Pages

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Tripping in Niagara

Last year, last month, last week we decided to take our travel home on the road and drove South West. Our destination was a little place called: Niagara Falls. You might have heard of it, it's right at the Canadian US border. The best way to describe it is with pictures, I'll post a lot of them here.
We left Saturday, drove an hour to a Walmart in Gatineau (Quebec), parked the house and the truck and walked to our daughter's to spend the night there. It was a practice run to confirm everything was performing as it should, and it did.
On Sunday, we drove the remaining 600 KM (370 Miles) leaving our daughter's home at 05:00 AM. We drove by Kingston, home of our first prime minister (Sir John Alexander Macdonald ) and now home of our Canadian bloggist extraordinaire (Sir-ette Martha). We waved at her from the highway but like with a lot of celebrities, she didn't wave back, didn't even acknowledge us, sheeeesshh!
Have you ever driven a truck pulling a 21 foot trailer on an highway through a mega city jammed pack with traffic? I did just that driving through Toronto. Sometimes there were 9 lanes, sometimes there were only 5. After years of abstinence, I picked up praying... but I kept my white-knuckled hands on the steering wheel at all time. After what seemed to me like 10 hours, we were out of Toronto and going down the Niagara peninsula.
We arrived at our camping in Fort Erie, unhooked and setup the trailer. By the time we were done it was around 2:00 PM. In the past, prior to getting  back in shape, we would have just stayed put for the night... not anymore! We drove to town to do some exploring. We found a nice park, right by the Niagara river. To my surprise across from us was Buffalo, NY. In my mind Buffalo should have been somewhere else, but hey, when did I start trusting my mind!
There was a nice walking/biking path so we decided to walk for a while. To answer Ivy’s question yes my wife walks too. We often walk together but sometimes she just stays home and walks on the spot in front of the TV. I don't really care to walk inside, so even if the weather is not too good, I'm outside.
When we returned to the truck, we went for a nice drive around the area. The drive brought us to the Falls, we didn't stop as we wanted to keep that for another day, but from the road, we could see the falls and we were excited.
Tomorrow I'll talk more about our trip but I want to get back to the subject of being fit. After all it's a blog about health and not so much about traveling.
I have mentioned that we embarked on this health journey to be fit, it's not only a matter of losing weight it's also about having a better quality of life which is a bit of an abstract concept. But on this trip, we enjoyed being in a better shape; we walked and biked and had plenty of energy to do so. We could really take advantage of our surroundings. In the past we would have been beaten after an hour.
Mind you, this change didn't happen overnight, it happened in over 5 months but boy do we reap the benefits RIGHT NOW.

 The peace bridge between Fort Erie and Buffalo


 It's hazy but this is part of Buffalo


Buffalo's water plant


The view from the truck

13 comments:

  1. What a great trip! Driving through Toronto is like riding a roller coaster...very gut wrenching. I'm so glad I no longer live in a big city. Speaking of cities, why didn't you tell me you and your wife were driving through Kingston? We could have met, or you could have stopped by here, and we would have shared a cup of coffee! Maybe that's why I didn't wave when you drove by...I was upset :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what I was wondering, too. You were right there for cotton pickin' sake.

      Delete
    2. There is no cotton picking in Canada Ivy :)

      Delete
    3. Martha I thought about it but we never know at what time we leave so we never know at what time we arrived where. Also we don't have a cell... I hate those things. I thought it was possible we stopped and camp in Kingston on our way back, it would have been easier to meet then, but we decided to get back home... Sorry next time, we will not just be waving!

      Delete
    4. No problem, Richard. I knew there were good reasons for it and I was teasing. Next time for sure!

      Delete
    5. Turns out he was in Buffalo which is close to me (Erie PA), so don't feel to bad, he snubbed us both.

      Delete
  2. We went to Niagara Falls in May of last year. It is an awesome view.
    Lori

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope you took the boat, completely worth it to see the fall from down there.

      Delete
  3. Being fit and getting that quality of life back is the best.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I should have say fitter... there is still a long way to being fit LOL

      Talking about fitness... I hope you are doing good!

      Delete
    2. My infections are still here but we're working on them, each day. The fatigue part is gone, which is heavenly. And yesterday started my third week of Monday, Wednesday, Friday (jog/walk), on the treadmill.

      I love it. Jogging and walking are two of my most favorite things.

      Thanks for asking.

      Delete
  4. Awww, you guys had an awesome trip! :)

    -WWE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who knows in 9 months you might get a brother or a new sister ha ha ha

      Delete