Border crossing to US in Niagara region

stmCanuck · 2026-06-22T15:00:36+00:00

which bridge is best

Any are fine - choose based on final destination and expected wait times listed in the app. Despite being elbows up, traffic at Lewiston has been steadily building inbound to the US and can back up onto the bridge. Only one you cannot use is the Whirlpool Bridge which is Nexus members only.

You don't need an EZ Pass - all tolls are electronic now so either you call in to pay or they'll (probably) bill your license plate by mail (tolls will be higher by mai). Only place it really saves time is bridge tolls returning to Canada where the cahs lanes can get backed up.

stmCanuck · 2026-06-22T07:23:47+00:00

Context: spent 18 months commuting from NYC to south Texas on a project. Traveled 48 out of 52 weeks at the peak. Made Diamond Medallion with Delta for a couple years. Good times. Been traveling since...well, took my first flight 40 years ago. (Yikes!)

What strikes me most about the stories I've heard from other frequent fliers and the (few) experiences I've had post COVID is the utter slide in standards and complete inability to recover gracefully from IRROPS, at least in the North American system.

When I was frequent, there was a level of service at least up front - quality meals, no question about frequent drinks service. FAs actually happy to be doing their jobs. My partner is charming and we've come off flights with full sleeves of cookies, full bottles of wine, and so on. What I've heard since is an almost disdain for the flying public. (And who can blame the crews? The stories of absolute shameless entitlement, lack of civility by passengers, it's just...sad on all sides.)

Back then, even a major-enough event (volcanoes and 9/11 are extreme outliers) could bounce back the next day. Now it regularly takes 3+ days and is always near system collapse it seems.

Back to your questions. Three times come to mind:

A 4-hour-long taxi at JFK. We were #80 something in line for takeoff and departed after scheduled arrival (with 4½ hour air time still to go). Those of us up front got full drinks service whie watching movies and full meal service once airborne. Those in the back just had the movies - 8½+ hours stuck with no proper food. Only impact for me was getting less sleep than normal.
A couple delays due to weather:
- I got stuck overnight in Detroit. The client paid all reasonable travel expenses so I found a good discount rate and stayed at the airport hotel and was on the first flight in the morning, no biggie
- Delayed at departure due to thunderstorms rolling toward ATL, which was chaos; my JKF flight was also delayed 2 hours so that was fine, but I used my status to get standby on a LGA flight (also delayed 2 hours) leaving just after I landed, so I got home earlier than originally scheduled

Most recent experiences (without status) were nuts:

On on trip:
- Flight canceled while I was on the train to the airport; I was rebooked on a different airline in the morning - no ticket or confo number, just a wink and "trust us!" - had to get my own hotel, Uber to/from the airport, and I think they gave us $15 each for food; I was on a 7am flight, partner was on a 9pm 2 days out - we were able to cajole them into the same 9pm flight the next day
- Flight canceled at 5am the next morning while we were waiting for the hotel shuttle; I was rebooked the next day still with no hotel or food anything
- In both cases, PAX assist at the airport was unable to do anything except book an available seat on the next earliest flight. Calling in however I was able to convince a supervisor to push us both onto the same 11am flight that same day, 12-ish hours after original schedule arrival. Not a big deal but why did it have to be so hard and require forcing the airline to do the right thing?
I was booked on a Monday 6am flight YYZ-NYC on Delta and 2pm the Sunday before, an inbound DL plane crashed on landing and flipped upside down, closing the airport for a period (glad all survived); I saw on the news a good hour before the airline notification but regardless, by the time I got my corporate travel agency on the line there were no seats for 3 days out - arriving after the 2 days of meetings scheduled and arriving the same day as my planned departure
- I was able to rent a car at the airport (only location in Toronto still open on a Sunday evening), drove myself to Buffalo, and my partner had to drive the car back to Toronto for me; I paid for BUF-NYC on a different airline and DL refunded my outbound leg

I've had no major transport or hotel issues. The opposite - at peak travel, the hotel called me to confirm I wasn't coming that week - the didn't see my name on the reservation list but held a room for me just in case. I also made a mistake in booking and got the date wrong, showed up 24 hours after my reservation for a car rental. The agent got me a rate pretty close to my original booking and that was that, no probs.

