has great food. We've been eating dinner there every night. The other day they had an Amish family that came in selling various items they had grown or baked. There's not a whole lot to do here but we really enjoyed going out the other day and picking fresh blueberries. Pick 'em yourself for $1 a pint. Janie loves this type of stuff! We also drove about 20 miles to Oswego for their Harborfest, which was also a fun day on the shores of Lake Ontario.

Day 46 - Alexandria, New York

On our return to the US, we spent the night in a small town and once again stayed at the local Elks Lodge. While having drinks in the Elks, the locals were telling us not to miss Alexandria because of the 1000 Island region of the St. Lawrence river. So the next day we went there and it was really worth the trip. We took a boat trip up the river, which features many mansions and tons of small, beautiful islands. It's wierd to see where some people want to build a house (see photos). It was a great stop and a beautiful day. Near Alexandria is also one of the bridges where you can cross over from Canada to the US.

Day 46 - Alexandria, New York

On an island just off the coast of Alexandria there is a 120 room/5 bath castle. It's called the Boldt castle after the man who built it. It was built in 1890 at a cost of over $2 million but was never finished. It seems that Mr. Boldt, the proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, was building it for his wife who suddendly died. He stopped construction on the house and never returned to the island. He said if she couldn't enjoy it, no one else would. It is now owned by the State of New York and they have spent over $15 million restoring it and finishing it. Not only is there the castle but it has it's own power station, which sits on the water (Picture 3) and a huge boat house (picture 4), which sits on an adjacent island.

Day 45 - Travel

Today we had scheduled ourselves to go to Montreal but, after giving it some thought, we decided that we had been there before and it's nothing but a big city so we would just bypass it (Horrible picture taken from the RV during our bypass). That's what we did. We drove all the way back into the US and spent a very nice evening at the Elks in Ogdensburg, NY.

Day 44- Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Just on the eastern outskirts of Quebec City is a national park called, "Parc de le Chutes - Montmorency". This park features a waterfall that is taller than Niagra Falls but not as wide. It's a beautiful falls and park area. We both enjoy the beauty of waterfalls.

Day 43/45 - Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Quebec is the closest you will ever get to being in France without an 8 hour flight over the pond. It features narrow streets with sidewalk cafes, many

street preformers and very old architecture. Of course, the national language is French and that's what everybody speaks and few

speak English. The most famous of the sites is the Hotel Frontinac, which sits on a cliff (pictured above) overlooking the St. Lawrence river. It's beautiful! We had been here years ago but enjoyed seeing all the sites once again. Quebec is a very neat city.

Days 37/42 - Compton Area, Quebec

We've spent this week just traveling around this southern Quebec region. It's a rich farming area and also there are many little towns to visit. We've enjoyed the week but wish we'd had less rain and we would have enjoyed it more.
There are many Christmas tree farms in the area. We'd never seen one before but I guess they're just like any other farm with a crop.
We visited Sherbrooke, which is the 6th largest town in Quebec with 150,000 people. There was nothing special about the town except that they had 10 buildings with life size murals painted on them. They were very life like. All the windows in this photo are painted on.
We also visited a beautiful little town called North Hatley which sits on a very large lake called Lac Massawippi. There was a great little park right in town on the side of the lake where you could sit and enjoy.
The architecture of North Hatley is very old and many of the buildings are from the mid 1800s. Very quaint place.

Tomorrow it's off to Quebec City.

Day 37 - Compton, Quebec

Of course, the national language in Quebec is French. It's not uncommon to come across people that don't speak English at all. All of the street signs are in French and they don't give you any English translation. You have to figure the signs out on your own. We've seen this one all over the place and we've determined it means, "Attention, Children laying in the street". Did I tell you, we don't speak French?

Day 37 - North Hatley, Quebec

Today was an adventure as we went on a tour of an old copper mine called "L'Epopee de Capelton". We were taken by tractor drawn carriage to the top of the mountain where we descended down into the mine for a tour. The mine operated from 1860 (Civil War) to the early 1900s when it was closed due to economics.

The mine shafts lead to 24 levels in the mine that reach over a mile in depth. When you consider that all of them were dug by hand, with poorly crafted tools, it's amazing. We only visited 3 levels, because most levels are currently under water, but that was plenty to get the idea of what it must have been like.

We only visited 3 levels because most levels are currently under water, but that was plenty to get the idea of what it must have been like to be a miner in 1860. Twelve hour days, 6 day weeks, no proper tools, no breaks, no bathrooms, no sunlight in your life and a life span of about 35 years. I don't know how they did it.
They would take mules into the mine to help with the work and, because it was so hard to get them down there, they would leave them in the mine for the rest of their lives. These are stalls where they were kept underground. Needless to say, mules also had a very short life.

