EPILOGUE

It's been over a week since we ended our Fall Colors tour.  We have taken a slow and restful return to Texas.  We left Niagara Falls and went 120 miles to Erie, Pennsylvania.  We stayed at a KOA overnight and the headed west to Middlebury, Indiana.  We needed to get close to Goshen, Indiana so that I could get a new landing jack for the 5th Wheel.  I had called the manufacturer last week and ordered the part, but Monday was the earliest I could get there to pick it up.  We stayed in the Middlebury KOA two nights - Sunday and Monday.  I was able to install the landing jack and finally unhitch the trailer from the truck.

Tuesday morning we headed 200 miles southeast to Jackson Center, Ohio.  We had planned to visit the Airstream factory on our way to Vermont, but it was Labor Day when we were in the area and obviously they were closed that day.  Airstream has a small RV park on their property for people who bring their trailer in for repairs.  When Jenna called to confirm they had room for us to park the trailer for the tour, they asked if we wanted to stay in their RV park for the night.  At $10, it was a bargain.  It looked kind of funny - our big old 5th wheel surrounded by Airstream trailers.  The tour was very interesting.  It takes 9 days to completely build each Airstream - regardless of its size.  We saw trailers being built in every stage from flat sheets of aluminum to a completed unit rolling out the door.  Airstreams are quite expensive and I can certainly understand why.  Everything is crafted in the Airstream factory - lots of labor costs!

We left Jackson Center and headed down Interstate 75 into Kentucky and made our way to Renfro Valley.  Renfro Valley is known as the Country Music Capital of Kentucky.  We stayed in the Renfro Valley RV park and attended two shows.  The first was a country music show with a drummer, bass guitarist, and lead guitarist/vocalist.  It was an entertaining show with songs from all   areas of country music - George Jones, Trace Atkins, Marty Robbins, among many others including Elvis of course.  The 2nd show was a 50's and 60's show complete with poodle skirts and the mandatory malt-shop.  This show was excellent with some terrific talent.  One guy could knock you socks off with his booming voice.  I think everyone was surprised by his talent and that of several others in the cast.  There were 10 vocalists in this show and they each sang 2 or 3 songs with group numbers thown in-between.  We really enjoyed this show, and I would recommend it highly.  Prices for the show were $15-$17 per ticket and you could get a ticket for dinner at the Renfro Valley Lodge for $5 - what a deal.  The food was good, but the show was better.  

We stayed in Renfro Valley two nights and before heading out for Tennessee.  We had planned to stop in Bowling Green and tour the Corvette Plant.  They started tours again this week after not having them for more than a year.  I called to be sure we could park the trailer and they told me that they had to suspend tours for the rest of this week due to a SNAFU on the line. What a disappointment!  We skipped on through Bowling Green and headed toward Nashville.  Maybe I can get that tour in next time we come this way.  Tonight we are staying in the Natchez Trace State Park. This is a very nice park with full hookups.  Tomorrow we are heading east to one of our favorite Arkansas state parks - Village Creek State Park.  We have stayed in this park a couple of times and like it very much.  All of the Arkansas state parks we have  visited are very nice.  

After two restful nights at Village Creek, we headed further west and south across Arkansas as we finish the final leg of our trip.  There wasn't much traffic today and we made good time.  Thelma (our GPS) is either growing old or she doesn't want to go home.  She kept trying to get me to turn around and go make to Memphis.  Then when we got west of Texarkana, she started telling me to make a U-turn and go back toward Texarkana.  Hard telling what she will do tomorrow.

We made it 325 miles today to Mt. Pleasant, Texas.  It's about 160 miles home from here.  We probably could have made it, but my back and neck were really tired, and we need to flush and clean the black tank before we get home.  The RV park here is affiliated with Passport America so it only cost $12.50 for the night.

When we get home tormorrow we will have driven 6423 miles, used 516.5 gallons of diesel, while averaging about 12.4 mpg.   Diesel ranged from a low of $3.65 to a high of $5.35 in Canada with most running right around $4.00.    Lots of $$, but it was well worth it.   Tomorrow will mark 8 weeks to the day that we left home on this journey.

We live in a beautiful country and Jenna and I have been fortunate enough to see a lot of it.  We still need to visit the Pacific Northwest so I guess we need to start saving our pennies.

IT'S OVER!

