September 12, 2024 — Day 12 Paradox Brewery, North Hudson, NY — Keene, NH We’re home! But let’s back up a bit. There’s not too much to back up. We had been planning on paving our driveway and putting in a concrete pad for Clifford. But do we back it down the driveway and go front ways into the pad. Or, go front ways down the driveway, and back it into the pad? The second one is better, but only better if we can then make a hard right turn and go front ways out of the driveway. So what’s our turning circle? Just why are we blathering on about this.…

September 11, 2024 – Day 11 Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary & Nature Campsite, Ingleside, ON – Paradox Brewery, North Hudson NY Today was a driving day. We could have made it all the way home but decided not to, why not, the whole purpose of this tour is shown in the name, the Cabin Fever Tour. So why not take the slow road home. But first, we had to get out of Canada. And there was only one lane going out. We’ve all done one lane roads with a traffic light, but we’ve never seen one a bridge before, especially an international bridge. Who pays for this? We suspect…

September 10, 2024 — Day 10 Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary & Nature Campsite, Ingleside, ON We spent the day just relaxing. After lunch we decided to go do some birding, after all, we were in a bird sanctuary. We didn’t see much. We met one birding couple, he was the birder and she was the scribe. They had seen 42 species that day! They offered to have us walk with them but we weren’t feeling the walk. We thought we could drive to a part of the island and get out the scope, but that part was private property and we couldn’t enter. One of us had seen a…

September 9, 2024 — Day 9 Struisvogel Ranch, Carrying Place, Ontario — Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary & Nature Campsite, Ingleside, ON (Note, this is being written in Mid-October, but I’m going to make the published date mid September just to keep the trips together.) Before we left we had to go see the ostriches! They didn’t open until 11 so we had a slow morning. Paul tried the latest haul in his odd-soda quest. This time it was Coke flavored with maple syrup! Let’s just say it must be an acquired taste. To be fair, Paul doesn’t like Coke, he drinks Diet Coke and the two are very different.…

September 8, 2024 — Day 8 KOA Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada — Struisvogel Ranch, Carrying Place, Ontario Just a quick travel day today. We packed up and headed down the street to another campground to buy propane. We were down to 29% which is surely enough to get home, but maybe not. The forecast over the next few days was going to be cool and we didn’t want to run out. Paul went to gas up the Jeep (paul here: uhm, get some pizza, I mean gasoline, at City Slice, wait, at Canada Petrol.) Both missions accomplished we headed off to Mississauga where there was a Whole Paycheck Whole Foods…

September 6, 2024 KOA Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada Yes, we know it’s September 6th. However, it is Halloween here. No, it isn’t a Canadian thing, but something they do here and in Michigan. We spoke with one local who told us that the weather is so lousy in late October they just do it know. The KOA had all sorts of kids activities, including a spooky movie and of course, trick or treating. Some of the displays were great. Next it was off to the curiously named Shoppers Drug Mart, with the tagline, “Food You’ll Love.” Why go there? Because it is a Post Office! And it was open on…

September 6, 2024 — Day 6 KOA Niagara Falls, Ontario CA Today was the “wet” day. On deck was the Maid of the Mist boat ride to the falls. Except we didn’t since they leave from the American side. This is new because until a few years ago they left from both sides of the falls. It’s the same company still, but in Canada it is called City Experience and in the US it’s called Maid of the Mist. We were meeting with our friends Yasmin and Hussein for lunch afterwards so we didn’t want to have the extra hassle of a border crossing in both directions as coming to…

September 5, 2024 – Day 5 Letchworth State Park, Castile, NY — KOA Niagara Falls, ON, Canada Oh, Canada! Ok, we’re jumping ahead — but Canada! It’s today! We had two choices of bridges to cross into Canada, the Peace Bridge and the Rainbow Bridge. Peace is the southern one, near Buffalo, Rainbow is right by the falls. The Rainbow Bridge was a city route. Paul really wanted to do the Rainbow bridge because it looked more direct. Susan wanted to do the Peace Bridge because the wait was shorter. Plus, once we crossed into Canada the drive was mostly farmland until very near to the KOA. First we needed…

September 4, 2024 — Day 4 Letchworth State Park, Castile, NY Now that we had the lay of the land we knew what lay south of us – that pretty 20-30 minute drive – we were off to try and find the Lower Falls. But first it was time for lunch. Although the Parkland Diner was fun we also know that with minimal preparation we can easily pack a lunch to eat while taking in a beautiful view at one of the many overlooks. We went back to one from yesterday where we saw a couple having a picnic lunch. As we were enjoying “our” spot another couple sat down…

September 3, 2024 Letchworth State Park Ok, about the title. We didn’t decide to call Letchworth State Park the “Grand Canyon of the East,” NY State decided that. And the park isn’t bad. Actually? It’s pretty awesome! But Grand Canyon of the East? That’s a pretty lofty claim. mmm…we think some market-droid had a little too much latte in the afternoon. (susan here: a tipple laden latte.) Ok, it is pretty impressive. The Genesee River comes through here, dropping three pretty impressive waterfalls in a short distance. There are 66 miles of hiking trails, not that we hike much, however 2 of the 3 waterfalls are easily accessible from the…