Frog Rally at Niagra Falls
Although it was only about a 6 hour drive from Indian Lake
to Ontario, I decided to leave a day early and stop for the night at Camping
World in Syracuse. I had a sudden
urge to check out other RV’s. Not to
trade, I still love mine, just to window shop.
I checked before I left to make sure I could boondock overnight, and was
pleasantly surprised to find they provided free electrical hookup. After taking my time shopping and buying a
few ‘necessary’ items, I was ready to hit the sales lot. Imagine my disappointment when they were all
locked. You had to get a sales person to
walk around with you. What a drag! I personally think they lose business that
way, but maybe they have a problem with vandalism.
This was my 3rd FROG rally (Forest Rivers
Owners Group) and it was in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Before going to Canada, I heard several RVers say they had their rigs
thoroughly searched at the border. I was
prepared; I had my passport, the dog and cat’s rabies certificates and and
was carrying nothing unwelcomed by Canada.
The first border guard I came to asked several questions including
where did I live. I said in my RV. He said where are all of your
belongings. I said in my RV. He asked where would I be staying while in
Canada. I said in my RV. He must have asked 5 or 6 questions that
required the same answer. Next he asked if
I owned a gun. I could have lied, but
that’s how you get into trouble, so I said yes.
He asked if I had it with me, I said no.
He asked why not, I said because it’s illegal to bring it into
Canada. He asked why did I own a gun,
I said for target shooting and protection.
He asked where was it, I said in a storage unit. Again, he asked
multiple questions on the gun. Finally
he tells me to pull forward, where two other officers were
waiting for me. I hand them my paperwork
and they tell me to unlock all the compartments on the RV. I think oh boy, I’m going to be here all
day. I asked if they needed me to open
the slides and they said no. That means
they couldn’t get into the bedroom at all, so I’m wondering what’s the point
since they can’t be too intent on searching everything. They were in the RV for about 10 min, then
one of them came out and opened the storage compartment underneath and did a cursory peek
before handing me back my documents. Hmm,
that was painless. I asked if they
searched me because I admitted to having a gun and they said no, they search
all RVs because they can’t see into them like they can a car. At the rally, I talked to several people and
only one other person said they were searched.
I will say they were very polite, even chit chatty with me. The one searching inside said he was looking
at RVs (for himself) and really liked my layout. One other person said while they were not
searched, the officer in the booth was very confrontational, almost trying to
pick a fight.
I had an awesome time at the rally! Bob and Cindy are the rally organizers and are
the perfect people to be the face of Forest River. They both have incredible memories; if
they’ve met you once, they remember everything about you. They are so much fun to be around, and both
are so genuine. As soon as I parked, I
met my neighbors Bev and Ron. They are a
great couple from Wisconsin who also winter in Florida so I’m sure I’ll be
seeing them again. On the other side of
me was John (Iggy) a retired AF guy and his wife Di. He gave me some great tips on maintaining my
RV. Another couple I met were Lorrie and
Greg from WV. Bev, Ron, Lorrie, Greg and
I hit it off so well, we spent the entire week together. It’s so great when you meet people that you
just instantly click with. I also really
liked Ruth and Mike from Florida.
They were camped in our row and were part of our little group as well. They live in Florida full time and I look
forward to seeing them this winter too.
There were many more people I met that I really liked, but this little
group is who I spent the most time with.
The next morning after breakfast, we decided we wanted to go
to Wal-mart and the dollar store. What
else to do you do in a new city, right?
Well, both were closed because it was Canada Day, who knew? We went cherry picking instead. At the
campground, we kept hearing what sounded like gunshots. We were next to a pick
your own cherry farm. Well, the birds
like cherries too, so they periodically shot off guns/cannons to keep them from
picking the trees bare. I went along for
the adventure since I had a big bag of cherries I had just bought from the
grocery store. After a briefing which
included dire warnings not to eat the cherries before washing them, we headed
out to begin picking. I was going to
donate mine to the group. After ignoring
the warning and sampling the offerings, I realized the berries I had at home were much
sweeter. There had been a lot of rain and most of the cherries had split open,
were not ripe, were over ripe or were sour.
