Episode 29
9/2019
We arrived in the US via the rainbow bridge. It was a Sunday August 18th 2019. We got there early to beat the traffic going through customs. We arrived at customs at 9:00 a.m. and waited a half hour. We went right through without an issue. Which made me think about border crossings it seems like the slower quieter ones have more time perhaps to look through RVs and such. Or perhaps they're thinking is if you're sneaking something through go through the quiet areas. But whatever the reason it always seems that going through customs at a high tourist area like Niagara falls even though we wait longer in line we don't have our rig searched. In the past I had enjoyed seeing Niagara falls from the New York side where it's quiet and more like a state park. Whilw we were in Canada we planned on walking across the bridge to the NY park from Canada but we saw the line of people standing and waiting to go through customs and decided it wasn't worth it.
We arrived in Erie pa and stayed at another boondockers welcome location. We had never been to Erie before. We learned that the city has a lot of concerts and live music in the summer. Our hosts invited us to join them at a huge street fair. This was a part of their 3 day celebration which happens every year in August. They had three stages food art and a beer garden. But no wine. This year Sister Sledge and Scotty McCreery performed. The next day we paddled kayaks with them and their friendly neighbors at Presque Isle State Park for almost 3 hours. Halfway through the panel we stopped at a small Beach and had snacks and a glass of wine. The name got me wondering so I googled what a Presque is and it is a peninsula that is almost an island. Now you know lol.
The two of us then visited some covered bridges and wineries in Rome Ohio. We drove past Kent State University so of course we had to listen to The Crosby stills Nash & Young song. From there we went to Ashtabula which had a small main Street with a drawbridge and a great chocolate shop. From there we went over to Geneva on the lake well how do I explain this town? Think of the New Jersey shore without the crowds. A lot of shops food and arcades. It was August 20th it was a Tuesday. And it was empty! Many people say it's packed earlier in the season and on the weekends. We had visited two wineries in the area one was South River winery which was a beautiful old church. Here's a link to it http://southrivervineyard.com/ We really enjoyed that winery. And the other one was a ferrante winery. This one was an experience. They had two menus a dinner menu and a light self-serve menu. We got the muscles they were $14 and they were delicious but we got no forks or napkins. So he asked to waiter for some and he handed his silverware and cloth napkins and then he saw that we were not dinner guests but only self-serve guests so he took them away from us and gave us plastic wear and paper napkins. Unreal.
The next day we left that host and went to another boondockers welcome host location. As we're backing into the site the host was guided me back on his hard pack driveway. I explained to him I don't want to leave the hard pack because of all the rain lately we had gotten stuck in the mud in the past and I don't want to get stuck again. Unfortunately I trusted him and not myself and he backed us off of the driveway and sank up to the rear axle in mud in the rig.
He said that his neighbor will be home the next day with the tractor and composed out. I shook my head the back of the rig was 2 to 3 ft lower than the front of the rig. And we were not going to be sleeping like that tonight. So I took out the tow strap hooked it to the front axle of the rig in the back of the Jeep Wrangler toad. I got in the rig Trish got in the Jeep we put it in 4 low. I told Trish hit the gas and keep going until I beep the horn on the rig. She did the rig...