Our first trip to New York was in 1996, and quite a short trip at that. We arrived at Newark Airport, NJ and headed straight for the Grand Central Station where we had arranged to meet Albert & Monika, who we were joining for a few months to sail their sailboat from Little River, S.C. to possibly New York.

It was early March and the streets of New York were grey and extremely cold, a strong icy wind was blowing. We did not stay in New York but saw the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and the Twin towers of World Trade centre.

A few weeks later we drove through New York in a rented car from Guilford, Conn., on our way down to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

A year later, in 1997 we visited New York state again, but did not go to New York, as we figured driving a motorhome through the streets of New York would be just too much of a challenge, so we stayed clear and headed for Buffalo, via Bath. Surprisingly, New York was the first state we did not see a visitors centre at the state line.

Buffalo - on the way along the 62, we stopped at a visitor centre and booked tickets for a boat ride on the Maid of the Mist, to the falls and Horseshoe Bay.

The trip on the Maid of the Mist was most the most unbelievable, fantastic experience that we have had. We boarded the Maid of the Mist boat and were given plastic bag ponchos, we were later to find out why. Off we went toward the falls, the American falls on our left, as well as the Bridal Veil Falls, they were quite impressive. The wind generated by the falling water is quite incredible, the mist rain was almost as heavy as a heavy rain storm. In the afternoon sunlight a rainbow shone brightly across the face of the water. We then continued further towards the main falls area, the Horseshoe Falls. In the distance we could see the turbulence of the water in the Horseshoe “bay”. Shortly we began to feel this turbulence affect the boat - the sight was absolutely fantastic, massive amounts of water just coming over the falls, strong winds, rough water, almost like white river rafting on a 100ft boat. It was an experience we are unlikely to forget - ever. The mist spray went up into the sky at least a few hundred feet, and looked like a cloud it was so heavy. It “rained” heavily. After staying amongst all this for a good ten minutes we then headed back to land.

We had booked ourselves on a tour and in typical tour fashion we then whisked off again, this time in a 12-seater tour bus to be shown the sights. We went to 3 Sisters Island, across Goat Island, the rapids and then through the Canadian border to Niagara-on-the-Lake (the town).

We saw the cable car come across the river at the Whirlpools, which was quite a sight. Then we drove along the river/lakes water edge, past some really wonderful houses and then into the village centre of Niagara-on-the- lake. What a beautiful little town! The tour guide stopped here for ½ an hour and we walked around a little, lovely shops and restaurants on both sides of the street.

Off again, this time to the Minolta tower, but we stopped on the way to watch and hear the flower clock chime at 20:00. By the time we reached the tower it was already dark, and from the 28th floor we looked out over the American & Canadian falls, the multi-coloured lights had been switched on and it was very pretty.

The little town and promenade area was really buzzing, and was well worth a second visit.

This was the end of the tour, so we headed back to the USA border, where once again, a surly unfriendly immigration official “welcomed” us back to the ‘States. Even the Americans in our party were not spared his rudeness, I think they felt embarrassed to be American. We eventually got back to camp at around 22:30 - a most wonderful day.

Over the next few days we cycled to the Falls along the 62 highway, about 9 miles there and nine miles back, but at least it was flat so it wasn’t a hard ride.

After Buffalo, we headed south as I just couldn’t put together a plan for Toronto, we could not find any camps close to the city. We travelled through Buffalo and then along the coast of Lake Erie, through a largish town called Dunkirk that had quite a big marina. In the afternoon we checked into the Lake Erie S.P. near the town of Brocton.