Took a trip to Niagra Falls this weekend...

[ryu_haneda]

Hey all,

This Sunday, my wife and I piled in the GT for a trip up to Niagra Falls Canada. No pics (yet), but basically here's how it went:

1. Sunday we left around 1 in the afternoon from PA and drove up the northeast extension of the pennsylvania turnpike up until I-81, then we drove that north. From there, it was

* I-81 to 17 west
* 17 west to I-390 north
* I-390 north to route 36
* route 36 to route 63, then route 98
* route 98 to the NY Thruway (I-90)
* I-90 to I-290, then I-190, then the Robert Moses Parkway
* Robert Moses Parkway to local streets in Niagra Falls USA, to the Rainbow Bridge to Canada

Basically, I was the only BD chassis I saw going to Canada. I crossed the border at night and settled in to a motel in town.

My wife and I had a pretty good time for the couple of days we were over - we checked out the falls, went on the Maid of the Mist, walked up to the butterfly conservatory (and do I mean WALKED - we hiked the 4 miles up to it). That same Monday, we went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum and went on the 4D-motion movie experience.

All in all, we stayed at a very decent motel, got breakfasts and dinner as part of our package, and I got to do a little bit of Canadian driving.

Today, we took some more pics and left Niagra Falls Ontario around 11AM. The American side customs asked us some questions, then we were on our way.

After the Robert Moses Parkway, we shot on to I-190, then I-290, then 90. THEN...

* I-90 to I-390
* I-390 back on to 17 east
* 17 east back to I-81 south
* I-81 south to I-84/I-380
* I-380 to I-80, to Jersey

Several hundred miles later, I have an appreciation for the capability the Legacy GT has to cruise. There's not thaaaat much legroom, but it can move when it wants to! (Or at least it sounds cool when it takes off)

Another satisfied Legacy GT owner,
ryu_haneda
-tired cuz I just got back from Canada
-any north jersey pplz around?
-pics will come later

[warrior]

sweeeeeet! Niagara falls is a nice place! Not a lot of LGT's around though, not even in the heart of Toronto where I'm close by!

[ryu_haneda]

Things looked very nice in general in Ontario. And ***EVERYONE*** there was so nice to us... people are very personable and down-to-earth (almost everyone we made eye contact with made it right back and offered a smile or a hello).

We were only up there for a few days, but I think next time we'll spend a week up there and take it in some more.

The road markings were a little bit more interesting than in the US, for the amount of time I drove. Maybe next time I'll hop on the QEW and check out some of the Canadian interstate system in Ontario.

I think I'll take the PeopleMover next time when I'm going up to the butterfly conservatory... we absolutely worked our legs to get up there from downtown.

God bless Canada...

-ryu_haneda
-tired cuz I just got back from Canada
-any LGTs in north jersey?

[warrior]

Canadians are really friendly, especially to outsiders! If you ever goto England, you'll notice its the complete opposite, if you say hi to a canadian, they'll say hi back but in the UK.. it's "what the f**k do you want?" :roll:

[ryu_haneda]

We were definitely impressed with how friendly people are in Canada. Sucks to hear that about the UK, though... I work a job where I occasionally help people out from the UK with their website problems... pretty much almost everyone I speak with on the phone is nice.

Matter of fact, not to bag, but I've noticed that we as Americans are pretty much some of the only people in this world that are in top gear all the time, and that we can be soooo frustrated and peeved about a whole bunch of stuff. Again, I'm glad to be an American citizen (TRUST ME) but I just notice stuff seems to fall off of other people's backs waaaaay more easily in other countries.

One other thing I noticed is that Canadians like modding their cars! We were only in Canada one hour and I saw at least 3 or 4 modded cars roaming the streets. (No kidding on this - about 15 seconds past the border crossing, I saw a Mazda Protoge5 with some neon and probably an exhaust mod at least.)

Gotta go, food is being served...

-ryu_haneda
-gotta go to eat food

[warrior]

haha.. Canadians like RICE mods!! Very rarely will you see a nice and simple modded car.. it's sad :cry:

[ryu_haneda]

Well, you can't say that's all bad... people like modding cars over there, so there's room for growth.

People are people, and they're going to like modding cars the way they like them. I prefer the stealth method. It's almost fun that way... you keep people guessing as to what you're packing under the surface. (I'm even thinking about giving up the idea of having a massive cannon exhaust to add to the mystery.)

I tell you what, though... BOY did I see a whole bunch of Subaru Outbacks! In Canada I saw a few, and both coming and going from Canada I caught many of them. Almost makes one think they missed their automotive boat by buying a BD chassis...

...but only for a moment. I definitely liked my choice. How about you?

-ryu_haneda
-chillin out late night with Subaru websites
-there really aren't that many Subaru BD 2.5GT videos on youtube.com

[Wiscon_Mark]

Yeah, if you've ever seen Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" you'll get a pretty good idea of how much more relaxed and friendly Canada is. He would go up to random people in Canada and ask them off the wall questions, and they'd answer, he'd do that in a random American city, and they'd walk away or tell him to go away. We're a suspicious lot :-?

Niagra Falls is very cool, I've been there twice.

[VR4ownzU]

I love Niagra. Me and my gf went there almost 3 years ago for our 1 year anniversery. Bad thing was...January weather...eh it was a blizzard all the way there...and I had an Accord at the time.

[ryu_haneda]

One of my friends went with a bunch of people from the NASIOC site and did the "48 Hours of Tri-State" tour in January of this year. Supposedly they had a great time up there in the wintertime but several scoobies got stuck on some particularly snowy back roads. Good time had by all, though, I'm sure. :)

The drive back was great (aside from the construction). Driving on interstate 390 down to route 17 and I-86 was particularly great... there were some spectacular vistas out there, and plenty of open road. The cool part was also that there weren't very many cars on the road at the time (drove back this Tuesday from Canada), so the trek was fairly effortless until I started getting into Pennsylvania (I-81 from Binghamton down to Scranton, then the I-84 to I-380 combination; by that time, we were hitting rush-hour traffic).

I-380 was ok down to I-80 east to NJ, but man was everybody speeding on I-80 from the Poconos out to the border. The cars hauled down the road about as fast as the tractor trailers did. Things got a lot more interesting and scenic once I cleared the Delaware water gap.

Great drive, all around. I would probably leave earlier next time to drive, but enjoyable all around. Subaru has fantastic cruise control and is great for long-distance driving.

[Jonathan]

What with all your cars engine difficulties, you appear to have forgotten to post photographs ?

I bet you have some awesome pictures to share !

Thanks.

[ryu_haneda]

Hi Jonathan,

Check my member introduction post "Hey y'all" to see my car pics.

By the way, your car looks GREAT!!! I'm contemplating painting my bottom lip and side and rear skirts to match my pearl green color. I wonder if anyone else around here has done the same.

Either that, or I'm going to spray rhino liner on the bottom skirts so that they stay dark and resist scratching.

Later!

-ryu_haneda
-Subaru busted, in the shop
-engine being ordered on Monday (hope to be back in scooby by Friday)