New York - Day 22 - Hudson

Saugerties/Woodstock KOA

Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Being unable to visit Eleanor Roosevelt’s home as I’d planned today, I decided to take a look at the FASNY Museum of Firefighting in Hudson.  (FASNY stands for Firefighters Association of the State of New York.  I had to ask.)

FASNY Museum of Firefighting

I spent an hour and a half in there and left only because I was overloaded with information and underloaded with nourishment (it was lunchtime).  I learned a lot that I want to remember so, mindful that people reading this won’t care as much as I did, I’ll put that stuff at the end.

FASNY Fireman's Home

The museum stands in the same grounds as the home for firefighters.  As far as I could tell, it’s a senior living place for people with the one thing in common of having fought fires.  And it looks like it’s pretty well funded because it’s got a lot of land, a baseball field, a cemetery, quite a few memorials, 2 horseshoe pits, a large building that looks like a fire station but had tables set up to feed a lot of people inside – anyway, lots of things, all in excellent condition.

I spent some time after my visit doing errands – gas fill-up, wine shop, grocery store – both in Hudson, which is on the east side of the Hudson River, and in the town of Catskill, on the west side.  Between the two is the Rip Van Winkle Bridge (of course it’s true, I’m not capable of making this stuff up) across the Hudson, which finally gave me a good view of the river.  It really is pretty.  Woods all along both sides, and they continue along all of the river I’ve been driving along these last few days.  This whole area is heavily wooded, with many hills – right next to the Catskill Mountains after all and not far south of the Adirondacks.  I can see where the Hudson River Valley school of painting got its inspiration.

Now that it’s spring here, complete with April showers (never mind that it’s late May), the wisteria and honeysuckle are blooming and it’s really pretty.  Everything’s finally green.

Ticks are common now.  I find one on me at least once a week and ditto on Gracie.  They just don’t seem to like Dexter, though, which is a good thing but I wish I knew what makes him special.

I’ve been trying all month to get photos of the license plates and finally managed today.  The bright yellow ones seem to be the current plates, and the white with blue trim seem to be the previous ones that everybody’s still using.  I'm sorry I couldn't get a closer shot (that's what my camera doesn't want to do anymore) and am hoping you can blow these up if you want a better look.

 While I was taking pics of plates, I shot this photo of a handicapped parking spot.  I’ve noticed they use this symbol frequently here in New York.  Better to show that physical disabilities don't make a person helpless, as other symbols do.

Museum of Firefighting

Here’s some of what I learned:

