Aussie's Travelling the USA in a Fifth Wheeler: Wine Country and Niagara Falls

We were heading to our friends Chuck and Ceil' s farm - we met these wonderful people in Arkansas at Christmas time when we got snowed in at Hot Springs. They were the park hosts at Hot Springs and once they realised that the power was not going to be reconnected in the park for a considerable time, ended up joining us on our travels through Texas. Our intention had been to find a facility in Dallas to store our rig when we returned to Australia however Chuck and Ceil very generously offered to store it at their place. Our trailer is not small but as they have a vineyard covering 90 acres finding a place to put the trailer would not be a big problem, so this was to be the final destination for this trip.

We arrived in the late afternoon and turned into what looked like the Botanical Gardens, the yard and gardens around the house were beautiful. We backed our trailer into a spot beside the barn and headed to the front verandah for happy hour drinks. Ceil had prepared a bed for us in the basement bedroom complete with ensuite so we grabbed a few essentials from the van and settled in. Their farm sits high on the hill overlooking the town of Dunkirk, Chuck has lived here all his life, as had his father and his grandfather before him, this was a real family farm.

Gardening in the USA certainly has its challenges due to the extreme seasonal changes, Ceil spends the Autumn / Fall months digging up the bulbs from her perennial plants and puts them in the freezer ready for planting when the ground thaws again after winter.

Beautiful Gradens and a View of Lake Erie

Fredonia sits nicely along a winery trail so being the wine connesours that we are, we headed off to one of the more popular wineries - 21 Brix - to sample some of what New York State had to offer and bought a few to take home of course.

Sampling the Wine From 21 Brix

The front verandah was our favourite spot to sit and watch the sun go down and gave us the opportunity to ask lots of questions about grape growing. We learned that the sweetness of grapes is measured in "brix" and that grapes need to have a minimum 14.5 brix before they are ready to be picked. The harvesting of this season's crop was quite late as the temperatures had been too cool and there had not been enough sunshine to ripen the grapes sufficiently.

Once the the picking season begins Chuck drives the grape harvester for other farmers in the area, doing long hours, sometimes over 12 hours a day. Picking had started at some vineyards so we were lucky enough to get the opportunity to experience it first hand - another great experience for us city people.

Riding the Picker

Still Not Sure How the Picker Works But it Does

Rose Picking Grapes

Several Rows Later the Bin is Full

As last years crops were ruined by early frosts Chuck and Ceil had decided to sell firewood to some of the local people to supplement their income, accessing fallen trees on their property. Life on the land is tough. We offered our assistance, stacking the timber that Ceil had sawn and split. We were in total awe of this woman- she and her trusty dog Kia would head out early every morning with a container of water and a basket full of homegrown fruit, only returning for a mid morning coffee break. Once we had a truck and trailer full of timber we got behind the wheel and delivered it to a number of people in the local area.

Our First Delivery of Wood

We Even Found a Snake in the Woodpile

The Dog and I were buggered!

Of course no visit to the region would be complete without a visit to Niagara Falls so we all we took a day off "work" and headed for this famous wonder of the world. It was everything we expected and more - to think these falls run constantly and have done for so long is incredible - the sheer volume of water is mind blowing. We walked around the top of the falls and just looked in awe.

Looking from the US side

Breathtaking!

For a few dollars extra we did the Windy Caves tour which took us down to the base of the falls,along a walkway, right into the spray from the fallls. We were issued spray jackets and a bag to put our belongings in to keep them dry and off we went.

Dress Of The Day

Massive!

We Wondered How They Built The Deck?

A Very Wet Walk

No trip to Niagra would be complete without seeing this marvel from the Canadian side which provides a far better overall view of the falls. We also boarded the "Maid of the Mist" and were once again issued with a plastic rain coat. Taking photos is quite difficult due to the amount of water spray and mist but we did manage one or two.

From the Canadian Side