Buffalo… Wings and Waterfalls!

06/09/2024 – 06/15/2024

This week finds us about 30 minutes outside of Buffalo, NY. I am going to be 100% completely honest with ya, there is one reason and one reason only we came to the Buffalo area. We had to visit the bar where the Buffalo Wing was born. The waterfalls, well they were just a bonus! 😉

Should we start with the wings or the waterfalls?

Wings

Who doesn’t love a good wing? Are you familiar with how the “Buffalo” wing came to be? If you watch any cooking show where wings are featured or any of those “History of Food” episodes or you just do a quick Google search, you’ll know the Buffalo Wing was created at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo NY back in 1964. By the way, they aren’t really called Buffalo Wings, they are just wings!

Anchor Bar and Grill

The original Anchor Bar is located on Main Street, downtown Buffalo. It was here late one evening the bar owner’s son was tending bar and a group of his friends came in, “starving to death”. Isn’t that always the case with boys? Well, Dominic asked his mom if she could whip something up for his friends to eat.

Mom, doing what mom’s do, couldn’t let those young men go hungry, right? She found some chicken wings in the kitchen and fried ’em up. Then she created a sauce to coat them, the now famous “Secret Buffalo Sauce”. The wings were a hit, word quickly spread around town and the rest is history.

I was super excited to go in and get some wings. They did not disappoint! We bellied up to the bar, ordered a beer, vodka tonic, 15 wings and a Beef on Weck. Beef on what?

Beef on Weck

Not long after arriving in Buffalo, we found the city was also known for a sandwich called Beef on Weck. It is made by piling thinly sliced roast beef between a kummelweck roll that has been lightly dipped in au jus and served with a side of horseradish. What is a kummelweck roll? It’s basically a soft roll, like a hamburger roll but it has been topped with kosher salt and caraway seeds. It is unbelievably good!

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Anchor Bar. Along with the great food, the bartenders were very friendly and we had the pleasure (?) of sitting next to a local Buffalonian. He has been a patron of the bar for 36 years and had some great stories to tell. But… he talked the WHOLE time we were there. LOL It was great!

Duff’s Famous Wings

Always curious, we had to find out who had the “best” wings in Buffalo. According to Yelp, Duff’s Famous Wings ranks #1 followed by Anchor Bar. Well, we had to find out for ourselves, because that’s what we do! 😊

There is no story behind Duff’s, they just have good wings. For $40 we got 20 wings, a large fry and a small pitcher of beer. Not a bad deal. The wings were pretty good, but for us, the win goes to the Original Anchor Bar.

Are you a wing fan? How do you like your wings? Traditional Buffalo sauce, one of the other sauces, dry rubbed or naked?

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls straddles Canada and the US. It is where Lake Erie flows into Lake Ontario and is one of the most visited places in both countries. Our first visit to the falls was over 30 years ago when we lived in Michigan. Neither one of us remembers a lot about that trip other than the magnificence of the falls themselves. They are just as magnificent today.

Both countries offer ample opportunities to get up close and personal with the falls via a boat ride or an elevator ride down to the bottom of the gorge. The Canadian side also has a sky wheel and the Skylon Tower with a revolving restaurant. Every night during the summer months the falls are lit up and there is a fireworks display. Our camping neighbors told us the fireworks were nice to watch from the Skylon Tower.

Canadian Side

The Canadian side offers the best views of both the American and Canadian Falls. We decided to go over to Canada first and ended up spending a few hours walking around ogling the falls and taking tons of pictures. We walked through the early morning mist of the falls and stood right next to the top of Horseshoe Falls. As you get closer to the falls the sound becomes more thunderous, then before you know it, you are standing at the river edge watching it flow over the ledge. The roar of the falls softens and you only hear the river flow and birds chirping. Unreal…

These are some views from the Canadian side:

American Side

Back on the American side, we entered Niagara Falls State Park, which happens to be America’s oldest state park. If it weren’t for Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of New York’s Central Park), Niagara Falls may not exist today. During the Industrial Revolution, the falls began to suffer as industrialists built mills and factories along the river to harness its power. The free-flowing waters began to decline. Mr. Olmsted founded the Free Niagara movement and in 1885 the Niagara Reservation was created.

This is a GREAT park! There are miles of walking and biking trails along the river and around the falls themselves. The park contains an aquarium, restaurants, an observation tower, and a trolley. Since we had Kona with us, we were limited to walking through the park and along the falls. And this was just fine, we feel like we got the full experience. Next time we come though, I would like to see the light show and fireworks at night and possibly take the Maid of the Mist to the bottom of the falls. Gives us an excuse to come back, right?

Here are some views from the American side:

Some fun facts about Niagara Falls

• Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America. 675,000 gallons of water flow over the falls per second!
• Four of the five Great Lakes drain into the Niagara River.
• It is possible to control and even stop the water flow. The NY Power Authority and Ontario Hydro maintain the water flow. During the day water flow is kept at 100,000 cu ft/second and at night it is reduced to 50,000 cu ft/second.
• On October 24, 1901, Annie Taylor was the first person to go over the falls in a homemade barrel and survive.

