Author: Bill

We drove another 300+ miles today and arrived at Robert Moses State Park on the St Lawrence River around 4pm EDT.

Kathy asked me to figure out how many miles we had driven so far on this trip.    It was 5,245 miles as of Robert Moses State Park campsite, we are here till Sunday, and that doesn’t count the miles we have driven in the car sightseeing.   And I just calculated we have driven it 7,875 miles since we bought it in January.   We drove about 1,500 miles on our 4-week shakedown cruise around California back in April.

We had to drive thru a tunnel that goes under the Eisenhower Lock that was marked at 13’6″.  Tunnels are always an E-ticket ride in this very wide (8’6″) and tall (12’7″) vehicle.  I think the tunnel must have been a bit taller than written up as none of the antennas hit, which when they do hit something, it’s a real attention grabber.   And it was also a surprise tunnel as the app I use to look for low bridges and tunnels did not show it.   I sent the developer a message with the coordinates so it could be added ASAP.

I know that it surprised another camper because when I was unhitching the car last night to back the coach into our spot, a guy walked up and asked me if I had gone thru the tunnel.   I guess he thought there might be another way in…   I told him I had, and he asked how tall the coach was.  I told him it was 11 inches less than it said the tunnel was.   He mentioned his 5th wheel trailer was 13’6″….   That would be a dilemma to me..  But my guess is that sign means you can fit a 13’6″ vehicle thru it.   Not sure what he concluded..  I haven’t seen him in here again,  but it’s a very large campground.  This is a beautiful park right on the river.   On our walks last night some of it looks like a well kept up golf course!

We drove around the park on Thursday afternoon.  It’s a big place indeed.   There is a beach and marina in one area, then we drove out to what appeared to be a curved bridge only to find out it’s a large dam.  I remember seeing a lot of power lines off in the distance on the way in yesterday, but they were not around this dam, so it’s not generating power.    Unfortunately there was a gate preventing us from driving on the dam, so we turned around and went east on the road only to find another much larger dam where all the electric lines started…  It was also blocked off, so we headed over to the Eisenhower Lock as I could see there was a ship coming down the river on the marine traffic app.

At the lock visitor center they have two levels of viewing decks above them, both with lots of chain link fence, presumably for security.   It’s really just to prevent you from taking good pictures.   It’s incredible that the government thinks that chain link gives them any security.    100 feet from the viewing deck is a tunnel that goes right under the lock.  Need I say more?

It’s very cool to watch the ship go thru the process.   But the odd part in the beginning was the ship drove over to one side of the entrance and appeared to be using the braille method to get into the lock.   The ship was two feet narrower than the lock itself, so it was slow going, almost imperceptible movement till it got further into the lock.   Then it started moving a bit quicker so you didn’t have to focus on a spot for a while just so you could tell it was moving.

It literally crept into the lock, taking a lot longer than I imagined it would.  I didn’t time it, but I seemed like 30+ minutes to get fully up to the forward lock doors.   There was a large red gate with a thick cable that looked like it was locked in place on the opposite side to prevent the ship from hitting the lock doors.   I bet that would be a wild ride if they did as the water on the downstream side is 42′ lower, although it didn’t appear to be that much lower to me.  They had to open that gate so the ship can inch forward to the lock doors as they cannot close the rear lock doors till it’s within a couple of feet of those front doors.   I guess they didn’t expect the ships to get that large back in the ’50s when it was built or they would have put that gate much closer to the lock doors.

Once they were finally in and the back doors were closed, the lock crew just popped the stopper so the ship would drop to the lower level.  That took all of five or ten minutes and then front doors opened, some lines were winched back onto the ship, and they were off, just in time for the next ship coming up river to get into the lock.   You can see it sitting right outside the lock in the pic of this ship heading out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t stick around to watch the second ship as the part where they inch their way in was akin to watching grass grow.   We headed out to see the local town of Massena, NY.   There was a mall not very far from the park, so we headed there first.   It was a ghost town.   Huge mall,  most of the stores looked boarded up.   Maybe this was a poor spot to put a mall.   Seemed like the middle of nowhere to me.   Then we drove into the little village.  It appeared to be a sleepy place.   Not much going on during a Thursday afternoon.

