Awesome, at Ausable Chasm, NY

Wow!!!!!!!!!! You have to see this incredible place. We are talking
an unbelievable sight. This in many
aspects is jaw dropping like Niagara Falls. It is amazing what changes the earth goes through over the eons.

The chasm was created over 500 million years ago. That's old. Evidently there is a fault that lies under the area and over time there have been shifts that got the whole thing started. Mother Nature took care of rest with a constant flow of water from the Ausable River.

We took a ride down the gorge in a raft that holds 8 people plus a guide.
It was not a white water ride, but we had to remove the shoes as water does get in the raft. The water was damn cold. I am really glad that it was only our feet that got wet.

We really like the camp ground we are in. There are very few campers here during the week as after Labor Day most camping is done on weekends. Of course as the weather starts getting colder that also eliminates a lot of campers as well. We are very fortunate to have such a nice RV that is extremely comfortable no matter what the weather outside. Of course I am not talking about freezing rain or snow. We will be back to the warm weather of Florida before that happens in the area. In a way I guess we will now have to be considered Snow Birds.

Tomorrow we are taking a ferry across Lake Champlain to Burlington, VT as a day trip. Of course our trusty dog Angel will be with us. This will be her first ferry ride so she is excited.
That is it for now as I have to light up the BBQ for dinner.

Miles of Smiles. Happy Trails.

Goodbye to our friends in Montreal

We have really enjoyed our stay in Canada and especially here in Montreal. Today we took a drive with Bob and Nicole to visit Tremblant which is located about 95 miles north of Montreal. The entire area around Tremblant is ski country. It looks like a Swiss village. Absolutely gorgeous. The leaves are just beginning to make the change in color and should be really great in the next few weeks.

Our visit to the Montreal area would have not have been as fun had we not met Bob and Nicole. Having met them has turned this trip to Canada into an absolute joy. Andrea and I feel so blessed to have met them. A special thanks to them for their hospitality and their kindness while we where here. We hope that when they come to Florida that we will have the opportunity to reciprocate.

Tomorrow will be a clean up day so that when we leave on Wednesday we just unplug everything and head out. For the next month we will be exploring upstate New York.

Our new friends in Montreal

One of the things we love about RV'ing is that you have
opportunities to meet some really

great people. We met Bob and Nicole while we where visiting the Kingston area. It turns out that they live not too far from the KOA campground we where going to be staying at in Montreal. We were able to meet up with them yesterday after making arrangements to meet them at there house. We have a bike rack for the car so it was easy for us to transport the bikes to there house. They have a great bike trail that is close to their house that runs along a river. Bob and Nicole packed a nice lunch for us. We stopped at one of the locks for a nice picnic lunch and a rest. Each way on the bike trail is about 3.5 miles so it was a good ride. Angel stayed back at their house so we were gone only a few hours. We had a really delicious BBQ steak, pasta salad, tomato salad and of course some nice wine. Hmmm, good.

Today we did some shopping for supplies and some food. I washed the car and washed and waxed the front of the RV. The front is what really takes a beating with the bugs. It is nice and clean so it is ready for the next set of splattered bugs.

Tomorrow we plan on doing either some bike riding or walking along one of the trails that runs next to the St. Lawrence River.

Miles of Smiles. Happy trails.

Kingston, Ont.

On one of our bike rides we stopped
at one of 47 locks that go from Lake
Ontario to Ottowa. The locks were built 175 years ago and are still in operation today. They are hand operated so it was interesting to watch the lock master hand crank the lock open and close. This was of interest to us because of our trip to France two years ago. We rented a 40 foot boat and traveled the Canal DuMidi in south France. We did this with my brother Jim and his wife Caren and my sister Mary. We had to go through 67 locks in seven days. That was quite an expierience.

There was a cool front that dropped the temperature so a camp fire was certainly a treat. Andrea was all bundled up. We really enjoyed the 6 days we spent here. Kingston is a great little city. We would recommend that when ever an opportunity presents itself to visit Kingston that you should do so.

