Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Update in New York State
Thumbs Up (9/18)
As much as I loved the city/town of Manistee, the Thumb of Michigan is definitely my favorite part. It’s flat farmland with the Minnesota red barns, and sugar beets instead of soy beans—great bicycling country. (Kit biked 35 miles and I biked 23) There is water all around but without the mega tourist hoopla of the west side. We are taking a day off from driving and just enjoying a very pleasant spot here at Lighthouse County Park—with Lake Huron out our back windows and a lighthouse towering above us. Thank heavens for Michigan’s wonderful county and city campgrounds—the state parks are ludicrously expensive. This park costs less than half of what we would have had to pay at the state park ($29), and is right on the water. There was a gathering of the wild species harli davidsonii near here and a herd of them came through the park today.
Night on Lake Erie (9/19)
Monday we crossed into Canada. For most people the crossing to New York might have been about 3 hours, but we travel in a different time zone—off the boring freeway and onto the back roads where villages and speed limits slow us down but make travel interesting. In this part of Ontario there is a new crop with really big leaves (plus the ubiquitous corn) and sets of big cement “houses” painted all alike with 2 doors on the long side, up off the ground. Kit thinks they might be tobacco curing barns?? Anyway, we wanted to sleep on Lake Erie so we went to Long Point Provincial Park on a peninsula in the lake. It turns out to be mostly wetlands. Though we were close to the lake we couldn’t see it from camp. This bit of Lake Erie is long sandy beaches and migratory birds.
Back in the USA (9/20)
Today we drove about 100miles across Ontario and into New York. We are staying at the Niagara KOA between Niagara Falls and Buffalo. We got here about noon and did nothing all afternoon. We haven’t even been to Niagara Falls. There is a really nice pool here—each pool we find we think will be the last until Florida. Tomorrow we are going to meet my friend Suzanne—and hopefully find time to make it to Niagara Falls.
As much as I loved the city/town of Manistee, the Thumb of Michigan is definitely my favorite part. It’s flat farmland with the Minnesota red barns, and sugar beets instead of soy beans—great bicycling country. (Kit biked 35 miles and I biked 23) There is water all around but without the mega tourist hoopla of the west side. We are taking a day off from driving and just enjoying a very pleasant spot here at Lighthouse County Park—with Lake Huron out our back windows and a lighthouse towering above us. Thank heavens for Michigan’s wonderful county and city campgrounds—the state parks are ludicrously expensive. This park costs less than half of what we would have had to pay at the state park ($29), and is right on the water. There was a gathering of the wild species harli davidsonii near here and a herd of them came through the park today.
Night on Lake Erie (9/19)
Monday we crossed into Canada. For most people the crossing to New York might have been about 3 hours, but we travel in a different time zone—off the boring freeway and onto the back roads where villages and speed limits slow us down but make travel interesting. In this part of Ontario there is a new crop with really big leaves (plus the ubiquitous corn) and sets of big cement “houses” painted all alike with 2 doors on the long side, up off the ground. Kit thinks they might be tobacco curing barns?? Anyway, we wanted to sleep on Lake Erie so we went to Long Point Provincial Park on a peninsula in the lake. It turns out to be mostly wetlands. Though we were close to the lake we couldn’t see it from camp. This bit of Lake Erie is long sandy beaches and migratory birds.
Back in the USA (9/20)
Today we drove about 100miles across Ontario and into New York. We are staying at the Niagara KOA between Niagara Falls and Buffalo. We got here about noon and did nothing all afternoon. We haven’t even been to Niagara Falls. There is a really nice pool here—each pool we find we think will be the last until Florida. Tomorrow we are going to meet my friend Suzanne—and hopefully find time to make it to Niagara Falls.
# posted by Carol Harma @ 2:47 PM 
