Day 18 - Lake Ontario, About Halfway Through

Looks like our first brief trip is already nearing half way through. We left on 10/3, and plan to be back 11/7 or so. So we have been on the road 19 days, and have about 16 days left until we are back in Annapolis. It's safe to say we have the swing of things down. There are still a few improvements we would like to do to the RV, and with it passing 100k miles, there is some additional maintenance that we need to schedule, but aside from that, things are going well.

After leaving Grand Island, we headed towards the falls, and found their RV parking lot. There were no signs saying that we "couldn't" stay there, so we figured we could, and prepped to stay for the night. We got there around 4 or so, and I had to finish up work. Thankfully it was a Friday, and I didn't have too terribly much to do, but still needed to get it done, which took until 5:30 or so. We got the scooter down, as the RV parking lot was more than a mile away from the actual falls, which seemed a bit ridiculous. There was plenty of parking seemingly everywhere.

Upon parking and walking towards the falls, we could see the mist seemingly everywhere, and walked up. It was nearing sunset, though it wasn't very busy. Then came the falls, and they were increasingly impressive the longer we stayed, captivated by the immense about of water (and strength) they embodied. We observed and took pictures as the sun set, and then walked towards the "american falls," which were a slightly smaller waterfall to the right of Niagara Falls. An odd statue of Nikola Tesla resides between the two falls, which we took pictures with for kicks. Sarah climbed on his lap like a champ. As the sun was fading away, the sunset over Canada was pretty spectacular, and the buildings/casinos on the other side lit up quite brightly. We opted to head back home to cook some dinner, and then came back for the 'night falls,' where they light up the mist and waterfalls with bright lights, which was really quite impressive. As it was Friday night, we decided to scoot to the nearby Seneca Niagara Falls casino to get another chip, and to check it out. This one has much less Native American influence, and was tailored towards a younger crowd. It was also much much bigger than their other casino near their Indian reservation. They had a live singer on a large stage, and later a DJ, which kept people dancing. It was fun just watching people, including a pimped-out man with an alligator-like suit on, and a big top had. He even had rings on each finger. We enjoyed a daiquiri from Fat Tuesdays (a first for Sarah), and then headed home.

We passed a cop on the way back to our home on the island, and sure enough, as we were loading the scooter back onto the trailer, she showed up to ask how we were doing, and to kindly let us know that we definitely couldn't stay there for the evening. It was a bit of a bummer, as we were looking forward to staying on Goat Island between the rapids, but had to leave. There were no friendly walmarts in the area, but I called the casino we were just at, and they allowed overnight RV parking. Thankfully, that was only 5 minutes away, so we headed there, and parked next to another RV which was staying the night. We had no issues or problems, and slept soundly.

We headed out around 1, and headed due east towards a campground that seemed promising. It was in the middle of nowhere, in farm country New York State, near the 'town' of Byron, NY. It turned out that the campground was quite famous in the area, and ran a well-organized organization. The campground had nearly everything one (especially with kids) would ever want, from a mini-golf course, to donuts and coffee in the morning, and even had a Haunted House for the kids on the weekends, which supposedly drew people from several counties around. As a result, the majority of the park was booked, and I was told, booked well into next year. They had a few spots left in an odd circular field near the back of the campground, which was near a large corn field, as well as the haunted house. When we pulled up, there was only one other camper in the field, and figured we had it to ourselves, but more and more began rolling up. We bought some firewood, which was kindly delivered to our campsite by a nice gentleman with a hard upstate NY accent. He said his daughter went to school in Laurel, and spoke with us for a while about our travels.

We watched the sunset amongst hoards of geese, which kept flocking overhead to land in the adjacent field to rest for the night. I've never seen so many geese in my life at once, and they were not all Canadian geese either. Sarah made a good fire, and we decided to grill for the first time on the trip. We bought some corn, as well as pineapples and peppers, and I grilled a few chicken strips as well, which all turned out to be quite tasty. They had internet which actually worked too, despite being so far from the main office. I was able to work on the website more, and also found out that there was a meteor shower that night, the Orinids, fragments of Halley's Comet as earth was passing through it's orbit (though was nowhere near the actual comet). The show didn't start until 2am, and while it was a long day, we decided to stay up for it. I played the new SP game for the first time for a bit on the PS4, and effectively fell asleep playing it. Sarah woke me up in time for the show though, and we saw at least 12 shooting stars, which was pretty cool.

The next morning, I was up on the early side to try to get some of the weekend activities crossed off my list. I installed new outer panel holders, and mounted a few more things inside of the RV to prevent them from falling during transit. Sarah enjoyed the sleep until around 1230, as unfortunately, the campground had an early check-out time of 12, but I had us cleaned up and ready to go. In the morning, I walked around the whole campground, and saw their 9 hold mini golf course, got a donut, and checked out their frisbee golf baskets. Each apparently cost money to use though (they really seem to nickel and dime you in NY), so I didn't play anything, but the donut was good.

After calling several campgrounds, I found one that seemed promising, which was on a 60 foot cliff on the banks of Lake Ontario, and we headed out. It was about an hour and a half drive, past Rochester. I would have been up for a free night stay, as each of the campgrounds in this upstate NY area has been 45-60$ per night, but all of the walmarts around had bad reviews, or vehemently said that there was no overnight parking. Since weekends seem rare, I opted to pay to stay on the cliff, and it has been worth it. The views of the lake have been spectacular, with it just feet from us and our fire, while also being quite the drop down. The trees here are in peak color changing time, and it's incredibly beautiful. The lake, despite being larger than Lake Erie, has been quite calm while we have been here.

We arrived around 330p or so, got set up, and then hopped on the scooter to check out wine country. It was a beautiful drive together on the scooter through seemingly endless rows of vinyards. There was only one vinyard tasting room within scooting distance of us, so we managed to make it there around 430, which was good, as they closed at 5. Upon arrival, it was clear it was a family operation, and they were currently in the process of mashing huge amounts of red grapes which they had picked that morning. The son of the owner offered to take us in the back and give us a brief tour. There were around 15 other people back there, but it soon became clear that most of them there were members of the family. We then opted to have a tasting, which was 3$ for six wines of our choosing. They made about 25 wines, so selecting just six took a little while. They gave us some cheese and pretzels too, which was a nice touch, and the wife (I believe) of the owner stood with us personally, explaining each wine to us as we tasted them. We were pretty impressed with both the flavors, as well as the personal touch and service that we received, and opted to purchase a few bottles.

As they were closing, one of the family members said that we could walk out to their fields and check out the grapes on the vine if we wanted. They had an orchard too, so we checked it out, and got some neat pictures before heading home.

We enjoyed the sunset on the lake, and then decided to head into town (a much shorter drive of just 1.5 miles) to grab some food. We ate at 6Fifty, a wood oven restaurant, which was pretty tasty. The town is Sodus Point, which apparently played a role in the war of 1812, and is also one of the locations where Norse artifacts have been found, potentially proving that they arrived in the new land several centuries before the Europeans.

Today we plan to go check out the historic lighthouse, and then head onward towards the Finger Lakes (of NY). We are hoping to stay near the largest finger lake, Seneca Lake, which supposedly has many many more vineyards around it. They may all close early on a Sunday though, so we'll see.