August finds us in Upstate New York
This is the 9th time we have traveled with my brother Will and Pam. As before it is always an adventure with lots to do and see and this is no exception. We hooked up in Albany NY on the 3rd of August and spent the entire month traveling to the Catskills, then down the St. Lawrence Seaway, into Lake Ontario region, wound through the Finger Lakes and Lake Champlain, up to Lake Erie along Marblehead, Ohio,, then into Michigan for some chicken dinner before ending our trip in the Upper Peninsula (September).
Ingenious Brother
For the life of me can’t figure out why we never thought of this trick – listen up you campfire people. We really had a string of very bad wood. It would light up, then just smolder. No about of fanning or blowing on it would produce a fire worth sitting around UNTIL brother Will drags out the extension cord with a fan attached and that put an end to the smokies. Now the protocol for every fire is lots of kindling (provided by Bunyan Ty), a firestarter, big stack of wood tepee style, and the fan. We settle in with after dinner drinks, blankets, and lay back on our chairs and watch the night sky. Perfect way to end the evenings.
StJamesWaterloo
Swim Lk Ontario
This area is beautiful and if I ever want to “settle” someplace for the summer, this would be it. But of course, it is way too far from family and friends, way too far to make travel convenient but upstate NY sure is a beauty.
Brothers Rig Kitty
Brother also upgraded his rig this year and now travels with Kitty.
And roaming the campgrounds as we do looking at all the rigs, came across this one that looks just like the one my parents had 40 years ago!
Did you know that Jamestown is the birthplace of Lucille Ball? Much of our adventure stems from the movie: “The Long Long Trailer” starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez. So naturally we had to pay our respects to Lucy. Visiting cemeteries is not our normal thing to do, but come on, it’s open, free, and one of the few things we can do during covid. Visiting her gravesite is actually a tourist attraction as the cemetery has red hearts painted on the pavement to lead the way.
65!
Pam turned 65 this August and we celebrated in style (of course!). Decorated the camper with streamers and wore party hats/glasses.
I love a good birthday celebration!!!!
Rode Out The Storm
Isaias came thru and rocked the rigs a bit and pelted us with rain for the night. Now we can say we were in a hurricane!
State Capital of New York
Trying to stay with our adventure bucket list, we did a “drive by” of New York’s state capital which is in Albany.
Very unusual building for a state capital.
Visit with Ohio Friends
And what would our adventure be if we didn’t meet up with some old friends from long ago – Pam and Tom Lovitt. They were neighbors of ours when we lived in Huron Ohio, and we got together at their son’s marina, Gem Harbor on Catawba Island. I’ve said it before, and here I am saying it again…it was like no time has passed as the conversation was easy and fun. And I am glad that Tom finally “fessed up” that he and another drank all my scotch one night long ago. That’s ok Tom, couldn’t think of a better person to share with.
Fried Chicken….Family Style (sing this to the Beverly Hillbillies song)
As we quickly moved up Michigan to get to the Upper Peninsula, we just had to stop in at Frankenmuth for some “famous” fried chicken. Then as we got closer to the UP we stopped at Gobblers for turkey. Okay, we got all the foul in 24 hours that I could take.
Ever see a Lake Freighter?
Very impressive. At our campsite right on the St Mary’s River, Sault St Marie MI we watched these behemoths traverse down the river. Saw 4 freighters in all, which is very lucky as days can go by with no boats coming to the locks. The ocean and lake freighters and large river barges need to traverse the river going to and returning from ports in all the Great Lakes so the variety of boats is not usual to see. Fun sight!
That’s all for August
I will say this when with the brother, we are on the constant go – which don’t get me wrong is fun as I really like to be active but even, I have had to ask for a “do nothing” day.
Our travels this year was to initially go into Canada to Nova Scotia and that area, but covid has changed all that. We really didn’t have a travel destination in mind when we decided to hook up in Albany and go where the wind blows us. Turns out our travels opened our eyes to the beautiful upstate New York area.
