Peppy's Dream Moving Adventure Blog

Here’s what I realized this morning:  Campgrounds are very quiet places.  This is our fifth campground and it hit me that the only sounds I’ve ever heard are children playing and dogs barking – and the dog barking is very rare.  Campgrounds have quiet times – usually 11:00pm to 8:00am.  I’ve never heard a sound during those hours.

There was a dog that woke me every morning while we were still living on Leggett Place.  I named him Sir Yap-a-lot, because he was little and the sound he made was more of a yapping than a barking.  That doesn’t mean he wasn’t loud.  He was!  Anyway, I hated this dog.  I was SO mad at this dog.  I was like Elaine in that episode of SEINFELD when she hires Newman and Kramer to kidnap the dog. 

Through some investigation, I found out that the dog had been rescued by my lovely neighbors, Skip and Carol, and he really was the cutest thing.  He just liked to bark a lot at midnight and 6:30am every day and, being the light sleeper that I am, I always woke up.  I used to get mad, because I thought people were putting their dog out for the night, but he has one of those little doors that lets him come and go as he pleases.  Once I knew the story behind his being on Leggett Place, I didn’t get mad anymore.  I was just happy they rescued him and were giving him a nice home!  I also knew we were leaving, so it was just something to put up with until we sold the house!

Back to the campgrounds:  People in campgrounds are quiet, respectful, law-abiding citizens.  It’s not like I expected anything else, but I did imagine lots of teenagers or young twenty-somethings having parties.  I haven’t experienced that at all.  It’s mostly families.  They really keep to themselves, but are always ready with a “hello” and a smile when they pass you.  It would be an amazing story to find out where each family had just come from and where each was going.  I’m sure if you knocked on their door and asked them they’d invite you in, give you a tour of their RV and tell you their life stories.  I’m sure of it.  I just don’t have the nerve to knock!

Let me tell you something else.  Ours is always the smallest RV in the park.  There might be a tent set up somewhere (campgrounds DO include real campers, too!), or someone might be towing something smaller than ours, but most of the RVs are mini-mansions with pop-out sides and big TVs and most of them tow cars, so when they get to the campground they can drive around.  I’d really like to see inside one of those but — again – no nerve.

Our RV is the perfect size for us.  It would be more convenient to tow a car behind, so we could just leave the RV hooked up and drive around, but that would be just one more complication, and we were trying to simplify!  It also makes driving a lot more difficult and I don’t think I’d have the confidence to drive with a car being towed behind!

Drove just about 10 miles to NIAGARA FALLS.  First we went to the AQUARIUM OF NIAGARA, which was fabulous.  We really enjoyed looking at all the fish, and of course Eric knew each species without even reading about them.  He should have been a marine biologist!

We were able to leave the RV in the aquarium parking lot and just walk across a short footbridge to catch the trolley to the falls.  We bought tickets for THE MAID OF THE MIST and put on our blue plastic ponchos.  What a sight!  What a feeling!  First of all, just looking at the falls is overwhelming, because they’re so huge and it’s just such an amazing sight, but going on the boat and traveling right past them – with the water spraying you like you’re in the shower – was just so much fun and so exciting.  It was totally exhilarating!  We met a lovely mother and daughter on vacation from Wisconsin – Mary and Gina – and we took photos of them with their camera and they did the same for us.  Then, they took a picture of us and we took a picture of them.  I hope they will check out this blog to see themselves!

After the Falls we got back on the trolley and got the full tour of the area.  We could have gotten off the trolley at different spots and seen even more, but we wanted to head back, because we were hoping to get to our next campground before dark. 

We got back on the road and arrived at our campground at around 8:00pm.  INDIAN CREEK CAMPING RESORTS is in a beautiful town called Geneva-on-the-Lake.  It is, literally, right on Lake Erie and Eric and I caught a beautiful sunset on the lake.  The lake is so large it looks like an ocean.  You can’t see land ANYWHERE.  Amazing!

This campground is fabulous.  We had a late dinner at a restaurant right on the campgrounds – FARONE'S – and it was delicious!  We had the nicest young waiter – Ron – who just graduated from college in May and will be leaving here next week to start a great job in Columbus.

We’re so excited, because we’re heading to Cleveland tomorrow to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  Rock on!