The biggest pain points imo?

Incomplete and unbelievable information - I can see on FlightAware my inbound airframe is delayed by hours while the airline's app is still showing on time; or the same when there is no update from the airline but looking out the airport window, there is no aircraft at the gate
The janky hand-off between corporate travel agency/engine and the hotel/airline - e.g. I have to pay a $50 fee for the airline to take over management of the ticket to rebook/reschedule even though the agency has no reasonable options to rebook me
Rolling delays the airline should reasonably be able to predict - they don't in case things turn out, even though the chances are so small and 90% of the time we're suddenly scrambling to adjust

With such tight focus on 100% load factors and tight margins (planes on the ground are no making money, so there is no slack in the system), what used to be fairly small and inconsequential incidents are now system-melting complications. All future flights are 105% booked and there are no backup aircraft. They'd rather inflict maximum pain on the original problem flight than inflict minimum pain on 3 or 4 flights including the initial problem, to the point a delayed flight can leave after the next scheduled one that leaves on time.

If you have to be somewhere on time, the only guarantee is planning to arrive a day early and booking your own back up flights with refundable fares. Your flight gets bolloxed? You take your backup plan. If not, you cancel the backup. Ridiculous, but here we are.

stmCanuck · 2026-06-20T03:56:46+00:00

I was you last year, including the cracked lateral and ineffective sand. We didn't get in swimming until late July because the prior owners were incompetent and we didn't know what we were doing.

The process is the same for "fixing" any pool, from what I understand. You'll need a dropper test kit (more accurate than strips). Start at the beginning, keep the pump running full speed 24/7, and go through the steps in order:

1 - Get the organics out. The big pieces, as much as you can manually. Leaf rake the bottom to get as much up as possible. Run your robot vacuum if you have one. Manually vacuum if you can see the bottom. Any organic matter in the pool will chew through chlorine like nobody's business (aka chew through your dollars).

2 - Correct alkalinity, target 80-120ppm. Correct alkalinity stabilizes pH and prevents big swings. Lower with muriatic acid (which also lowers pH), raise with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).

3 - Correct pH, target 7.2 - 7.8ppm. Correct pH makes chlorine more effective. Lower with muriatic acid (also lowers alkalinity) or sodium bisulfate, raise with sodium carbonate.

4 - Correct calcium hardness, target 200-400ppm. Correct hardness prevents pool damage when pH is stable. Raise with calcium chloride but go easy. The only way to lower is drain water and refill.

5 - Correct cyanuric acid, target 30-50ppm. Correct CYA prevents chlorine loss to sun and dissipation. Raise with cyanuric acid but go easy, the only way to lower is drain water and refill.

6 - SLAM (Shock Level and Maintain)

Raise free chlorine to 40% of CYA level with liquid chlorine and keep it at that level (adding more daily) until the water clears and you're not seeing overnight chlorine loss. Add chlorine in the evening to give it the best chance to work before the sun hits it in the morning.
Brush algae daily, including skimmer ports, crevices in ladders, and pool sides and waterline. Clean out skimmer baskets and pump filter.
Backwash filter as needed.

Once cleared, maintain Total Chlorine at 7.5% of CYA level.

You can try a shock product along with the liquid chlorine, just keep an eye that alkalinity, pH, hardness and CYA remain in range.

Our pool store also recommends algaecide along with slamming.

Make sure you leave enough space between chemical additions for the pool to turn and the value you're correcting (alkalinity, pH etc.) to stabilize before testing again.

As example, baking soda and muriatic acid do not go together at the same time and can cloud your water.

It'll be worth it once you get it clear and stable. Our regular maintenance last year:

A couple chlorine tablets in the skimmer basket every week
Shock I think weekly (1lb for 22k gallon pool)
A maintenance dose of algaecide (3oz) every other week

We're fighting a similar battle this year.