• In 22 BC, Emperor Augustus created what became the largest well-trained and well-equipped fire brigade in the world, and it was the last one for 1000 years.
• In the Dark Ages, there was no organized firefighting because there was no centralized government or authority.
• In the Middle Ages, William the Conqueror ordered that bells be rung to warn people of a fire. It stuck; later, bells were used on fire trucks and are still important symbols to firefighting.
• In medieval France, there was a law called courvre-feu that required all fires in town to be either out or covered by a specific nighttime hour, so people could sleep with less fear of fires.  From this comes our word “curfew.”
• In 1648, Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherlands, appointed fire wardens who inspected people’s chimneys and fined the people if they harbored a fire hazard.  It was also the law that a homeowner was fined if a fire occurred in his home.  The fines were used to buy firefighting equipment which, back then, was basically buckets and ladders.  These measures actually went a long way toward reducing the number of fires.
• Most homes in the colonies in the 1600s had thatch roofs, but Stuyvesant outlawed both them, in 1647,  and chimneys made of wood, in 1648.  I can see where wooden chimneys and thatch roofs might present fire hazards.
• In 1731, New York City assessed a property tax to pay for pumpers and the city’s residents eagerly awaited their delivery.  Possibly the last time a property tax pleased people.
• In 1736 in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin helped organize one of the first volunteer fire companies in the colonies.  When he wrote, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he was referring to the obviously hazardous, though common, practice of carrying hot coals in open warming pans from one room to another.
• Among our earliest volunteer firemen, count Paul Revere, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
• In the 1800s, all water pipes were made of wood.  Firefighters would drill into a pipe to get water to fight a fire and then plug up the hole.  That’s where our term “fire plug,” meaning a fire hydrant, comes from.
• The sliding poles in fire stations to take the men from upper floors to the engines were introduced in the 1870s; the early ones were wood, and later they were made of metal.
• Pulling the equipment trucks was considered “a man’s job” by firefighters who refused the suggestion of using horses – up until the cholera epidemic in New York City in the 1830s when they had no choice because there weren’t enough healthy men to haul those heavy trucks.  That’s when they learned that the horses actually worked pretty well.  Someone developed a quick hitch harness that allowed a the horses to be attached and ready to go in 14-18 seconds.  Horses were used until the early 1920s.
• There were no water tanker trucks before the 1930s.  People mostly used a bucket brigade or pumped from any easily available water source – a well or a pond, for instance.  Otherwise, they mostly just had to watch the fire burn.
• Water works well on fires because when water is heated by the fire it becomes a vapor; the vapor takes oxygen from the fire; fire can’t burn without oxygen.  How about that?
• In 1968 Bell Telephone first introduced 911 for emergency calls, but that applied only to the phones on the Bell system.  By 1999, when Pres. Bill Clinton signed a bill designating 911 be used for all phones in the US, at least 20 different emergency numbers were in use by all the different independent phone systems.
• 69% of all US firefighters are volunteers – 756,000 of them.
• The Edmonds Company in Hudson is the oldest active chartered volunteer company in New York State, founded in 1794.
• Forest fires were numerous in the 1920s and 1930s because they were deliberately set: blueberry pickers set them, knowing the potash remaining would provide a bumper crop of berries the next year.

While I was at the museum, there were 2 busloads of young elementary school kids touring.  The museum has lots of interactive exhibits, which I enjoyed too.  One of them allows the kids to be part of a bucket brigade to put out a fire and they had a great time doing it.  Not a real fire, of course, but it was a pretty good substitute.  

The museum has dozens of firetrucks from different eras and types.  It also has a semi-resident Dalmatian, Molly, who I met.  She's a descendant from one of the original mascots of the local fire company.  The museum had an exhibit on how Dalmatians became identified as fire company dogs. 

Good museum.  The $10 admission fee was worth the visit. 

New York - Day 17 - Syracuse

Selkirk Shores State Park

Thursday, 17 May 2018

today's route

I spent much of the day driving through farm country, going from near the southern border to northern New York. As I was going by one farm, I glanced to my left and saw a man sitting in a chair in the middle of a fenced garden. And then I realized it wasn’t a man but a creative scarecrow. My first seated scarecrow, but I’ll bet it worked.

I passed another home in a wooded area with lots of houseplants and wood carvings in front. One large one had its back to me but I’m sure it was Dumbledore. You know, you can tell him from behind, which is a trick since he’s not real. But some of the realest stuff is the stuff you want to believe. As our president can attest.

I’d read in several different places that a barbecue place in Syracuse has won awards and achieved far-flung fame for its barbecue so, of course, I had to check it out. Called Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, it’s your basic dive, as you can see in the photo below. I got a combo – you pick 2 meats and 2 sides, they add cornbread – and chose ribs (they have pork only) and brisket plus coleslaw and broccoli slaw. It was a lot more food than it first looked like and it was pretty good (except the cornbread which was inedible, in my opinion), but I’m guessing it wouldn’t win any awards in Texas and likely wouldn’t even get very high on Texas Monthly’s annual list of best BBQ places. But I guess it’s as close as New York’s likely to get without a plane ticket. 

Niagara Mohawk Power Building

Niagara Mohawk bldg. detail

monument

The best part about it, from my point of view, is that it’s only a couple of blocks from what was the center of town a hundred years ago. One street over is Erie Street, which was formed when they filled in and paved over the Erie Canal, which helped bring Syracuse to prominence back when. There’s a town square there, and it has a Soldiers and Sailors Monument on it that was dedicated to Civil War veterans. One block away is a stunning Art Deco building for Niagara Mohawk Power. I tried hard to take photos of these things but just couldn’t do them justice so I cribbed them.

