My destination for the day was two states across, in New Hampshire. About an hour into the journey is lake Champlain, which is very long, stretching up into Canada in the north, and a fair way down in the south, and there was a ferry crossing it every hour. It is possible to drive around it, but it takes a bit longer, and is not as interesting. I retraced my steps for the first little while after leaving the campground, then headed off towards the lake, aiming to get the 8.30am ferry.

The ferry left from the small town of Essex. I got there a bit after 8, and had a little look around. There were some quite old looking buildings, the town seemed to have a lot of character. I found an ATM sitting next to a small toilet building by the lake, and withdrew some money there. I saw that the balance was quite a bit lower than I was expecting, but found out later that it was a bit of a false alarm. It appeared that the ATM was reporting the remaining balance in US dollars, which was why it was so much lower than I expected!

The ferry wasn’t very large, and had an open area for cars, and a little room above for people, but quite a few people, including myself, stayed on the car deck and walked around as the ferry went. It was pretty going across the lake. It took about half an hour, crossing the border into Vermont half way across the lake.

Vermont was not a state that believed in driving fast apparently. The minor roads were zoned at 50mph or less, as well as even one of the four-lane highways. I got to go at 65 on I-89 for a while, then back to the slower roads again. About 10.30 I took a pit stop near a memorial to a solider who had fallen asleep on guard duty, exhausted but having offered to take the place of another solider, and was sentenced to death, but pardoned by the President at the last minute. All through this area was more and more beautiful autumn foliage, as the road went through the colourful forest.

Vermont isn’t a large state, I think it was only about 35 miles (60km) across where I went, and it didn’t take too long to get across into the next state, New Hampshire, which seemed to have similarly low speed limits. Quite a bit of the last part of the drive was at only 40mph. I stopped a couple of times along there, Lost River Road, to take more photos of the foliage. About 11.30 I came on a scene that looked like one of those classic autumn jigsaw puzzles with a stream surrounded by autumn trees – all it lacked was the old mill with the paddle wheel. I walked down a bit of an embankment to get some closer photos of the river with the trees arching over it.

A bit after 12 I came to the town of Lincoln, where my RV park was, Maple Haven. They had a store which sold ice-cream in the evening, and nice facilities with showers, where they charged $2 for 5 minutes, which you paid for with eight quarters! That night I was glad for the quarters that my friend Ron in San Francisco had given me. I found my site, then headed off again to the hike that I had planned for the day, which was about 10km north on I-93.

The hike was up to Cannon Mountain, which I had read was a popular hike, with limited parking (as usual!). If you stayed at the campground there you could just hike straight from there, but when I tried to book a site there a few months before, though there were sites free, they had a minimum stay of two nights, which was frustrating. I thought I would go before I had lunch and try to find a spot there, and make lunch there if I was able to get a spot, or perhaps eat lunch while waiting for a spot to become available otherwise.

I drove off on the interstate, actually zoned at 70mph briefly, then down to 55, then 45, as it went from four lanes to two, but still stayed as a divided road where you couldn’t turn off except at exits. It was the inconvenience of a four-lane highway, without the convenience of actually having four lanes, a strange arrangement.

It was made worse by the fact that the car park for this hike had its own exit, but you could only get in and out of it on the northbound side of the highway. If it was full, you had to go on north for about 10km or so to where there was an exit on both sides of the highway and you could go back the other way. There was a campground on the opposite side to the parking lot, where there was a bit of parking, but similarly, it could be accessed only from the southbound side. So if that was full and you wanted to check the other one again, you had to travel several km south to an exit where you could go back the other way!

As I drove north to the car park I was praying for a spot to be available, wondering how full it would be on a weekday at midday. Turned out it the answer was very full! It looked as though there were no spots available. The entry was in the middle of the park, with a lane each way with parking on it. On the left there was a car stopped in the lane towards the end. I assumed they were waiting for a spot to become available, and waited behind them for a few minutes, but nobody was coming or going.

The lane wasn’t very wide so I went past the car to see if there was a place to do a U-turn at the end, and to my surprise, there was a free space just a few cars further on! I don’t know why the car was waiting, whether they didn’t notice the free space, or if they were waiting for someone or sending a message on the phone or something, but I was very glad to find the spot – thank you Lord! They waited for a few more minutes then left I think. I hadn’t had lunch yet, so I made and ate lunch in the parking lot, before getting going on the hike, a bit before one. There were very few cars coming or going, if any – everyone was out hiking. The hike was listed as about four hours, though with all the looking around and photo taking, I was about five hours.

The hike was on the other side of the highway, and there was a tunnel from the car park under the highway, to the campground on the other side where I had wanted to stay, but the Lord worked it out in the end anyway. There weren’t any free parking spaces in the day-use car park on that side either as far as I could see, as I walked through to the start of the hike. I read that someone had once actually booked a campsite even though just staying for the day, just to be able to get parking to go on the hike.

A fair bit of the trail was a loop. On one side of this loop the trail climbed up to Lonesome Lake, a small but quite pretty lake. I walked along one side, with some rather marshy bits with grasses growing in the lake. There were boards to walk on over some of that area. Then the trail climbed again through forest, a long, rocky and steep climb. I met a couple with a dog, who had walked a long way, found there was a ladder on the other side of the loop, and had to come back. The ladder, I found later, was quite a way down again from the summit, so they must have had an exhausting hike going back up, then down again.

A bit before three I came out to the summit, where there was a lookout you could climb. There were amazing views from there, again miles and miles of mountains. High up there were pine forests, and in the valley, a beautiful orange and red and carpet of trees seen from the distance. In one of the valleys you could see I-93 winding through for a long distance. Looking another way were rows and rows of blue mountains, getting progressively fainter. Looking north, apparently some of the territory was into Canada. It was quite warm, I was in shorts, and it was mostly sunny, with some cloud coming and going. I took a photo or two for people, and someone took my photo up there.

I found that there was actually also a cable car going up to the summit, so I could have taken the easy way, though it was more satisfying to hike it, and also I got some extra views. But, unlike the other hikes, there was a cafe at the top, which was a bit of a luxury. It was a few minutes walk from the lookout to the cafe, with some nice views along the way. The cafe was also the terminal for the cable car.

There hadn’t been many people on the hike, but there were quite a few on the summit. It wasn’t really crowded though. At the cafe saw they sold whoopee pies, which I remembered Mum used to make – chocolate buns with some kind of white icing in between. I’d long forgotten about them. They tasted just like Mum’s did. I don’t think I had ever seen them sold in Australia.

I sat down on one of the tables to eat it, and someone asked me to take a photo of a group of people, so I had to put down my pie and take the photo, then resume. I went back to the lookout for another viewing – it was just so amazingly beautiful, then started on my way back down again. I took the other part of the loop, and found the ladder, only a few metres long, going down a sheer rock face. I reflected on whether the couple could have got the dog down somehow. It must have felt so near but so far. I walked down through more pine or spruce forest, and some of the forest floor was covered in a kind of thick ground cover.

Part way down there was another view point, looking out over the orange and red valley, with what I think was Lonesome Lake a long way down. I could see the exit off the highway where the parking lot was, even further down, and the highway winding through the forest and mountains, till everything faded away into the distance. The valley was perhaps even more beautiful up a bit closer. I stayed there a while taking a huge number of photos! There was an increasing amount of cloud cover, but still some good sunny periods. I got down to the campground again a bit before 6, crossing a beautiful stream with more colour everywhere.