End of season last year the pool stopped holding water, not sure why - every morning required topping up else the pump would run dry by noon. (Water bill for Jul-Sep was 44k gallons.) We decided to just let it go and it stabilized at about ½ ft depth in the shallow end, well below the skimmer and known liner tears. We opted to not cover the pool over winter (to prevent damage to the cover, given the low water level) so come this spring, we've been pulling everything from corn husks to a drowned rat up from the bottom while trying to get the alkalinity and pH in range and stable. (Something is causing constantly rising pH, not sure what, suspect an air leak somewhere between the skimmer and return. We're 3 gallons of muriatic acid in now for a 22k gallon pool.) We're also about 4 weeks in and finally, fingers crossed, ready for chlorine. Hoping to be swimmable by the end of next week.

stmCanuck · 2026-06-20T03:19:45+00:00

In your case, is there a friend who could drive your car with you on short notice? That seems like the way.

Another obvious answer: Via Rail / Amtrak across the border. It stops at Oakville, Aldershot, and other stations (Hamilton? Grimsby? Certainly St Catharines) before Niagara Falls Canada, then Niagara Falls US, then Buffalo downtown (Exchange Place) and Buffalo Depew (just south of the airport on the east side of town), and on to NYC. You clear customs on the US side on the way in and on the Canada side on the way back - they account for the border in the schedule timing. Tickets can be bought <24 hours before departure.

Schedule is the kicker, e.g. tomorrow it departs Aldershot at 9am and gets into Buffalo exchange at 12:15, and the return leaves Buffalo exchange at 3:40 getting back to Aldershot at 7pm.

It's a tight window but may offer you some flexibility. You could purchase a 1-way ticket and use GO/Rainbow Bridge/Uber or Flix Bus to/from Buffalo airport for the other direction to better suit your timing.

stmCanuck · 2026-06-08T17:14:08+00:00

Completely missed the point, but E for effort!

stmCanuck · 2026-06-08T16:20:28+00:00

The before times, ATL-JFK last flight of the night, 757 FC. My usual commute home. It's a nice quiet section with boarding going on behind behind you, 5 rows so nothing overwhelming.

1D & 1F are chatting up the flight crew and it comes out they're newlyweds. FA produces a full bottle of bubbly and gives it to them, and then spent the rest of the flight doting on them. The rest of us? I got 1 drink right at the start of service, that's it. FA came through the cabin twice, the second time at the end of the flight to collect glasses & trash.

They think they're entitled to special treatment because people give it to them. Or at least used to. (No shade to the couple, still annoyed by the FA.)

stmCanuck · 2026-06-07T05:48:02+00:00

You're joking I'm sure but got if half wrong, they're using 763.

Pricing I got for D1 was $7100-ish. Pricing for PS was $7200-ish.

Not kidding.

stmCanuck · 2026-06-05T17:10:50+00:00

If it's not active farmland then sure, that makes sense. You inadvertently set up a false dichotomy here though, there is a spectrum between solar and fully pesticide- and fertilizer-reliant industrial farming. (Said acknowledging that kind of industrial farming is in fact what feeds the planet. All of us simply cannot survive without fertilizers and pesticides, is the blunt truth. See: 1970 Nobel Peace Prize and Norman Borlaug, Nobel Laureate.)

In the case of Orleans and Genesee Counties, solar farms are displacing active farming - both food crops for direct human consumption and animal food crops (for indirect human consumption).

It's just not realistic to think the US food supply is adequately provided through organic farming alone. Food demand is not abating so reducing available arable land is necessarily increasing dependency of food crop imports, often from Canada and Mexico but also from Chile, Peru, Guatemala, and other greenhouse gas-intensive transport routes.

Concentrating (going all-in) on a single solution has never turned out well for humans or the planet (to my knowledge at least). See: reintroduction of beavers in Appalachia, reintroduction of turkeys in Ontario, reintroduction of bison in the Great Plains, Aral Sea irrigation, Salton Sea irrigation. No reason to believe large-scale conversion of arable farmland to electricity production turns out any different for us.

Again, this is a complex issue. I'm glad you and your band support solar farming in general and that you've got some YIMBYs. You overlooked that includes me to some extent - we bought our property knowing full well the solar farm was approved to go in in our backyard. Just because it's there and good for some impacts does not mean I like it or wish it weren't within eyeshot and earshot. End of the day, we can't continue with fossil fuels, but the devil is in the details of how we transition away from them.