Selkirk Shores State Park is on the edge of Lake Ontario and I’m staying here 2 nights. I can intermittently get a wi-fi signal and, when I can, I’m trying to get reservations for Memorial Day weekend (curse you, national holidays!) and, in fact, the rest of my New York stay.

Because I took so many photos of the continuing winter landscape, I think it's only fair that I show a few now that spring has arrived.  I've seen dogwoods and lilacs (real ones, not the Texas version) blooming away, little wild violets everywhere, including right behind the camper now, spring green leaves, ferns coming up - it's spring now.  Just in time for summer, I hope.

New York - Day 16 - Elmira/Binghamton

Chenango Valley State Park, near Binghamton

Wednesday, 16 May 2018

today's route

My route south from Keuka Lake State Park led along the west side of Seneca Lake; a week or so ago I was camped on the east side at Sampson State Park.  Many vineyards along the lake.  Very pretty country.  I passed one called Pompous Ass Winery.

I was aiming for Elmira to pay my respects at the grave of Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain.  His wife’s family lived in Elmira and he and his family spent quite a bit of time there.  He wrote some of his most famous books there (Huckleberry Finn, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi) but left for good in despair after the premature deaths of several of his children.  After his death, his body was brought back to be buried with his wife and children.  Woodlawn Cemetery seems as old as the town – it’s very large and beautiful with graves much older than those of the Clements family.  The dogs and I all enjoyed our walk there.

  

By then it was 11:00 and we were all getting hungry but I had a plan in mind.  I drove an hour away into Binghamton and, getting turned around only once, went to The Original Lupo’s Char Pit.  They don’t claim to have invented the spiedie but do claim to have

You can see I'd already started eating.

perfected it.  A spiedie (pronounced speedy) is a regional speciality – you can find it only in the Binghamton area but, there, it’s wildly popular.  It’s marinated pork or chicken (usually), cut in chunks and charbroiled on a skewer, then the cook uses a sandwich bun as if it were a potholder to pull the meat off the skewer.  And that’s it – meat and bun.  Nothing else.  It’s the marinade that provides the flavor, which is piquant and delicious.  I had no trouble wolfing down a pork version and didn’t even add salt, which is almost unheard of for me.

After that I planned to get some important chores done. It’s time for Dexter’s annual checkup and I’d located a Banfield Vet Clinic at a PetsMart only a few miles from Lupo’s.  But when we went there, the store told us the Banfield’s had closed about a year and a half ago and that the closest one they knew of was in Albany.  I’ll certainly call that to the attention of someone when I find another outlet, and this time I know to call ahead to confirm when I think I’ve located one.  In the meantime, I’m going to be nervous because it really is time for Dexter’s shots (fortunately not his rabies shot - NY state parks wouldn't let us in without it - but everything else).

Then I went to a CVS to pick up 2 prescriptions I’d called ahead about, only to discover one of them didn’t have any refills left and I need to call my doctor to get another one.  Of course, then I have the problem again of planning ahead to locate a CVS I can get to easily to have it sent to for filling.  Meanwhile, I’m out of that medication, which is supposed to help my blood pressure.

Well, I’m not expecting any serious stress ahead, and when I can get a wi-fi signal, I’ll look up my doctor’s phone number.  (I’m absolutely certain that I brought her business card but couldn’t find it or any of the others I know I brought, even after a 20-minute search.  They’ll show up when I don’t need them and I’ll need to figure out a better spot to put them in.)

I’d originally intended to spend more time in Binghamton because it calls itself the Carousel Capital of the World, but earlier in the month I looked them up and learned that, of the 6 remaining antique carousels here, all are closed until Memorial Day.  I can tell you that the flight simulator was invented here, and IBM was founded near here, and in 1858 the New York State Inebriate Asylum was established as the first in the country to treat alcoholism as a disease.  Interesting place, huh?  Binghamton’s at the confluence of the Susquehana and Chenango Rivers, so there are 11 bridges in town.