Crossing under the road again I was back at the car park and headed on north on the highway till I could turn and go back the other way to the RV park. I made some dinner, and then went to the store looking for some ice-cream. I think they had said they closed at 9, and I arrived before then, but the ice-cream part had closed earlier, so I missed out. So I had my $2 shower and went to bed.

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While planning my trip I found out about a mountain with autumn foliage and amazing views, which you could drive up. The road closed around the end of the first week in October, and that was also when peak foliage was expected. So I had timed parts of the trip so that I could visit that mountain during that last week, and this was the day when it was scheduled. I was really looking forward to it, and encouraged by the autumn colours I had seen up in the mountains so far.

I’d planned the stop the previous night to be only a couple of hours drive from the mountain. I left the RV park and drove a short distance to the small town of Indian Lake, which did have a service station, so I filled up. Just out of the town was Adirondack Lake, a beautiful scene with reflections of the autumn colours on the still lake, at the start of yet another sunny day.

I drove along more rural roads through colourful forest, going along the Hudson River for a while, which was very picturesque, lined with wonderful foliage.

After another hour’s drive, where I got onto I-87 for a while, then back onto a smaller road, I passed the beautiful Chapel Pond around 9.30. This was only a smallish lake, but had beautiful hills behind, and mirror-like reflections. I met another guy there who seemed to be contemplating going fishing. The road followed the Ausable River for a while, then came into the town of Wilmington. I turned off through the town and out, and uphill, past a little place called North Pole, complete with another Santa’s Workshop. I don’t think it was open, a little early in the season!

A bit before 10.30 I arrived at the start of the road going up the mountain. There was a payment kiosk, with something like an 8” clearance, and I was hoping the van would fit under it, but all was ok. There weren’t many cars going through, so I didn’t have to wait long, and there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road up. It was fairly steep and windy, and there were places to pull off regularly to look at the view, which of course I made use of! Someone took a photo of me at one of the places.

The foliage was just spectacular, I think it was pretty much at its peak, by the Lord’s wonderful arrangement. I mentioned to someone at one of the stops that I had been wondering how much colour there’d be, but it seemed to be at its best, and he said something like, “You hit it out of the park”! Views unfolded of miles of mountains covered in reds and oranges, with green areas of conifers interspersed, lakes dotted here and there, and blue mountains in the distance. Visibility was excellent.

It took around half an hour to drive up, with the stops. There were a lot of people parked at the top, but still parking available. There was some kind of construction going on, and they had us drive up to the end of the road, do a U-turn and then come back and park. The area to do the turn was a bit tight but I got around ok, glad of the backing camera. From the car park, there was a summit further up. You could either take a tunnel into the mountain and get an elevator up (I think they said it was something like 40 stories up), or walk up a steep track with a lot of stairs. Of course I took the walking option!

There was something like a small castle at the end of the car park, which tradespeople were working on. I had a quick look inside. I think there was a gift store there too. The trail was quite open, going along a rocky ridge, and there were great views all the way up.

At the top, which was about 4,800 feet (1,460m) (which was classed as a high mountain, though having been on a 14,000 foot (4,300m) mountain, I wasn’t sure it was so very high!), there was a weather station and a hut of some kind. I stayed there for quite a while, walking around on the rocky summit and taking photos from different angles. There were views in all directions.

Once I got back to the car park, it was getting toward 12, and there was a little food trailer selling “sandwiches” and drinks. I bought a sandwich, since that was what was on offer, and received a burger! This was a pleasant surprise. Apparently some burgers are called sandwiches in the US. Someone said those with mince patties in them were burgers, and other burgers were sandwiches, but that rule didn't always seem to be followed. So I never did get a good explanation of when a burger was a burger and when it was a sandwich. I ate my burger/sandwich with beautiful views at an eating area there, then headed back down, having had my senses filled!

The road down was fairly steep, with low speed limits, but the van’s gears worked well down hills, and I didn’t need the brakes much. I’d read a cautionary tale of a van coming down this hill with smoke billowing from its destroyed brakes, so made sure I was light on with them, and pulled over from time to time to look at the views again.

At the bottom I took a few more photos of the road with the colourful foliage surrounding it. To get to Wilmington Notch campground where I was staying, required a short trip back nearly into Wilmington then off about 3km on another road. There were a number of “notches” in the area, I’m not sure if they were a term to describe a mountain. There were also “flumes”, which I think may have been steep gorges or ravines, maybe with water in them.

I checked into the campground, which was fairly open, with pine trees planted around. The road was on one side of the campground, and on the other side was a valley with a stream running through it, and my site was on that side. There was a rough track down from the campground to a pretty waterfall very close by, with quite a decent flow through it. My plan was to do the Bear Den via Flume Loop hike, listed as around three hours. There was a bit of a map at the campground office of the trails, but it wasn’t entirely clear, and the person at the desk didn’t seem too sure either, but the AllTrails app is handy finding the start of trails in these situations, and I found it in the end just about 1km back along the road again.

There was a small parking lot there, fairly full, but I found a spot. The track went by a pond and along what I think was a branch of the Ausable River. It was very pretty, and as I walked on this bit I met with a couple who were also hiking, and we had a bit of a chat. While we were talking, all our phones suddenly made some kind of siren alarm noise. They said it was a test of a nationwide system where the President could alert the whole nation, or local authorities could send warnings of natural disasters or other dangers. I did hear it one other time later on for real when a gunman was on the loose.

I went up into the forest from there, which was also quite green underneath, and the track started to get steep as it climbed toward the summit. The forest was nice, and there was a bit of a carpet of autumn leaves, but there wasn’t much of a view to be seen until I reached the summit, which really did have a view. On one side the mountain went up further, but there were excellent views of a large valley with stunning colours, and mountains beyond, also with autumn colours.

I got there around quarter to four, and stayed on the summit about an hour. It was so beautiful I had to tear myself away! At the top were a lot of large rocks, and there was a woman with a dog which looked like a German Shepherd, on a part of the summit a bit further away, who asked me if I wanted to come onto that area. Maybe the dog wasn’t very people-friendly. I said I wasn’t in a hurry, and she left after a while before I had come over.

Eventually I had to come down – I didn’t want to be getting down in the dark! The lower part of the hike was a circuit, so I went back the other way. It was about quarter to six when I got back, getting towards sunset, which was now about 6.30. It had changed a lot in a short time, not just because of the season, but also because I was driving east. Between Monday night and Tuesday night, sunset got earlier by nearly 20 minutes! I enjoyed the river near the parking lot, and a small set of falls there, before getting back to the campground.

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In contrast to the previous day, I had an ambitious schedule for this day, looking at quite a few waterfalls along the Finger Lakes, and some hikes. I had done some timings and thought everything could fit in, but as usual, things took longer than expected, and I didn’t get through it all. I realised fairly early on that I would need to pick and choose what to do from my schedule on many of the days. At least I knew I would never be short of things to do!

I left pretty early again, and drove back toward the park, then past it, for about an hour and a half to my first destination, Watkins Glen, mostly along rural roads at 55mph, with a brief stint on I-390 at 65mph. The glen was recommended as a sight not to be missed. I drove to the town of Watkins, and found a parking lot right off the main street, that seemed to be for the glen. This seemed strange, I wasn’t used to a park like this being right next to a town, rather than out a bit from it. There seemed to be a road on the map that led further in, but it didn’t look as though you were meant to go along it. I concluded in the end that this was in fact the right spot.

