New York - Day 29

Interlake RV Park, Rheinbeck
Tuesday, 29 May 2018

today's route

I drove more than 80 miles before we got out of the Adirondacks.  After so many years of being away from mountains, I felt at home again.  Of course there are evergreens everywhere and, now that spring has finally come, the understory is packed too, so it's easy to understand that old saying of not being able to see the forest for the trees.

Wild lilacs are blooming, rhododendrons are blooming.  There are small parking areas all along the road for hiking trails.  Adirondack Park is managed by New York state and is the largest publicly protected area in the Lower 48.  I'll bet it covers at least 1/4 of the land in the state.

I've been seeing Blue Jays again.  Maybe I've been seeing them and not paying attention, but I don't remember seeing them for a couple of months.

Once I got south of Albany, I hit the Taconic Parkway.  I kept thinking of Nero Wolfe's Archie Goodwin, who several times drove this parkway.  It is a parkway, too, with beautiful trees all around and no advertising.  It was apparently convertible weather, I say because I saw at least 3 with their tops down driving on the parkway.

As we left the parkway to go into Rheinbeck, we passed a restaurant with a sign showing a very large fork, and the name of the place was Another Fork in the Road.

In Rheinbeck, I stopped to walk the dogs and find a grocery store.  I couldn't help noticing that today was trash pick-up day, and the containers said, "Welsh Sanitation Service - Your Friendly Garbologist."  My first time for that word.  Somebody's got a sense of humor.

I'm back in the Hudson River Valley, this time on the east side of the river.  Trees trees everywhere.  More chipmunks.  Small towns connected by US and state routes, named with no creativity whatsoever: US 9, US 9E, US 9W, St. Rt. 9G, St. Rt. 9D, St. Rt. 9J.  You really have to know what road you want to keep from getting on the wrong one.  And though they may be designated highways, they're really just 2-lane streets connecting places that aren't very far apart.  With lots of trees in between.  Verdant. 

New York - Day 26 - Lake Champlain/Plattsburgh

Cumberland Bay State Park

Saturday, 26 May 2018

Since I had to check out of my non-electric site this morning but couldn’t get my electric site until this afternoon, I decided to go see if I could get a clear view of Lake Champlain.  The bay this campground is on faces south and I’m not sure how much of what I’m looking at is the actual lake.

today's route

The campground is just a few miles north of Plattsburgh, which is just a few miles north of a village called Valcour, which the map says has a clear view of Lake Champlain.  The route on the map is pretty clear but I looked it up on Google just to be sure.  Despite all that, I found once again that the roads aren’t marked in real life the way everybody says they’re supposed to be marked, and I had to drive around in Plattsburgh for a while before I could find the right road.  Plattsburgh is small enough that you wouldn’t think you even could drive around a while, but I managed it.  Twice, counting later on.

But first, I drove into town under a huge banner reading, “Georgia Pacific Welcomes You To Plattsburgh.”  So I guess I know what the main industry is.

I drove south of town and did indeed find some unobstructed views of a body of water that was clearly Lake Champlain, and I had an equally clear view of Vermont on the other side.  Very pretty view.

Lake Champlain

Along the way I passed something called the Stoneledge Sculpture Garden, which I’m guessing is the work of a single person, probably the man who was cutting the grass when I went by.  I stopped briefly in someone’s driveway (this road not having a shoulder either) to gawk.  The sculptures were mostly of metal in a wide variety of shapes.  He’d even done the Last Supper.  It was remarkable and I wish I’d been able to figure out where I could park so I could get some pictures.  If you ever find yourself in the neighborhood, take a drive south of Plattsburgh on St. Rt. 9, or you can look it up online - it's got a website.

Back in Plattsburgh, I tried to find the CVS the internet assured me was there.  Once again, nothing looked like Google had told me it would.  I mean, who can you trust anymore?  I got lost and then poked around a little and got found again.  Thank goodness I’ve just got this little RV so it doesn’t matter so much if I have to pull into a Tractor Supply parking lot to let Jasper out to use the box and the dogs to get a walk and me try to get directions.  The local 4-H was having a car wash there, but they reluctantly refused to wash my RV.  Not quite that small, apparently.

I finally found the CVS (too bad, it only had some of what I wanted) and I found a grocery store and a wine store across the street, so we got provisioned up to be able to stay a couple of days at the campground without having to go out again.  I thought everybody could use the break.

Our new campsite is within view of the bay, and it’s also within view of dozens of other occupied campsites, almost every one with a dog.  That wouldn’t matter so much except neither one of my dogs is willing to pass another dog without reacting somehow.  Plus Gracie’s gotten so hypersensitive that she can’t stand even so much as the sound of a child’s voice pitched at a perfectly reasonable level, let alone screaming as they do when they’re having fun.  If it were up to her, we’d never get back to our RV once we’d left it because we’d never be able to go past the campsites with little kids, bouncing balls or other dogs – i.e. all of them.  Truly pathetic.