This state park, a great deal of which was built by the CCC, is located around 2 kettle lakes formed about 11,000 years ago when the glacier sheet retreated.  It’s pretty and wooded and quiet.

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 10 - Rochester

Lakeside Beach State Park

Thursday, 10 May 2018

I’ve figured out at least part of the reason I’ve been cranky lately: I’m getting frustrated at not having time enough to see all the things I want to see.  Take today, for instance.

I drove in to Rochester, intending to go to at least 3 specific sights (Susan B. Anthony Home, George Eastman’s Home, and the Seneca Art & Culture Center at the Ganondaga State Historical Site) and do 2 specific chores (laundry & grocery shopping); what I was able to do was 1 chore and see 1 sight.  That’s been happening more and more, and I’m finding it hard not to be disappointed at what I’m not able to see, rather than pleased by what I am able to see.  I need an attitude adjustment fast, because the next 4 years are going to be like that.

I got started a little later than I’d intended, then encountered a very rough road that slowed me down to under 40 mph, then got lost.  By the time I got found again, it was already 10:30 and I knew I’d have to pare down my list.  This was disappointing because I’d already had to pare it down – the International Museum of Photography is closed for several months and the Strong Museum of Play (huge building with toy collection) charged a high admission cost and seemed to be currently displaying mostly toys from the last 15 years or so, which I’m not interested in, though I did want to see the original Monopoly set and Barbie.

Anyway, I decided on 2 sights I really wanted to get to, got Google directions from where I was to the first one, and then got lost again.  I was aiming for the Susan B. Anthony Home and kept telling myself my difficulties were nothing compared to the battles she fought, and that helped.

Once I found it, I learned they have lots of photos of the house taken at various times while she lived there, including many of the rooms, so they’ve been able to reproduce or track down original furnishings for much of it.  The house next door belonged to Anthony’s sister, and that’s being used as a gift shop and office and exhibit room.  The docent who showed me around the home was tiny – about 4’9” maybe – and probably 20 years older than me, and she knew a lot about her subject and enjoyed talking about it.  Her tour took us to the 3^rd story of the home, which Anthony had converted from an attic into an office, and I can’t even imagine how that docent managed to climb those steep stairs every day.

The house on the left is Susan's, on the right is her sister's

She explained that Anthony’s father had to declare bankruptcy when she was young and, because women could not legally own property, her mother’s inheritance from her parents (and her mother’s eyeglasses) could be taken to satisfy her father’s debts.  This experience, coupled with those of all the married women she knew, convinced her to fight to win the right for women to own their own property.  The right to vote sort of trotted along with that fight, because women were more likely to gain the right to own property if they could vote.

She worked her entire adult life, usually in collaboration with others such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, her friend for 50 years, to gain these goals.  She traveled all over the country as a guest speaker, earning a living on the payment for these speeches.  The right to vote was gained after she died, but the bill in Congress was called the Susan B. Anthony Law.

By the time I was done with that visit and then walked the dogs and fed everybody, it was nearly 1:30.  My 2^nd priority was the Seneca Culture Center, located about 30 miles southeast of Rochester.  My campground is northwest of town.  Very reluctantly I decided to give up the idea and looked for a laundromat instead.  There I got lucky, finding a clean, staffed place almost next door to a Chase Bank branch.  So I got 2 things done at once.  And by then it was about 3:30 and traffic was already picking up.

I’d been thinking Rochester was a small town, like Ithaca, but I finally looked it up and learned it’s New York’s 3^rd largest town, with 209,000 in town and nearly a million in the metro area.

Not far from downtown, I was surprised to find a wall mural proclaiming the Little Italy Historic District.  I hadn’t really thought about Rochester’s history much beyond the Eastman Kodak thing.  In downtown Rochester I saw a huge building with “Gannett Newspapers” carved in stone on at least 2 sides; it’s been there long enough to have been able to afford the craftsmen to do the carving.  Maybe some of those Italian immigrants.

