Welland... truth in advertising

When you're on a bus going to somewhere new you notice things when entering a new town. With this said what did I notice when entering into Welland? Even the 99 cent store had closed down. Welland must not be doing as 'Well' as the name suggest. The other thing I noticed about Welland was the fact the city municipal bean counters were using a very liberal interpretation of the town boundaries to beef up the numbers. We may have past a sign 2kms back saying the 'Welcome to Welland. Population 38,000' but we were still in the scrub. All we passed was hay bails. I hope they weren't counting them too.

Welland. Yes I was here to visit family. Why else would I risk offending country Canadian people hanging around them in their natural environment.

Welland would classify as Canadian rust belt. There seems to be a bit of activity left in the town's steel mills, but not much compared to it's hey day. As my cousin Andrew puts it. Welland is number 1 in teenage pregnancy. And he'd know. No, not because it's him. Because he's a pharmacist. Andrew and Suzanne are doing fine. Enjoying the outrageous lifestyle that is Welland.

Of course a visit to Welland would not be complete without a visit to the local area. They have this lake area nearby, oh, and some big falls, just down the road 1/2 an hour at Niagara.


Anyway the main thing is I enjoyed the stop in visiting the family, and re-visiting the falls area. And yes Niagara Falls 'the town area' still wins in the competition to be the most tacky tourist street experience I've ever encountered. Yet I'm told the Buffalo side is worse. And gee I don't think I'll have time for visiting Buffalo. Damn shame that.

And Mother & Auntie Deb, you'll be pleased to hear Andrew and Suzanne took good care of me. And so did Andrew's boss. Andrew made sure I got my iron content up by visiting a steak restaurant, and his boss gave us a good excuse to visit Boston Pizza the next night.

I had some time to ride around Welland, relax and reload. In fact I've left some stuff there to lighten the load. I'll pass back through there at some point when I try for Chicago.

Anyway here are a few shots of the falls, and Welland's Canal. Thankfully the weather around the falls on the day we visited. Much better than my first trip overseas. Oh and best way to earn a dollar. Open a car park in Nigara Falls. They don't miss ya. $10 flat fee. I knew it wouldn't be cheap, but we got hosed. And it wasn't the falls.