Saturday, October 12

Is it really over?  The past 32 days have flown by so quickly.  I can't believe that today is the final day of our Fall Colors tour.  It seems like only yesterday that we were at the glass bLower's shop in Stowe, or Burr Morse' sugar-making farm -and yet, it also seems like a long time ago.  We have done so much and seen so many things that it is hard to comprehend what it all was.  But wasn't it fun!  I know I have marked a few things off my bucket list.

We gathered for a breakfast - what we seem to do best - eat, at 7:30.  

    Ernie, Janet, Janice and Earl have a few final goodbyes

Most everyone was there by 7:30 because we didn't want anyone to get away without a goodbye.  Lots of hugs were given and a few tears rolled out as we all said goodbye to our newfound family and friends.  Some signed up for another adventure - Eunice finally twisted Earl's arm and got him to sign up for Alaska in 2015.  

    Terry gets Eunice and Earl signed up for Alaska.

We signed up for the 2014-15 Rose Bowl Parade where we will see Janice and Bill, Janet and Ken, and Barry and Terry.  Hopefully some of you will decide to come too.

We finally rolled out of the campground about 10:00.  Everyone was gone except Barry, Terry, George and Carol.  It was a short drive to the QEW and then the 20 miles back to the border where we sat in line waiting for Customs until shortly after 12:00.  

The line must have been at least 2 miles long, but they were moving people through pretty fast.  

Shortly after clearing the border we got a final goodbye by phone from Earl and Eunice, made our way to I-90 West,  and made the short drive to Erie, Pennsylvania.  We will make our way to Goshen, Indiana by Monday where we will pick up a new landing jack for the 5th wheel.

It was a wonderful trip with a great group of people.  

RV'ers  have a special way about them.  You know you can depend on them to help out without asking.  I saw that firsthand when the landing jack on the 5th wheel malfunctioned.  Ernie, Earl and Ron were immediately there to help and we had a whole gallery of on-lookers offering moral support.  Earl also had "all hands on deck" when he had trouble getting out of the Coldbrook campground.  They are just good people you can depend on.  Barry and Terry worked their butts off planning, organizing, cooking, and leading us to the various venues.  George and Carol were always there backing up the Trailbosses and making us all laugh.  Barry, Terry, George and Carol all did a terrific job.  Thanks guys!

Train rides, boat rides, LEO's, Potlucks, museums, Niagra Falls, bus trips, ride shares, and all the other wonderful things we did added to the beautiful foliage we saw made for memories I will hold on to forever.  Thanks to everyone for making our trip so fabuous!

SO MUCH TO SEE, SO LITTLE TIME!

Friday, October 11

We had an extremely full, busy and fun day today.  We gathered around 9:30 for a ride-share to the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory.  After watching a short video about butterflies, we entered a tropical paradise of exotic greenery and flowing water that creates a rainforest environment for 2,000 tropical buttterflies.  

  This one landed on my jacket and refused to leave.

Over 50 different species of butterfly fly freely through the 1,022 square meter Conservatory.  A 600 foot path winds its way around the Conservatory creating different views to observe the butterfies as they forage for nectar, search for mates or bask in the sunshine. Over 100 labeled unique and exotic plants are housed in the Conservatory.

Butterflies were everywhere! I believe we saw many more butterflies here than at the Conservtory in Houston.

We caught the WEGO - the people moving tranportation system in Niagara Falls - and headed down to the Maid of the Mist.

        The American Falls from the Maid of the Mist

      The Canadian Horseshoe Falls from the Maid of the Mist

       The American Falls from the Skylon Tower

       The Horseshoe Falls from the Skylon Tower

The Maid of the Mist is the oldest tourist attraction in America having started in 1846. Two 600 passenger 80' long boats depart every 15 minutes on a journey passed the American Falls and then into the basin of the magnificent Canadian Horseshoe Falls. It is truly 30 minutes of thrills that allows you to "soak" in the excitement. We all wore our blue disposable raincoats, but we still got wet. I'm sure anyone who rode on the top deck got completely soaked.

      Jerry, Joyce, Earl, Lynn and Eunice prepare to get wet.

     Jenna did get wet

The American Falls are 180' high and 1100' long while the Canadian Horseshoe Falls are 170' high and 1500' long. Over 6 million cubic feet of water flows over the falls every minute with 90% of the water coming over Horseshoe Falls. The water in the gorge below the falls is 170' deep - as deep as the canyon walls above the water are high. What fun we had!

