Lockport, NY

      On we were. The visiting of friends and family was successful. Now the real adventure begins, to unknown territories. Shortly after we got on the highway, Tom asked if I wanted to change my mind and go back. I knew he was going to ask. There was no changing my mind. Buddy and Benny were safely in their cat carriers under the dinette. Tom and I try to comfort them the best we can. They don't like the travel part. After a while they settle down. I think Tom likes to video record our adventure. He's been filming a lot lately. And myself, I enjoy driving our Traveling Talisman, pulling the van. Our 4' x 8' windshield always has a great view of everything ahead. With two mirrors on each side and the rear camera on, I have no blind spots. I noticed a lot of drivers travel over the speed limit. I drive 5 mph under the posted speed, decreasing the passing time between us. Tom, Buddy, Benny and I are in no hurry, safety comes first.

      The weather was good for driving, partly sunny. When the sun was out, in the morning it was at our back. And by noon it was some times on our left. Most of our driving time was on interstate roads. We traveled 163.00 miles to our third stay in Lockport, NY. Our Co-Pilot (SID) helped us find our way to the Niagara's Lazy Lakes Campground without a problem. We also had a backup GPS device, we call Amy. Tom and I were visiting the Niagara's Lazy Lakes as a Resorts of Distinction member and there was no cost for us to stay.

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      We pulled up to the ranger's station around 3:00 pm to check in. Tom and I learned that making reservations doesn't mean you'll get the hookups you need. We were told there were no full hookups available. Our black water tank was full and without full hookup, we had to dump first. The Campground charges $7.00 to dump at the dump station, when you're coming in off the road. Although we had reservations for a week stay, we had no choice; of course we paid to dump. Then it was time to get a campsite. It's first come, first serve in most campgrounds. Here they give priority to Niagara's Lazy Lakes members over ROD members. To our surprise the ranger had a campsite picked for us. Most of the sites were either under cotton trees or no trees at all. We needed internet connection, so we requested one with out trees.

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      The ranger granted our request and found us one available without trees. There were a few trees outside our site tall enough to shade us. After parking our Traveling Talisman, Tom set up the inside and I did the outside. I found our outside steps were not working correctly. With research we found our auxiliary batteries were low. No problem, I hooked up the 30 amp. Between our roof solar panel and the electric coming in, our batteries recharged. I helped Tom with the satellite. And before we knew it, home was in Lockport, NY. Buddy and Benny adapted well, as they usually do. The average day and night temperature for our stay here was calling for 81°and 60°, respectively. This was good because Tom and I planned to travel in temperatures between 65 and 75. We made dinner, watched a movie and then called it a night.

June 14, 2007

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      The majority of Tom's day was getting caught up on his programming. I got a few domestic responsibilities done in the morning and early afternoon. After lunch I thought I'd recreate our database for reservations. It needed a new look. One Tom or I could read and find information easy. As soon as I was done, I knew there were still a few reservations I had to make. I'm in charge of reservations and I like to keep them 90 days in advance. We need to be sure our adventure was on the right track. So I made those reservations and put them in the database. Pretty much of the day was used up for programming and updating records. Tom and I were ready for a break. We went for a bike ride and then a walk. It got dark fast and when we returned back to our home we had dinner. Lately, I've notice we're eating at late hours. Our mornings have been late ones too. Mainly because we're not on a schedule like we used to be. After dinner we retired.

June 15, 2007

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      A lot of our mornings start with meditation. We use a program on our laptop with a head set. And because we only have one head set, we take turns. The weather was perfect for our morning walk. Tom requested after our walk we have a meeting. Having a meeting once a week helped us get through Arts Fest in Harrisburg. When our meeting was over, Tom went right to work on programming. I worked on more domestic responsibilities. I enjoy keeping records and organizing. Like updating the database, I also take care of updating our budget and paying bills due. We both worked diligently until lunch. All work and no play, we needed to get out. So, I took our bikes off the rack on the back or our Traveling Talisman. And we went for an afternoon ride. This gave us a chance to scope out the park. It's not bad. Mostly flat open fields. Some campsites where close to each other, some distant. The campsites under the trees were all close. Our bike ride was okay. Some of the roads had big stones and was bumpy. When we returned, Tom went right to work on creating a new blog for his website at travelingtalisman.com. In the early evening Tom and I went for another walk. We like going for walks. Its exercise for the adventures we're going to make while on foot. Our walk wasn't as long as our bike rides. Shortly afterward Tom and I had dinner and watched a movie. When that was over we retired.

June 16, 2007

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      During coffee and breakfast, Tom and I talked about our stay near Chicago, IL. We needed some information on our stay there. First we meditated and then I researched for reservations and our travel. In the afternoon Tom and I went for a bike ride. We came across a pond in the park. Tom thought it would be a good area to photograph. So, we headed back to our campsite, packed up the camera gear and went photographing. The pond had shape of a kidney with a dock, like a peninsula in the side. Naturally, Tom had his eye on the schools of fish and layers of plant life in the pond. This was the real start of photographing Our Quest. It felt good to get out again and photograph. It reminds me of our 365 day "American Dream Project". We photographed every day for that project. Now we've upped our 365 days to a 2 - 1/2 year project. One of the differences between the two projects was that we're not going to photograph every day on Our Quest. We knew there were going to be days we needed to process our work. After having such a good photo shoot, Tom and I took a break from our adventure by the pond. We relaxed, read a book and had a refreshing drink. Not many campers in our end of the campground. Most of them are under the cotton trees. Cotton flew everywhere in the campground. Later in the day I decided to update our Travel Logs. Almost every day I log the events of the adventure on Our Quest. I do plan to get them caught up on my website. That's what our stay in Lockport, NY was all about. Besides, we didn't want to be working on our web sites until Tom and I finished spending time with our family. My updating went well, but they're not ready for uploading. I still needed to process my campsite photos.