On the way back to the campground, I stopped for a pic of that second ship traversing the roadway above the tunnel.   It always amazes me when I see big ships above me, like when I was in the garden district of New Orleans and saw a large ship steaming up the Mississippi River many years ago.

 

 

Thankfully we got off to an early start to see the falls as I heard it’s incredibly crowded in the afternoons.    We opted to head for Goats Island first where you can walk to the Bridal Veil Falls and watch the Maids of the Mist nose in close inside the curves of the horseshoe.   The sound the falls makes is awesome,  I had forgotten as it’s been close to 40 years since I was last there.   This was the first time for Kathy.

We took a bunch of pics and walked all around then headed for the path to the American Falls.    Funny thing is there are no signs to get you to either falls by walking, and they are very close. All the signs are for the concessions:   Trolleys,  Cave of the Winds, Maid of the Mist, etc.   Herd the cattle this way and that for a small fee.

It was a delightful stroll over there.   It was a beautiful morning with a light breeze and maybe 70 degrees.  Not at all what I remember about August on the East Coast.  It is a beautiful pathway and bridges around the river and the rapids before you actually see the falls!

The American Falls are almost straight across, but you can get right out over them and look down, which is very cool.  Big rainbows on a sunny day!  [You could also walk out on a bridge to a tower and look back, with a beautiful view of them all, which I did for $1.25!]

Then we drove off the island and into the town of Niagara Falls.  Kathy compared it to Tijuana…  It was a bit ugly and dirty,  but she may never have been to Tijuana.  It was much cleaner than TJ.

We headed over there to see the American falls from the other side and to go onto that big overlook structure.   The whole place is very commercialized.  That overlook charged to go out there.   It was a very small fee, but why charge for that?

The campground was extremely nice, but they were the most expensive place we have camped so far, even more than Joe’s Lodge.  It had everything and was very well maintained.  What an incredible place for families with kids!!

Here are some other pics.   We head for the 1000 Islands area  tomorrow. 

 

We decided to check out Drummond island the next day which was via the ferry from De Tour Village.   Turns out they charge for the car and for the passengers.   $14 round trip.   The route to the island is short but is on the main north/south channel from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, so the ferry dodged a large ore carrier that was really moving south toward Lake Michigan.  There is no other way to the island,  no bridge or causeway.  And after getting over there and driving around for an hour or so, I see why.   It’s a large island with no town and lots of long roads leading seemingly no where.    We were not very impressed.  We had wanted to try a Mexican restaurant there, but it was closed on Mondays.

While we were there, Chris texted us that he was on his way to San Diego to drop off all his worldly possessions as he was moving out of his school apartment at 1111 Wilshire Blvd.  and then the next morning was on a flight to Europe for three weeks, so we headed back to the coach to walk him thru fixing some issues caused by a blackout in our neighborhood last month and also help him get the garage door opened so he could unload his stuff into the garage.  I had powered down most of the house and bolted shut the garage door so it could not be opened from the outside.

He was able to fix everything that had stopped working and then headed toward the U-haul return facility so he could catch the train back to LA!

On Tuesday morning we were headed toward Gaylord Michigan to have the fridges sensor fixed.

We lucked out and found this campground at the last minute.  What a beautiful site it was in Winnie Dam Campground,  built and managed by the ACOE (Army Corps of Engineers).  We had about 1/2 a football field of clearing and trees around the RV for $12 a night.   It only had 50 amp electric with no water or sewer hook ups, but there is a dump site that looked very nice.

I knew the water situation before going, so I filled the 120 gallon water tank and emptied the other tanks prior to leaving Joe’s.    We really only need the electric so we can run both the AC’s.    We can run them both on the genny, but so far we have only been running it on our lunch breaks in the Interstate rest stops.  We get both AC’s and the microwave while parked on the hot tarmac.   That is a pretty awesome capability when you think of it.   Our genny is a quiet diesel, so it just sips from our engine’s tank and can power everything in the coach if we decide to boondock.   We also have 4 house batteries and a 2,800 watt inverter that can also power everything except the AC’s quietly.

