8/15/15 Prince Edward Island and Upstate New York

From Nova Scotia, Canada, which we loved, our final stop in the Maritimes was Prince Edward Island (PEI).  We have always heard so much about it, so we were excited to be going there.   

To get to Prince Edward Island, you take the Confederation Bridge, over 8 miles long.  Unlike the incredibly complex geology of Nova Scotia, PEI needed no geology map; the smallest province in Canada is a small island with gently rolling sandstone hills.  The island is almost all agricultural, with beautiful well-kept family and commercial farms – many corn and potato farms (potatoes grow well in sandy soil), which supply most of Canada with their potatoes. The largest brand is Cavendish.  



PEI Countryside
 

  We mostly drove along the coastal highway of the Central “Island” (although most of the time you are not right on the water because the farms reach down to the water making beautiful scenery). We stopped at several of the many small village harbors and a few lighthouses.  Most of the historical structures have not been renovated and are simple historical sites with placards describing what happened here.  The best part of the Province, in our opinion, was the capital, Charlottetown.  Not a real large city, it has a good “feel” about it with lots of good restaurants, active cultural and world class entertainment events. The historic Province House in Charlottetown is where the Canadian Confederation was started in 1864. Providence Hall is the equivalent of our Independence Hall in Philadelphia.   Unfortunately, Providence Hall is closed for major renovations, but there is a great educational movie about the Confederation Conference of 1864 in the adjacent art museum.  

The northern coast of PEI borders the Gulf of St Lawrence and the water of the northern end of the St. Lawrence River and Seaway. The beaches and water around PEI are the best part of the island. The beaches are somewhat narrow, but have beautiful fine sand.  The water temperature is almost comfortable - much warmer than the ocean water in the Atlantic off of Nova Scotia – almost warm enough for us to swim in.  We could understand why so many Canadians from the Quebec area use PEI for summer homes and vacations.   Bottom line, if you are interested in a beach vacation and great food, this would be a great place to go.

From PEI, we headed back to the US through customs in Calais, Maine.  When we entered Canada about 3½ weeks before, the Canadians were only interested in knowing how long we were going to stay (90 days max or you are illegal without a visa), and if we had any self-defense items:  guns, knives, ammo, even bear-spray (yes bear spray or mace is considered as dangerous as a gun with similar fines and jail time for non-registered ownership).  What is ironic is that in the national park, they told us to take bear spray on hikes…question: how do you get it into the country to defend yourself?  Supposedly you cannot buy it there. On the US customs return side, they only confiscated all our fruits and vegetables, we guess guns and mace are ok?  The concerns of each government are telling and may say a lot about each of our cultures. The best part of getting back to the US: cell phones and internet everywhere.  We continue to be shocked at how limited each was wherever we were in Canada (except for the large towns and cities).   



Thousand Islands NY

  From there we drove directly to the Thousand Islands Region, New York and Thousand Island National Park, Canada.  It is a beautiful area of the St. Lawrence River (part of the St. Lawrence Seaway along with the Great Lakes), as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario.  It is an archipelago of about 1800 shoals and islands including 997 true “islands” that straddle the Canadian/US border.  To be a true island means the land is always above the water, is at least one square meter, and has permanent vegetation.  The smallest recorded island holds about 4 people and has one tree.  During the late 1800 and early 1900s, the Thousand Islands Region was one of the locations where the wealthy had summer “cottages”.  We took a boat tour where you can see many of these beautiful homes on the various islands in the area; there were also some incredibly small true cottages of no more than 50 sq ft (enough for a bed?).  This would be a wonderful area to take a boat (many Express cruiser boats abound) and just island hop, finding hidden coves to anchor in for a day or two or week.  Bob fell in love with the area and the idea; maybe a vacation on a houseboat in the future?

Around the turn of the 20th century a fishing guide needed some salad dressing on a camping trip and used what he had in his pack. Yep, that’s right, that where the popular Thousand Island dressing came from. His wife subsequently served the dressing at a dinner for their fishing guests; as a result of one of these dinners, she gave the recipe to Clayton hotel owner Ella Bertrand, who shared it with hotel magnate George C. Boldt.  He was the proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria with Astor, but he spent summers in the area. The rest is history.   



Boldt Castle, Alexandria Bay, NY

 We visited the Boldt Castle, on Heart Island, Alexandria Bay, NY.  Boldt was building his dream home on the island in the area he and his wife loved.  The construction of Boldt Castle ceased abruptly in 1904 after the sudden death of Boldt's wife. Louise.  For 73 years, the castle and other stone structures were left exposed to the harsh winter weather and frequent vandals.   The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired Heart Island and the nearby yacht house in 1977, for one dollar, under the agreement that all revenues obtained from the castle operation would be applied towards restoration, so that the island would be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations. In the two decades after acquiring the property, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority has spent over $15 million for restoration and improvements here, and work continues annually. It is now a beautifully and historically accurately restored castle.  The first floor and half the second floor are completed; they are reconstructing about one room per year.  It is definitely worth a visit.    