I've never seen a Methodist church that looked like this one.

The ride back included that same very rough road – it’s so rough the highway department has signs up warning motorists of a rough road.  The slowdown made the drive longer.  The compensation was that the road, called Lake Ontario State Parkway, ran mostly alongside Lake Ontario with lots of vineyards along the road and really was pretty.

Across the road at intervals are a number of attractive arched stone bridges.  The problem with them is they have a low clearance, and the highway dept. announces that in very large numbers, though without giving anybody a chance to get off the road if they don’t fit.  I’d go under a section marked “11’5”” and tell myself I measured my RV myself and know I’m lower than 11’.  It was unnerving, though.  Over and over, because there are quite a few of those bridges.

I saw a wild turkey by the side of the road.

On the radio I heard there’d been a celebration today honoring the New York Canal System’s 100 years in existence, and from somewhere they produced one of the shovels used way back then in digging the canal.  Digging by hand.  Imagine the work involved.

The only TV stations I pick up in this campground are Canadian.  Of course they give the temperature in Celsius, and I haven’t looked up a translation but getting down to 3° sounds cold.

Without being able to pick up a wi-fi signal in this park, I’ve been unable to use this time to plan the rest of my New York trip, or post on this blog, or answer emails.  It’s relaxing but now I don’t have anyplace planned to stay after tomorrow night near Niagara Falls.  At least that’s a KOA and I’ll definitely have wi-fi.

New York - Day 3 - Seneca Falls

Cayuga Lake State Park
Thursday, 3 May 2018

On our morning walk, we saw a flock of 9 geese, that I'm pretty sure were snow geese, though I had to look in the bird book to be sure they were here (since I've only seen them in Washington before) and a Great Blue Heron and a chipmunk.  I've seen the geese and the chipmunk several times since then today - they're hanging around like we are.

today's route

I went in to Seneca Falls to the Women's Rights National Historical Park, run by the National Park Service.  The women's rights movement originated here in the 1840s.  I had no idea the women's rights movement was as closely aligned with the anti-slavery movement as it was:

In 1840 the World Anti-Slavery Convention met in London, where the male delegates decided not to seat the female delegates.  Two of the rejected delegates - Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott - met for the first time and had plenty of time to talk.  Ms. Mott was a Quaker abolitionist, and she called on others to meet with Ms. Stanton; together they organized the First Women's Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls in 1848.  (You know, this is what happens when men try to put women in their proper place.)  Seventy years later, women had the right to vote.  Some of the few men to support the women were involved in abolitionist work.

The team that did much of the work to achieve equality for women was Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who were introduced to each other on a street corner by Amelia Bloomer in 1851.

This Seneca Falls statue commemorates that meeting 

At that museum I learned about another distinction for Seneca Falls.  Take a look at this bridge.

George Bailey meets Clarence here

Picture the bridge covered in snow with George Bailey talking to Clarence.  Okay, "It's a Wonderful Life" was filmed here, with Seneca Falls substituting for Bedford Falls, as you can see on the street signs leading to the bridge.  There's also a It's a Wonderful Life Museum here too.

Afterwards I drove out to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, which is only a few miles out of town.

Many years ago this area was hundreds of acres of wildlife habitat.  Then the marsh was drained for farmland.  The National Fish and Wildlife people have acquired the land and are gradually restoring the habitat.  You probably can't see it because of my lack of photographic skill but there are birds all over the place in this photo.  Red-winged blackbirds in the grasses and many different duckies out on the water.  And the F&W signs say lots of little mammals (think mice) live in the grasses, and they're hunted by red foxes and other such critters.  It's a huge area that covers miles and is really nice to see.

On my way back to the campground I stopped at a grocery store - another really odd one.  This one was, as far as I could tell, run by Amish people, with a strong emphasis on products that were naturally produced and signs posted all over the store reminding their customers that they'll be "Closed on May 10, Ascension Day, In Observance of our Savior's Ascension into Heaven," they say.  I can honestly say I've never seen a sign quite like that in a grocery store - even the ones that close for Christmas.   I feel like I keep running into odd grocery stores - and all I wanted were some lettuce and mustard (which they had) and mandarin oranges (which they didn't).