I got there around 9.15. The gorge was pretty impressive, entered through a tunnel carved into the rock, with stairs ascending through it, almost like a mediaeval castle. It was very narrow, with a stream going through the bottom, quite a way down, and waterfalls here and there. It reminded me a bit of the gorge I’d gone through near Banff.

The stream didn’t have a lot of water in it, but it was still very pretty. The path went along the canyon part way up, but it still towered well up above. There weren’t too many people around at that time of the morning.

The track was a steady climb, going behind a small waterfall, through another tunnel with stairs, and under a footbridge quite a long way above. I wondered how you got onto that one – it turned out there was a track running along the top of the gorge, which I took on the way back.

There were some stone embankments and a quite old looking stone footbridge, and pools with small cascades down to each one. There wasn’t a lot of autumn colour, but further up the hike I hit a quite colourful patch.

The track came out at the top of the gorge, up quite a decent flight of stairs, with a rail bridge going over above, and exiting to another car park, and a picnic area. I headed back on the other route, which went along the top of the gorge. This was probably quicker, but not as scenic. It was interesting to see it from above though. Getting back to the van, I drove along more rural roads to Taughannock Falls. Some of these places were very hard to spell, let along pronounce!

These falls have a longer drop than Niagara Falls, though they are miniscule in width by comparison. There wasn’t much parking to be had at the car park for the falls, but I managed to get a spot. From there you could walk to a lookout at the top of the gorge, looking across to the falls.

There wasn’t a lot of water going down them at that season, but it was still an impressive sight. There didn’t seem to be any way to get to the bottom of them from there, and I found that to do that you had to keep driving down the road that led through the park, and then down to an entrance at the bottom of the gorge, and walk in.

I perhaps would have been better off going on and looking at other falls, but they may also have been a bit depleted, and it was a nice walk through the gorge, with some colourful trees along the way. It wasn’t permitted to get too close to the falls, but it was interesting to see them from below. There were huge slabs of flat rock that people were walking along, on the early parts of the gorge walk.

Once I’d got back, it was around 12.30, and I was next to one of the “finger lakes”, lakes which are very long, and relatively narrow, and scattered through that area. This one was Cayuga Lake, and even had its own lighthouse.

It was another beautiful day, and I parked at the car park next to the lake, just across the road from the gorge car park, and made some lunch, and ate it by the lake. It was clear by this time that I wasn’t going to fit in much else, if I wanted to do a hike I’d planned towards the end of the day. I still had nearly four hours of driving all up, to the RV park I’d planned to stay at. There weren’t a lot of RV parks around in the area I was spending the night, and none that would take bookings, but when I rang up the owner of this park months before, he was pretty certain there would be space. They were actually shutting down for the season a few days later. I rang during the day, and found that there was indeed space, thankfully!

So I set off from there, through the town of Ithaca, around the bottom of that finger lake, with some nice views along the road, and seeing houses that also would have had lovely views, then after a while, getting onto I-81, skirting the decent sized town of Syracuse, then briefly onto I-90 before heading off up into the Adirondack Mountains, or just the Adirondacks, as everyone called them, a mountainous area in the north-east of New York state. I had been wondering if I would see really good autumn colour, but it started to show more and more brightly as I went up.

There weren’t a lot of settlements along this part of the road. I had probably half a tank of fuel, but I was looking out for somewhere selling fuel, without much success. It would not be a good place to be low on fuel! After three hours or so, stopping briefly for a look at the Hinckley Reservoir, I turned off on a small road that went by Piesco Lake. The lake was mostly hidden from the road, but there were views through in a few spots. It led to the trailhead of the Echo Cliffs hike, which was listed as taking about an hour. There wasn’t a lot of parking on the road, and I was surprised by the fact that there were quite a few cars parked in a trailhead so far away from civilisation, but I was able to squeeze the van into the fairly shallow parking space, not sticking out too much into the road.

The hike was quite a climb to the top of a hill, and it felt pretty warm – the temperature was in the mid to high 20s, which though not terribly high, was warmer than I was expecting, and I think it was probably humid as well. I was pushing pretty hard, because it was already about 4.30, and there was still over three quarters of an hour drive after I finished, and I wasn’t keen to be driving at dusk when there might be animals around.

It was interesting, on a number of the hikes I did around that time, including this one, when I walked through forests, the foliage of the trees at the bottom where I walked was quite green, though the tops of the trees were colourful, when I saw them from a summit. It seemed the trees changed colour from the top down.

I got to the top and was rewarded with a spectacular view of miles of forest with a lot of colour in it, interspersed with lakes. This was the kind of view I had been hoping for when I came to this area! I chatted with people at the top, then legged it down again in a hurry. There wasn’t a lot to see along the way up or down, mainly at the top.

I continued my journey, along roads lined with amazingly colourful trees. It was almost painfully beautiful to see all the continuous colour as I drove along. I stopped for a few quick photos, then came to Mason Lake, near sunset, with beautiful reflections. Along here I met a couple who were walking their dog, also on a journey, I think in the other direction.

Not far from the campground was Indian Lake, another photo stop to capture reflections and autumn leaves, with the pink sunset sky. A further 15 minutes or so got me to the turn off to the road where Thornbush Acres RV park was. The owner was staying at the park, and saw me drive in (I had let him know roughly when I would arrive), and came to the office to receive payment – cash only, and drove along in front of me to show me where my spot was, close to the facilities which was nice. There was still a bit of light left, and I could see it was also pretty with autumn colours.

It was pretty much dark as I was eating dinner. I had a magnetic light which I could stick onto the side of the van, to see to cook and eat. The van also had a solar-powered light over the cooking area, but the danger was that it would attract insects into the van, while the back doors were open. My little light had an orange mode, which apparently didn’t attract insects, and that was handy on warm nights.

While I was eating I could hear rustling here and there, and thought it might be squirrels. When I went to the toilet block to brush my teeth later, and turned on my phone torch so I could see the way, and I spotted what was making the rustling noise: what was I suppose a toad, about the size of my hand. They didn’t seem very afraid of people, and there must have been quite a few around. I didn’t see them any other time.

I had been looking forward to meeting my cousins, aunt and uncle in Prince Edward Island in a bit over a week, and my aunt had cancer, and was not well. She was still following along though, and I was expecting to be able to see her. But my cousin messaged me that she had gone downhill fast, and she was not responsive any more. She passed away not long after that, and I was sad to have missed her, and by such a short time. It seemed strange timing, to have missed her (if only on this earth), and to be visiting them so soon after their loss, but I knew the Lord was in control of everything, including timing.

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My destination for the day was Letchworth State Park in Upstate New York, which was recommended as a good place for autumn foliage. It was about a two hour drive from where I was. The next few days I had scheduled to have a good look at what I’d hoped would be good autumn foliage across New York and New England, and I’d tried to reduce the amount of driving, taking more days to cover the distance through to Boston, to give myself plenty of time to see the colours. In my trip so far, there hadn’t been as much colour as I’d been expecting, as I’d heard they were late that year due to the unusually warm weather, so I was hoping that they would get better as I went east and time went on.