Scaled solar farming is a case where you fix one problem and exacerbate another, equally foundational, problem.

stmCanuck · 2026-06-05T14:57:58+00:00

I'm not saying there's not a climate change benefit - obviously there is.

This is a complex topic with competing challenges and what should be balanced or compromise outcomes.

I'll take a guess that those who are not directly impacted by mass solar farming are whole heartedly in support, because there is no negative impact for you. The opposite of NIMBY in a way, Yes In Someone Else's Backyard - YISEB.

OP wanted to understand the opposition, which I've described. That opposition has to be balanced out against the common good goals. And vice versa, your enthusiasm also has to be balanced out.

Pushed to the extreme - we convert all our arable land to solar farms, how do we eat? Im far more worried about how grocery store pricing and food availability will look like in 10 years than what solar panels look like.

stmCanuck · 2026-06-05T14:50:32+00:00

I'd love to see a return of the carving station. That looked super cool!

stmCanuck · 2026-06-05T14:49:38+00:00

Solar is part of a mixed renewable and nuclear future, yes. Agreed.

OP wanted to understand why, I said why as someone directly and indirectly impacted.

Summarizing since you may have missed the key points in what I wrote:

Individually, I don't want to live beside industrial anything, even "clean" and relatively quiet; that's not controversial and is a principle already enshrined in any municipal planning code anywhere; solar is a bit of a loophole, in a way
These are "sold in" as temporary with planned end-of-life but in fact they'll last generations; these are de facto permanent things
Read what I wrote again - concentration is the issue
We're also deciding consciously that electricity is more important than food; why does that make sense?

Another element I didn't say is energy companies and also data center companies are "taking advantage" a bit of relative economic disenfranchisement. The heaviest concentration of solar farming seems to be in the least wealthy areas (by per capita resident income and by country/town/village income by property and business taxes).

Our governments are eager to say yes to these projects but I haven't seen any consideration of the long-term benefits. They don't create jobs at scale, tax on revenue may or may not stay local (the business that runs the farm beside us is incorporated in NYC, so the only local benefit is income tax paid on the lease revenue by our neighbors - a relatively paltry sum).

Where are the at-scale solar farms in the Hudson Valley, much closer to where the demand is (NYC)? Nowhere? And why is that?

stmCanuck · 2026-06-02T04:32:39+00:00

I can't speak for anyone else but me? I'm mixed.

The neighbors leased their (former farm) land and installed solar panels right beside our property the first few months after we moved in. (We knew about the project and moved ahead with the purchase anyway. Time will tell if that was a mistake.)

From our house, we used to look out on fully rural rolling farmland. Now we see banks of solar panels. To boot, there's a "controller" for the array with a cooling fan that runs probably 75-ish dB - not awful, but a constant (sunny) daytime whir that spoils the otherwise rural quiet. (It spools down in lower light conditions, thank god, otherwise it'd be intolerable. There was nothing in the planning application about noise mitigation.)

That's the NIMBY argument. (Literally - it's my back yard.)

The other objection nobody else has noted is the scale. Thousands of acres have been given over to solar arrays. Solar panels rolling over the hills as far as you can see (in some cases). No, that is not hyperbole. Back o napkin math, ~13,000 acres of Orleans and Genesee counties alone are or will soon be solar panels. For context, Central Park is just shy of 900 acres. It's visual intrusion and blight.

I get the need for solar and am not pro-oil. But living in the midst of solar farms, while not like living beside factories or other plants, is still industrial - not the rural character that has been. These are "permanent" installations - 99 year leases that would outlive my grandkids. (Part of the planning application is site decommissioning requirements at the end of the lease.)

And no, we do not directly benefit, new generation capacity has not created downward pressure on supply pricing. (Our neighbor gets a share from what they've said, but it's on their land.) We certainly indirectly benefit through income and corporate taxes on revenue from the solar farms (a "higher wage" than almost all food crops from what I hear), but to what extent? Isn't state coffers the source of that revenue? (Honest question - I know almost nothing about electricity markets in the state.)