Pennsylvania - Day 16 - Presque Isle

Erie KOA, PA

Monday, 16 April 2018

When I checked in yesterday, they told me I was lucky I’d come from Pittsburgh because people who were supposed to come from Buffalo were delayed by an ice storm along the road. Buffalo’s about an hour NE of here. We didn’t get an ice storm here, but the temperature today started out at 41° and has gone down to 34° as the day’s gone on. And the weather report says the wind chill’s gotten down to 24° now by 5:30.

So of course I decided to spend the day out-of-doors and go to Presque Isle State Park. A young woman at the grocery store told me it was the thing she liked best about living in Erie; “we’re lucky to have it,” she said. And I can see she’s right.

I cribbed this photo because it's so illustrative

It’s this odd little peninsula that juts up into Lake Erie, but unusually it curves around so it almost touches land again at the other end. Apparently it used to, and the wind blowing across Lake Erie keeps shifting the sand around. Since the 1840s, the Army Corps of Engineers has been experimenting with different ways to stabilize it, and only about 20 years ago have they found a method they think might work – as much as that’s possible.

At the entrance to the state park is the Tom Ridge Environmental Center. I hadn’t intended to stop there because the only thing I’d heard about it is that it’s a Green building, which is good but not an attraction to me. However, after I’d spent a couple hours driving all the way to the end and back and stopping to look at the birds and Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie, I was curious and thought I’d see if there was anybody who could tell me about the Isle.

What I found is a wonderful exhibit about the formation (dating back to the last Ice Age) and the continuing re-formation and the wildlife and plant life and all sorts of things. And, by the way, a pretty neat building with innovative building materials and techniques.

On Presque Isle is a memorial to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who built his fleet of US warships here in the bay during the 1814-1815 winter. Can you imagine building ships during an Erie winter? They were so low on building materials they used wooden nails. The fleet was needed because the US was fighting England in the War of 1812, which mostly started over the British habit of raiding US ships at sea and conscripting our sailors for their boats.

They weren’t just on the Atlantic but also patrolling the Great Lakes, which they justified by their territory in Canada. Perry won the Congressional Medal for an incredible display of bravery and tactics that fooled the British into believing US might was vastly superior to what it really was. He’s the one with the motto “Don’t Give Up The Ship,” which was on his flag flown on each ship he was on. He’s also the one who notified his superiors, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” And they were, too.  It was the first time in history an entire British naval squadron surrendered (per Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/Oliver-Hazard-Perry

The white specks are Egrets, the dark things in the water are
Scaup and Merganser, and Erie is in the background.

Presque Isle Bay was full of seabirds. I saw thousands of Scaup, easily 100 Bufflehead (meaning there were many more than that), dozens of Red-breasted Mergansers, several Great Egrets in a little bay off the Bay, even a Shoveler. And the weather was fit only for the birds. I walked the dogs at the Perry Memorial and couldn’t believe how rotten it was, being so cold and windy. Surprisingly, there were quite a few very hardy people walking along the pedestrian path.

Presque Isle Lighthouse

On the Lake Erie side is the Presque Isle Lighthouse, designated a national historic landmark, built in 1872, and apparently very needed because an exhibit at the enviro. center said there are a lot of wrecks in the lake. Also all along the Lake Erie side are beaches, with real sand, and I imagine the joint is jumpin’ in the summer. Not so much today. Presque Isle is called “Pennsylvania’s only seashore.”

Lake Erie beach with breakwater

Lake Erie - note the whitecaps

I’d intended to poke around town some and visit the Erie Maritime Museum and the Erie Playhouse (the 3rd oldest community theater in the US), and see the 19th century Victorian mansions on Millionaire’s Row, and see the lighthouse in Erie (because only one lighthouse apparently wasn’t enough to prevent wrecks). But with the weather so crummy, and with all the time I’d spent in the state park and enviro. center, I decided to get groceries and go back to the campground.

