Just as with Woodland Park, today we could slow down and breathe. We boondocked last night at the Wallmart in Lexington Ohio. That Wallmart is a guarded 24hr store that does not discourage overnighters. We replenished our supplies and called it a night. It had been a 555 mile drive from Missouri. We were bushed. Around 3:30 AM some inconsiderate trucker pulled in and fired up his generator. That’s not cool. He drove off half an hour later. Surprisingly Ellen slept through.
The next morning we bought some popcorn from a cub scout family before heading off. We mentioned we were from California and the woman said incredulously, “WHY?” She assumed we had moved to Lexington, Ohio. We had a great conversation.
The drive from Lexington Ohio to Syracuse Ny is a relatively short one. We stopped a few times to pick flowers along the road side. This brings back strong family memories when I was very young. The flowers we picked were beautiful. Erie county is home of vineyards and wineries.
Lush Trees, Farm Land, and Vineyards dot the landscape in Erie County.
We could have make it a long day, but it’s Sunday and the JETS were playing. At this point we needed to find a place to stop, watch the game, do laundry, and perhaps take a shower. The JETS game showed at 10 AM PST, we were in EST a difference of three hours. We could drive 2-3 hours then watch the game on DirecTv which assumes we’re still in Pacific Time! Ellen found a TA truck stop at Harbor Creek Pennsylvania that had it all plus a truck wash, and was a bit over two hours drive away. Perfect.
TA Truck Stop, Harbor Creek New York
At that TA station, the laundry was great, we gassed up, filled DEF, and settled in, but the JETS lost. We packed in the last of the laundry and headed off to New York easily forgetting the debacle we had witnessed. Passing Buffalo, we both though, “why not stop at Niagara Falls?” We could catch sunset over the falls. Again with AllStays, Ellen found two campgrounds on Grand Island. She called both and we made a reservation at Cinderella Motel and Campsite and we continued on to the falls.
What Is This?
Niagara Falls
Somehow we drove right into the closest Niagara Falls parking lot and walked to the overlook.
We hope to ride “Maid of the Mist” tomorrow. Being off season and in the evening, the falls were not crowded. The US side of the falls is commercialized, but it is nothing like the Canadian side with two casinos dominating the night-time view.
We saw sunset from the US side and we’ll see sunrise from the Canadian side tomorrow morning before pushing on.
We backtracked to our campsite, connected, and found that the trees to the south blocked our DirecTv antenna. The off-the-air HD antenna worked fine and we’re watching CSI Las Vegas. Ellen grabbed me to go out and see the eclipse of the Harvest Moon. I ran back, grabbed my long camera, and took this photo.