We traveled back to the Buffalo area in GWhiz (the temporary name until it finds its own name) to address several  items that were not working as expected.  A couple we knew about before we left the Colton RV in early May, such as the dryer not drying and the DVD player not opening its tray.  The need for other minor adjustments became apparent in our first weekend camping.  


Although the work was scheduled for Monday, we arrived mid afternoon on Saturday with the idea of being tourists in the area.  The first thing any tourist coming to the area would do is go to Niagara Falls.  We did and we went immediately to the Canadian side which has the best views of the Falls.  Having our Nexus passes made crossing the border using the Whirlpool Street Bridge a snap, no wait, no questions, no traffic.  We drove through the Falls area and paid an exorbitant sum to park and then walked from the power house almost to the Rainbow Bridge.  We got soaked by the mist as we passed the brink of the Horseshoe Falls and we saw people in all manner of dress speaking many languages.  The area was a mob scene, we suspect many leftover from the Nick Wallenda tightrope walk of the previous night.  It was clear we were not going to make it back to the coach for dinner and we decided to eat at the Buffet at the Skylon Tower.  This tower was opened in 1965 and in all our many visits to the Falls area we do not remember ever paying to ride to the top.  It was worth the wait.  The buffet was pretty good and the view from our table at a window facing directly over the Falls was incredible.  We were enjoying ourselves and soon made acquaintance with the people at the next table, who it turned out were from Buffalo! and who had not been to the tower in years.  


Sunday we worked around the coach re reorganizing our stuff to make life more comfortable.  An unfortunate side affect of this continuous reorganizing is that we find ourselves not knowing where anything is and looking where it was two reogs ago.  If life on G-2 is any predictor, this will slow down to a cycle or two a year.  Note, it will not stop as there are always new ideas how to make life comfortable in tight quarters.


Monday we knew we would not have the coach available to us while it was in the service bay.  We have wanted to get to Gray Cliff one of the many Frank Lloyd Wright homes in the area, but it is a bit off the path that is readily reachable in a coach and not on the route to anyplace.  It is on the shore of Lake Erie about 20 miles west of Buffalo.  We arrived early for the Extended Tour which includes all the rooms in the house and an extensive outdoor tour as well.  Rather than spend hours to try to make my pictures do the place justice, follow this link. Check out the history and how the Larkin Company made  its money,   Carol and I were laughing and all we could think of was Soapy Smith in Skagway Alaska in the 1890’s.  His con was selling soap and convincing people that there were some bars with $100 bills wrapped around them.  The docent lead tour was quite good although it was sad to see the condition the house is in.  Clearly this house needs lots of money for restoration both from time and weather and the not so careful remodeling by Piarist Fathers, an order of Roman Catholic Priests from Hungary who bought the house from the Martin family.   There are other FLW buildings to see should we find the need to play tourist in Buffalo again.  


We received the coach back late afternoon and I must say that most of the work appeared to have been done well.  The issue with the DVD player/Surround sound system turned out to be problematic.  My complaint was that the tray would not open.  During installation of the new unit the tray opened!  End of story the complaint is resolved.  Actually that was the only time it opened and that was not in response to the “open” button on the unit.  The next morning I sought out our service writer, Colin, and asked to have the tech, Paul, (great name) come to the coach and show us how it worked.  Three hours later, having sought out the master AV hub in the coach, hidden in a cabinet behind a screwed in wall panel, Paul had located an HDMI cable end that appeared to be distorted from installation.  with that cable unplugged everything began to work according to the instructions.  Paul straightened the connector and tried it again and everything continued and continues to work.  We had lunch and left for Four Mile Creek State Park.


Four Mile Creek is, . . . wait for it, . . .  four miles from where the Niagara River enters into Lake Ontario.  The park is mostly campground with close to 300 sites many with 30 and 50 amp electric, none with water or sanitary dump on site.  It was probably a quarter occupied on the Tuesday night we were there.  We walked the circumference after setting up and again in the morning before breakfast.  It would be an ideal spot to stay for a visit to the Falls or to Niagara on the Lake.


In the morning we set out for Rochester with the aim of stopping at a winery or two along Route 18, Lakeshore Drive.  At Black Willow winery we found a mediocre red and a couple of decent whites as well as a mead that we bought a bottle of.  We trundled on down the road looking for the next winery, Marjim Manor, and a place to stop to eat lunch.  We got to Olcutt Beach and turned into Krull Park only to find Main Street closed leaving us to drive down the dead end along the lake where we found a parking lot large enough to swing the rig around without disconnecting the car.  This task is not hard, but it is annoying and this day it would have been particularly annoying as the temperatures were in the high 80’s and the humidity was even higher.  We parked along the entrance road and prepared our lunch.  As we carried our meal to a picnic bench on a prominence overlooking the lake, we noted many people were gather at the far edge of the park.  Then we heard a cacophony of sirens, whistles and other emergency vehicle noises approaching.  It turns out Olcutt Beach had been named the Fishing Capital of the United States and this was the day the recognition on WFN was happening.  In case you didn’t know – we sure didn’t – WFN is World Fishing Network, all Fishing,  nothing but Fishing 24/7 on a cable and or satellite service someplace near you.  This is really big time for Olcutt Beach even their NY Assembly Representative managed to show up and speak, try and stop one of them.


Enough excitement for a weekend that extended into Wednesday.  We followed 78 to I 90 and put GWhiz to bed at Victor Ministore.  for a while.