Our Journey East - Clarks Mills, PA and Day 9 into Toronto

Astrid and I spent a very enjoyable respite in Clarks Mills, Pennsylvania with the Heckman's ... one of Astrid's on-line gaming acquaintances.   Al and Kathy were a delight and we had a nice visit, great food, and we took away some recipes to try (we think we did .. Astrid may have left them there ! ha ) .... Al is quite the chef and a fisherman to boot, so fresh was the 'flavour' of the day... and the special brown beans were to die for ...

Zoe, their blue healer dependent, was excited to meet Connor and Ceilidh ... Connor not terribly impressed with the licky kisses :-)  ... Zoe was eager to show them her yard ... 10 acres of freshly mown lawn !

(Click images for enlargements.... )

Meet and Greet - Kathy, Astrid and the hounds.

New Friends ....

Zoe Heckman - Host

Welcome rest for the moho.

Many thanks for the short visit, it was definitely a port in the travel storm :-)   Great to meet fantastic people.   Up and back on the road in the late a.m.  ... with some Lake Erie Perch in the freezer  ... out the country roads up to Erie, Pennsylvania.  Astrid decided to grab a short sleep on the way, and we veered on to the Lakeside route for a ways... nice to have some scenery to view ... vineyards and ports on Lake Erie, south shore.

Port at Dunkirk (I believe)

Vineyards ... south shore of Lake Erie

Travelled for about an hour on the shore side route, then ventured up to i90 toll road and made it in to Buffalo and Niagara Falls area ... pic below over the many bridges with the Falls spray in distance.  Astrid overlooks the gorge as we cross the border ... once again we were lucky.  Notwithstanding about 45 minutes in line, the actual crossing took less than a minute !  Another nice border guard ... we must look harmless :-)

Spray from Niagara Falls in middle of pic ... over bridge in Buffalo, NY

View over the Niagara Gorge ... welcome back to Canada

Electricity Generating facilities for Niagara Falls.

Once in Ontario, we zoomed along and decided to get on the Toll 407 highway ... it was choked up with traffic as well ... stop and go .... and we are to pay for this ?   I checked on-line and the supposed toll with be $100 !! ... there will be something to say about that ... red lights not good.  Blood from stone?

Finally arrived at John & Nancy's place ... had a wonderful lamb dinner with Lobster bisque starter ... unreal after a long journey :)   Janet (sis) and Mel joined us for a fabulous night of chatter, good food, and wine.  We and the dogs get to relax a little by the pool ... and the travelling motion subsides.  Nice to be still for a coupla days.

We'll camp out here till likely Sunday, Aug. 4th, then head east.

Check out the route on Google Maps ...

Cheers for now...

Astrid 'n Steve

Our Journey East - Days 7 and 8 .. into Pennsylvania

History has shown that reliance on google 'hours' of travel will spell a late arrival.

Judging from the 1000 km planned for day 7 and the previous accomplishments, 2 days would be a more fitting ride !  So it was to be ...

Heading east to St. Louis from O'Fallon we are met with grey skies and intermittent falling rain.  Nice to be cooler, for sure, and no need for high volume A/C.


We pass the St. Louis Cardinal stadium and the Famous Arch on our way through town.

          

Hoping to arrive at a destination in reasonable time, we pick a spot just across the Missouri border into Ohio - home of a former rock quarry and nice little RV campground - Natural Springs Resort, in New Paris, Ohio, just east of Richmond, Missouri.   Our neighbour at the camp had a Great Dane, to match up with our Great Pyrenees.  The younger Marmaduke was rather rambunctious, so did not meet nose to nose with ours, at his owners behest.   The camp had a good number of permanent weekend owners, with golf carts and trailers.  We almost missed the check in, arriving just before 7 pm.

Astrid whipped up a specialty pasta dish of hers, always delightful, and we retired for an early get-a-way the next day - on the road by 0830 hrs.

Passing through Indianapolis, we see the Lucas Oil Stadium - a state of the art, retractable roof stadium - home of Super Bowl XLVI, 2015 NCAA Final Four,  and the NFL Colts.  

Road Construction remains as a mainstay in our day, with some of the roads particularly rough and bouncy ... first time Astrid says Steve swore at the road !  Traffic out of Akron at 4:14 pm was typically heavy for major cities.   The concrete highways are noisy compared to asphalt !  .. and bumpy ... twathump, thwathump, thwathump, over the seams.

Our first hint of east coast was a sign for the Interstate 80 highway ... to New York City.  Must be more than half way !

Just before 6 pm, we pull in to Clarks Mills, Pennsylvania at Al & Kathy's ... an impressive estate in the country where lawn mowers are obviously king !

See our journey on Google Maps !

Stay tuned...

Cheers
Astrid 'n Steve