Oh well, we here there for the experience anyway. About 10 minutes after we arrived, Lorrie
realized she had dropped her phone somewhere, so I started
calling her number while the rest of us spread out to look. We hadn’t gotten too far in, so it should be
there. At first, the phone rang several
times before going to voice mail, so I kept redialing. After a time, it didn’t ring at all but went
straight to voice mail. We thought it
very strange that we couldn’t find the phone, but eventually gave up looking
after we decided that it quit ringing because someone picked it up, turned it
off and put it in their pocket. What
kind of loser would steal a phone right out from under the nose of people
obviously looking for it! It was
Lorrie’s work phone, so she had to call work, have them lock that one out,
activate a new one and FedEx it to her. Luckily
she had just got a new IPhone, so it did give her a new toy to play with.
That night we had a really nice camp fire at Bob and Cindy’s
site. I took Brutus Beefcake of course
because he just loves camp fires. Cindy
calls him Old Man, so I think when I pull into a campground and someone ask
where my husband is, I’ll tell them my old man is either sitting by the front
door crying , or he’s sleeping in the floor.
It was nice to see so many people had come to the fire, but the circle
was huge. There was no way I was going
to sit by the fire and roast a marshmallow.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, a little girl named Ally ran up
and grabbed a marshmallow. I asked her
wouldn’t she like to do one for me too?
She said no and headed over to the fire.
Hmmmm. A few minutes later she
noticed Brutus asleep in my lap and asked if she could hold him. What do you think my answer was? I said, didn’t you just tell me no? Of course I let her hold him, even though I
knew it would last for about a second before he clawed his way back to me. Much to my shock, he let her hold him all
night. She carried him all over the place, upside down like a baby, and he
never once squirmed to get down. After
that, she kept calling him her dog. Ally
and her younger cousin Ileana became my best friends after that night. They were there with their grandparents
Donna and Martin, another really nice couple from South Carolina. As we all know, I’m not particularly child
friendly, but these two little girls were well behaved and I must admit, kind
of fun to be around. I suppose to
celebrate Canada Day, we were treated to a totally unexpected, but very nice fireworks display. What a way to end the day…
The next day Bob and Cindy arranged a bus tour for us. Ally
and Ileana took turns sitting by me all day and again, I must admit I really
enjoyed their company. One of the things
we saw was the floral clock, where we had a group picture taken. They kept talking about a clock we were going
to see and I couldn’t imagine what it was, but it’s a beautiful clock basically made out of a
gigantic flower bed. Check out the link
to the pictures at the bottom.
The Floral Clock is 40
feet wide, with a planted area 38 feet wide, making it one of the largest such
clocks in the world. This unique attraction is a very popular stop on the
Niagara Parkway and is photographed almost as often as the Falls. The intricate
designs on the face of the timepiece are created with up to 16,000 carpet
bedding plants. An attractive feature is a 10-foot wide water garden that
curves 85 feet around the base of the timepiece. Each year, the face of the clock is filled
with 15,000 to 20,000 carpet plants and colorful annuals, planted in unique,
intricate designs. The hands of the
clock are stainless steel tubing: the hour hand is 14.5 ft, the minute hand
17.5 ft and the second hand 21 ft long. Their combined weight is 1,250 pounds.
An ivy-clad, louvered stone tower stands 24 feet tall and contains speakers
that every quarter hour broadcast Westminster chimes. The clock mechanism runs in
a bath of oil.
Of course we took a ride on Maid of the Mist, a boat that takes you from the Canadian
docks past the base of the American Falls, then into the basin of the
magnificent Canadian Horseshoe Falls. Water rushes all around as you `soak` in
the excitement and explore the roar of the Falls. Debuting in 1846, the Maid of
the Mist is North America’s oldest tourist attraction. Although we had the free plastic poncho, the
majority of people were soaked by the time we got back. Those in the front of the boat got a lot more
then mist, but they seemed to enjoy it.
The views really were spectacular.
