North Tonawanda | Dwyer's Irish Pub | The Dockside

Friday - 11 June 2004 - Niagara Falls, New York: A beautiful sunny day in New York! Our goal today was to have our RV repairs completed. Tom and Wolfie were to be here late morning/early afternoon. In the meantime the part for the washer/dryer had arrived and DT repaired it hisownself! We are back in business. For those of you who do not know, we have a little Italian-made washer/dryer in the bathroom of Our Intrigue. We love our Splendide 2000s and use it every day. It can only do small loads (I'd say half-loads compared to a home-sized machine). It washes and then dries - all in the same stainless-steel tub. Quite ingenious.

Our little Splendide 2000s

While DT was working on maintenance for the RV, I went to the supermarket. I came back two hours later. This was the largest supermarket I have ever visited, larger than a Costco and larger than a Super The Wal-Mart. I put over 2 miles on my pedometer INSIDE the store! It was a Tops International Supermarket and they had a complete Italian grocer, Middle Eastern grocer, Latin grocer... on and on, you get the idea, inside the store! Well, it was just too fabulous to simply run down a few aisles and complete my list - I had to EXPLORE! A lady I spoke with at the check-out said they have a larger store south of Buffalo. Goodness!

Tom and Wolfie were working on the RV all afternoon. The water-heating/furnace system has new fluids. Our dash air conditioner is working! DT changed our system-wide water filter. Several other little things have been repaired. We need to get something double-checked on the engine, but Tom and Wolfie don't do engines... so it will have to wait. They are the nicest of people, so friendly and helpful. If you ever have trouble with your coach in Niagara, please call Wolfe RV Service. Tom was so jealous that we were going up to the Anchor Bar for wings the last few night, so DT bought a huge box of wings for Tom last night. Tom was so excited when he saw the familiar Anchor Bar box!

Tonight we went into North Tonawanda to try a new restaurant that had recently opened. We could not find it, so stopped in at an interesting-looking place, Dwyer's Irish Pub, thinking we could have a drink and ask the locals for the location of the new restaurant. Well, we can't tell you how friendly the people in North Tonawanda are to strangers from Oregon! We sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. Immediately someone started chatting with us and introduced himself by name and shook our hands! He knew where The Dockside restaurant was located - about 3 blocks away - and gave us directions. We overheard the girls at the end of the bar talking about Oregon and the bartender told us they were from Oregon! Well, what are the chances we would be in a bar in North Tonawanda, New York and there would be two other Oregonians next to us? Very slim. We asked the girls where they were from, awaiting the answer of "Portland", "Eugene" or some-such city. They said, "We are from Ore-Ah-Gone."

We knew they were liars. "No, you're not!"

They laughed and the men they were flirting with looked confused. Their fraud was uncovered! Seems they had seen a car parked in front of the bar with Oregon license plates (gee, think it was a silver Honda?) and decided to tell the guys they were from Oregon. We blew their cover and the Dwyers Irish Pub bartender was laughing so much and shaking her head! One of the men talking with the girls came over and asked us how we knew they weren't from Oregon? We told them because we were from Oregon (and that was our Honda) and the girls didn't pronounce the state correctly. Ah-Hah! We went to pay our tab and the bartender would not let us pay - one of the guys flirting with the "Oregon girls" had bought our drinks! What a fun time in North Tonawanda. We really teased the girls - choose a BMW or Mercedes next time, girls - not a Honda CRV with a RV tow bar!

FYI: It's pronounced OR-e-gun.

So we ended up at the Western-most start of the Erie Canal at a restaurant serving the "big thing" at every local restaurant every Friday night - a Fish Fry. (I call it fish and chips.) Everyone in this restaurant/bar was so friendly again, and again, introduced themselves by name and offered their hand. I like this town!

Erie Canal

The new Dockside Inn, 153 Sweeney Street, North Tonawanda (716) 693-3100, was very busy. People drive their boats up and down the Erie Canal to visit friends' homes and local restaurants like I would use a car and street! One of the boats docked outside was cleverly named the "Logged Off". We learned all docks in North Tonawanda are public and you can park your boat - free - for 24 hours. There were many of the "boating set" in the restaurant, drinking chardonnay. Then you had your younger group (coconut rum drinks) and you had your working guys - lots of beer, consumed from the bottle, usually Labatt's Blue Light. The restaurant had a full menu, including the required Buffalo Wings - but everyone was having the Fish Fry. Our waitress told us they fly Haddock in from Connecticut every Friday morning. The photo above looks west, but if you went east on the canal, you can travel on it for over 400 miles - all the way to Albany!

RV Park: Niagara Falls Campground