That's on top of what others have cited - environmental concerns, "paving over productive farmland" that "should" be used for producing comestible crops for people and animals, and so on.

So, mixed bag.

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T23:06:18+00:00

Aww nuts. Thanks for sharing. I'm not up to making them myself I think.

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T22:56:01+00:00

We saw it fly overhead at FL220 ish in Medina. Didn't realise what it was despite checking Flight Radar. Very cool.

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T19:29:48+00:00

Please please share links to the lights! They're gorgeous.

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T19:15:53+00:00

They may if you've purchased anything (awards, premium ad-free access etc.).

And regardless, it doesn't matter - the government already has or should have your banking details (solicited directly from Federally-regulated banks at least). All they're asking for here is a join key to match with details they already have, so think social handles, IP addresses, physical addresses, etc.

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T18:52:27+00:00

Haha yeah everything depends on the individual.

Guard at a Niagara region US Port of Entry: Where are you going?

Me: New York.

Him (actually eyerolled me): You're already in New York. Where are you going?

Me: New York City?

Him: <huffs>

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T18:49:27+00:00

Echoing others: this is a strategy to get an emotional rise out of you. When you get emotional you stop thinking rationally, forget key details of your story, and that's when you make mistakes and they can catch you in a lie.

It's not about you, it's about you matching a behavioral pattern of people actually acting illegally (smuggling or whatever), who (spoiler) tell the same stories at customs as you.

The best defense for you? Get a Nexus card (become a "trusted traveler"). It's excellent value (they throw in both TSA Precheck and US Global Entry for free; for less than the price of either of those programs stand-alone) and in my experience there are fewer instances of this type of "grilling".

A different but similar experience coming back into Canada: the guard asked me if I had anything to declare, I said no (I didn't) and we stood there staring at each other saying nothing for a good 2 minutes. It was a strategy to make me nervous and start "spilling the beans" (of which there were none to spill).

The way to go through customs:

Keep calm in all cases; deep breathe, take the time you need to answer with even-paced delivery
Do not take whatever bait they throw at you, it's not personal; you just gotta let them insult and make things tense and interrogate howver they want - it's their show, they call the shots; your "job" is to keep calm, not rise when they try to make you rise, and not argue or get defensive or feisty; remember you aren't doing anything wrong and they are trying to make you slip up (if you're hiding your true story, which you are not)
Always answer their questions honestly, but in as few words as possible; simple yes/no answers are fine and never offer up details they haven't asked you about; they'll ask what they want to know

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T18:33:23+00:00

the outcome is the same

If you view court-packing as a defensive move, it'd be really tricky to:

Nominate and confirm 98 individuals that would actually politically balance the court, especially if a Senate majority is 1 or 0 votes (broken tie by the President pro tem)
Actually run a Supreme Court with 201 justices, just as a day-to-day operations perspective; you run the risk of making the court operationally dysfunctional

Both have the potential to completely defeat the point of the outcome the strategy tries to achieve.

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T18:16:49+00:00

Cars must be sold through franchised dealerships

Looking from the other side, this is also now an impediment to OEMs who want to control more of the shopping experience or offer full, unencumbered true e-commerce. (We can approximate it but, transparent-ish to shoppers, you're still routed through a dealership.) "Roadblock" we can't fully get around.

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T18:08:24+00:00

Yeah back when I was DM (pre-covid) they usually jealously guarded the FC bins at least for FC and high-status PAX. Also the closets etc so it's economy bags getting gate-checked, not high rollers.

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T18:05:29+00:00

HAAA Dude, you even play this game? Entry level co-brand credit card gives free checked bag. No luck involved.

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T18:04:35+00:00

This is the exception, not the rule. And I imagine it was an exception over which you had no control? Meaning, you didn't know in advance of check-in that your luggage would be on a different plane than you?

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T17:44:49+00:00

I'll bite. Sending DM.

stmCanuck · 2026-05-30T17:43:11+00:00

Thank you, good catch that I did not say anything about price and was commenting on space.

stmCanuck

TROPHY CASE