Precerpt from In with the East Wind: A Mary Poppins Kind of Life - Canada: Niagara Falls (Horseshoe Falls)
Niagara Falls (Horseshoe Falls)
It may sound like our trips were Canada were unplanned and
unexpected. Actually, they were.
We took a somewhat later trip to Niagara Falls, Canada, on
the spur of the moment and could have ended up in some watery political depth
that we fortunately, blessedly, without explanation avoided. We were traveling from
Pittsburgh, where we were living at the time, to Acton, Maine, my home, to introduce
a friend, Racho, visiting from Bulgaria to something beside concrete America.
He thought he had seen a panoply of the US and had a sense
of our country: concrete, fast, busy. Why? He lived in Pittsburgh for the time
being and had attended conferences in Denver, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Yep! Concrete, fast,
and busy.
We wanted to show him the other side of America: earth, ambling,
and relaxed. What better place than a Maine farm? He enjoyed picking the blackberries,
hiking the White Mountains, and experience closer in temperament to his native
Bulgaria.
Since our route went though New York, we decided to take a
quick detour to show Racho Niagara Falls, Carl’s birthplace (the town, not the
river nor the waterfall). He found the view compelling enough, but for Carl, it
was home. It was also a place that had been more impressive to him as a young
child, before the falls fell and before Goat Island had to be placed off limits.
He had a brilliant idea!
“The falls are higher in Canada,” he said. “Like they used
to be in New York. It is just a few minutes across the border, and we can view
them from the other side, from the side of the river in Canada, which produced
the Horseshoe Falls.”
He explained that the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls (on
the US side) have experienced periodic rock collapses since the 19th century,
most notably in 1954, when he was a young boy and when engineers de‑watered the
area near Terrapin Rocks to stabilize the brink and create Terrapin Point.
Further collapses occurred in the early 1980s, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers to remove unstable rock and reshape the shoreline and resulting in
the American Falls drop being about 70–100 ft,
while the Horseshoe Falls plunge roughly 167 ft—nearly
twice as high (Tinkler et al., 1994).
Racho was delighted. Off we zoomed. The border was barely a
border; the crossing was barely a crossing. No one stopped us. Carl knew where
the best lookout was; he had come often as a child. We had been sitting for a
half hour or more, taking in the grandeur, before Racho had an innocent
question.
“Is Canada a different country from New York?” he asked.
Ah, yeah! And oh, oops!
“I don’t have a visa for Canada,” he told us. “I only have a
visa for the USA.”
Hm. We enjoyed the falls a little longer—might as well,
right? Then, we headed to the border crossing, which was indeed manned on the
US side.
“Just sit quietly in the back,” Carl said, “and let me
answer any questions, if there are any. “
We approached the border guard. He asked only for Carl’s driver’s
license. (That was back in the day; it would not happen now.)
“Welcome home,” he said.
We drove back into New York and headed east. No problem. No
problem at all! Life in the 70s!
From the forthcoming book:
Volume 1: ABC Lands
by Dr. Betty Lou Leaver
For more posts about and from this book, click HERE.
For more posts by and about Betty Lou Leaver, click HERE.
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