After a quick lunch we walked down the Journey Behind the Falls attraction.

      Horseshoe Falls from the observation deck of the Journey Behind the Falls.

Here you walk down stairs and take an elevator to a series of tunnels behind Horseshoe Falls. Two tunnels end with a view of the water cascading down. The third goes onto an observation deck where you can get a full view of the waterfall from the right side.

Again we wore disposable raincoats beause of the spray from the falls. This was less exciting than the Maid of the Mist, and Jenna got a little claustrophobic in the tunnels.

We had tickets to go to the White Water Walk that allows you to walk along the class VI rapids of the Niagra River below the falls, but we didn't have enough time to do this activity. Our farewell dinner was tonight and we needed to get back to the campground to get ready for that. This was the one biggest disappointment about this trip. Niagara Falls and all of its attractions are a major hightlight for this whole trip. Too many things were packed into this one day and we weren't able to fully enjoy any of them. Adventure Caravans needs to revise the stay in Niagara Falls to allow more time at the main attraction - the falls. This may mean cutting out the Butterfly Conservatory or maybe even the city bus tour so that we could have more time to fully enoy the falls and the accompanying attractions.

Our farewell dinner was held at the Skylon Tower, a 520' tall observation tower directly across from the American and Horseshoe Falls.

We had tremendous views of the falls, New York, Onterio, Toronto and Lake Onterio from our seats in the revolving dining room. We had a delicous dinner of either steak or salmon and took lots of pictures of the falls and the area around the city of Niagara Falls. After dinner we went up two flight of stairs to the observation deck to see the falls as darkness came on. At 7:00 the lights slowly illuminated the falls with white light, and at 7:30 the lights turned pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness. The dinner and the experience on the obsrvation deck made an terrific ending to an unusually busy day.

      Barry and Terry Klein - Wagonmasters  Fulltimers

      George and Carol Dewitt -Tailgunners - Florida

      Ron and Linda Kane -  Florida

      Ron and Mary Kunkel - Texas

     Lyle and Linda Fikse - Iowa

      Ernie and Ruth Lindgren - Illinois

     Jerry and Joyce Patten - Florida

    Jack and Lynn Staudt - South Carolina

      Ron and Sherry Darrah - Arizona

      Ken and Janet Cerato - California

       Bill and Janice Hayhurst - California

     Udo Wolff and Nuscharak Lorentz (Nuschi)  Germany and Thailand

    Earl and Eunice Seymour - Maryland

     Gilbert and Jenna Hall - Texas

MO GOES HOME

Thursday, October 10

What a busy day!  We loaded the bus this morning at 8:15 for our tour of Niagara Falls and the area.  It was quite foggy so the first view we had of Niagara Falls looked like this!  

After driving around some we went back by the falls and got a little clearer view.  Hopefully it will be even clearer tomrorow.

Our first stop was at the Mount Carmel Monestary.  This was a small church with extensive white oak wood carvings and beautiful stained glass windows.  

Several years ago the church was struck by lightning and suffered extensive fire damage,  Miraculously, none of the carvings or the stained glass windows were damaged by the fire even though the roof caved in in the sanctuary.

Front row: Terri, Barry, George, Carol, 2nd Row: Nuschi, Ruth, Jack, Lynn, Ken, Janet, Sherry, Ron,

3rd row: Udo, Ernie, Ron, Linda, Janice, Bill, Linda, Lyle, Top Row: Mary, Ron, Gilbert, Jenna, Joyce, Jerry, Eunice, Earl.

After taking a group picture on the front steps at Mount Carmel, we journeyed on to see the famous Floral Clock. The clock face is made up entirely of flowers and the stainless steel hands weigh over 1000 pounds each.  The clock chimes every 15 minutes and plays the Westminster Chimes on the hour.

Our next stop was in the town of Niagara on the Lake.  The town was founded by Loyalists from America who fled to Canada during the Revoutionary War.  It is a rather fashionable town even though it is quite old and quaint.  The downtown was lined with boutiques, pubs, bistros, and lots of "touristy" type stores.  We had lunch there and walked around the Main Street.  What I noticed the most were the flowers hanging from the lamp posts and lining the fronts of most of the stores.  They must spend a fortune on landscaping! The Prince of Wales Hotel is located in Niagara on the Lake. During the summer season rooms rent for $500 per night. We went into the lobby - it is very nice but not that nice!