August sped past and we head into September with Will and Pam for another 10 days. More to come on that later. But gosh, the New York portion has been spectacular. We rode our bikes on Rails to Trails, hiked more than Will likes to, did a tourist stop somewhere every day, made some terrific dinners between us (we have only eaten out maybe eight times), celebrated Pam’s 65th birthday, cocktails every evening and some great night sky watching. We hit the meteor shower perfectly, saw at least 4 satellite every night. The weather was perfect, very little rain, couple of boomer thunderstorms in the night.
Detail of August Spent With Will and Pam
If you are interested in the details, these are all the places we went. Pretty boring read but since this is my journal I like to keep it in one place.
Albany: being our base camp for a few days we explored the Adirondack Mountains. Since Ty and I were there the month before, we took W&P to areas that we found and hiked.
Lewis: still in the Adirondack area, but in the northern part closer to Lake Champlain. Celebrated Pam’s 65 birthday in Lake Placid, one busy town. Trying to imagine what it was like there for the 2 Olympics, 1932 and 1980. Towns didn’t build the big infrastructures like they do now, rather actually scatter the different events to different areas, Lake Placid being the center stage. Again, a lot of hiking. Did you know that on March 6, 1998 Prez Clinton signed a bill that in it had a line declaring Lake Champlain to be a Great Lake! It was rescinded on March 24, 1998. Billy, you didn’t read the fine print!
Massena: We now turned our attention to the St. Lawrence Seaway and decided to make our way “upstream” (west). NY has the most beautiful State Parks to camp in, although it is electric hook up only so we did not stay many consecutive days in one spot. Our campsite was right on the Seaway and it was a lovely shaded place to stay during an incredible heat wave. Watch the lake and ocean freighters pass by on their way to the Eisenhower Locks which was also right at campsite view. Biked around the park and up to the locks.
Henderson: Continuing our upstream run we camped again right on the mouth of SLS and Lake Ontario. Again, just a beautiful place to camp, although this was a private campground. Ty, Pam and I swam in Lake Ontario; water so warm! Ty and I can now have bragging rights that we have swam in all 5 Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario). Took a ferry tour up the river a bit and toured of the the two remaining castles constructed in 1905.
Ovid: Sampson State Park: this campground was originally a Naval and Air Force training facility. It was established in 1941, took 270 days to build the entire compound, housing and barracks, hospital, jail, training facility and landing strip. First used as a Naval training facility during WWII then as a Air Force training for the Korean War. The grounds are massive and just a few original buildings (the brig (jail) remain) today. A portion has been converted into a Marina and Campground which have very spacious spaces. The rest has gone back to nature with a few hiking and biking trails remain where the barracks and such once existed.
Jamestown: we find ourselves camped at Peachies which is a privately owned campground, very small with only 2 transient sites available as the rest are permanent summer residents. It is located right on Lake Chautauqua; Chautauqua is Native American meaning bag with middle tied as that is what the lake looks like. Wondering how they knew that without an aerial view? The fame for this lake is the Chautauqua Institute. For those in CO, you may be familiar with Chautauqua in Boulder which is actually a spin off of the NY C. The original intent was to be an educational learning center for Sunday School Teachers. Then over the years has morphed into an overall encompassing learning center for the arts, for specific sports (tennis and sailing), current event and/or political lectures, music, theatre. We rode our bikes on campus, which you have to get a pass and there was a 4 hour time limit. Of course, nothing is open but it was good to see the campus of higher learning.
Marblehead Ohio: the drive is easy and uneventful but kind of sad as we left the beautiful surroundings of New York and pasted thru a spit of Pennsylvania and into flat, tree less Ohio. We use to live in Huron Ohio so we did spend some time doing a drive by of the house, going to the beach, passing my old knitting store, now a laundry mat, and our favorite place to go on a Friday night, The Sand Bar. This was a place that made great pizza, kids welcomed and just a good ole place. Our waitress was from the area, grew up going with parents to the place, worked there in college, is now married and working there still.
Frankenmuth MI: chicken dinner! This is what Frankenmuth is known for and we decided that we needed to stop for the night while driving up to Upper Michigan. Nothing better than a family style chicken dinner which is enough food for another night’s dinner – left over style.
Sault Ste Marie, Michigan – Soo Locks is where we camped for 2 nights