Pennsylvania - Day 12 - Flight 93 Memorial

Kooser State Park, PA

Thursday, 12 April 2018

Today I planned to go to 2 Park Service sites: the Flight 93 Memorial and Fort Necessity National Battlefield.  I ended up going only to the first, mainly due to how long it takes to go only a few miles, when the roads wind around and go UUUPPP hill and DOOWWN hill.  The speed limit is irrelevant.  There was one hill with a 9% grade and another with a 10% grade and signs mandated a truck speed limit of 35 mph and use of a lower gear.  I thought that was good advice for me too.  It didn’t help at all that the wind picked up dramatically as the day went on.  Anyway, I’ll go to the battlefield tomorrow on my way to Pittsburg.

First I had to make a stop in Somerset, which is the first town near the state parks.  It turns out to be a really nice little town.  Population 6200 in the 2010 census.  Parking meters cost 10¢ an hour.  I know because I found a place to park and discovered I could pick up a signal on my hotspot, so I just stayed to use the wi-fi and paid for 2 meters.  A bargain at 20¢.

I learned Pittsburg is going to get the great weather Philadelphia is scheduled for this weekend, which is a relief.  I was afraid I’d be missing it when I came west.  Great in this context means night temps in the 50s, which I prefer because I’m planning to stay at a Walmart Friday and Saturday.

The main thing I wanted to look up were directions to the memorial.  Turns out there were signs everywhere, but you never know.

Before I left on this trip, I watched the movie “Flight 93” so I had at least some orientation.  But the visitor center does a really good job of both explaining the sequence of events, as well as telling about the people on board and there are audio playbacks of some of their calls home.

 The visitor center is aligned with the flight path, and a walkway ends in an observation deck that lets you see down into the field. The plane was going 563 mph when it crashed, upside down, and exploded.  There was almost nothing left when first responders got there except holes in the ground – the impact had disintegrated everything.  They found bits and pieces over a huge area, and found enough to be able to get DNA proof of the identities of the passengers and crew.  They also found the playbook of the hijackers, which was identical to those found among the effects of the other hijackers.

the visitor center from near the memorial

the debris field is behind the wall ahead

The media kept talking about a field near Shanksville, PA, and that’s exactly what it is.  It’s a farming area, except for an old coal mining site, which is where the plane landed.  The debris field is off-limits, of course.  On the far left of the visitor center photo and the far right of the wall photo is a white wall with the names of the passengers and crew.  The whole place was very powerful.  Those folks must have been incredibly brave, and incredibly scared.

The rangers told me the wind is almost always a force there, and just over a hill was a wind farm that was working quite well.

On the road going out there I passed a turnoff to Skunk Holl Rd.  Where do you suppose that name came from?  Does holl mean something or were they intending to say holler or hollow and just didn’t have room on the sign?

There were Canada geese nesting at the memorial area.   There are robins EVERYWHERE.  I don’t remember seeing as many robins in a whole summer in Austin as I’m seeing in any miscellaneous park here.  I hear a woodpecker in almost every park I’ve stayed in on this whole trip.  Presumably not the same woodpecker.  I’ve been seeing chickadees in most of the parks and flocks of red-winged blackbirds in many of the fields.  I’ve started seeing crows as I’ve come north.  I’m seeing quite a few birds I don’t recognize easily but haven’t pulled out my binoculars quickly enough.

The park I’m in tonight is smack up against the one I stayed in last night.  Both were built by the CCC, as I learned at a statue and display at yesterday’s park.  In fact, it looked like the CCC built almost every park in Pennsylvania.  I like this one better, but that’s probably partly because the sun’s shining and it’s warm.  Also because I just had a hot shower and am parked on gravel instead of last night’s muddy grass.  And so far apparently no deer, which is a relief because of Dexter’s reaction.  But I’m hearing lots of frogs from a nearby stream.

On my way to Somerset this morning, I saw a pitched tent, with a bicycle parked next to it at the edge of an unused field beside the road.  Wonder what his trip’s about.