April 18th - Erie, Pennsylvania to Auburn, New York

The weather has become decidedly colder with the temperature falling to about 5 degrees Celsius. We awoke to light drizzle but reasonably clear skies. The motel did not have any breakfast facilities so we drove a few miles along the lake to a local restaurant. The Americans always seem to do a good cooked breakfast, and this was no exception. Eggs Benedict for me and fried eggs for the others.

Our drive today was along the south shore of Lake Erie to Buffalo, and then on to Niagara Falls. Lake Erie is a huge body of water which freezes over in the winter. Shortly after we left the breakfast restaurant we crossed into New York state, our fifteenth state of the tour. A hundred mile drive along one of New York State's turnpikes brought us to the outskirts of Buffalo. We passed through the centre of the town and then a further twenty miles on we came to the falls. Niagara Falls are one of the great natural wonders of the United States.

Below is a photo of a plan of the falls and you can see my 'navigator, trying to work out how to get the car across!!

With all the rain and melting snow the falls lived up to expectations. You can see the American falls in the foreground and the Canadian falls towards the top right of the photo. In the centre foreground is the frozen spray coating the rocks at the base of the falls.

We walked out to the viewing platform, which is cantilevered out over the Niagara River, and gives a fantastic view of the American side of the Falls. The Canadian Horseshoe Falls are much further away and, to see them fully, you need to cross over into Canada. We did not have the time to do that, but were not disappointed with the view from the American side.

We had made the decision to continue along the south shore of Lake Ontario rather than take the freeway. On the way we stopped in a state park and went down to the shore. A beautiful spot with no one else in sight.

Our drive along the lake was well worth it. One very pretty lakeside village after another. Wonderful houses, both old and new were on each side of the road. Once again we encountered very little traffic, making the journey so much more enjoyable. Lake Ontario is about 150 miles long and 50 miles wide. It is up to 800 feet deep and according to the information notice in the state park the water 'turns over' once every 6 years. We then drove about 50 miles south-east to the small town of Auburn.

Auburn is just west of Syracuse, one of the largest towns in Upper New York State. Tomorrow we drive up into the Adirondack Mountains on our way to the state of Maine and the easternmost point of our trip. Here in Auburn there is quite a lot of snow and we are expecting more as we drive into the mountains.