New York - Day 15

Keuka State Park

Tuesday, 15 May 2018

today's route

Leaving the Allegany State Park, we passed the Seneca Casino.  And presumably also Hotel because the building must have been 15 stories tall and it just couldn’t all have been casino.

For some time yesterday and today I saw highway signs like these and assume they show the names in the Seneca language as well as English. 

My plans for the day got torpedoed by the critters.  First Gracie decided she was probably going to be carsick.  I’ve learned that we can head that off by letting her out to walk a bit – fresh air, exercise, chance to poop – so I turned off at the next exit we came to.  That road was one of the bumpier ones we’ve been on and got so obnoxious that in desperation I just pulled off the road into a miscellaneous side road and pulled onto the half-shoulder.  Gracie and Dexter and I had a nice little walk and, fortunately, I was the only one of the 3 of us who saw the 2 deer looking intently at us.  But I started getting very nervous because I was remembering a road sign I’d seen just before I pulled off saying to look out for bears for the next 3 miles.  With the long winter, they’re probably starving and I just did not want to deal with that situation.  It was hard to get the dogs back into the RV.

Then back over the extremely bumpy road, onto the highway, and Jasper started yowling.  I was assuming that was his I-need-to-pee yowl and couldn’t find an actual exit so I just pulled onto the shoulder.  There was enough room on the shoulder, but people don’t always pull into the other lane and my mirrors stick out quite a way, and when I looked out the back window and saw a semi bearing down on us and not moving into the other lane, I got very nervous again.  And after all that, Jasper didn’t want to pee.

So we went on again.  And it happened again.  And again no results.  By then my nerves were getting frazzled and I needed to take a break to regroup because so much time had passed that I hadn’t planned on.  The next decent-sized town had a sign saying “Welcome to Hornell, Est. 1888, Home of Bill Pullman.” For those who can’t quite place him, Bill Pullman is the fiance who loses out in “Sleepless in Seattle” and he’s one of my favorite actors.  I had no idea.  It looks like a nice little town.  It calls itself “Maple City” and is probably beautiful in the fall.

I’d intended to drive to see Mark Twain’s grave today and then go to the campground, but given the extra time we were using, I decided to save that for tomorrow and go straight to the campground.  I was pretty tired when we finally got set up anyway so it’s just as well.

Not far from the border with Pennsylvania I saw a sign saying I was entering the Lake Ontario Watershed.  That surprised me.  Lake Erie is much closer to where I was.

The small town of Hammondsport at the south end of Keuka Lake has a lovely town square – very old fashioned with a band stand in the middle.

Isn’t this beautiful?  I came upon it suddenly on the small winding road along the west side of Keuka Lake. 

Keuka is pronounced Cuke-ah – cuke like cucumber.  I guess you have to be from New York for that pronunciation to make sense.

I keep ending up in campgrounds with no wi-fi access, which is why these aren’t getting posted in a reasonable amount of time.  I’ll get them out soon, though.

New York - Day 12 - Niagara Falls vacinity

Yellow Warbler
(not my photo)

Evangola State Park, near Buffalo
Saturday, 12 May 2018

The KOA campground had quite a few yellow warblers, and they are so pretty.  A picture can't capture their beauty as they flit around looking like bits of sunshine.

Today I wanted to see Niagara Falls and was stumped again because I have both an RV (which isn't welcome in many parking lots) and living critters inside it (which I don't want to leave without knowing how I'm going to get back to them).

The parking lot at the American Falls - the largest that's entirely on US soil (so to speak) said no RVs allowed.  I could park farther down the road and take a shuttle in, which I'd have been glad to do, but then I'd have been at the mercy of someone else's schedule in trying to get back to the critters, and I'm just not comfortable with that.  I may feel differently in a year or two, but that's where I am now.

Instead, I went even farther back down the road to the Whirlpool State Park, and the dogs and I took a 2-mile round-trip walk down a trail that allowed me a view of the mist coming off the falls.  Unfortunately, the photo I took doesn't begin to show the power of it.

my photo

I realized later if I'd hiked another quarter mile I could have gotten a better picture, but I wasn't going to go back - I couldn't drive to that trail - it was pedestrian and bike only.

The mist sprayed so high into the air it was breathtaking.  Literally, it took my breath away.  The power behind it must be enormous.

internet photo

I cribbed this photo of American Falls because I never got to see the falls themselves.  I drove around the area a while but just couldn't figure out how to do it.  Decided that would be something for another time and, after all, I saw their power.

Speaking of which, I was surprised, though I shouldn't have been, to see a hydro plant there.  Of course they have been harvesting the power that's so obvious, and they've been doing it for almost 150 years.  There's even a treaty with Canada about it.

