Montreal and a Blitz through Ontario

Sunday, July 18, 2010 We left Quebec City and drove down Hwy. 20 to the Camping Allouette just East of Montreal. It was time to get the truck serviced so we decided to do it in Montreal. We arrived on a Sunday so I wasn’t able to book an appointment until Monday morning. The first dealership I called said that they had an opening in 10 days and I said no thanks. The second one I called booked us for Tuesday morning. Monday would have been our chosen day to tour Montreal but it was raining so we had a peaceful day reading, doing laundry and recharging our batteries. Tuesday morning I took the truck in for an oil change and lube, and I asked about the cost of changing the fuel filter. The technician said it would be $165 with the filter costing $35. and a charge of $130 for labour. I started to ask some questions and the guy soon realized that I know a few things about changing the fuel filter and servicing the truck (it’s one of my hobbies) and he quickly reduced the cost by $60. I hate taking my vehicles into a dealership for servicing because it is ridiculously expensive.

That afternoon we drove in to Montreal and did some tourist things. Montreal has some really neat districts and we found one in the area of Mont Royal and Saint Denis streets. We just strolled the streets and found a nice little sidewalk café (Maurices/Fanny Chocolatier) and stopped for lunch. People watching was very interesting as we saw many unique and eccentric outfits, and many of the women were

dressed to the “nines”. We also drove up to Mont Royal, which is a Stanley Park like setting in the middle of town with great views of Montreal. We drove around Olympic village and saw the infamous Olympic Stadium, which is a ridiculous design for a stadium, no wonder it cost Canadian so much money!

July 21, 2010 This was moving day! We drove from Montreal to Niagara Falls, Ontario, around 800 kms in total. We followed the “401” most of the way down, passing through Bowmanville, Toronto, Hamilton and down to Niagara Falls. We stopped in Bowmanville for tourist information and a photo opt, primarily because Laurie’s maiden name is Bowman….we had a laugh! Laurie didn’t have a desire to visit Toronto and I have been there many times on Softball business, so we blew through town. Along the Hwy. through Hamilton they have a sign that says “The boyhood home of Larry Bloom”, who knew?

We checked into Scott’s Trailer Park which is only 3 miles from The Falls. The neighbourhood was a little sketchy, as there is a 24 hours a day massage parlour across the street, and a “Gentlemen’s” club that has a sign “Girls, Girls, Girls”. Actually, the park is quite nice, but there are not that many campers here. We headed to “The Falls” and what a magnificent site (on our “Bucket List”). The size and dimensions of the Falls are incredible. Niagara Falls and American Falls are all located in

the same area and they are a wonder of the world. The volume of water dumping out of the Great Lakes and downstream into the St. Lawrence River is on a scale that you have to see to believe. As you look at the American Falls, you see the Buffalo, NY skyline in the distance.

On the Canadian side there are huge hotels right above the Falls that are designed to maximize the number of rooms that look down on to the Falls. An interesting observation that we discussed is that the place did not seem to be that busy and it appeared to have a lot more capacity for more tourists.