July 9, 2009, Thursday TO NIAGARA COUNTY, NEW YORK (LOCKPORT)
OK, I’m going to try and write this so that it sounds funny, however, during the whole thing I thought I would scream! Actually I did yell at the lady in the Campground. We took off for Lockport, NY to see Niagara Falls. We had plenty of time to get there, set up camp and have a nice dinner and rest and relax. We plan on seeing the falls tomorrow. I called the campground where we were going to stay and asked for directions. The Campground lady says; follow 78 east until you see the 104 sign which is after you go through town. I said that that doesn’t sound too hard and we took off. We get to Main Street and go through town. OK now we are on the wrong highway, 35 instead of 78. So we wander around the town’s narrow street for awhile and get turned around and this time we don’t turn on Main Street but go straight ahead. We ended up in the middle of a residential neighborhood and drove around in circles there for several laps trying to get back on the correct route. It’s so scary when you’re driving this big rig and you’re on a narrow street and the worst thing that could happen is that you hit a dead end and can’t turn around. So I called the CG lady back. She says it’s OK you do go through some residential. So we start off again. We come to a really steep hill that we can’t even see the bottom of, and we are scared to go down it, so we turn left and end up in a park. At least we can turn around in the park right? So we go into the parking lot type circular drive and there are several cars parked along the drive, people having lunch, etc. But wait, all the cars are pointed one way and they’re looking at us funny (nothing odd about people looking at us funny I must say!). Oh, guess what, we’re going the wrong way on a one way that isn’t going our way! Oh well, it’s not like there’s a lot of traffic. We get turned around and decide to call the CG lady again. I tell her that we were about to go down this very steep hill and it just didn’t look like it was made for large rigs. She assures me that there is a hill and semi trucks even use this road. I say, OK????…. We went down the hill and ended up in a cemetery! Had to admit it was a really old and a very pretty cemetery, however the road was like a one lane and I think, “this can’t be right.” It’s no easy job to drive this rig and Mike is under a lot of stress. He’s had it by now and he stops dead right in the middle of the street. Now, Mike and I are yelling at each other. Ralph and Betty are about to have a cow and they are stopped half way down the hill! We’re getting a little stressed now (little Ha! Ha!) I call the wicked (by now she is known as wicked) CG lady yet again. She says oh no (all innocent like)…you’re supposed go right when you see the sign that says highway 78 is straight ahead or right. Now you tell me! We get out of the cemetery, fortunately, and go back around…again… and take the right fork. We have passed some of these houses so many times we feel as if we know the people in them! This time it turns out good and we end up at the CG which was not easy to find even once we were on the road practically in front of it. By now I know I can’t go into the CG office and meet this lady because I want to do bodily harm to her. I have never had such bad directions in my life! So all is well now right? Not so fast! She gives us a camp site that already has someone in it! We pull into the one next to it and get stuck in the mud! After several tries we have to drop the trailer and have Ralph drop his trailer and come over and pull us out. (Ralph has 4-wheel drive). We have Ralph pull us up on our blocks because of the mud and the unevenness of the ground, but the blocks slide right out. I’m standing on the sidelines letting the men do their “men work” but I can’t stand it any longer. I pull out my phone and call the “Wicked CG Lady” yet again. I told her in no uncertain terms that we were not going to stay in this swamp field and we were pulling ahead where the ground was hard and dry. We worked it out and Ralph pulled us up a row. Sounds simple, right? All this took about one and a half hours! We went and grabbed a bite to eat and then went to bed! Whew! This was not one of the good days!