Thursday September 5: Buffalo, New York

Yep, we are definitely in Buffalo - we spotted two of them as we approached our hotel for tonight.

It's been an interesting day and all in all 'the plan' worked as well as we had hoped - maybe even better, really.

We had returned to Fenelon Falls Tuesday under cloudy skies and lots of wind. Someone turned off the sun and turned on the fall like weather. Definitely was time head south.

Arriving two days prior to our scheduled leaving would give us plenty of time to get stuff together and to get Guppy ready to be put away for the winter.

Bags were packed, laundry was done. A last lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Now if the wind would just quite blowing so we could get into the dock in the marina more easily.

First thing Wednesday morning, we moved from the lock wall to a dock at Fenelon Falls Marina - a whole mile away! Wind were to be 20 km per hour gusting to 40 kph - who needed that?

All that was left to do was finish packing, winterize the water system and make a trip to the library to finalize our travel arrangement.

We cut off the red canvas on the flybridge and aft deck - new will be made next time we're in Cleveland. What we had was inexpensive and faded badly - but it filled our needs for a couple of years and gave me a pattern to make new. The new canvas will be Sunbrella and will last for many years.

So the plan was to minimize what we needed to take back - taking only what we would be permitted to take on a plane.

And it pretty much worked! Steve has the two duffle bags and his backpack. I had the computer bag and my backpack. Ready to go.

Guppy is all cleaned up and ready for next year!

We prepared only the water system (because we have 3 pumps and several extra - and unusual - hookups that would be easy to miss) and the marina will do the rest: change the engine oil/filter, winterize the engine, change the lower unit oil and empty and winterize the septic system.

Now that is how I like to put a boat away for the winter!!

At the bus stop in Fenelon Falls by 8:50 for the 9:15 bus to Toronto. But time for coffee at the small coffee shop nearby.

The challenge was to figure out how to get from the Union Bus Station in Toronto to the Greyhound Bus Station there.

And do so in time to catch the bus to Buffalo. In theory we had 45 minutes. In reality, we ended up getting in early and had just over an hour.

Oh no - construction. That's always bad. And they don't know about escalators apparently. Really??

After asking numerous folks, we finally made it to the subway station and the Greyhound station - with about 35 minutes to spare.

And wifi on the Greyhound! What more could a person that has been deprived of instant internet for 3 months ask for??

Customs went smoothly - fortunately there were only about 12 people on the bus as we crossed back into the US over the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Fall.

Best view of the falls ever! Usually it's impossible to see over the sides of the bridge in a car but not in a bus. Wonderful.





And we even had one last great sunset on our last night in Canada. What a great place to spend three months.

So now it's off to California to see Becky. We haven't been out there for a while (ever since Matt and Wendy ended up in NC). Spend a week or so there. Drive to Phoenix to spend two days with my brother Tom and finally back then to NC and Yesterday's Dream.

Blog will continue when we are back to NC at the end of September ........ Thanks for traveling with us!!