Hey, not sure where to post this,maybe there should be a section here that members can post their MCI trips ?? Including pictures.
Well it was that one day a year that you have cake & candles,for me. So I decided to get away from the family craziness and went on a short trip from home to the Niagara Falls Canada area. It's the first time having the bus out for me this year. I'm always a little hesitant about the first run. Never knowing what your going to forget or have fall off. Of course I had an issue right away. Seems every once in a while the fan belt likes to just pop off and hang there. I usually don't see the temp rising till it's almost too late but I happen to catch it this time. Luckily for me it was 50ft from a FlyingJ station.
I got that taken care off and went searching for fuel. FlyingJ was at $4.49, so I went 5 miles down to the REZ and there it's $4.12. I don't know why more truckers don't head over there to take advantage of the price difference but I'm sure as heck going to.
There are three crossings for you to get into Canada here in WNY. I had stopped at a friends house on Grand Island on the way (bridge toll $2.25) thats before you get into Niagara Falls NY. So I got to the border around lunchtime (another bridge toll - but if your MCI still looks like a bus and not a motorcoach, make sure you get the RV rate $3.25 vs the $13.50 bus rate. I forgot that but a toll person next to my lane told him).
I'm a frequent traveler to Canada. Most of the time at the border inspection the agent walks out expecting a bus load of people, yet it's just me sitting there. I tell them I'm just a camper. Then about 80% of the time they never even step up to look inside. They ask where I'm going and say have a nice trip - but for some reason I got the ''glove treatment'', today they decided to search my bus. I take no offence and actually enjoy someone looking over rig. It took them a good 15 minutes to go through the upper half and when the came out to check the ''basement''. I opened the doors and said ''have fun''. They sort of bent down to look and said ''thank you'' without touching a thing - lol. Ok so I take EVERYTHING with me. The cargo area is loaded with all sorts of stuff. I don't think the added weight is going to make that much of a difference vs me having to buy or borrow something when I need it on the road. After they were finished with the official inspection, the border agents were very friendly and asked non-border type questions. I'm always the promoter of owning something different.
Well I really did do any touristy things this trip, although I see the vampire museum is for sale (got me thinking). I mostly spent it with friends and party hopping. It was a very sunny day friday, so I went to watch the ships on the Welland canal. It's the waterway that connects Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. You can really see up close some really different type ships from all over the world here. I've seen ships loaded with just ore to those huge windmills. A friend runs an info center there in Thorold Canada called Lock 7. There they are right at one of the locks, where you can get a great view of the water traffic and a cup of coffee.
All along the canal there are little pull off areas with benches / trash cans / ''chip trucks'' (food vendors) / and bike paths along the whole length of the canal.
I ended up right underneath the QEW bridge. A nice quiet spot. Some vehicle traffic / some people walking their dogs / people on bikes / etc. I pulled out the lawn chair and had the bus at my back, with the water 20ft away from me. Nobody bothered me one bit. I had plenty of people saying hello and a few looking over my bus as they passed by. I chatted with many that stopped to ask me questions.
Well my goal was to get a few pictures of these ships coming by and have my bus included in the shots. Now 40ft bus thats 50 away from a 700 ft ship, kind of took some doing. So here is what I got......
You can see the QEW bridge there that you have to cross going from Toronto to Niagara Falls (no tolls). The other bridge you will cross is in Hamilton Canada.
Same ship from the rear-end.
This was a really cool ship. You can see the four cranes there and the little comand booths on each one.
this was with a very long laker. It was at a different location than the other spot that next day. This guy scraped the inside of the lock something fierce. I don't think they were very happy with him.
Yes my next goal is to buy a ship to put my bus on. A nice 60ft landing craft would be a blast.
Well sorry to bore you with travel pics of my trip.
Bruggs Bus
.