Letchworth State Park

Why is it that every large canyon is known as “The Grand Canyon of… fill in the blank”?  Waimea Canyon in Hawaii is the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is the Grand Canyon of Colorado. Well, Letchworth State Park is the Grand Canyon of the East.

The Genesee River carved this impressive gorge that is 17 miles long and almost 600 feet deep and drops over 3 beautiful waterfalls. The park exists today thanks to William Pryor Letchworth. Mr. Letchworth ran a successful saddlery and hardware company in Buffalo, NY.  Needing a respite from the daily operations of business, Letchworth purchased land and built a retreat along the Genesee River. The estate was called Glen Iris. I’d say Mr. Letchworth found the perfect place for some rest and relaxation. I mean, how could you not enjoy waking up to this view every day?

In 1906, he bequeathed the 1,000-acre estate to the state of New York with the provision that the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society serve as custodian of the land and he was allowed life tenancy. Letchworth died at Glen Iris in December of 1910.

Today, visitors to the park can dine in the restaurant, sip cocktails on the porch or even stay in one of the mansion’s 16 guestrooms. If that’s not your style, the park has cabins to rent as well as a large campground for tents and small RV’s.

Upper and Middle Falls

We walked down to the Middle Falls first and backtracked to the Upper Falls. Both are stunning.

As we approached the Upper Falls, I noticed a gentleman standing to the side of the path and an easel with a painting on it. It was a painting of the Upper Falls and it was exquisite. I looked at the painting then out at the falls and he captured it perfectly. I would love to be able to paint like that, only with watercolors 😉

Isn’t this a picture that is just asking to be painted in watercolor?

The Gorge

After enjoying the two waterfalls we explored the rest of the park in the truck. Wait a minute, I said there were three waterfalls, right? The Lower Falls are only visible via a ½ mile moderate hike that includes 125 stairs. My knees can’t handle that many stairs, so driving through the park is what we did. There are several overlooks offering grand views of the gorge. At one of the overlooks, we enjoyed watching a group of kayakers go over a little rapid.

Letchworth State Park is an excellent place to spend the day, there are plenty of hiking opportunities and several great spots for a picnic. We enjoyed our day immensely.

The Real Deal with Full-Time RV Living

Yes, we are blessed that we get to work while travelling and see so many incredible sights. I have to keep reminding myself of this when we have “issues” with the coach. Remember when I said that I hoped our first incident as we were leaving North Carolina wasn’t a bad omen for the rest of our trip? Well… I’m beginning to wonder if that might not be the case.

A New Windshield

Issue One – Bill was having his coffee one morning and noticed a crack in the windshield. How in the world did that happen? We have no idea, think maybe it was when we were driving on a very windy road up to Monticello in Virginia. However or wherever it happened… it happened.

Bill quickly finds a place in Buffalo that can replace it, gets on the phone with the insurance company, files a claim and the ball is rolling. The stars aligned and the new windshield was delivered the week before we arrived in Buffalo. We took the rig to ARC Glass and they did an excellent job!

A Bad Electrical Connection

Issue 2 – Our coach has a reel that the electrical cord winds up on. When we’re packing up to move on, Bill can wind up the large electrical cord with the push of a button. Until now. We’ve been having issues for about 6 months now and he has tried to fix it 3 times but the “patch” just won’t hold. So, he removed the reel and hardwired the cord directly to the coach. Problem solved, except now he’ll have to manually roll the cord up into the coach.

A Water Leak x 2

Issues 3 and 4 – One morning while I was doing some work at the kitchen table, I discovered the carpet under my chair was wet. We’d had some rain the day before and Bill’s first thought was water ran in through the slide or the refrigerator vent. And that might have been part of the reason.

The carpet dried and Bill started thinking of a solution to divert the water from draining right over the refrigerator vent. In the meantime, a day later the carpet was wet again and there was no rain to blame this time. We begin troubleshooting some more. Bill soon found the drawers under the fridge were wet. When those were removed, we found a nice little puddle. Tracing the water and eliminating sources, he found a hole in the water line to the icemaker. Easy fix.

After the icemaker line was repaired, he began working on his water diversion fix. We just had a nice little thunderstorm pass through and very little water leaked into the vent. Win!

I always tell Bill that he is my handyman! I am very lucky and we are both blessed that he is able fix most things. It sure saves us a lot of money! Plus, it gives him something to do! 😉

I help as much as I can, which ain’t much. So… while he’s solving and fixing our issues, I play with my paints. LOL!

I hope that is the end of our “issues” and it is smooth sailing for the rest of the summer and fall!

What’s Next

We are putting the coach in storage, sending Kona to a pet resort and flying out to Washington State to help Jefferey, Jess and Weston move to their new home in Bryant AR!