I was keen not to have a repeat of the long delay getting over the border into Canada, so I left early to get to the border crossing at Peace Bridge, well before daylight, around 6am. It was a bit foggy or misty, and visibility wasn’t the best. I was glad to get to the border crossing, actually about 6.30, and to see only a few people ahead of me, so the border crossing was quick. The official wanted me to open the back of the van, and he had a look in the back with a torch. I think the van kept trying to lock the doors while I was trying to unlock them, and the guy suggested I shut off the engine then try it, which worked.

Over the border I went through the city of Buffalo, on I-190, then into country Upstate New York. I’d found a park on the map where I thought it would be nice to have breakfast, Hunter Creek, just off the highway near a town called Wales Center. When I got near it, I discovered that the road to the park was blocked though; there was work happening on a bridge that you needed to cross to get there, so I had to take a longer route, around the large block, taking a road further along, then doubling back. It was about 7.30am when I got there, and the sun had just risen.

After breakfast I had a little walk in the park. I got some fuel in Wales Center, and continued on. About 10km out of Gainesville where my next campground was to be, I found a lovely little dirt road with a row of beautifully coloured trees along it, and enjoyed the autumn foliage there for a while. It was encouraging to see this, a sign that the colours were definitely coming along. I’d selected a route, and destinations, which were good for seeing the colour, but perhaps not so interesting if there wasn’t any.

I was to stay at Woodstream Campground that night, and since it was basically on my way to Letchworth, I thought I would see if I could check in on my way. It was around 9am, and I drove up the driveway and found someone at the store and office building. She was very friendly and helpful, and actually drove me in a little jeep to show me where my campsite was. The campground was pretty, out in the country, with a creek running through the area where I was to stay, and beautiful autumn foliage. My site backed onto a little creek. We chatted a bit – he had come from somewhere else, I think maybe French Canada, to run the park there.

From there it was only 10 or 15 minutes drive to the park entrance. The ranger at the entrance said that there was 20-30% colour – they grade it over there! The park, nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the East, encompasses a large gorge with the Genesee River running through it, and three waterfalls. After what I’d read about it, I’d scheduled the whole day there, and it is a day I particularly remember as being more leisurely than most, with happy memories of a beautiful sunny quiet day exploring the park. I started at the car park for the Upper Falls, near the entrance, and set off for a hike along the river, by all three falls.

Though in some areas a lot of the trees were still green, there were patches where the colour was amazing. Next to the car park was an impressive iron rail bridge towering above us. Apparently this had replaced an earlier bridge that had pillars going into the river, and this one went across in one span, so interfered with the view less – it was now possible to see the view uninterrupted under the bridge. I think the previous bridge had lasted over 100 years! I didn’t see any trains go over it, but I heard one while I was out of sight of it.

The path went down some stairs to the Upper Falls, with an array of spectacular red and yellow trees, and I looked down through them to the river far below. I couldn’t get right up to the falls, but I could see it fairly well as the track went by it.

I just had to keep taking photos of all the colourful trees, such amazing scenes! It was about 9.30 when I started, and the sun was cresting over the hill on the other side of the gorge. The falls were pretty impressive, I could see more of them from a bit further away, looking back.

Next along were the Middle Falls, which were perhaps the best ones, quite wide, with several cascades, and a long drop, and there were good spots to get views of it close up.

From there the river went into a deep gorge, with steep rocky sides, carved into the forest on either side. There was a walking track that went along the river the whole way through the park I think, but it was very long, probably a day’s walk just one way.

As I walked, a long way above the river, there were beautiful views of the gorge, and more pockets of concentrated autumn foliage, as well as quite a few colourful trees throughout the forest either side of the gorge.

About an hour in, I came to Inspiration Point, which looked back on Middle Falls, and perhaps a little of the Upper Falls, and the railway bridge, quite a sight. The warm sunny weather kept on for most of the week, which was a big blessing, highlighting the colours.

Another half hour brought me to the Lower Falls, which were smaller than the others, and it was harder to get a good view of them. There were signs saying not to go past a certain point, though there would have been nice views from beyond that.

A little further on, a track went a fair way down to the level of the river itself, where there was a stone footbridge, which had been built back in 1935, for just under $700! I think this was the only crossing point for the river in the park. There were tracks on the other side, and I had a short look, then turned back.

I needed to drive to some of the further-on places if I was to see everything. It was getting towards 1 when I was going by Middle Falls again, and there was a snack shop where I bought some lunch, eating it at one of the tables in the grassy area there.

I took some more photos of the Upper Falls with the sun on them, and someone offered to take a photo of me against the falls. I got back to the van a bit after 2. I couldn’t stop taking photos of the area, it was so beautiful. It was lovely to be able to take my time. There was still a lot of daylight left, so I was able to have a good look around at much of the park. It wasn’t crowded, and there was plenty of parking everywhere, which was a big plus after some of the other parks I’d been in.

There was one main road that went through the park on the side of the gorge where most things were, so you could see a lot just by driving along there and back. There was some of the park on the other side of the gorge – I think you had to drive out and then back into another entrance on the other side, which was a bit of a distance, and there wasn’t so much to see on that side.

The road went along the gorge to a number of overlooks, where you could see down into the gorge winding away, and the forest, all beautiful. It got pretty high up, with the river looking quite small a long way down. Some parts of the gorge were rocky, and others had lush forest growing on them.

There was a smaller waterfall a bit further on, where a creek plunged down into the main gorge. About 4.30 I made it to the end of the park before the road exited again, with a lookout over Mount Morris Dam, with a high concrete wall, which I think was there to control flooding, through there wasn’t a lot of water banked up at the time.

The gorge became much wider here, and the river looked small winding through it. There was a store there, which had a lot of varieties of ice-cream, so I got one while I was there.

Along the gorge there, was another beautiful forest area full of yellow-orange trees which I strolled through.

After that it was time to make my leisurely way back, stopping here and there. There were some lovely wildflowers growing by the side of the road in some places, with the autumn colour as a backdrop.

Inspiration Point was recommended as a nice place to see the sunset, but I ended up at Archery Overlook, a bit before there, enjoying the late light on the gorge, trees, river and hills beyond.

I got to Inspiration Point a bit after sunset, and it probably would have been a good spot too, with the waterfall views. It was still pretty with the pink sunset sky. I left before it got dark, and got back to the campground a bit after 7. Sunset was getting earlier as the season advanced, and it was quite dusky by then. I manoeuvred the van into the spot, with a little difficulty, making sure not to back too far and drive into the creek! Phone reception there was pretty sketchy.

I investigated where the nearest facilities were, and it was a bit of a trek to get there, I had to go along the creek, over a little bridge (which was narrow and rather makeshift-looking, and apparently cars could drive over, though I’m not sure if I would have been game!), then walk along the other side, out of the campsites a bit, to a toilet block apart by itself. I took note of a few landmarks so that I could navigate there in the dark.

The shower was 50 cents for 5 minutes, one of the cheapest places that wasn’t free. There was a money box that took two quarters, and looked as though it had been there since the 80s! There was also a mechanical timer which you could turn, which I realised was so that you knew when the 5 minutes were about up. The shower was good though.

I found my way back, and went to bed. I was starting to realise around this time, that my time in the van was coming to an end. This was a bit sad, having been through so many adventures together, though on the other hand, staying somewhere where the toilet and shower were under the same roof also had appeal!

