Niagara Falls Ride Report

The Story of the Wild Hogs + 1

On Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011, five motorcycles,  seven people left Connecticut to venture to a foreign country known as Canada. I know, I know, according to our Road Guard Captain, “Canada is not a real country.” The Cop, First Lady and the kid met The Driller and his wife for 8:00 am at David’s Place in Montville. From there, we picked up The Mason and his wife at Dunkin Donuts in Colchester. Don’t ask me which way we went because, as you all already know, I just follow and don’t pay attention to how we got there. We had a couple gas stops, one where we had breakfast and coffee and the other we had some lunch. Up until this point, you could not have asked for better weather. The sun was shining, with not a cloud in the sky. I actually was enjoying the ride. I have always been a guy about the destination and never really cared for the ride itself. When we left the lunch gas stop, there were talks about rain gear because the weather didn’t look pleasant. The Driller suggested he would stop first signs of rain. Not many believed him because for some reason, he has a reputation for not stopping. The crew still listened. About 10 minutes down the road, the skies started to open up and surprisingly enough, the Driller pulled over so we could put rain gear on. For what had started as a gentle sprinkle turned out into a downpour. At one point, I lost sight of the Driller for a couple of seconds and all I could see was his tail light. About a hundred miles of riding in the rain, we finally arrive to the Best Western: Captain’s Quarters, where we would be staying for the night. As you can see below, the First Lady’s hands are yet to come clean. So we checked in and unpacked. Thankfully enough, the hotel let us park our bikes overnight underneath the front door overhang so the bikes could stay dry. So we all later met up for dinner where we ate down the road. I couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant, but the food was great. Service was awesome too. (The girl was wicked cute.) We ate, and then did what we normally do on away trips, went to the bar across the street where we fed the Driller lots of shots. We had some drinks, I got to watch the Yankee game. I felt at home with all Yankee fans around me instead of Red Sox fans trying to kill me. We left the bar and turned in for the night.

On Thursday, August 4th, 2011, we met outside of the hotel for a 9:30 am AOB and of course we left on time at 9:45 am. Everyone else, besides the Kid met for breakfast because the Kid enjoys his sleep. We finally left the hotel en route to Niagara Falls. More scenic roads, and the weather was back to being awesome. We stopped for gas because we were all low and left from there. While on the road, the Driller kept trying to communicate with the rest of the pack. The rest thought there radios weren’t working because we couldn’t understand why we couldn’t here him. We stopped at what I believed was a church, because the Driller felt, he took a wrong turn. (Surprise, surprise) Before we left the church, the Driller realized his mic wasn’t plugged in. We got re situated and headed back on the road. I do know we passed Lake Ontario and what a gorgeous lake. Very blue. We stopped for lunch at Joe’s World’s Greatest Burgers and of course, the Driller had chicken. The burgers were awesome. We finished up and back on the road we go. We stopped at a gas station where you would see out of a horror movie. Dirty everywhere. I was waiting for some guy to come out of the woods and try to hack us up. We finally get to the border. Boy, what traffic. We get to customs and all go through. Two of us, not going to mention any names, got randomly searched by customs. (Contest: Who can guess who those two people are?) They just couldn’t understand why a bunch of Americans had pistol permits and couldn’t understand why we have guns. Reminder: nobody had any illegal items going into Canada, (Official Disclaimer). Finally we are all back together, and on our way. The Hilton was only 10 minutes from where we were. We arrived to the Hilton and what a gorgeous hotel. A casino walkway attached to the hotel. A nice outdoor bar. A giant swimming pool with a slide. We had a view of both Falls from our room. We unpacked and met up in the lobby for 6pm where we ate at the Skylon tower. Food was OK, wasn’t the greatest. Of course, everything in Canada has a 28% tax included. Especially a tourist improvement tax. After we ate, we traveled to the Casino. Nice casino, no better then a Mohegan, but still festive with all the lights. You can’t use your American money though. You had to go to a Currency Exchange, which basically was an ATM. The thing that was sad was you stick a $100.00 bill and you only get $93.00 back in Canadian money. (Thank Uncle Sam for that one) We gambled, and we left. I was up $60.00 and deposited back into the Casino because I’m just that nice of guy. We met up at the bar outside. Great bar. Once again, great service. You had a Vegas look outside the hotel because it was so busy, but the air had a Florida feel. Once again, we made the Driller do some more shots, and I have to say he cowboy’d up. Two, three beers later, some went to bed and The Kid went back to the Casino because he wasn’t ready to sleep yet. Left the casino because it was 2:30 am and The Kid had to meet everyone at, that’s right, 9:30 am again.

