The Best of Upper NY

One of the main reasons we decided to visit upper New York was to get the chance to see Niagara Falls. Most of my life people have said it is the most majestic place they have seen (next to the Grand Canyon) so we purposely routed our travels to accommodate being near the area. We spent our first day at the campsite, The Ridge-NY, by cleaning and organizing the RV. We decided to treat ourselves to a mani-pedi and purchased some groceries at the nearby Aldi. Speaking of Aldi, I must be the last one in on this secret, discounted place. Although some of my family members have shopped there for quite some time, I always gravitated to Walmart since I can get basically everything I need in one place. WELL. NOT. ANYMORE. I continue to spend half the amount of my grocery bill which now allows more money for fun stuff. And the food is quite comparable. If you are a skeptic, give it a try. I dare you to buy the chocolate chip cookies and tell me they don't taste exactly like Chips Ahoy.

The following day it was projected to be a high 52 degrees, so we decided this was our opportunity of being outside and seeing the falls. Our hour drive was filled with beautiful back road scenery, such as farmhouses, agriculture fields, historic colonial homes, and churches. We arrived on the America side of the Falls and quickly decided to make our way across to the Canada side. Once on the other side, we walked to various viewpoints to see where the "best view" of the Falls were and took some memorable photographs. This probably took all an hour. After walking for what seemed to be for days and in need of a cold beverage, we made our way to an area that resembled Disney World, Las Vegas and a local carnival. I don't remember the name of the street, yet Canada seemed to cram all the above ideas into three square blocks. We stumbled upon a Niagara Brewery and figured it was a good place to rest and drink. We finished off the day with some pictures of the Skylon Tower and Canada police department.

If I must rate the most unpleasant part of this experience it was dealing with border patrol (both sides) Don’t get me wrong, they were professional, effective and precise. All the officers we encountered seemed to take their job VERY seriously yet could have benefited from a class on “How to look like you enjoy your job, even when you really don’t.” When we re-crossed to the America side, I had a conversation with a Border Control Officer:

Border Control Officer: Where are you from?
Me: Florida
Border Control Officer: Where in Florida?
Me: St. Cloud
Border Control Officer: What is the reason for your visit to Canada?
Me: Vacation
Border Control Officer: Are you bringing anything back with you?
Me: Yes sir, a full belly of Canadian Amber Ale beer.
Darryl: Yes, my wife.
Border Control Officer: :/ (insert stoic and grim expression)

While driving back, I asked Darryl about his impression of the Falls and the overall visit to Canada. I was surprised to hear he shared the same sentiments as I did... it was not as we thought it was going to be. I surmised maybe it was due to the lack of greenery or maybe the falls would have looked bigger if we would have seen it from a boat. Either way, it was pretty yet a little disappointing.

Our final day in Le Roy we visited the Jello Museum. Although not on my “bucket list” of places to see, a local at the campground fish fry we attended said it was worth the stop. For the $5 admission and scope of a three-room tour, I’d rate it a 2 out of 5. Mostly because apparently there are a lot of things I don’t know about Jello and even worse because I wasn’t warned that I would be seeing a stuffed “Christopher the Giraffe.” The story of his natural death and eventual shot to fame by being the Jello mascot did not reduce my traumatization. As a consolation, Darryl and I accepted the Jello treasure hunt game and won a prize of a new box of Jello. We finished off our visit by stocking up on groceries, meal prepping for the next 4 days of boondocking and checking weather conditions along our route. Unfortunately, it didn't look good.