Days 6 - 12

Welcome back!!

We have been without battery power, electricity, and cell strength for the past few days. Talk about primitive!!

Hope you are all doing well. Thank you for reading our blog and for your kind comments. :-)

Wishing you the very best today, Lesli!!

Here's a recap of the past few days.

Day 6: We did, in fact, leave at 3:30am and drove from Chicago to Niagara Falls, Canada. We got around the bottom of Lake Michigan without ANY traffic issues. This was the main reason for leaving at 3:30am. The other reason for leaving so early was that we had a very long drive ahead of us. Little did we know how long that drive would actually be!! Once we were in Canada we had 2 route options to get to Niagara. One was scenic and the other was highway. We did the first half by highway. We did the second half by scenic byway. Scenic byway took at least 2x as long as highway. Our planned 10.5 hour day turned into about a 14 hour day. Besides that, we entered another time zone so that added another hour onto the trip essentially. The directions to the campground were pretty sketchy so we also thought we were very lost at the end of that very long day. Turned out we were just a little lost. When we found the campground we were so relieved. And THEN we started to set up camp. Needless to say we were both exhausted. But the campground was so beautiful. And green. And when you read green...also read water....as in rain. It rained most of the night AFTER we set up camp and cooked dinner. Thank you God. It was such a wonderful, cool, moist night. We stayed dry. We were so pooped we slept til 10:00 the next day.

Day 7: The rain continued. We were able to get some coffee brewed on the Coleman Stove. The we sat in the car to drink it. The rain let up a little so we set the tarp up over the picnic table. Around 2 we left, in the rain, to go find drinking water (the campground only had water from the river - WHAT??), find our way around, etc. We drove by Niagara Falls. Oh my gosh. What beauty!!! And with mist, fog, clouds, rain all around. There was such a mystical feel to it.

Got back to camp, made dinner. The fog started to roll in. By the time we went to bed the fog and mist were very thick. We learned earlier in the day that there were scattered thunder showers predicted for the night and then tomorrow was supposed to clear up. So we go to bed and crash b/c we are still so wiped out from yesterday. We sleep. The thunder comes. The lightening comes. The rain comes. The downpours come. More thunder. More lightening. More rain. More rain. Lots and lots of rain. Crash. I can tell it's one of the tarp poles that has hit a ceramic mug on the table. Hummm......that's interesting. More rain, thunder and lightening. Finally it blows over and we sleep.

Day 8: Hummmmmmmm!?!?! It wasn't ONLY a tarp pole that crashed in the night. It was the whole tarp coming down. And standing within it was about 6-8 inches of water. The VERY good news is that inside the tent it was dry (to say nothing of the fact that the tent was still standing!!)

We got the water drained, sloshed around (the ground was saturated) and got the tarp back up. We had to find a car dealer to re-attach Malcolm's license plate (this had nothing to do with the rain). Then finally we are off to explore the Falls!!! We saw them from above, beneath, behind and beside. :-) It was wonderful. The "above" part was a risk for me. We went up an outdoor elevator that went up 50 stories in 52 seconds. The last time I did this was in Van Couver with my brother. I had the only panic attack I've ever had in that elevator. And it wasn't as tall or as fast!!! After all of our Fall festivities, we headed up to Niagara on the Lake in seach of some Icewine. By the time we got up there most places were closing. But we did find a qaint, wonderful place to have a French(ish) dinner. Wonderful atmosphere and delicious food. Went back to camp. Took the tarp down (b/c it was dry) and crashed.

Day 9: Got up. Showered. Packed up. Hit the road. Drove for many hours (not 15!!) to Galway, NY. We met up with Owen (M's son)/Kara/Aleida/Eva. We set up camp while they made a wonderful stew for all of us for dinner. Hung out for a bit and then crashed. Next morning it rained and rained and rained. In fact, all day and night it rained. The rest of M's family arrived throughout the day. Since we were the ones with the tarp everyone gathered at our campsite under the tarp (all 14 of us). As it rained, a puddle grew and grew around our campsite and under the tent. Oh boy!! What's this going to mean? Since the tarp collapse at the last place, we were very diligent about keeping the water from pooling in it again this time.

Day 10: It rained all night, but in the morning it was clearer. We all had breakfast and got our various acts together. That's 14 acts you realize!! We all then piled into various cars/vans and headed over to a cabin on Lake Galway that has been in the family for about 100 years. Malcolm's children accomplished a long-time goal and swam across the lake. As they were returning back, several of his grandchildren swan out to meet them. We spent the afternoon there reminiscing and creating new memories. Everyone shared in a beautiful and touching memorial ceremony before returning to base campe for a yummy dinner.

Day 11: Pack up and drive day. We packed up. We drove. This time to Portland Maine. Beautiful weather. Beautiful scenery through NY, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. Green, green, green. Lush, plush. Gorgrous!! We got to Maine about 7pm. Originially we were going to begin camping at Hermit Island. But we got into a huge rainstorm as we entered Maine and it continued for quite some time. We also called ahead and made hotel reservations b/c we were SO tired. The fantastic news is that the hotel has a washer and dryer. Though we were exhausted, we went down to the dock and had a delicious dinner - lobster stew and crab cakes - out on the pier overlooking beautiful boats. BEAUTIFUL!!! Back to the hotel. Hot showers. Soft, clean, DRY bed. Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Day 12: Loads of laundry. Blogging. Reorganizing. Determining directions to Hermit Island. And we're off. May not have capability to blog again for several day, but will take pics and get back to you.