Sunday was a quieter day. I had picked out Golden Harvest Baptist Church to go to, which was only about 10 minutes away from where I was staying. The service wasn’t till 11, so I got to sleep in a bit. I had a look at the beautiful river again, just across the road from the RV park, then headed off to church, which was in the country. They were a bit surprised to see me I think, since this was rather out of the way of the tourist run. It was their missionary conference week, and there were some missionary families - I think they were supporting them - who were there, and gave testimonies or addresses. It was great to hear them. There would probably have been 100 or 150 people in the congregation.

They invited me to their church lunch afterwards, and were very friendly, pairing me up with people to talk to at one of the tables. It was two older couples, and one lived in the US, Buffalo I think, and regularly drove over the border for church. There had been some kind of hurricane through, something like a year ago, and they spoke of the damage, and the repairs that had to take place.

I wasn’t keen to pay another $35 in parking, even if I had been able to get a spot, and I’d seen a lot of the falls, so after lunch I explored the area north of the falls, which was less busy that the falls, though parking was still a bit scarce. I had identified a couple of walks, the first of which was the Niagara Glen trail. I drove out of Niagara to where the parking area was, but it was full, so I had to drive on past it. A little further was the Niagara Botanic Gardens, and I found paid parking there, and then walked back, probably half a kilometre to the start of the walking track.

North of the falls the river goes through a deep, forested gorge, with quite steep sides. It’s a pretty area, and the Lord had sent yet another beautiful day. The AllTrails app had shown a track going down into the gorge, but the track didn’t seem to actually exist, so I’m not sure how the person who’d mapped it out did that bit, it looked like abseiling might have been needed! There was a flat park-like area, then cliffs, and there was an enclosure like a climb to a lookout, with stairs going around and down to the lower area.

There were quite a few tracks down below the cliffs, and I walked along one, further down to the river, where there were some places you could go out on rocks and have a closer look, being careful not to fall into the swift flow! There were one or two tourist boats went by.

The water was a lovely blue, and a few bits of autumn foliage here and there added a splash of colour. In the far distance was a huge concrete wall with the hydroelectric power plant.

Apparently there is an agreement between the US and Canada about how much water goes through the power plant and how much goes down the river, which varies depending on the time of year, with more flowing down the river during the tourist season.

I walked back up, then set off back to the Botanic Gardens where I’d parked. I still had some time left on the parking I’d paid for, so I had a look around the gardens. These were nicely laid out, with interesting use of chillis to add colour in flower plantings.

There was an old house with ivy growing on it, some nice formal gardens, and a meadow with a track through it. I timed my return to make the full use of the parking time, then went to the other walk I’d wanted to do, the Niagara Whirlpool, which was back towards the falls a bit.

This was a kind of elbow where the river does a 90 degree turn, and there is a pool off the elbow where the water swirls around. The water doesn’t look like it’s moving very fast, but with the volume of it, it’s probably pretty powerful. I found parking near the start of the walk, next to some kind of adventure park. I couldn’t get the parking meters to accept my credit card. Two or three of them were failing to read it, and I was getting frustrated. I think, almost by accident, I got one working. It seems that they were reading the magnetic stripe on the credit card, and you had to put the card in or pull it out quickly rather than slowly for it to work.

After getting that sorted out I set out to the whirlpool. At the top of the walk was a lookout over the pool, with a cable car that went across from one side to the other. I thought first it went from Canada to the US, but both sides of the whirlpool were in Canada. While I was there I saw the cable car come across then go back. It started from the other side, and just paused on the side I was on, before going back again.

The river bank was quite a way down from the road and lookout, and I found the track going down to the whirlpool a little way along from the lookout and set off down the track, starting with a set of shallow stairs. It was probably about 15 minutes walk, and at the bottom I was met with a peaceful scene, with a few people here and there on the bank, I think one or two may have been fishing.

I made my way back up to the top, then drove back towards the RV park. I wanted to get fuel somewhere and looked on the map for somewhere near where I was staying. I found a little place called Four Corners Gas and Variety near the settlement of Stevensville. It turned out to be a full-service place, something that I hadn’t seen for many years in Australia. The person inside called out for someone to attend the pump, but no one seemed to be around, so she came out and did it herself.

I parked by the river next to the RV park, and made dinner there enjoying the peace and the lovely view, as it slowly got dark, and a few lights started twinkling on the other side. I spent a good hour there, it was a lovely experience. I was now on the same time zone as Boston, so Bible study was at 8.30pm, after which I went to bed.

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I left the campground just after sunrise, and started up to highway 401. It was a rather misty start to the morning, with the sun trying to shine through it.

On the way I stopped to take some photos of the wildflowers along the road, with a misty farmhouse in the background, and some wind turbines. It took about four hours to get to Niagara, along a flat, straight, beautifully maintained four-lane highway at the monotonous speed of 100km/h. A lot of people were ignoring the speed limit, which was not unusual. There were a few touches of autumn colour along the way. A lot of Ontario is very flat.

The highway ran along the side of Lake Ontario for a while, but there wasn’t a lot of it to be seen from the road. I turned off and went straight to the RV park to start with, bypassing Niagara Falls. I was staying about 20 minutes drive south of the falls in a lovely little spot by the Niagara River called Riverside Park. I was surprised that only a short drive from Niagara Falls there was just countryside and farmland. It seems there are a lot of things concentrated around the falls, but only in a relatively small radius.

The place was only sparsely populated. They took only cash, and I had little or no Canadian money, so they said it was ok if I got cash that day in Niagara, then paid the next day. This saved a lot of trouble, as going in and out of Niagara and parking would have taken a fair amount of time. The RV park was fairly open, with trees here and there, and a peek of a view of the river. The road to Niagara went along the river, which was very wide, and flowing fast. It was clear that a large volume of water went down it. Across the other side was the US, Upstate New York. My phone would sometimes not have reception, despite the fact there must have been a lot of towers around. I think it was probably getting confused with getting signal from towers in two different countries at once!

I stopped to have a look at the river, then drove to Niagara proper. Parking, I knew, could be an issue. There was a parking lot I had earmarked, which I thought would work. I found one parking lot with quite a bit of space in it, but it said no RVs. I was never quite sure if I was classed as an RV or not. But I went on to a parking lot a bit nearer the falls which allowed anything in, and had a look there. By the Lord’s grace I found one spot, I didn’t see any others. Trying to find parking in many places was hard if you didn’t get there early in the morning, which wasn’t really an option for me! It cost $35 for the day, but you could stay till midnight if you wanted. I was happy to pay it to get a spot.

The parking turned out to be pretty close to the action, which was great. I crossed the road (most lights in Canada and the US didn’t make a noise when you could cross, which I had to keep remembering in case I didn’t notice that the little man was saying you could go now!), and found myself in an area with an information centre and bus terminal, and some lovely gardens with plenty of flowers blooming. There were a lot of people around, and some food carts, and I got something to eat at one of them. It wasn’t far from there to the falls. As I approached it I could see the fast flowing water, and the cloud of mist ascending from the falls. The Niagara River flows from Lake Eerie into Lake Ontario, and the falls are about in the middle between them.

