Day 13-15 Erie/Salamanca/Bradford

We decided to stay in Erie, PA a second night, as we had a great time the first night. We ended up meeting people who had a camper on the beach, and playing party games with two other couples. It was essentially like make-your-own apples-to-apples without cards, wherein you would write down an answer to the prompt, and a judge would pick his/her favourite response. We had fun for a few hours, which was surprising as we nearly didn't even say 'hi.' They were apparently in the mining industry, which I knew my dad would appreciate, as they also went to Penn State. One of the two girls worked on a fracking operation, which surprised us. In either case, it was great being right on the water, playing games. it was the first time that we really got to know some new people on the trip. They told us of the nice drive we had ahead of us into NY, and to check out some breweries, which we kind of forgot about by accident, but there will be more.

After playing games with them for a bit, we headed back across the street to our campsite, and spoke to our neighbors for probably 3-4 hours. They had a fire going, and we neglected to buy wood, so we wanted to share. They were friendly, horse-raising, car-racing folk from a farm near Pittsburgh, and had quite the accents. They had a small dog with them, and liked animals a lot, so we got along well. After speaking with them for so long (until 3am), they wanted us to check out their camper, which I knew was generally not a good idea, but they were simple and honest folk, and knew nothing would happen. Their camper was a 2015, so it was nice to Sarah to get to see what the near top-of-the line trailers look like inside, with the slide out fireplace, nice massaging leather recliner chairs, and the sweet kitchen. We didn't stay long, although they certainly had a slight penchant for bears and bear shaped things, which were scattered throughout their home. They were not full timers, but as his wife had some medical issues, they were camping nearly every weekend to make the most of life. We admired that, and enjoyed the company. Again, it was the first and only day we had really talked to anyone else, aside from camp staff or people trying to sell us stuff.

The winds kicked up mighty bad that night, and by morning, I was wondering if it was a good idea to move our camper on to the beach (of the lake) or not, as we had spoke of moving there Monday, after all of the tent campers had left. The campground was massive, encompassing both sides of a small street that was directly adjacent to the Presque Isle State Park, which was very nice. We scooted there the first day after checking in, and enjoyed a nice walk and a picnic near the lighthouses. We got some neat pictures as well.

The waves on the lake the next morning were insane. We decided to move to the beach area, but not on the beach, as I was a bit afraid of the potential for intense wind. We moved the rig Sunday, just before the rain came, and it was mighty strong. Like, tropical depression winds. I was able to watch the Ravens lose in overtime, which was a good game, but a bit depressing.

We rode out the storm together, and after the rain, it was even more wind. It was entertaining to see the birds trying to stay put, or aloft. We caught a glimpse of the sunset through the clouds over the crashing waves. It was interesting as fire pits and other things on shore, where we sat on nearly idle water at the water line just the night before, was completely underwater.

Eventually the power went out from the wind, as one of the poles in the campground went down. This left us with little options, and I ended up going to bed a bit early, by 12 or so.

The next morning, I woke up early around 8, and went for a scooter ride down the peninsula to try to catch the tail end of the sunrise. It was pretty overcast, but not nearly as windy. Walking down the beach, it was amazing to see how much random stuff had washed ashore. A lot of trash, and things indicating they were from Canada were easy to spot. It was a shame since the beach was essentially pristine without any trash the day before.

I then worked, both jobs, until around 3, when we headed out of the campground, and headed east towards Salamanca. We stayed at a Seneca Allegheny casino, just outside of Allegheny State forest, whch was very pretty. The drive was awesome through the mountains and small towns of NY. Upon arrival around 7pm, we were pretty hungry, and decided to go into the casino to see if they had anything good. To our delight, if you signed up for their club card, you got a free buffet, a 26$ value, so we opted for that, and enjoyed quite the feast. We made it just in time, as the buffet closed at 8. We had just enough time to wait in line to sign up for the club, sit down, and eat. The club card registration guy accidentally kept my license, so I had to run back to get that to ensure it wasn't lost. The buffet was pretty tasty, and they had a little bit of everything. We stuffed our faces, and then played roulette for a while to try to milk out some 'free' drinks before heading home. I gave Sarah 20$, and I also played with 20$ as she'd never played. We had fun, although sarah lost her 20 after a half hour or so. I turned mine into 100$, so we left ahead, and hit the bar for another drink, then headed home. A great, cheap night and a free place to stay was a nice touch. I also picked up another casino chip for my collection.

That night, we were quite cold, and decided to run the RV furnace all night to stay warm. We woke up to it being 33 degrees outside, with fog over the mountains. We stayed warm, but drained our battery more than I realized. Perhaps even to the detriment of the cathode, as it didn't charge very much upon driving. We headed to Bradford, PA next, about a half hour south back into PA, to check out the Zippo factory and museum, which was worth the small detour.

After the factory, we hit up downtown Bradford for a bite to eat at this small, independent sandwich shop called Leo's. We met leo, and he made us quite the amazing sandwiches. He said he had customers that came all the way from Ohio and Buffalo just for his sandwiches. Beat the sub shops back home for sure. We then did some RV maintenance in a parking lot before heading north towards Buffalo, where it became increasingly difficult to find affordable camping, or even a walmart that allowed overnight stays. We eventually found one, a bit out of our way, but it was nice. We arrived fairly late, around 10 I believe, but the walmart was massive and fairly fancy, with large columns and three entrances, all with their own pair of columns.

The night of rest was welcome, and it wasn't nearly as cold thankfully. Unfortunately, it was then that we realized our battery wasn't charging properly, which made power use fairly limited for the evening. We picked up some distilled water, beer, toilet paper, and the new SP game before hanging out a bit and heading to sleep. In the morning, I tried to top off the battery with water, and discovered we were burning through some oil on the mountains and hills. So I bought some more, only to realize it needed even more oil, so a third trip to the walmart was necessary before we headed out. Adding oil was a far longer ordeal than needed, as the funnel was dirty and a thin one, so it was nearly impossible to clean. I found our other funnel, a standard one, eventually, and managed to get it clean enough for use. The wind was so strong though, that some of the oil blew onto the drive belt, leaving us with a squeak, which thankfully burned off on its own (as it was a small amount of oil). It was already a long day, and it was only 2pm. We were only a half hour away from Buffalo though, so we eventually left and headed there for Pearl Street Brewery, which was great. I had the buffalo wings, just to say I had them there, and we enjoyed a brew or two while I finished work. I had to hammer out 10 pages as it was a busy day at work, but I got it done. It was a bit challenging finding parking for our large vehicle in a city though, as we needed two spots that were in front of each other. We just paid for two spots (as all parking in the city was paid parking, even by the casino), and hoped for the best, which worked out fine. We had to leave by 6 to avoid a ticket, and arrived back at the lot at 620, but thankfully no ticket.

Sarah found us a nice campground for the evening, but we had to be there by 7, which meant no more exploring Buffalo. We made it to camp on time, and enjoyed the sunset over Lake Erie on the way. We set up camp and enjoyed a fire for the first time in what felt like forever - but thankfully we had free wood from our neighbor from the "Sara's Campground" spot where we stayed in Erie, PA a few nights prior. We stayed on "Grand Island" which is a fairly large island between the US and Canada, about 5 miles south west from Niagara Falls. We plan to check out the falls today, and see if we can get away with staying in the falls parking lots. We're enjoying some showers this morning, and I'm hoping for a slightly less stressful day at work. Time to fill up our water tank. Maybe it's tasty Niagara water?