Great Lakes Circle Tour, Part 1

I'm finally adding something to my blog. Been too busy lately, so it seems, to jot down my wonderings, so since I'm wandering right now, here I am.

We left yesterday for a six day adventure completing our circle tours of the Great Lakes. We did Lake Michigan in 2007, Lake Huron in 2008, and Lake Superior in 2010. Found ourselves with some unexpected time off and decided it would be a good chance to tour Lakes Erie and Ontario to complete the set. One difference - we are on this trip in our Outback. The first three trips were all on the Gold Wing. We have Max with us and haven't figured out the whole scenario of taking him on the bike yet. Also, heat and motorcycling in full gear don't mix too well. And with this heat wave we've been having...

Complicating matters at our start was that we are having our driveway cemented. Knowing this in advance, we took the outback over to Eric's and stored it in his garage. So we had to pack the vans as they were parked on the street. Used the wheelbarrow, made for less trips all the way down our driveway. Then at Eric's, transferred everything to the outback. Then Steve realized he didn't have his outback keys, thankfully I did, so a quick trip back home on our way out of town.

Michigan took a few hours to get through, only ran into construction or something near Brighton. No obstacles that we observed so not sure why traffic was crawling. Max was a good traveler as he'd been on our Kentucky trip last month. Went through parts of Toledo then off at OH 2 to travel closer to the Lake Erie shoreline.

Stopped at Port Clinton, Ohio as we saw a sign for a Frisch's Big Boy. Of course Steve "needed" to stop for his Big Boy and chocolate shake fix. I gave him my order and walked around on the nearby beach with Max while Steve ordered to go. Shortly after we were on the road, we saw a Sam's Club gas station from the road and stopped to fill up. We paid only 2.90 a gallon which I suspect will be the lowest price we pay for the trip. Especially once we get to Canada and buy by the liter.

We took the scenic route across Ohio - lots of views of pretty lakeshore views and some equally nice houses, especially in the Western Cleveland suburbs. Lots of beautiful old apartment houses, all with their own specific names too. Continued through the little tip of Pennsylvania, including Erie, then into New York state where we had reservations at Westfield for the night. Lots of grapes in the area, it's known for winemaking.

Our room was at the Theater Motel, the site of a former drivein movie theater. Older, dated, not the best place but for a Saturday night stay in the region it was priced right. And, important factor on this trip, it allows dogs. Max was well behaved though I must confess he slept on the bed next to me. He's not allowed to at home but we wanted to see what he'd do. Not much but sleep though he barked once when a door slammed nearby. The cool coincidence here was that Steve had slept here when he came through Westfield on his BMW trip a few years ago. Even the same room. And I didn't know this was where he'd stayed.

Westfield is not the biggest town, so we had a choice between the grocery store and McDonald's for dinner. Went to the grocery store, bought some milk for breakfast (we had brought cereal) and pop with only a 5 cent deposit rather than a 10 cent Michigan deposit. Looked over the meal choices and decided to go ahead to McDonald's and get salads. Brought them back to the room and had dinner, then a pretty early bedtime. No wifi as advertised so not much I could do but read on my iPod.

Sunday
Woke up, ate breakfast, and were on our way. Headed up NY 5 toward Buffalo, and made a stop at the Lake Erie Seaway Center just before Buffalo where Steve caught a view of wind turbines which he really liked. I picked up the nearby geocache, of course, while he took the pictures. Wanted to let Max try swimming in Lake Erie but then we would have had a wet dog, probably not the best idea for a long trip. Drove through Buffalo on the Skyway, and headed for Niagara Falls.

Some might remember we had a less than ideal trip to Niagara Falls, Canada, with the boys when they were teenagers. We still talk about the Denny's in Niagara Falls... Anyway, it was nice to see the Falls from the American side. Not so much of a straight on view but still beautiful. Had to pay $10 for parking at Goat Island but it was worth it. Poor little Max got pretty tired out with the walking, even though we carried him whenever we were on hot asphalt. Saw the Horseshoe Falls, then Bridal Veil Falls, then walked over the pedestrian bridge and toward the observation tower. There was an admission fee (just $1) to the tower and dogs weren't allowed, that we could see. So Steve went on the tower with his nice camera and we waited in the shade nearby. Then a half mile walk back to the car. Oh, and two earthcaches along the way. Just had to take my picture in front of the falls and answer questions about flow rate and stuff like that.

Next headed up to the Niagara Power Station about 5 miles up the road. There was a visitor's center there that I thought Steve might enjoy, as well as a webcam geocache for me to enjoy! Max had to stay out of the building so we took turns.

After leaving the power station, headed along the shores of Lake Ontario toward Rochester, where we decided our stop for the night should be. Had three coupons for hotels that accepted dogs, at good rates. We are at the Super 8 tonight. We paid $40 and booking.com lists it at $65. Not bad at all. Dinner to go from Wendy's and we are just relaxing in the room tonight. Steve is watching TV and I'm using the wifi. Much better than scattered grabs while waiting for food to go...

Will try to keep this up on our trip, not sure where we'll be staying each night from here on out. Plan to get back home on Thursday, then Friday we leave (on the Gold Wing this time) for Wing Ding in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We'll be traveling with members of our riding group, and Max will stay home with Eric taking care of him. Yep, Eric is thrilled. But it's just for the weekend instead of a whole week...