We continued west along the St. Lawrence Seaway, and drove along the south coast of Lake Erie to Niagara Falls.  Niagara Falls is the collective name for three waterfalls that straddle the international border between Canada and the United States; more specifically, between the province of Ontario and the State of New York. They form the southern end of the Niagara Gorge.  The Niagara River flows north from Lake Ontario into Lake Erie.  The greatest elevation drop from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean is along this river; between the falls and the rapids below the falls. 

Horseshoe Falls, NY

From largest to smallest, the three waterfalls are  Horseshoe Falls,  American Falls and  Bridal Veil Falls. The Horseshoe Falls lie mostly on the Canadian side and the American Falls entirely on the American side, separated by Goat Island. The smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also located on the American side, separated from the other waterfalls by Luna Island. The international boundary line was originally drawn through Horseshoe Falls in 1819, but the boundary has long been in dispute due to natural erosion and construction. Located on the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, the combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 165 feet. According to the literature, Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America, as measured by vertical height and also by flow rate. Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean. While not exceptionally high, the Niagara Falls are very wide. More than six million cubic feet of water falls over the crest line every minute in high flow, and almost four million cubic feet on average.

Niagara Falls, Canada from US side

The Niagara Falls are renowned both for their beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Managing the balance between recreational, commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge for the stewards of the falls since the 19th century. They do that by letting most of the water fall over the falls during the “tourist” day, and then, after dark, diverting about half the flow to the power plants.

Bob  IN Niagara Falls on Hurricane Deck

                                                                              We (with Rob and Bob’s mom) had been to Niagara Falls in 1985, but it was in the late fall (cold) and only for 1 day.  This time we enjoyed all the falls had to offer: getting soaked by the hurricane winds in the Cave of the Winds where you walk under the falls, getting a second soaking on the Maid of the Mist boat that journeys right up into Horseshoe Falls, hiking onto the walkway between the falls, and observing them from all angles.  We even enjoyed the falls at night, where the falls are lit:  red, white and blue on the American side, and red and white on the Canadian side. 



US Niagara Falls at Night
 

We visited the Erie Canal and went through the last locks 34 and 35 (nearest Lake Erie).  Is it 363 miles long and was built to create a navigable water route from New York City to the Great Lakes.  The total elevation differential is 565 feet. Construction was completed in 1825.  Before steamships or railways, water was the most effective means of shipping goods.  Although not as impressive as the Panama Canal (which we locked partly through in January), the fact that this was built completely by hand is an incredible feat of itself; some of the cut away rock walls are 50 plus feet tall.

From Niagara we are headed further west on the St. Lawrence Seaway and will be exploring Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  We start that journey in Michigan and head north and west from there. We have traveled 4,187 miles in the motorcoach since we left St Augustine on July 2 to Niagara Falls.  However, we have toured an additional 5629 miles in the Jeep Cherokee, making for a total of 9,816 miles driven.  Sounds like a lot, but it has been fun and doesn’t seem like that many. 

For you former and current “sea” cruisers and landcruisers (newbies like us, vets, and want-to-bees as well) we will respond to some of the “lifestyle” and “operational” questions we have gotten below. 

Just like on longer cruiser passages, at sea or on the ICW, sitting behind the wheel (helm) can get tiring.  With the exception of a few long trips (passages), we have been able to limit our driving time to less than 4 hours each leg.  For the longer multi-day trips (passages) from FL to PA, PEI to Thousand Islands NY, and then on to Niagara Falls, we switch drivers every 2 hours.  We don’t stop to make camp and instead have parked overnight at Walmarts (yes we did shop there).  BTY, while the parking lots are not as pretty by far, the shoppers “scenery” is interesting, but also a lot less threatening than many sea conditions.  At sea, we had 24/7 watches…no parking lots out there.   

Navigating on land is a lot easier than at sea; we had GPS on both, and a chartplotter on the boat, but there are no roads to follow.  You also had to worry about winds, currents, tides, water depth, drift and set, etc.  Sails always had to be managed, and course settings checked, with a 360 degree scan every 15 minutes to make sure no freighters were bearing down on you at 22 knots; it’s hard to move out of the way quickly at 5 knots.   