That's Canada, by the way, in my photo.  It's right across the Niagara River.  What I also hadn't realized, and it's about time I learned this, is that the water that makes the falls comes from 4 of the Great Lakes - the last one being Erie - and flows into the 5th (Ontario).

After I left the falls area, I drove into North Tonawanda.  Right.  I've never heard of it either but it was a major hub for the amusement ride and player piano/organ industries.  I learned this at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum.  What a delight!  Mr. Herschell first saw a carousel in New York City and decided he could build that, and did in 1883.  He called it a steam riding gallery (it was powered by steam) and it was considered the original thrill ride for adults - no children allowed.  Just as well - the early ones went 8-10 mph.

"Factory" connotes a mechanized approach that wasn't there.  Instead, all the horses and so forth were carved by hand out of real wood.  The carvers came from a number of countries and spoke many different languages and tended to communicate with each other using drawings of what they should be doing.  The music came from a player organ (like a player piano), especially after a military one was perfected (it sounded like a military band and could play marches).

My $5 senior admission bought me, in addition to the exhibits, a ride on a carrousel (their spelling) - one of the first 3 they built, back in 1916.  And they were the original horses and everything.  It was wonderful.  Their motto is: Once around is never enough.

The state park I'm in now is on Lake Erie - my old friend from Erie, PA.

Tomorrow I'm going back into Buffalo to see a few things there if I can.

today's route

New York - Day 5 - Ithaca

Sampson State Park

Saturday, 5 May 2018

Taughannock Falls

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Also it’s Kentucky Derby Day!  (What a culture clash.)

This state park doesn’t owe its existence to the CCC but instead to WWII.  The second largest naval training station in the US was established here, it was used as an Air Force base during the Korean War, and then was promoted to a state park.  The original infrastructure is either being repurposed or going back to nature.

I’m guessing the entrance road was the original because it’s so bumpy (think bump bump bumpety, look at Frosty go) I have to slow down to 10 mph to keep everybody from being jolted out of their beds.

Spring has come to the Finger Lakes region – the trees are showing spring green, the fruit trees and redbuds are blooming, tulips are wide open in people’s yards, japonica is blooming – everywhere is beautiful.

Except for the flies.  I’m guessing these are the black flies I heard about and they are a NUISANCE.  Unless there’s a breeze to keep them away, they swarm and pester and generally make being outdoors not so pleasant.  Let’s hear it for the breezes!

I turned off the state road (like the farm to market roads in Texas) to visit Taughannock Falls.   At 215’ it is the tallest single drop waterfall in the northeast US.  It’s hard to get a photo that conveys the size.  I took the one with the little family at the viewing station to try to give some perspective, but I’m not sure that worked.  The Falls flows down its gorge into Cayuga Lake.  While we were there I took the dogs for a walk in the woods down a trail the parks people had laid out.  Very pleasant until we ran out of breeze and the flies drove me back to the RV.  The dogs didn’t seem to mind so much, but I did and I was in charge.

I wanted to see Cornell University because I’ve known their school song since I was a kid.  I don’t remember when I learned those words, but I can still sing almost all of it.  It starts, “Far above Cayuga’s waters . .  stands our noble Alma Mater” and in fact, it is.  It sits on a pretty tall hill at the end of Cayuga Lake and is a very pretty setting.  The directions I’d gotten off Google told me to turn at Stewart Street, and when I did I found myself on a steep narrow brick-paved street that caught me off-balance in trying to negotiate the school traffic situation.  They allow absolutely no parking as far as I can tell, unless you’ve got a permit, which I didn’t.  I really wanted to take a picture from up there but could never find a place to stop.

At about that same time Jasper started yelling at me, which I’ve learned means he wants to use the box.  I kept telling him I was trying to find a place to stop, like that would make a difference to him.  I kept driving and kept not finding anyplace even to stop, and then found myself suddenly in another town – Forest Home – that I think was a little place jammed up against the school and Ithaca.

Without warning I found I’d be crossing a one-lane bridge and, after successfully negotiating that hazard I miraculously found myself at the Cornell Botanical Gardens – with a parking lot – because they wanted people to come visit them.  So we did.  I had to back and forth a bit to fit into a parking spot, but Jasper made it out of his crate just in time.

The botanical gardens had a wildflower garden and clearly contemplated having doggie visitors, so I took the dogs on a little walk.  The garden runs along Falls Creek, which that 1-lane bridge spanned, and which had a pair of Common Mergansers and a Canada goose.  I’m guessing there was another goose somewhere nearby sitting on a nest but didn’t see it.

Falls Creek 1-lane bridge

The garden was lovely, even at this early time of year.  After we walked a bit, we found ourselves at a gate in a 7’ tall fence.  A sign said they’d tried every non-lethal method they could think of to keep the deer from stripping their garden bare up to the 4’ they could reach and nothing worked until they installed the fence.  Now – like magic – they’ve got a wildflower garden.  The sign invited us to go in, but I decided the dogs might be as destructive as the deer and decided not to.