Days 37/43 - Compton, Quebec

Compton is a very small town (2800) in the Coaticook River valley only about 30 miles across the valley. The scenery is beautiful rolling hills full of wineries, cheese production and lots of farms. Naturally, the villages in the area date way back into the 1700s.

We decided to spend a week here because we're told the campground is the best in Quebec and we're able to stay for only $10 a night. We plan to just kick back and take some driving trips around the valley.

BLOG TIP

Did you know you can click on any picture to enlarge it for a better view? Well, you can!

Day 36 - Quebec Province, Canada

The trip from Burlington to the Canadian border is about 100 miles. When we crossed the border the guy in the window asked me all of the normal questions about was I carrying any knives, guns, ammunition, liquor, firewood, etc. I gave him the normal answers, all "NO". Evidently, he didn't believe me because he had me pull over and sent two agents out to search the coach. They had us stand outside while they conducted their search. We were a little worried they would find the liquor and small amount of firewood we were carrying but, after about 15 minutes, they came out and sent us on our way. We enjoyed our drinks that night!

Day 34/35 - Burlington, Vermont

Burlington is the largest city in Vermont but is really just a small college town. They were celebrating the 400th anniversary of lake Champlain while we were there and there were activities going on all over town. It was great to be able to join in.

Burlington sits right on the shore of lake Champlain, with beautiful views of the mountains across the lake in New York.

This guy was riding his bike all over the downtown area trying to get his point across. Trust me, he wasn't a college kid!

We stayed at a beautiful Elks lodge here that even had electrical hookups. We spent some time having drinks there and they told us everything to do in town. They sent us to the Wind Jammer restaurant for dinner, which has to be the best in town. I had the best prime rib I've had in many years. We love stopping at the various Elks and American Legions as we travel.

Days 30/36 - South Hero, Vermont

South Hero is an island in the middle of lake Champlain with New York on the west and Vermont on the east. We are only 25 miles from the Canadian border. We picked this location to just back off and relax for a week before heading into Canada. The lake is beautiful but we've been having some really rainy weather. Looks like that will change tomorrow. I don't want to tell you that the island is back woods but we asked where we could go to get a hamburger for lunch and this is where we were sent because it has a water view. Dump but not a bad hamburger.
We went out and visited a vineyard on the island. We were surprised they even had one but not only do they but the wines aren't bad at all. They have several 'Wine Spectator' awards.
Down the road a bit is the home of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. We toured the plant and had some ice cream. The story of Ben & Jerry is a true American success story of two guys, who were basically failures, that hit on a winning idea. Now they are mega millionaires. And we had to choose video!

Back to the small world idea...Our campground is run by people from North Port, Florida, which is very close to us. They knew our club and had played golf there.

Day 29 - Saratoga Springs, New York

Saratoga Springs is a horse town. The colorful picture is an example of horses that are all over town (like the pigs in Venice). They have two race tracks. One for throughbred racing and the other for harness racing. Only the harness racing was going while we were there and we spent the afternoon enjoying the races. There is also a very large slot machine casino at the same location as the track.

Day 28 - Saratoga Springs, New York

Our 4th of July holiday was spent walking the streets of Saratoga Springs and taking a ride around the town on their trolley looking at the sites, which includes a number of turn of the century mansions. They say that the owner of the pictured $3 million mansion has his grass heated so his dog doesn't have to walk in the snow. I'm not sure I believe that but that's the story. The house is beautiful! While walking across the street downtown we heard someone calling out our name. It was Lidia Madrazo, who lives in the same place we do in Florida. It's a very small world we live in!

Days 27/29 - Saratoga Springs, New York

We spent the holiday weekend in Saratoga Springs. We found this small town north of Albany to be a really neat area. It offers everything you could want but in a very nice small town atmosphere. We had a great time just walking the streets and driving around the city. We really liked it and would consider returning in the years to come.
We spent the weekend parked in the parking lot of a very nice Elks that was right in town. They had Friday night all-U-can-eat pizza and a great Sunday breakfast buffet each for $5 (and there was no ++).

Day 25 - West Point, New York

Today we toured West Point. What a beautiful place and what a tradition. Makes me want to go back and watch "The Long Grey Line" with Ronald Regan. The first picture shows the dormitories with the chapel on the hill above (the parade ground is in the foreground). West Point sits on a hill with a commanding view of the Hudson (as shown in picture 2). Originally being a fort to protect the Hudson river during the Revolutionary war, it was very important to control the river and this was the best spot on the river.
There is a very large military museum on the grounds that displays uniforms and weapons all the way back to the 1700's. It's very impressive! In the picture, I'm standing next to a replica of the atomic bomb dropped on Japan to end World War II. I had no idea it was so big but I guess that's why they called it the "Fat Boy" bomb.