It was possible to get quite close to the Horseshoe Falls, the Canadian side of the falls, which were amazing to look at. Even being there, it was hard to get a feel for just how vast they were. There were a lot of people lining the lookout area, and you had to wait until someone left and get in to have a look. I walked north a bit and got a good look at them, and the Rainbow Bridge over the river, then went on to the Hornblower Cruise which, like the Maid of the Mist on the US side, went quite close to the falls. Apparently they both did much the same thing, one handed out red ponchos and one blue!

Though there were a lot of people around, clearly it’s often far more crowded. The cruises left regularly, and I was able to get onto the next one, in only about 15 minutes or so. From the boat you could see the US side of the falls, which were somewhat scorned as not being as good as the Canadian side, though they were very impressive indeed, and beautiful. One of the guides said that they didn’t have the prestige of the Canadian falls – nobody had gone over the US falls in a barrel! The side of the boat I was on was facing away from the falls but I still got a good look.

The cruise lasted about 20 minutes or so. There were a lot of people piling onto the double-decker boat. I was on the top, and found a spot by the railings on one side.

After looking at the American Falls, they went over and got closer and closer to the Horseshoe Falls – so close that almost all you could see at one point was mist. I took a lot of photos with the phone, which was waterproof. It was amazing being so close. Then they went back by the American falls, and gave those of us on the other side a good look at it before returning. There was commentary throughout.

I went back up to the river bank – the bank was quite high above the river – and went searching for an ATM. There was one marked on Google Maps in Clifton Hill, a district just a block or so away from the river. There was a large amusement hall with a lot of video games and things, and the ATM was supposed to be in there. I had a job to find it, but did eventually track one down. They wanted an exhorbitant fee to withdraw money internationally, something like $11, the most I paid anywhere. But at least I had got cash for the RV park.

After that I walked over to the well-named Rainbow bridge, which crossed over the river into the US. I had to work out how to get onto the bridge, which was above the riverbank. I found the entrance, up through a plaza with more beautiful flowers. Once I was there, I found out that they charged pedestrians $1 to go over to the US side, but coming back was free! Only cash was accepted in the turnstile to get onto the bridge, in the form of four Canadian quarters.

I had no Canadian change at all, but there were change machines which took US or Canadian $5 notes. Thankfully I had a US $5 note, and I put it in – several times until it worked – and got a mix of US and Canadian currency back. It took a while to identify what were quarters and what else I had. At least I knew which was Canadian currency by their having the Queen on the back. But what denomination they were was less easy to decipher, quarters had “Quarter Dollar” written on them in tiny writing.

So I fed the turnstile and walked over the bridge, which had beautiful views. Coming into the US side, I had to go through customs. There was a line-up of people queued up to go through, and I waited, quite a while of it in the hot sun without any shade, for about 40 minutes until it was my turn. It seems a bus had arrived at the same time, and we were competing with them. Eventually I got through, and set out towards Goat Island, which sticks into the Niagara River.

There was a bridge over some of the Niagara River, which was flowing fast around smaller, fairly heavily treed islands, with some autumn foliage showing. I found a little stall selling ice-cream. They didn’t have a lot left, but I got something to keep me going.

Goat Island has a great outlook over the American Falls, where you can get quite close up, and I enjoyed that, with some beautiful rainbows from the mist, then took a walk around most of the island, which wasn’t very large.

Further around the island the path went along the far edge of the Horseshoe Falls, with another great close-up view. I saw the entrance to the Cave of the Winds, where you could walk down right next to the American Falls, and even stand in one of the smaller falls. But it looked like you would get very wet, and a change of clothes was a long walk back on the other side, so I gave it a miss.

After the two falls lookouts it was less spectacular, but still very pretty, with little islands in amongst the river, and a view over the whole wide river going fast over rapids. I was used to seeing rapids in narrow parts of a river, so seeing it over a huge wide expanse was pretty amazing.

I visited the Niagara Falls Observation Tower, which looks like a bridge that started off but never got very far, jutting a little way into space over the river. About half past four I got going back to the bridge, with no turnstile going the other way, and only about 15 minutes wait to get back through customs again. They asked me how long I had been away. About two or three hours! Did I bring anything back? Only what I’d eaten, inside me.

I admired the plaza at the Canadian end of the bridge again, then went back towards the van, enjoying the views of the falls, and all the rainbows coming from the mist.

My phone was getting pretty flat from all the photos and videos, so I went back to the van to recharge it a bit. I was thankful to have been able to park so close. Around 6pm I went to the Journey Behind the Falls. This, and the boat trip next to the falls, were two things Dad had spoken about doing when he was there, and it felt nice doing the same things as he had done. Again, it was pretty quick to get in. A lift went down to tunnels that went behind the falls.

These were pretty underwhelming I have to say. There were a couple of different tunnels that came out underneath the falls, with the water going by them, but there were line-ups to get to the end, and there were just small openings, and you couldn’t get very close to them. The water was clearly pouring down in front of them, but there was no sense of where it was, or of the scale of it, it was just a hole with lots of water going by in front.

It was an interesting experience though. And further along the tunnels came out at the base of the waterfall, and that was really nice. You could look up and see the falls from quite close. They'd handed out ponchos so you wouldn’t get too wet – there was a lot of spray. I took a photo of one or two groups, and someone took a photo of me.

I spent about 45 minutes down there. I had heard that the falls were lit up at night, and I thought I would see what it looked like from the bottom, before I went back up. It was a pretty sight.

After heading making my way up to the top again, it was time for dinner. I went to a cafe near the falls, and had poutine, a Canadian specialty, which consists of chips, gravy and some kind of curd cheese. It was quite nice, though nothing spectacular. I had a burger too, so a quite satisfying meal. In the US and Canada, soft drinks are called “soda” or “pop”. It was dark once I’d finished, and the falls were amazingly lit up. There were powerful lights on top of one or two buildings, and they kept changing the colours of the falls. It was an incredible sight.

I wanted to see the fireworks that were on each night at 10pm, but I was flagging a bit after all that walking. Handy having a van with a bed! I went back to the van about 8.30, which was close by, and lay down for nearly an hour. I'm not sure if I slept or not, but it was nice to lie down and recharge myself and the phone.

After that, at about 9.30, I went back to find a good spot to watch the fireworks, enjoying more views of the lit-up falls. There were still quite a lot of people around, presumably also wanting to see the fireworks. I headed to a spot that was recommended as a good place to see them.

They were nice, though they lasted only a few minutes, but the falls were still lit up during the proceedings, so it was an impressive sight.

Once they were done I got back to the van fairly quickly, in case there was a mass exodus of people from the car park. I got out without much delay, dropping my credit card in the van while trying to pay at the gate, but managing to find it again quickly! I’d checked beforehand that there was no problem getting back to the RV park late – there was a code (which I had this time!) to get in the gate, which I’d tried during the day to make sure it worked, so I got back without incident and went to bed.

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Gurp and Melissa went off to their respective work, and left me to exit after peak hour, around 9.30. It was quite a misty morning, and I was glad not to have been getting off in the dark before the traffic.

I drove along the outskirts of Chicago, getting onto I-94, which would eventually take me most of the way to Detroit, where I would cross the border into Canada. After crossing into Indiana about half an hour into the trip, my first stop was Indiana Dunes National Park, after about an hour of driving. It was along the beach on Lake Michigan, and a fair size. I chose Porter Beach to stop at, going along some small roads until I reached the lake, and a couple of parking lots. One seemed to be for people who had passes for the park, so I parked there and headed to the beach. It was starting to clear, and there were sunny patches.