    The Prince of Wales Hotel

We reloaded the bus and headed for the Joseph's Estate Winery.  

This is one of over 40 wineries in the area.  There are acres and acres of vineyards to produce the grapes.   The grape harvest begins in September and usually ends in late October.  They do a late picking in November and a final picking in January or February.   This final picking provides grapes for ice wine.  Ice wine is made of grapes that have been frozen for 3 consecutive days and are picked by hand while they are still frozen.  Usually it is -10 Celcius when they are picked.  Ice wine is very sweet and sells for $30 and up per bottle.  Asians come here and buy several cases to take home and resell for up to $500 per bottle!  We had a tasting at the Joseph's Estate Winery and had the opportunity to buy their wares.

Next we went to the Picard Peanut Store.  Here we had the opportunity to buy all different kinds of nuts and candies.  I bought a big jar of Beer Nuts and a small package of salt-water taffey.

Our next stop was at the Chocolate Fix candy factory.  

If there is one thing Adventure Caravan Tours guarantees, it is that you get to eat a lot!  The owner of Chocolate Fix talked to us about the business of making chocolate.  

     

       One of the Employees at Chocolate Fix

She gave us an informative and funny talk about her business before inviting us in to sample the different chocolates they manufacture.  Once again I had to laugh at the look of 28 senior citizens gathering around the chocolate buffet.  I know I sampled one of every variety, and there must have been 25 kinds - but I wasn't alone.

      It was a rush to the free chocolate samples.

We moved on to Lock #3 on the Welland Canal.  

      An empty ship waits to rise up in the #3 lock

   A ship comes under the draw bridge before entering the #3 Lock at the Weiland Canal.

The Welland Canal and its 8 locks are just part of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway System that provides a trade route for ships moving from the Atlantic Ocean to Chicago on Lake Michigan and Thunder Bay on Lake Superior or any point in-between.  The Welland Canal and its locks were needed to help ships get around Niagara Falls.  A ship was in Lock #3 when we arrived and another was approaching.  A volunteer told us that there was a lot of ship traffic today and that would slow down their trip through the canal.  All of the 15 locks in this system are 766 feet long and 80 feet wide with a water depth of 30 feet.  Each lock holds around 21 million gallons of water and take about ten minutes to empty or fill.

The canal was first opened in 1829 and has seen 4 different sets of locks in the years since.  The first locks were made of wood with horses used to pull ships through the locks.  The 2nd and 3rd sets of locks were constucted of limestone.  The newest locks are made of concrete and steel.  The 15 locks in the system raise a ship  total of 552 feet, and the 8 locks in the Welland Canal system raise a ship 368'. The Welland Canal and its locks were needed to help ships get around Niagara Falls and comprise the tallest water staircase in the world outside of China. The canal closes from late December until late March due to cold weather. Ships coming through the canal carry a variety of cargo ranging from grain and iron ore to petroleum, coal and chemicals as well as manufactured goodsof all kinds.

We arrived back at the campground around 4:30.  Earl and Eunice asked us to go out for pizza.  The pizza place they chose was a take-out only so we brought it back to the campground and had dinner at their rig.  Pretty good pizza!  

At 8:00 we gathered in an activity room by the campground office for a end-of-trip dessert party.  Carol and Terry had prepared desserts for us and Barry and Terry passed out gifts - glasses decorated with fall colors.  

      Linda, Mary and Ron go for the desserts.

     Carol gives me her beautiful smile.

     George even mugs for the camera.

Then we went around the room sharing our favorite memories from the trip.  The recurring theme was the camaraderie among all of those on the trip.  More than once people said that it wasn't what we did, it was the people on the trip that made it special.  We were all thankful for the fellowship, helpfulness, and friendliness of our Adventure Caravan friends.  Additionally, we all agreed that the fall colors were beautiful and the many train rides, boat rides, dinners, museums, etc. were all wonderful too.  We all had a few laughs and a few tears were shed as we reminisced about our 33 days together.

Mo, or Morene - a monkey who was passed around during the trip - made his return to his home with Barry and Terry.  

As he as moved from rig to rig during the trip he has picked up many new items to help him remember his travels. Lile and Linda gave Mo a rain suit designed by "Baggy" (pronounced "bagaaaaaa"  to commemorate his ride on the Maid of the Mist tomorrow.

Tomorrow is another full day of sightseeing.  Come back  then to hear about our day.  Until then,

Happy Trails!