June 17, 2007

      Father's Day - Our Father's Day started with relaxing meditation. Then it was off for exercise. We hopped on our bikes and went for a ride. Tom found a small hill he likes to glide down. Watching him was like watching a kid having fun on his bike. When we returned back, Tom suggested fixing the freezer. It has an ice maker, but the ice cubes where not projecting out of the maker. It would freeze up and stop making ice. Tom did some research and found we needed to lower the water pressure valve to the ice maker. That was easy. After a few adjustments, our freezer was making ice cubes perfectly. Now that we fixed that, we needed to go over finances. I'm sure every one does that. Afterwards, Tom made a campfire and we sat around it to relax. We were doing okay until the mosquitoes found me. They don't bother Tom, but they love me. I got bitten badly. It didn't take me long to decide to head in. Having a campfire was a good idea. We'll try again another time. Perhaps when there aren't so many mosquitoes.

June 18, 2007

      In the morning we followed our normal routine of coffee, breakfast, and meditation. We got a late rise and before we knew it, the afternoon was approaching. The weather was good and it just so happens I needed photos of our campsite for my website. I got our four foot latter and Tom's tripod. Taking photos from a high level than my height come out better. To see images of our campsite in Lockport, NY click here. Tom planed to photograph Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. But before we could go I had to get the van fixed. The lube pump on the van had stopped working during the last few hours of our drive. Without the lube pump running the van's transmission could be damaged. It wasn't safe to drive the van until everything was okay. I called Remco, the company who made the lube pump, and they helped me get it fixed. It was suggested to us that we check the connection every time we stop for rest or service. Now that the van was fixed, Tom and I packed the van with our camera gear and headed for Canada. On the way we stopped for gas at "Smokin Joes", on an Indian Reservation. It cost $48.01 at $2.989 a gallon. With a full tank, it was time to continue on our adventure to Niagara on the Lake, Ontario.

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      The drive wasn't bad. We weren't far at all from camp. Tom read on the internet that Niagara Falls is illuminated at nightfall. He thought if we arrived in Niagara on the Lake in Ontario earlier then we could walk around town. There were a lot of shops there. It looked like a tourist trap in some areas. I found a hat store in which I finally purchased a new cap. Tom's been trying to get me to buy a new hat some time now. We both photographed while we were in town. There was no problem getting something to eat. There were a lot of restaurants too. Tom knew we still had a drive before we got to falls. So after we got a bite to eat we headed on our way. Parking at Niagara Falls took a while to find, but we found one. We unloaded our gear and off to photograph. It's amazing the force of all that water. You can really hear it. The wind was sending a lot of mist in the air over visitors. Tom and I had to keep our equipment from getting wet. When sunset arrived I knew I could not continue photographing. Without a tripod my images wouldn't come out well.

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      Besides, it was my time for me to change roles. During evening photo shoots, I stand guard for observation and to protect Tom. It's difficult for Tom to keep his eye on someone approaching when he's looking through his camera. Just before I put my camera away I took some photos of the falls and Tom. To see images of our photo shoot at Niagara Falls from Ontario Canada click here. While we were there, Tom took a picture of Flat Stanley for the Flat Stanley project posted on his website. We had a great day. And we accomplished a lot too. It was getting late by the time we got back to our van. We headed home to get some rest. Our GPS system (Amy) helped us find our way back to our Traveling Talisman.

June 19, 2007

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      We went over our itinerary of scheduled stays. Everything looked good so we took turns meditating. I knew today was the day for me to put our bikes away. We'll be heading out tomorrow. First, Tom and I went for our last bike ride at Niagara's Lazy Lakes Campground. The weather looked odd so when we returned from our bike ride we researched the weather. We were now expecting weather (Warm and more humid with showers and thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms may produce damaging winds. High temperatures in the mid 80s were expected. Southwest winds 15 to 20 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of rain 80 percent). From past experience, Tom and I knew the awnings had to come in. We also knew we were leaving tomorrow so they had to go in anyway. He took care of the small awnings while I tended to the main awning. Before I could put the awning away a gust lifted the awning and folded the supporting arm backwards. There was no time to check for damages. The bikes still needed put away too. We made it. Everything was put away by the time it poured. Surrounding trees were losing branches. Some of them were as big as my arm. And they were falling near our Traveling Talisman. Too close if you ask me. All we could do was wait out the weather. The weather passed and luckily we were not hit by any of those fallen branches. We gained our internet service back. I checked the weather again to make sure that was it. I found it was heading towards my family in NY. Naturally I called home. It turned out later that there were two storms passing and we only had one blow through our area. I guess we were lucky. Parts of Plainville, NY experienced a small tornado. Now that the storm had passed it was a good time to continue packing up camp.

June 20, 2007

      Departure Date - The final packing was done. We were ready to fuel our Traveling Talisman. The Co-Pilot has a program to find things like gas stations. Tom found all the information we needed during breakfast and coffee. It turns out the gas station we used on the Indian Reservation was the closest. Because we didn't have full hookup for 7 days, we needed to use the dump station again. The campground doesn't charge for dumping if you're leaving, just when you're coming in off the road. In any case, we were leaving. So we dumped. Then we were on our way for another adventure in Arkona, Ontario.

Remember to visit travelingtalisman.com by Tom Reider.