Some nice women in the parking lot told me how to get back down the hill to downtown and, on the way, I learned that Cornell was the first in the US to establish a school of veterinary medicine.  They now have a companion animal hospital and an equine hospital.

Just past there I stumbled on the Cornell Orchards and a store they operate, advertising apple products and maple syrup.  So of course I stopped and bought some syrup made there at Cornell and some pancake mix from the New Hope company.  That’s tomorrow’s breakfast.

I’d forgotten when I was in town that when I first came through a couple of days ago, I saw the Moosewood Restaurant.  I recognized the logo right away, since I used to have their cookbook, and thought maybe I’d come back, but today I was almost out of town before I remembered and decided not to go back and fight traffic.  You wouldn’t think traffic would be bad on a non-event Saturday.

I stopped at Interlaken on the way back to take a picture of this church, that I’d noticed on the way out.  I just thought it was really pretty – too bad there was no angle that didn’t involve even more power lines than in this shot.  

And the front yard I stopped at to take the photo had some artwork of its own.  I spotted the T. rex, the eagle and the tortoise, I’m not sure if there was more there.  Someone’s very creative.

I’m fixing tacos tonight in honor of Cinco de Mayo.

Lake Bruin State Park, LA

Saturday, 3 March 2018

Lake Bruin State Park, Louisiana

When I walked the dogs this morning, the frogs were singing loudly, and in surround-sound. It was great. It was the first clear night we’ve had in a while and I could see there were lots of stars. But first the tall tall trees blocked my view of almost all of them, and then when the trees thinned out the brightness of the full moon blocked them out. Ah, the drawbacks of scenic beauty. Fortunately, this won’t be my last chance to see them.

Martin Dies, Jr. State Park (TX)

As you can see from the trees in this photo, the dogs were bringing in 6" pine needles instead of oak leaves as at other parks.  It made a nice change.

This park is on one small piece of B. A. Steinhagen Reservoir, which I found this morning when the dogs and I were out.  It's huge.

So I got another lesson as I was leaving.  I stopped to dump the tanks, and as I was getting ready to attach my new hose, another guy pulled up on the other side of the dump station.  He told me not to rush, but I told him to go first because I was new and slow at this.  So instead of going first, he offered to help.  And he walked me through everything step by step.  Very nice young guy named Andrew with 2 young boys ("Can I have a lollipop?"  "No, we haven't had breakfast yet.")  So thanks to his tutorial, I feel much more confident about doing it on my own next time.  I needed some success after that last disastrous time.  Of course, Andrew must be a good country boy because he said yes, ma'am every other sentence.  I kept reminding myself that I'm now old in the eyes of most of the population.

We drove past the town of Jasper, "Jewel of the Forest" according to their sign.  We drove past a home with a large sign in the front yard that said, "You are here."  We drove over the Sabine River, which is the border between Texas and Louisiana in this area.  The river was obviously full.  In fact, I saw standing water everywhere we went today.  It was in all kinds of pockets in the campground and in fields we passed and in drainage ditches - everywhere.  They clearly got the same storm that drove through Texas earlier.

I saw many trees beginning to leaf out, with that lovely spring green color.  I saw white flowering trees and forsythia climbing up other trees to spread lots of yellow.  I saw fields and fields of yellow - it looked like some kind of grass that has yellow flowers.  I saw increasing numbers of magnolias, not yet in bloom of course.  I saw one home that had in its front yard a magnolia that was twice as tall as the house, next to a pine tree that was nearly twice as tall as the magnolia.

I saw an insurance company in Alexandria, LA, with a sign in front saying, "This business proudly owned and operated by God-fearing Americans."  

I've now been to Waterproof, LA.

I'm glad I enjoy most country music, because that's about all I can get on the radio in this part of the world.

I had to stop three different times to ask for directions and talked to some very nice, accommodating people here in Louisiana.

Because of that experience, and the extra hour or more of driving time my lack of directions added on, the first thing I did, after we stopped and I took care of my top 6 priorities, was get on the computer and get detailed directions to my next stop.  Turns out it'll take about double the amount of time we drove today.  I'm definitely staying more than one night there, if they'll let me.

This is a very helpful period.  I'm learning what I can and can't do - physically and mentally.  If what I want to do is see things and talk to people in each state, I obviously can't be doing a lot of driving.  This is good information to have.  I only went about 230 miles or so today, but it was more than enough to make all 5 of us tired.

Lake Bruin State Park is really out of the way but is obviously very popular.  I know this is a Saturday night, but I wouldn't have expected as many people in early March as they have.

My view at Lake Bruin (LA) State Park