We made a sort stop at the Botanical Garden just as they
were closing, so we didn’t get to go to the Butterfly Conservatory, but the
grounds were beautiful and we all enjoyed the chance to stretch our legs. As we passed a small pond, someone noticed a
couple of frogs sitting on the bank. One
was situated so you could get a great shot of it, and it didn’t seem to care
how close you got, so I got right up on it and got an amazing picture. We thought it was apt that all of us FROGS
got a great picture of a frog…
For dinner we went to the Skylon Tower. Before we hit the buffet, we took the glass
enclosed Yellow Bug elevators to the observation deck, which is 520 feet from the
base to the top of the flashing beacon.
The tower is 775 feet above the Maid of the Mist Pool. We had an amazing view of the falls as we ate
our very tasty dinner!
Of course being tourists, we had to stop at a gift
shop. Outside there was a life size,
plastic, obviously male, moose. As we
were sitting on the bus waiting for the last few people, we noticed 4 lovely young
ladies photographing each other in funny/obscene poses with the obviously male
moose. I’ll leave the poses to your imagination,
but they were all giggling amongst themselves.
As they got in the car to leave, several of us drew their attention to the
bus load of people who had just watched their entire shenanigans. They just about died, but laughed
hysterically as they drove away. Ah to
be young and silly….
To end a 2nd wonderful day, we headed back to the falls for
the nightly illumination. Every evening at dusk, or in this case, 930, the
falls are illuminated with different colors. To celebrate the 4th of
July, on this night, the colors rotated between red, white and blue. A total
of twenty-one xenon lights, each with a 30 in diameter, are used to illuminate
the Falls in a rainbow of colors. Eighteen are located at the Illumination
Tower, beside the Queen Victoria Place and three are located below street level
in the gorge opposite the American Falls. Each of the xenon spotlights produces
more than 390 million peak beam and has a brilliance of 250 million
candlepower.
The 3rd day was a free day, so several of us
decided ‘go big or go home’. We headed
off to take a wild ride on the Whirlpool Jet Boat and of course we chose the wilder
wet jet option. There is a more tame, fully enclosed boat, but why bother? The Niagara River collects all the water from the Great Lakes which
amounts to about 20% of the world's fresh water. Over the past 12,000
years, the turbulent currents of the immensely powerful Niagara Falls have
carved out a 7-mile gorge on the lower
Niagara. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water flow over the Falls
every minute and as that water enters the narrow rock gorge, it is compressed
into the rapids that create our whitewater playground. Niagara's Devil's Hole
Rapids boast 15'-20' waves, currents
with speeds approaching 20 mph and a solid class 5 rating. Class 5 rapids
are defined as "approaching the limits of navigability, should only be
attempted by whitewater experts after taking every available
precaution." for a short clip of the fun check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmLTrLA2574&NR=1&feature=fvwp.
So about 12 of us FROGs hop into the back of the jetboat
with our life preservers and ponchos on.
We start out on a nice calm river and pick up speed as we head up into
the Niagara Gorge. The scenery is
beautiful, the day is perfect, but we aren’t wet. Our guide tells everyone to lean to one side
and hold on. Suddenly the captain does a
full on donut with the speeding jetboat and just like that, we are all drenched
and laughing hysterically. He does it a
few more times and we continue on our way, but not before we are mooned by a
group of young girls on the river bank.
Yup, these lovely young ladies actually dropped their shorts and mooned
us and probably the other 2 boats nearby.
We reach the class 5 Devils Hole Rapids and pull over to the side to
watch some of the other jetboats go back and forth. Man is it crazy; they go flying up in the air
and come back down and are drenched.
When it’s our turn, we are ready and its absolutely as much fun as it
looks. We go back a few more times and
continue up to Whirlpool Rapids Gorge.
