Niagara Falls, NY - Oh, Shucks!!

Yesterday, I batted my eyelashes, gave Gary my sexiest smile and asked ‘What time should we get up tomorrow?’ As soon as Gary hears that, he knows that I have 6:00 in mind. Yep, I wanted to get up at 6:00 and get into our next site before the rain starts around 2:00. And, we were the first ones in the DS, the Dump Station. Everyone else is a weekend camper here in this park and they are taking their time about packing up and going home today. They’re staying as long as they can, milking every last minute out of the weekend before they head back home to get ready for work tomorrow. We’ve the retired ‘RV’ers’ and we are on the move early.

Oh, shucks!! Just after I write a blog about the fun of driving along America’s back roads and visiting our small towns, we decide to take the tollway across New York. So much for back roads and small towns. Here we are in a Service Plaza drinking a cup of coffee from Tim Horton’s and watching the rest of the world pass by. And, speaking of Tim Horton’s: I have become really disillusioned with Dunkin’ Donuts, those donuts that I used to crave many years ago when we lived in New England, I keep trying them, forgetting my past disappointment and hoping anew for that old taste. Today it will be different. And, I’m disappointed again. The donut is dry or tasteless of just not something to spend our hard-earned money on.

However, we’ve heard of Tim Horton’s from Canada and today we saw an actual Tim Horton’s store in the Service Plaza. We looked them over, saw that they had old-fashioneds and thought they looked pretty appealing. But - we had treated our selves to a sticky bun from a Mennonite bakery called Sauders in Seneca Falls so - put it all aside for another day - we understand that there are lots of Tim Horton’s in Canada. Lots to look forward to.

At one of the travel plazas along the tollway we noticed an Amish or Mennonite woman selling fruits and vegetables. Ummm, I bought some tomatoes - oh, boy - time for a BLT. Bright red, ripe and just perfect - to look at. But, when we ate them, both Gary and I noticed that they all tasted like supermarket tomatoes and were a bit mushy. So much for the tomatoes along the toll-way.

OK, back to the tollway. Maine charges for it’s main route through and the road is a delight to travel. Smooth and scenic and the time passes quickly. New York roads are not nearly as scenic nor as smooth - too many trucks I imagine.

Oh, shucks! We were moving right along nearing Buffalo, when we saw lots of red lights in front of us. Construction? Toll booth ahead? A herd of elephants crossing the road? Who knows? Looks like it’s going to be stop and go for a while - it ended up being 2.4 miles until we got near the toll booth at the end of the tollway east of Buffalo. Cars jockeying for the best lane. But, in a motor home towing a Jeep, we’ll just stay in our lane and inch forward.

Oh, shucks!! We’re in the Easy Pass lane. We don’t have an Easy Pass and in VA learned the hard way what the consequences of being in the Easy Pass lane without an Easy Pass were. Not only do you need to pay the toll but you get fined. We do not want to be in the Easy Pass lane. Now, we’ve got to move into the next lane. Hey, some nice person took pity on us and let us through. Thanks.
Horsefeathers!! They changed our old lane from an Easy Pass lane to a Cash lane. Wouldn’t you know? The joke’s on us. Funny.

We sailed on from there until we hit one of the roughest stretches of road we’ve driven in our days of RV’ing. Rutted, pot-holed, bumpy - the lady in the park told me it’s a ‘disgrace’ when I checked in and asked her about it.

We got to our site, set up, ate lunch, took our walk, found a neat trail around the out side edge of the park, got back to our RV and then the rain hit. Whew.

‘I know what’s wrong, and if I could find it, I’d fix it.’
                                        Unknown