Day 14 - Outlet/Lansdowne, ONT to Rochester, NY

[sunshine718]

We were woken up at about 2:30am by the sound of a large animal trying to get into our cooler! Daryl scared it off and as we were putting it in the car (to prevent this from happening again), we noticed all these muddy raccoon footprints on the lid! Little buggers! We packed everything up and were on the road in no time with me driving because we figured that I'd have better luck with customs. As we got to the main highway, we realized we didn't have medical insurance for the States! So we had to drive into Kingston to find a CAA office. Unfortunately, we didn't have a map of Kingston so we got off on one of the exit ramps, found a gas station and asked where Princess Street was. He told us where to go and we found it but we were all the way on the other side of town! We finally found the CAA office, got our insurance and some more maps and headed back to the 1000 Islands bridge. We had to pay $2.20 to get over it which isn't that bad - it was really beautiful! Customs was a little nerve wracking . We had packed everything neatly, thinking it was very likely they would search a BC plated car going over from Ontario. We were lucky because they searched the guy ahead of us and after a few routine questions and a look in our trunk, we were on our way! I think it totally helped that I was driving and I had my hair in pig tails!! So now we are in New York! We stopped at a little town called Pulaski for lunch and the cashier showed us all kinds of ways they make sure 20 dollar bills aren't counterfeit. Then we picked up some chicken and stuff for smores and were on our way again. Daryl told him it KILLED him to be a passenger so he drove for the rest of the day. New York is a beautiful state!! I've always associated New York with New York City - crowded and dirty. That is totally not true! New York State (or the northern part at least) is lovely and very rural. We got to Rochester and decided to continue through it and camp at one of the State Parks along Lake Ontario. We decided to go to Lakeside State Park because they didn't have a 2 night minimum stay policy. We finally got there after traveling down a very ill-used highway with a low speed limit. We are being very careful not to speed here because we do not want to get any tickets! We got to drive around the campground first and pick out a spot we liked and then tell them at the gate. We got a nice spot near the bathrooms! The cool thing about this park is that they have no pet areas so you don't get bothered by other people's barking dogs! We set up camp and took a walk down to the lakeshore which is really gross! We took pictures and came back and had dinner. Daryl got some wood for a fire and called Mario to let him know we are coming to visit. We then lit a fire and experimented with different ways to make smores. If only we could figure out a way to melt the chocolate without burning the graham crackers! The bugs were really bad here and we got eaten alive!



Here's me at the New York lighthouse!



Welcome to New York!!


Me with Lake Ontario in the background.


Daryl on Lake Ontario.....see the gross shore!!!


I had a very hard time putting my foot in the lake but I did it!!!




Daryl in his flip flops at Lakeside State Park.