It really did look just like the sea, with some waves, beaches, hills with sand dunes on them, and you couldn’t see the other side. Except for it not being salt, it was hard to distinguish it from being by the sea. I walked barefoot along the beach for quite a while, till I came to a track leading up a sand dune, and climbed up to see if I could get a view. The track led to a lookout after a while, up on a bit of a hill, but there wasn’t much of a view to be had.

I walked back down, and got some photos of the lake from up on the sand dune before I went down to sea level. One strange feature of this beach was the smoke stacks of a power station not far from the end of the beach. It was a bit clouded with some remaining mist, which meant it didn’t spoil the view much. From there I walked back to where I was parked, past a big building on the beach with a restaurant, and toilets and changing rooms.

By the time I got back to the car park it was getting to be around 12 or after. Also, though I didn’t realise it, the time zone had changed when I crossed into Indiana, though I don’t think my phone had updated – I wasn’t too far over the border, and perhaps it was still running off a tower in Illinois. I had thought the time zone didn't change until I got into Canada. In any case, I effectively lost an hour during the trip, after putting the clock forward.

Only about 10km after the park, I crossed into Michigan. After a couple of hours on I-94 I stopped at a rest stop at Battle Creek, 2pm by my body’s time, but 3pm really, and had lunch. It was a nice spot, with flowers planted by the main building. There were just toilets and vending machines, I think no shops, but I made my lunch and ate it outside sitting on one of the picnic tables on a grassed area with quite a few trees planted in it. There were some small touches of autumn colour. I had a couple ask me if I was a representative for Escape Campervans – the name was on the back of the van, and we had a chat about the van and what it was like.

From there it was about an hour and three quarters to get to the border crossing, continuing on I-94 to Ann Arbor where I got fuel, then onto I-96 through Detroit. I didn’t really get the feeling that I was going through a big city while I was on the interstate. I think maybe this was because there were embankments or walls along a lot of it, so I probably didn’t see a lot of the city.

Traffic was flowing quite well, and I got to Ambassador Bridge, which crossed the Detroit River that formed the border between the two countries, and flowed between Lake St Clair, and the great Lake Eerie. The bridge had a toll, around $7. There was a lane for people with cards, and a kiosk for those with cash. I went to the card one, and there was just a bare card swipe, I didn’t see a screen anywhere. I swiped my card and was glad that the boom gate opened!

Over the bridge I drove, about 5.15pm. There were signs saying cars stay left and trucks to the right. Arriving at this time on a Friday was definitely a mistake! There was a line-up even on the bridge, to get down to the border crossing. Some cars were going to the right, which was wasn’t banked up, and I didn’t know if you could really do that, or would find yourself in a truck lane later. I think in the end it would have been possible to do. But I stuck in the banked-up left lanes, and it took about an hour to finally get to the border crossing, which went smoothly enough once I was there.

Finally I was over the border into the town of Windsor, and set off after 6pm to my campground at Wheatley Provincial Park, about an hour’s drive away on Lake Eerie. I went straight there, as I was running out of daylight. The speed limits were amazingly slow. I drove along a beautifully maintained two-lane highway at 80km/h for nearly the whole hour, with few cars on the road. After getting out of Winsdor, the highway went through the country, along quite flat territory. There were some beautiful wildflowers along the road in some places.

Eventually, near sunset, I got to Wheatley. There were signs warning people to boil water for at least 2 minutes or something like that, apparently something had gone wrong with their purification plant. I got into the campground, which looked like quite a nice place, though I didn’t really have time to explore it before sunset. I drove on on a little road for quite a while before getting to my campsite, which was in a nice spot, within sight of the facilities, and backing onto trees and vegetation. The toilets weren’t the normal plumbed ones, but better than pit toilets: they had some kind of a metal trapdoor that opened with the weight of matter that you deposited, and I don’t remember them being smelly.

The campground there also had signs about boiling water, so I boiled up a pot of water to refill my bottles when it had cooled. It was dark or pretty near it by the time I had dinner. I could hear people walking off to some pond nearby – I think they were going fishing.

Melissa had taken the day off, and we had decided that the Chicago Botanic Gardens would be good to see together. It was cool and a little drizzly, but there wasn’t really any rain. We set off after breakfast, and she set the GPS to navigate to the gardens. It took her on a route she wasn’t expecting, starting off from their place. We found out later there was an accident nearby somewhere, and it was probably routing us around it.

It took around 45 minutes to get there. We parked at the gardens and paid the entry fees. I think she got a discount because she was a resident of the Chicago area, and some of her taxes were paying for it. The gardens were quite extensive, with a lot of water, lakes and islands, a waterfall, and some quite structured areas. It was lovely to see how many flowers were still going.

There was what they called a tram, doing tours around the garden. It was a little vehicle pulling carriages, but seemed to drive on the road rather than tracks. We were debating whether to take one, but we decided in the end that we could just walk around the garden. At one point we walked by some kind of instrument, a tower with bells in it, and what looked like a keyboard inside a little cubicle. It would have been interesting to hear what it sounded like.

Someone had created what was called a living sculpture, what looked like a little castle, made out of flexible shoots of wood. They all looked dead, so we wondered what was living about it, but it seemed that they had planted some creepers here and there, and I guess the idea was that they would eventually grow and cover it. It got progressively clearer for a while, and we got some sunshine, which was nice.

We spent about two hours there, and by then it was getting to be about 12.30, so we were thinking about lunch. Melissa suggested a Chicago speciality, deep dish pizza, and knew of a good place to get some, not far away. She recommended a pizza with tomato and three different types of cheese. She had me at “cheese”, and it was delicious!

The gardens weren’t far from Lake Michigan (which seemed more like a sea, you couldn’t see the other side), and she drove home via a highway which went along the coast for a while, and next to the CBD, so I saw the lake, and also the city, though we didn’t stop anywhere. It wasn’t easy to get off the highway to the beach I think – it was four lanes each way, with no traffic lights for quite a while, and parking was probably tricky along there too. Melissa explained the rules of American Football to me while we drove, which was quite interesting.

Once home, we chatted and had dinner, and then watched a match in the evening, where Gurp explained a few points about the game as well. There were college matches on TV. The game is so big that even matches between different colleges are televised. Tango had got more comfortable with me being around, and had decided it was safe to sit around in the living room. We talked about when it would be good for me to leave the next day, to avoid the traffic. The general consensus was that it would be better to leave after the peak-hour traffic, than to try and get in before it.

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In the morning on my way out of the park I passed a lovely field of flowers. It was well after nine by the time I got going, avoiding driving into the sun again.

I stopped at a rest stop after a couple of hours, then got to the mighty Mississippi River. I had turned off the highway on an exit promising fuel, and drove for some time in the direction the sign said. In the end I checked Google Maps, and the service station was coming up, but it was about 5km off the highway! I stopped at a parking lot along the river afterwards and had a look.

The river divided Iowa from Illionis, and I drove back to the main highway and crossed over the river, then had lunch in a little park on the Illinois side, Illiniwek Forest Preserve.

It was another lovely day, and I ate at a picnic table near the river. There was a toilet block there, with a sign on the door showing a handgun with a cross through it. I don’t know why someone would bring a gun into a toilet! There were immensely long barges being pushed along the river by boats. There looked strange, being so long and narrow, it was quite a sight. The river has a lot of barge traffic, and also the Great Lakes, popular water freight routes.