I ventured over to look at the dam on Lake Winniebigoshish, which is the Mississippi River.   It says it’s 170 river miles from the headwaters, which seems odd as we were there the day before,  couldn’t have been 60 miles as the crow flies.  And it’s a very big lake!

While I was walking over there, I was scoping out the exit to see if I could get out of the woods with the car attached or if I needed to hook it up afterward.   I was able to maneuver out with the car attached.

Off to Duluth…

We headed north on US 59 from Detroit Lakes Friday morning to take that all the way up to US 2 heading toward Bemidji and Joe’s  Lodge about 10 miles east of town.   We had a difficult time getting anything near Bemidji and ultimately found Joe’s which had 2 RV sites.   It was a quaint little place a couple miles down a fairly well-graded dirt road.   But as soon as we turned down their driveway, the tree branches dropped a couple of feet lower and were bouncing off the antennas.   Then a much thicker branch scrapped the satellite and A/C units..   Kind of sucked.

Got down to the bottom of a small grade and found the office, checked in, and the lady lead me to the site.   First thing I noticed was the electric pedestal was next to the road and the water and sewer were about 40′ away at the extreme back of the site.   I knew this was going to be a challenge.   I guess they had a lazy electrician as putting that pedestal near the road will be a problem for most RV’rs.   As it was, I had to move the front of the rig all the way up to the road with my mirror sticking out into the road so the power cord could reach the pedestal.  And I have a pretty long cord at 30′.   30′ of that 50 amp cord probably weighs a couple hundred pounds.  Thankfully I have a power reel to pull it back in.

Anyway,  we got the RV set up, fixed some lunch and headed out for Lake Itasca and the Mississippi Headwaters about an hour away.

We arrived, paid our way into the state park and drove to the other side of the park to walk down the trail to the water.   It was a very pretty, tree-shady trail out there, maybe a quarter of a mile or a little less, but we were there in a few minutes, and the dogs were allowed on the trails (Hooray!) 

It’s hard to imagine the headwaters, which is a small watering hole with a rock bridge so you can cross, is the beginning of the Mighty Missippi!!

We spent maybe 20 minutes out there to get a picture and watch the kids playing in the water when I noticed very dark clouds moving in, so we hightailed it back to the car.   Good thing as we had left our rain gear in the RV as it was beautiful when we left home and also when we arrived at the state park gate.

No sooner than we got the pups into the car, it started to rain.  Just a bit at first, then the winds changed an order of magnitude and we were in a big blow as we headed out of the trail parking lot.   It poured and the wind howled like we hadn’t seen prior.   It became as dark as night even though it was about 4 hours till sundown.   Most of the drive back toward Bemidji was at 30 MPH on the 60 MPH road.   That almost felt too fast for the conditions.

As we got into Bemidji, the rain subsided and the sun almost came back out.  We had to drive over to Paul Bunyun and Babe, the Blue Ox, for a quick pic.   Kathy wouldn’t even get out of the warm and dry car.   We made a quick trip to the market for fruit and veggies and headed east to the coach.

As we turned onto the dirt road, we saw two trees in the road.  We were able to go around one of them, but the other blocked the whole road.  (sign of things to come)  I tried to move it, but it wasn’t going to budge, so I drove over it at the edge almost in the ditch, to Kathy’s dismay.

The wind had really ripped thru the campground, snapping large trees off at 10 feet off the ground, ripped the shade structure off the RV across from us.  Lots of damage.   The power and water were out.  And as I noticed, so was my refrigerator.   Not good as it should have gone into battery/propane mode.

Other than the fridge being dead, we saw nothing else with the coach.   I spent many hours that night and the next morning troubleshooting it till I found a bad sensor the next morning and jumped around it till we can get somewhere to get a replacement.    Hey,  now I know where are the fridge relays, breakers and fuses reside – three completely different places in the RV!

 

Oh the Joys of Traveling!