Whirlpool Rapids Gorge has
an average width of 750 feet. This portion of the gorge is world famous
for its rapids. The width of the Whirlpool Rapids Gorge narrows to
approximately 150 yards. Here the width of the river narrows to approximately
200 feet wide. The depth of the Whirlpool Rapids is 35 feet and the speed of
the water at the Whirlpool Rapids is 22 mph. The speed is the result of the
narrow width of the gorge, the rapid descent of the river and the volume of
water (100,000 cubic feet per second). The descent is 52 feet in less than 1.2
miles. The rapids generated here are amongst the wildest, formidable and most
dangerous in the world. The Whirlpool Rapids are rated class 6.
No
we didn’t shoot them, we turned around and went back and did Devils Hole a few
more times! You know how sometimes you
pay your money and go on an excursion only to be disappointed at what you got
for the price? In this case, we all
agreed that the cost was well worth the trip, we had an absolute blast! The group
of people we went with were so much fun, Cliff and Nancy, a really great couple
from NJ, joined Lorrie and Greg and I. Martin,
Donna and my best little girl friends rounded out the group.
The
next day was a free day as well and I decided I was going to wash my RV. It was
so dirty I was embarrassed to be seen near it.
Fortunately, I woke to the sound of rain, so I thought I was off the
hook. Since we were in Canada, it was
way too expensive to call anyone, so I emailed Lorrie and Greg to come over and
watch the latest episode of Dexter (on Showtime). He’s a fan, we caught her up on all 8 seasons
in about 10 min. He’s a blood spatter
expert for the Miami Metro PD, his sister is the Lt of Homicide. Oh, he’s a serial killer who only kills other
killers, mostly. That’s the code his
father taught him, also a cop. Last
season his sister, who had no idea of his double life, caught him in the act
and at the end of the season had to kill their caption to save her
brother. This season she’s a drug addict
suffering from PTSD who told Dexter she shot the wrong person. It’s the final season. Sadly, my friends didn’t check email till
much later in the morning. With nothing
left to do, I spent the morning cleaning and reorganizing everything inside my
RV. Later in the morning I went outside, but it was still too
wet to get on the roof to wash the RV, so I thought I might as well tackle the
storage compartment. By now it had stopped raining and people were out walking around.
One by one people stopped by to see what
I was doing. Lorrie, Greg, Bev and Ron
came over and were so entertained, they pulled up chairs. Others came over and joined them and I soon had
a rotating audience. I must say, it made the task a lot slower, but much more
enjoyable. By early afternoon the sun had
come out, the roof dried up and I had
no excuse not to wash the RV. I tried to
recruit my new friends as well as most of the passerby’s, but oddly enough, I had
no takers. Oh they were all about watching,
but not so much participating apparently.
No worries, I don’t need no stinkin help!
While
I busied myself getting my tools ready, my ‘buddies’ actually moved their
chairs under the tree, so they could get the best possible view in the most
possible shade, because by now it was really hot! In all fairness, the girls did help me get
the bucket, tools and hose up on the roof.
By passing them up, not by climbing mind you. Iggy brought out the video camera while
Lorrie was in charge of still photos. I had
no idea how entertaining this could be, I should have charged admission… I will
admit, after awhile, some of them did pitch in.
Iggy and Greg did a great job washing the awning, it’s now pearly white!
Being
at the rally where the focus was on our RVs was really fun. It was good to meet other people with the
same interest. At one point we all
walked around and checked out each other’s storage compartments, hookup
systems, trailer hitches, car towing etc.
We compared notes on just about everything having to do with how the RV’s
work. It was very educational and I learned
a lot. So much so that on my way from
Ontario to my next stop in Vermont, I spent another night at the same friendly Camping
World. The next morning I went looking
for the grease I just found out I needed for the wheel bearings on my trailer
tires. The service guy handed me a cartridge, saying “put this in your pocket,
you didn’t get it from me”. Apparently
they don’t actually sell the stuff but they have a supply for when they do the
job. He showed me the dry silicone to
keep the slide tracks lubricated, the spray to keep the side seals from drying
out and the silicon to properly seal a seam that keeps cracking. I’m all ready now. Maybe I’ll actually get around to doing all
this stuff, but not today. I like
projects, as long as I don’t have to actually DO them… Next stop Andover Vermont.
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