For sure, parking and setting up the coach is easier than finding a “the right” anchoring spot,  getting a good bite on the anchor,  getting the dinghy off the davits and into the water,  getting the outboard on to the lift and onto the dinghy (no waves in the campground), etc,  etc,  etc. The cruisers know that drill well.  Linda really likes walking down the steps on to dry ground rather that doing the swim-platform-to-dinghy-dance-routine, sometimes done on hand and knees. We do have to take the time to hook up the car to the back of the RV, but that takes a lot less time than getting the dingy on and off.   Bob KINDA misses the anchoring drill AND the passages.   

Getting diesel fuel is much easier too.  No more motoring around waiting for the fuel dock to clear while some motor yacht takes on thousands of gallons.  Now we just pull up (with due planning and caution with our towed Jeep Cherokee, of course) and we get to pump 50 – 75 gallons to feed our 340 hp Cummins (we are getting 8-10 mpg).  No more top offs of 10-15 gallons for our 65 hp Westerbeke in SV Villomee.   

Hooking up utilities such as water and power is about the same except that Bob can walk around the coach rather than jumping from boat to dock etc.  Sewer is easier too, when available at campgrounds; most of the time we just hook up with the water and electric.   Dumping at sea was easier that finding and parking at an RV dump station (when it is not available at the camp site), but this is not really a problem.  Just like anchoring out with no marina slip, dry camping or “boondocking” (usually remote locations with no utilities – or in a Walmart when necessary) is worth the effort of the occasional generator for the solitude and convenience, etc.   

Cooking is about the same; the kitchen (galley) are both one-butt galleys. However, our sailboat had an oven and our coach does not; Linda is trying to learn to use the combo convection/microwave oven.  Our home convection oven worked like a regular oven – this one does not.  It is more like a microwave with some heat….requires a whole new set of cooking skills – and equipment.   Linda was hoping to make some pies, but she is not sure she can do that in this combo oven; she had to cook a meatloaf by wrapping it in wax paper?? Go figure.  Grilling out on the picnic table is as easy as the grill on the rail, but getting out of the wind is a lot easier on land.      

Sleeping is much easier on land – no rolling and propping yourself up in bed to stay in place.  We have a regular mattress and queen size bed, not a thin “mattress” in the v-berth.  When the rolls were particularly bad on the sailboat, we sometimes had to sleep sideways on the bed, or set up our sea passage bed with a lee cloth, or sleep on the floor.   Additionally, not having to take night watches while at sea is a lot easier on your sleep patterns.    

Shopping is also easier on land.  Sightseeing by car allows for almost daily shopping stops which make the smaller refrig and cupboards easy to keep stocked.  No dinghy trips to shore, no long walks to the market, and no dock carts to locate, which always seemed to be at the other end of the pier.   

Just like on our boat, weight control and distribution on the coach is still important, but you cannot raise the waterline on the coach.  Bob is learning what is needed and not. There will not be as many tools or spares on our next trip out in 2016 (stores are always available – not like in the Caribbean).   Tire pressure and wear is what we watch now.

Unlike the boat we have a rather large stacked washer dryer.  Linda hasn’t used the washer yet (she likes commercial locations) but we routinely use the dryer for our towels after we shower to reduce humidity in the coach.  Thanks Lynn for that great suggestion.

For you cruiser SSB users (that’s Single Side Band/Ham Radio for those non-users) Bob is enjoying talking with locals on the 2 Meter band on his hand held radio.   No opportunity yet to use his HF rig from the coach, but hopefully so when we are at a site long enough to set up the proper antenna (Bob misses the permanent backstay antenna).   

We have traveled only 4,187 miles in the RV since buying the motorhome and leaving St Augustine to Niagara Falls.  So no need yet for on-the-road maintenance (except for front tire balancing and alignment check in Niagara) or repair (we continue to knock on wood and thank God for that, but we did replace our mattress in Toledo Ohio the other day). I know we can count on something breaking at some point.  Lessons will be learned with that aspect of landcruising.  Just like sea cruising, we have become aware that that there are not that many repair facilities with lifts for 30,000 pound vehicles like ours.  Maintenance, as on a boat, is key to avoiding problems.

Any experienced RVers have any suggestions on how to handle (schedule?) underway maintenance and repairs will be appreciated.   Your other feedback, suggestions and observations about landcruising are welcome.  We need all the input we can get and will welcome your communication.

We are enjoying our experience and there are many other aspects of our daily activities, but don’t want to bore you with TMI.  All in all, RVing is a lot less work and easier than cruising, but still gives us the joy of traveling to new places and having new experiences.  So far, we have loved seeing the places we have been. Linda is fully enjoying this adventure; but frankly, Bob KINDA misses the boat and cruising.