On Friday, August 5th, 2011, the rest of the crew met for breakfast at 8:30 am, but not the Kid because he was out till 2:30 am. So the Kid finally crawled out of bed about 9:00 am and met everyone around 9:30 am in the lobby. We walked over to a cable ride that took us down a mountain to Niagara Falls. We get off and wasn’t prepared for all the moisture and wetness coming from the Falls. We do some walking and find out one of the things the group wants to do is like a couple miles away, so we get a cab for seven people. Well the cab gets here and tells us he can only carry six people and the fact he could be fined $2,500 if caught. So when we went pass a Police Officer, which we did, one person just ducked down. We arrive to a cable tram ride over the Whirlpool which was fun. We left and the Mason and his wife went to do the Maid of the Mist. None of the rest wanted to do because we saw people soaked, and we just got socked on Wednesday and that was for free. So the rest of us did some shopping and had lunch at Applebees. Good food, good service. I don’t think there was one place with bad service. We finished up and left. Some went back to the hotel, while I went on my own. In the mean time, I have to include the Driller tried to open his Hilton hotel room with a Best Western key. We met at 6:30 pm at a restaurant called, “My Cousin Vinny’s.” We finished up, and went to do some more gambling. Lost money this time and met at the same outside bar. Did some more drinking and some went to bed. The Kid stayed behind to finish watching the Yankee game and watched the only win from the whole series. The Kid went to sleep.

On Saturday, August 6th, 2011, everyone met up for 9:30 am ish AOB. We checked out of the Hilton, packed the bikes up and off we went. We sat in line for a while to get back into the States. After hearing stories how the guys are pricks coming back over the border, not one gave us any trouble. We all reconvened back in the States. We were all set and back onto the road. We stopped at one gas station and had lunch where it started to sprinkle again. This gas station, the gas was pushed just a little bit. A little bit meaning the first lady was on reserve, The Driller’s light was on and I was almost there. We ate and decided to put some rain gear on. I thought we got punished enough on Wednesday, but the skies opened up again. I don’t remember how long we were in the rain this time. We finally get to the Holiday Inn of New Hartford, NY where I have to say, the Driller went flying by the first time. There were a lot of U-Turns and curb jumping this part of the trip. We check in and they tell us we can’t leave the bikes under the overhang. So we move them to find out later, the manager said we could. Here The Driller’s brother and wife meet us. We check in and meet for dinner in the hotel. We eat and the service was good. They actually had to card everyone because it was policy. Some didn’t like the idea, but it was policy. We later had drinks where more stories were told. I heard new sound effects come out of the Driller. The Driller had his room key stolen by the Mason’s wife. You have to let him tell you the story on this one. Other stories was finished, drinks were empty so everyone went to bed.

On Sunday, August 7th, 2011, people went to breakfast for 8:30 am in the hotel. I stumbled in a little later. We checked out and back on the road. Weather called for rain, but the Driller said he would stop and since he stopped before, I believed him. He was right. Gorgeous hot weather. We stopped for lunch and gas. We finished up, said our Good-Byes and back on the road where it was all smooth sailing. We caught maybe five seconds of the Connecticut storm that came through. Nothing else left to say on this day because it was the end of the trip and I was probably exhausted from all the drinking and getting up early.

Side note: Two toll booths actually let us go for free because they couldn’t believe how organized we were. We had the Driller pay for everyone and he was reimbursed.
The trip was a blast. Great time. Great stories. For me I would do this again in a heart beat. For all those who know me, I would rate this trip like going to a Yankee’s World Series game.



Jr