Day 2 -
We started out bright and early from our Days Inn hotel in Niagara Falls after glomming up on some of the sparse, but still effective, continental breakfast. A bowl of Raisin Bran and a cup of bad coffee can carry you quite a long way.
Last night was a bit rainy when we pulled in, so we decided to delay viewing the falls until this morning. Great move as it turns out. The entire city of Niagara Falls was sleeping in this morning. After our luxury feed, we motored down to the State Park (first state park in the country, they'll have you know) and found our way out onto Goat Island.
Pulling into the parking area so early, the booths were unmanned. So we skipped having top pay the $10 parking fee for a 15 minute look at the falls. We also had the entire falls to ourselves... kind'a nice that way.
The State Park is open 7X24, and admission is free, (though not usually the parking) so no problem getting in while nobody else is around. I recommend doing that.
After we had received our full money's worth of viewing, it was time to head up into the Great White North, eh?
Here's an artsy fartsy shot of the Canadian side of Niagra Falls in the wee hours.
Took the Rainbow Bridge, and as is usually the case when entering Canaduh, it was completely uneventful, perhaps even polite. "Thanks for visiting. Have a nice trip..."
Once we cleared the eastern congestion, the Canadian roads to Sarnia were pretty enjoyable. Of course we cruised along at (almost) the speed limit since my trusty Escort Passport had to remain stashed in the trunk for the duration of our Canuckistan visit.
We saw a couple of farms of wind mills (turbines) along the way, but curiously they were all stationary. No idea why...
Tried to make it from NY to MI without refueling, and I probably could have done it, but it had been more than 2 hours since our last break at the falls, and I had a need for some "Timmy Speed". So we sucked it up and paid $28 to fill the little FJR tank by the liter, but I also got my Tim fix.
The only sour note of the entire day was the attemptto re-enter the US at Sarnia. It was a liitle bit after 10AM. I never expected such a gigantic cluster ****. The road was backed up a little bit just to pay the ($3.50) bridge toll on the Canadian side. But then just after getting thru the tolls the road was segregated into lanes with some overhead electronic signage.
Trucks to the left. Cars to the right. Busses and Nexus down the middle. The truck line was ridiculous and backed up to before the bridge even started to rise. Then as we started up the long bridge the car lane came to a stop. I'm thinking... I'm not a car or a truck, and I sure the hell don't know what a Nexus is, maybe that's me?
So we continued up the entirely empty middle Nexus lane right up to where it splits into the customs lines and then wweaseled over into a car line at the last minute. Seriously, that saved up well over an hour of stop and go ********. Just sitting in those short lines at the end was about 20 minutes of engine overheating.
I swear, any time I try to re-enter the US it is some sort of ******** like this. Why do people really want to bother coming here?
Once we were back into Michigan before any of the RMP could nab us for line evasion and lack of being polite, it was clear slabbing up the mitten to the big ole' bridge. The Mackinac Bridge (at Mackinaw City) is another $4 toll but this time it is worth the fee, as that is one long, and high, mother of a bridge.
They had some lane closures which forced us to run the expanded metal grates for a good part of the bridge since the other paved lane was the one closed. While we were at the highest part i told Josie to look down, and she almost barfed. But then, b eing the trooper she is, she got us a picture...
As I mentioned earlier, we had planned to get over the Mac, and then tool into the resort town of St Ignace (Ignacio should love this place!) for the night. I had done some homework, and found that the Quality Inn in St Ignace is right on the shoreline. And the water view rooms are quite reasonable, even before you apply the 15% AMA discount for being a Choice hotel.
We got a nice room on the second floor for $75. Here's the view from our room:
Need I say it? Highly recommended.
Walked across the street to the Hillside restaurant and had some whitefish and chips. It was good, but not spectacular, but it was quite reasonably priced. No booze, so make sure you have your cocktails before the walk over. We did.