We met a very nice couple from Montreal that was also visiting the Kingston area. They stayed at the same camp ground and in fact was in the next camp site. We ended up playing Mexican Train domino's. Andrea won. We all had such a good time. There names are Bob and Nicole. They left yesterday to move on to 1,000 Islands for 1 night. We made arrangements to try to get together when we arrived in Montreal today.

We ended up seeing them on the road this morning and ended up following all the way to our camp site at the KOA in Montreal. They live about 20 miles from the KOA and we will be meeting them later in the week.

One of the things that we love about the RV life style is that you have the opportunity to meet some of the nicest people that otherwise would be just other people leading there everyday life. RV'ing changes all of that. How great is that.

We will be staying here in Montreal for 7 nights. There is so much to see and do here. Tomorrow we will be meeting up with one of the sales reps that I dealt with while working with KSM. I have known Dave Zimet for many years and he was kind enough to offer to show us around if we were to include Montreal in our travels. We look forward to be introduced to the area. We figure between Dave, Bob and Nicole we will pretty much cover at least the high lights. More to come later.

Miles of smiles. Happy trails.

Kingston, Ontario

Well, here we are in Kingston, Ontario. We really like this town.
There is a beautiful downtown area that is right on the river. This is where the St. Lawrence begins. We could see the transition from Lake Ontario to the St. Lawrence River. This area is known as the 1000 Islands. We took a boat tour of some of the area, but you can not see all that many Islands in just an hour and a half.

The city of Kingston dates back to the 1600's so there is a lot of history here. Lots of buildings that go back to the early 1800's including Fort Henry. We could go on and on about the beauty of this area. It's a lovely city with much to do. When we first arrived and checked out the town, there were concerts and outdoor movies going on. People bring their chairs and blankets and enjoy the entertainment. We walked around the waterfront trail that walks along the waterfront (duh) to enjoy the cool weather and the parklike setting. The trail goes on for miles, but we only did a short part of it. Angel has trouble being sociable with other dogs. It is a very dog friendly city with dogs and their owners everywhere you go. The city has a european flair to it and you can hear many different languages being spoken here, but English is the primary language with French being second.

The campground we are staying in is huge, but very comfortable. There must be at least 300 sites here but all nicely spaced for privacy. They also have lots to do including boating, swimming, etc. Because it's the holiday weekend it's filled up and we were lucky to get a space here. Last night it was fun to sit around our campfire and see the glow of the other campfires around us. With the chill in the air (about 45 degrees) the campfire felt good and kept us warm. It's quite interesting to just sit and ponder by the campfire with no distractions except the dancing of the flames. We loved it.

Toay we plan on taking a major bike ride. There is not a bike trail here, but the area does not have a lot of car traffic. We scoped out an area by car that we feel will be interesting to see. There is a river near the campground that has a Lock that is unattended so the boater needs to operate the lock.

More later.

Miles of Smiles. Happy trails.

Just a couple of pictures of the Niagara area

The picture of Andrea in front of some
beautiful flowers near the Falls. The whole area down by the falls is landscaped just beautifully.

The other picture was taken from behind the RV. We over looked the lake. The moon was so big that it begged for a kodak moment.

We are now in Kingston and will have updates from here later.

Miles of Smiles. Happy trails.

North of Niagara Falls, Niagara Lake region

We managed to find an area to hike in Queenston (north of Niagara Falls). Of course Angel enjoyed it very much. She really
needed to get out and stretch those
legs of hers. I think she was

going a little stir crazy. We are still amazed by the beauty of the Niagara area. We sure hope that when we move on to the next campground that we are as lucky as we were to find Windmill Point. We had no idea that it sat next to a bike path that goes on for ever. This morning we went for a two hour ride that was fantastic.

We leave first thing tomorrow for Kingston, Ontario which is about 280 miles. That is about half way to Montreal. We are there for 6 days before we move on to Montreal. We will be in a KOA located on the south side of Montreal and will spend 7 days there. Both of the campgrounds are located near the St. Lawrence River so we will get to enjoy what the river and the 1,000 Islands have to offer.

I am not sure that we will have WIFI available at the next campground. So if there is a lag in the Blog entries I will try to catch up once we have service.

Miles of smiles.......... Happy trails.