Day 3 Niagara Falls 6-25

6-25-11 Niagara Falls

We are all up and ready to go eat by 8 am.  Sitting with our door open waiting for everyone to get around, I am sitting I the room typing on my iPad doing my blog.  This man comes up to the door, and ask for some lady.  I tell him he is in the wrong room, and he proceeds to come on in.  By the time he makes about three steps into the room, Chuck appears at the door, and tells him he is in the wrong room.  Poor guy seems to not have it all together, and goes ahead and leaves.  As we are getting ready to walk to eat, we see him again, still looking for his room.  He has knocked on all the rooms across the way, and still hasn't found out  where he is supposed to be.  Steve called him a "window licker" and it just really cracked me up.  We eat at Bob Evans and it is really good.  Our waitress was really nice and took care of us well.  Packed up and ready to get on the road, as this is our day we reach Canada!!! It is pretty cool and I go ahead and put on my chaps, and I am glad I did.  We have cloud cover the whole day.
Stop for gas just outside of Cleveland, and as we are finishing up this strange rocket car pulls up to get gas.

The lady says it was an old amusement park ride and it has been converted to an actual vehicle.  Strange but true.  She even had on a T-shirt with the website on the back.  Back on the road, we make it to Pennsylvania.  The roads already seem to be better.  Can not believe how green everything is.  Really is pretty.  As we ride, we keep seeing acres and acres of grapevines.  They must really grow well here, cause I can truly say, I have never seen so many vines.
We make our way to highway 20 cause the guy at the Harley shop told Chuck it was a really a nice ride.  We are riding right along Lake Erie.   It is really pretty, and the small towns are just beautiful.  I did't get to take a picture of the sign when we crossed over to New York.  Wasn't expecting it.  So many of the towns show dates of 1800's and the homes are just beautiful.  We pull into this one town and find this little diner to eat.  As we park, the waitress walks out and tells us they are closing, and we wont be able to eat there.  So nice of her to come out and tell us before we get all off the bikes and get our stuff off.  She tells Chuck there is a couple of places down by the water, and gives us directions to get there.  It was only about a mile.  It is starting to mist pretty heavy as we find a place to park.  There are two places, and as we are getting off the bikes, one of them across the street turns off the open sign.  Guess we know where we are eating.

  The place is all decorated with zebra accessories.  Another group of bikers are in there eating as we walk in.    Noticed they close at 3:30 and it is now 3, so we really lucky to find a place to eat.  Looks like 3 is about as long as they stay open around here.  We all find something to eat, and we order.  I think everyone was really impressed with their food.  The price was very reasonable, and the food was awesome.  Some of the other group of people were finishing up and they came by and said hi to us.  Looks like they were ex policemen, from what their vest patches say.  We finish our food, and walk out to some clearing skies.  Looks like the rain showers are over for awhile.  Back on the road, we follow Highway 5 til me meet up with Highway 90 again.  We have to get on a tole road.  They charged us and the Biggs $2.80 because we are pulling trailers. The others tole is 1.80. Traffic isn't bad, and we are in Buffalo New York before we know it.

  We are traveling over this bridge, and there is the Canadian border.  We are in a line with cars waiting for our turn to make it to the booth.  I ask one of the guards if we need our passports at this time, and she says yes.  I tell the others that it is time to get the passports out, so all the girls get off the bikes and get them.  I am sitting on the bike waiting our turn, and I decide to take a picture of the area we are waiting at.  The uniformed lady walks over and ask for my camera.  Seems I can't take pictures at this location.  She proceeds to delete my two pictures.  I told here I had no idea I couldn't take them, and told her I was very sorry.  It is now our turn to go thru the check point, and the girl is very nice.  She ask Chuck what is our reason for coming to Canada.  He tells her vacation.  She also ask how much money we have on us.  If we had any guns, and where our reservations are for the trip.  Chuck tells her, and I proceed to tell her that the 3 other bikes behind us are with us.  She tells us we can go ahead and go in, and I ask if there is a place for us to wait for the others, and she directs us to a waiting area.  We get everyone through to Canada.  Let the fun begin.  But first, I remind everyone to turn off our phones.  We are all going to be going thru withdrawal without our phones, but it cost too much to be using them here, so it is just easier to turn them off.

We find our way to the hotel without any problems, and pull into the parking area without a hitch.  The guys direct us to an area to park the bikes, and we are unloaded and about ready to head into the hotel to check in, and Chuck ask Steve if he had turned his lights off.  He says no, and goes back to the bike to turn them on.  They are not working.  Guess we will be making another stop at a Harley store to see what is wrong with the lights.
We check in without any problem.  We are on the 27 th floor, and the rooms are totally awesome.  They actually look just like the pictures that we had seen on the Internet.  After we get settled om the rooms, it is time to go and explore the area.

There is a Margaritaville right across the street from the hotel, so we head over to get one.  It was get, and we had some nachos, and two margaritas a piece, and we got the bill....it was $110.   Oh my goodness....we won't be doing much of that, but have to say, the margaritas were really good.  We walk down the long hill towards the falls....I think coming back up is going to be really fun!!!!!  We get the usual pictures of the falls, and I have to honestly say, it is beautiful here.  The flowers are amazing, and the grounds are really kept well.  I totally understand what people mean when they say you have to see the falls from the Canada side.  Also, understand what they mean when they say the Canada falls are much prettier.

 We do some souvenir shopping and head back up the hill towards the hotel.  We have all decided that the "maid of the mist" is the one think that we all want to do.  This is the boat that takes you up close to both falls.  So tomorrow we will get up and do just that.  Wonderful day, and we are all tired.    Time to chill and get some rest.  Tomorrow is going to be fun!!!