I was to stay with my cousin Melissa the next couple of nights, and I found out she finished teaching around 3.30 or 4, so I aimed to get to her place by then. I had considered going to a couple of state parks along this route, but it was around 1.30 by the time I’d had lunch, and there were still two and a half hours of driving to go, so I skipped them to get as much time as I could with her and her husband. I got to visit one of the parks when I was with them on the way back a few weeks later. The coutryside, though sometimes a little more hilly, still had a lot of corn fields with farm houses here and there.

Melissa lived on the outskirts of Chicago, to the south-west. Chicago itself is on the west side of one of the immense Great Lakes, Lake Michigan. There are toll roads in a lot of states, and I had managed to avoid most of them, except for a little in California, but through the Chicago area there were quite a few. All the eastern states used the same network for toll roads, so you could get a transponder that would work in a lot of states. I was thinking of trying to buy one, but Melissa had offered to loan me one of their transponders that they weren’t using, which would automatically charge me when I went on toll roads, and I could settle up when I came back again later.

I hadn’t got the transponder yet though, so to save trouble with trying to pay for things later, I found a route which didn’t go along toll roads. It was fairly busy as I came along the road where they lived, though traffic was flowing well. They were on a fairly major road, only two lanes, but quite a bit of traffic. I spotted their driveway just too late as I was driving along, and then was trying to work out what to do, with someone behind tooting me. I exited onto an off-ramp, and Google Maps guided me through some small streets around again, and this time I spotted the driveway in time!

It was so nice to meet Melissa after such along time, and Gurp for the first time. We had a nice evening chatting, and I met their cat Tango, who was a rescue cat and very timid.

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I got off to a bit later start than usual that day. There wasn’t so much to see, and I was driving east, right into the rising sun, so I wanted it to be a bit further above the horizon. The first stop wasn’t far along, in Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska, but quite a small city for a capital, only about 300,000. My destination was the Sunken Gardens. I turned off I-80, drove over quite a long bridge where the highway went over some industrial/commercial areas, then past the Capitol building and some other city buildings near the city centre, before getting to the gardens around 10.

The gardens were fairly small, and there wasn’t a lot of fanfare about them, just a sign and a fairly small parking lot. I had read about these gardens while researching what there was to see along this part of the route.

There weren’t many people there, which was surprising, as the gardens were spectacular, with huge plantings of impatiens and begonias, as well as other flowers. It always amazed me seeing some of these plants sitting in the open in full sun. In one spot there was a patio paved with a lot of bricks, many of which had people’s names on them, perhaps people who had supported or funded the park.

I left about 11.15, and went in search of some supplies. I needed bread, and I think some tomatoes and perhaps lettuce for sandwich-making. I saw on the map that there was a grocery store within walking distance, so rather than navigate the roads to get there, I just walked over. It was the strangest place, which had nothing I was looking for. I think it was probably an Asian grocery. I asked if they had bread, and they didn’t even have that! It was getting toward lunchtime, so I kept driving on, looking for somewhere to eat. I thought I would try the small town of Waverly, just a little way out of Lincoln.

I drove out of Lincoln along a lesser highway, and stopped at a parking lot on the outskirts of Waverly, and got my groceries at a market there. There was a nice girl on the checkout, and I mentioned my drive across Nebraska, I think she asked me what I thought of Nebraska, and I said, flat with corn fields, and she agreed! As I left, she said, “God bless”, which was lovely. I don’t think I can remember anyone ever saying that here, without knowing I was a Christian. Back in the parking lot, there was a McDonalds (which were absolutely everywhere, even in smallish towns), and a bar and grill type of place. I wasn’t keen on either, and I had a look on the map and found a diner that seemed to be well spoken of, just a couple of minutes away.

It took me a while to actually find it. I drove by it a couple of times and circled around, I think it looked so small, almost like some utility building, without really having a sign in front of it. I parked on the street near it, and located it eventually, and went inside, Vike’s Corner it was called. There were quite a few people inside the small place, and a few people waiting, who indicated that they were ahead of me in the queue. When I got to order, I noticed that you could order some things as either burgers or “phillys”. I asked what a philly was, and how it was different from a burger, and the lady explained something along the lines that it was on a roll, rather than a burger bun. I ordered a philly cheesesteak, which was a kind of iconic item.

I found a park nearby, and sat under a shelter to eat it. It was pretty nice, a large amount of steak, definitely a decent meal. From there I joined I-80 again and not long afterwards came to Eugene T Mahoney State Park. Americans seem to like naming things after people. This was on the Platte River, which the I-80 had followed for all of the previous days’ drive pretty much, since coming out of Denver. Eventually it started winding around as the highway went straight, and this park was one of the places where the river crossed the highway again.

I paid for entry into the park had a look around. There were quite a lot of different areas, including a couple of lakes, a zip line (I’m not sure it was in operation), some kind of adventure centre, and stables. I think the road around the park was one way, and I circled around then went back in, and found a lookout tower (the Walter Scott Jr observation tower, more names!) which I climbed. There were wasps which had taken residence at the top, so I had to be careful. The views were beautiful over the river, which was quite large. As I was coming down, a park official was coming up to spray the wasps.

There was a little track heading off into some forest nearby which I followed for a while. There wasn’t any way through to the river. A train line ran on the edge of one of the branches of the river, and the main river was further off, across that branch. After passing through the city of Omaha on the highway, I entered Iowa, where the speed limit was lower, 70mph. There were well-appointed rest stops at regular intervals along the highway all through I-80 and other highways. The fanciest of them had a service station, a restaurant or two, and maybe a few shops, as well as toilets. Most of them had at least toilets (in a nice building), and vending machines if there were no food outlets, and seats outside to sit and eat.

A couple of hours or so later I turned off before the centre of Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, to my campground, called Bob Shelter campground, on the northern outskirts of the city. I passed some kind of military establishment which as I recall had a plane or some other impressive piece of military hardware at the carpark. The campground was next to a large reservoir, with a large steep embankment shoring it up. It was below the embankment, which towered above the road, and water poured down a channel at the bottom of the wall, along a canal, which I think then became a river. It was clearly a popular fishing spot, with a few people fishing there as I went by, and a couple of parking lots.

The entry hut didn’t seem to be staffed and there was a number to ring which I tried, and it didn’t answer, and as I was doing that, a park person came along and told me where I needed to go, and what was where. My camp site was not in the main area, but a little area next to the water channel, backing onto it. The down side was that the toilet nearest to that area was just a pit toilet. Though the sites were fairly open, it was quite a peaceful spot, even though the channel didn’t look very natural!

There was some kind of longish grass between my spot and the channel, and I had a bit of a walk around, and climbed up the embankment to have a look at the reservoir itself, which was quite pretty. From the top you could look down along the channel and see some tall buildings which were probably central Des Moines, in the far distance. I ate dinner, and went for another walk, across the channel this time. There was another toilet block about 10 minutes walk away, and I found they were more civilised with washbasins and things, but it wasn’t worth going all the way across there to brush my teeth.

As usual I lay on my bed with my clothes on before going to bed – it warmed the bed up, and was fairly comfortable to upload photos and post things on social media. But I must have picked up a spider or something, because I got bites on my legs that night, and the next night or two. I eventually sprayed the sheets with insect spray, which sorted out the problem.

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