On July 22, we entered the US at Calais, Maine. We wanted to head east on the south side of the Great Lakes on our way home. We continued on Hwy 9 to Bangor, Maine through areas of forest and hills - not many houses or towns. Very patriotic - US flags in some places every second power pole. Bangor had some lovely historic homes on large lots We stopped at a Walmart in Bangor Maine and we’re happy to see eggs for $1.76 a dozen and our favourite salads for $3.27. We continued on on Hwy 2 through Maine into New Hampshire and then into Vermont. Passing lots of large homes, many attached to the barn and garage.
We stopped in Rumford, Maine to see a Paul Bunyan statue and some falls and continued to Glenn Ellis Falls for a short hike to an impressive waterfall.
We did a quick walk in a historic district of Saint Johnsbury, Vermont, and onto Montpelier for an overnight at a Walmart. We were hoping to see the 160-year-old capital building and many historic buildings from the 1800s in Montpelier but it had been flooded two weeks ago with river water and most of the downtown businesses and homes were badly flooded and debris everywhere, sad to see.
We spent most of the day at a state park near a lake, sitting in the shade, having lunch, doing some reading and then onto our Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory tour at 5 o’clock. I had booked this yesterday for $11 for the two of us, the tour took about 30 minutes including time to eat our 2 ounces of today’s flavour - churro ice cream. We were surprised that 1 pint of ice cream at the factory was $7 and the same thing at Walmart was $4.88. This plant is one of two in Vermont - this one produces 400,000 pints per day the other one 1,000,000 - this supplies everywhere except Europe, a total of 31 countries.
We headed north from Burlington, Vermont towards the ferry to upstate New York. A small ferry that takes you across Lake Champlain - 15 minutes, $22 open ferry.
We took the scenic route into the Adirondacks along Hwy 9, passing through Wilmington, the site of some Winter Olympics events in 1980 (ski hills visible in the distance).
We had lunch at the A&W in Wilmington - an unusual one - looked like an old drive-in, had outdoor tables, a "wait to be seated" sign, menus and table service.
We arrived to Lake Placid, home of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics - we were able to see the ski jump & the training areas. The town of Lake Placid was crowded - reminded us of Banff in the busy season.
We arrived at our campground - Rawlins Pond State Park in the Adirondacks in up state New York - $25 a night for an unserviced site. We decided to spend two nights, listening to the birds, doing some walking and actually played two games of crib. We were surprised to realize the Adirondack Park is a vast natural park 6,000,000 acres - not a national park but over half is considered wild - about 60 million people have easy access to this area.
We left in a rainstorm on our way to Niagara Falls, saw wild turkeys along the highway, mainly forest, some farms, mainly corn. We checked on iOverlander for an overnight spot and realized that the Brockport Welcome Centre right along the Erie Canal had free Wi-Fi, bathroom with showers and welcomed overnight parking! We walked along the canal, learned that was opened in 1825 and it was the first means of mass transportation into the American Midwest. It joined the Atlantic to the Great Lakes.
We left Brockport and headed to Lockpor,t also along the canal - passing farms, huge trees, corn, apples, zucchini & soybeans. Lots of roadside fruit and veggie stands. We decided to check out the locks on the Erie Canal at Lockport, & we lucked into standing next to an older fellow who was happy to tell us all about the canal, the locks and how they work. We got to watch a tour boat go through the locks - just like the Panama Canal, but a smaller scale.
July 28, my 66th birthday, we headed for Niagara Falls, wanting to see them from the Canadian side. Our GPS took us through residential on the US side to the Rainbow bridge -toll $13 and then a stop at customs and we were back in Canada for the day. We found parking for $35 a day and had a long walk to get to the falls but nice as we walked along the river before the falls. Our first time to see Niagara Falls and we were duly impressed. We had to do the boat tour to get "up close & personal" to the falls - we got tickets with Niagara City Cruises $74 for two, we got right into line, no advance ticket needed. We were given our red rain ponchos - the US Maid of the Mist uses blue ponchos. And we were quickly onto the boat - crowded and hot. As we drove you could actually see and then we hit the mist - more like a rain storm - glasses soaked, sunscreen into the eyes, camera all wet. I took some videos without really knowing what we were looking at because we couldn’t see, but some actually turned out. We got soaked, but it was fun. Total of 20 minutes on the boat. Enjoyed people watching - all nationalities and languages in the crowd. Spent the night at the Walmart in Niagara Falls and talk to the kids. Great way to spend my birthday!
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