Postcard from Vermont- 1

Posted on Wednesday, 13 June 2012 by bruce10b

13 June 2012

Brattleboro, VT

Unlike our Le Roy-to-Richfield Springs jaunt, the routing to Brattleboro took us an extra 60 miles to keep us on major roads. It was a surprisingly easy drive for anyone able to ignore the Type-A’s flying around the rig. Most were really friendly giving us their best single-finger wave as they cut in front of us. The drive took us to Albany, NY, then thru a corner of Massachusetts before turning north and heading into Vermont. So we were in some high-traffic areas and I’m sure they were glad to see the last of us. Thankfully we were through the area well ahead of commute time.

Brattleboro North KOA

In Brattleboro it was yet another KOA… the other local parks we could find didn’t have one thing or another on our list: pull-thru, 50A, water, sewer or (most important!) space available. This park is very old and was celebrating their 70th year, though they’ve been a KOA park for just the last 5 (I think!). The sites are arranged in arcs of greater and greater radius, so it was very easy to get in and out.

Our cable reception was not so good, so I mentioned it to the person at the desk who got someone over to look at it (too young to be a Dead Head, but he is and had a great Jerry Garcia T-shirt). In the conversation which followed we learned they had just built a large dog run, so we headed over and turned the girls loose. Kelly went nuts! She just loved running on the grass and took at least a dozen laps. Didn’t hear another peep from Kelly the rest of the nite!

And to keep the girls company they also have a miniature horse they keep at the park, stabled next to the dig run. This is a scaled down version of a full sized horse, not like the big-bellied, ill-tempered Shetland ponies I’m used to seeing. When we approached the park, we saw the owner’s son had the mini-horse (about 4′ at the shoulders maybe) out for a run in the same fenced area. He was having a great time running. Very tame and friendly. Unfortunately I’ve given up trying to carry the camera when we have the dogs out for a walk, so I don’t have any photos.

The awards outnumber the menu items!

We went out for pizza and stopped at the Brattleboro Village Pizza. Great pizza with (to our taste) slightly different seasoning. The owners are Greek (bet they’re glad to not be back in the homeland!) and perhaps that influences the seasoning. Whatever, it was good and we’d go back in a heart beat!

Not sure if there’s a special event for bikers, but we saw a lot of motorcycles the closer we got to Vermont. We’ve been seeing more and more the further we get to the northeast. Great riding country for riding a motorcycle with lots of direction and grade changes to make it interesting.

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Postcard from New York- 3

Posted on Tuesday, 12 June 2012 by bruce10b

12 June 2012

Richfield Springs, NY

Interesting stop:
– If you want a stop with beautiful surroundings with rolling hills and farm land that’s within reach of Cooperstown, NY (Baseball Hall of Fame), you may find the KOA in thus small town worth considering.
– On the other hand, if you like wide roads with a center line, you’d better be careful about letting your GPS route you on it’s own!
– If you enjoy having yours be the only vehicle in sight in any direction, this is definitely for you.

First off, it rained all night before we pulled out of Le Roy, NY. And it rained as I hooked up at Genesee Country Campground. Then it rained all day as we drove here. And it rained while we set up camp. It did stop raining right after I’d finished setting up, thank you very much! Desert rats are not used to this sort of thing. Go ahead… call me a wimp!

The toll roads were a breeze getting here to within 30 miles of the KOA, but once we pulled off the Interstate and headed for the park we were routed onto Cullen Rd… and no one else went our way. Hmm. Is this a sign? or is our black tank over-full and leaving an unpleasant trail? Neither: no one in their right mind takes this route. Sane people sstay on NY-26 and go all the way to US-20. But we persevered. Especially since there was no hope of turning around on this one lane road! For a moment I feared we were in a time warp and had been sent back to the 1880s with all the horse poop along the road, but then I saw the warning signs for horse drawn buggies, so I knew we were back in Amish country again.

On the exceptionally-good-luck side of the story, the Admiral found a pecan pie in the campground store. $7. Cool! Turned out the campground owner had his eye on it, but hey… yuh snooze, yuh lose! They told us Amish ladies come around on Fridays and sell baked goods. That alone is enough reason to visit here!!

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Postcard from New York- 2

Posted on Monday, 11 June 2012 by bruce10b

10-11 June 2012

Rochester

We plugged in the address for Steven & Gordon in Rochester and 45 minutes we were parked in front of what was once a marshmallow factory. Like many of the old buildings in the downtown area, this one has been converted to apartments. There are 3 buildings interconnected by an enclosed walkway so you can get from your apartment to the parking garage without braving the nasty Rochester winter weather that normally sees 110″-120″ of snow each year. Yikes!

The Kodak building

Their apartment has a great view of the Genesee River. Unfortunately the river is pretty industrial… which means it’s green enough to need mowing! But it’s a great view that most urbanites will never have access to.

Rochester was for many decades the Kodak town. If you watch the evening news you know that Kodak is going underwater and has filed for bankruptcy. Kodak corporate headquarters is visible to the whole of Rochester.

Genesee River

The Admiral’s place in San Francisco was in the Sunset District which is quite a distance from downtown. So this is a different style of living than we’re used to. Very classy apartment, and there’s an Italian restaurant on the ground floor.

Wonder if we’ll any of them at the next Summer Olymoics

Lake Ontario

Gordon got us rounded up and headed for Lake Ontario. There was a volley ball competition going on complete with announcer and boats anchored along the shore to watch. Which apparently has recently become not so legal as they try to keep the beach safer.

The weather had been pretty warm (90 F the day before), but it was very comfortable by the beach. Lots of bare skin that hadn’t seen the sun for 6 months and was just begging for a sunburn! 

The park we were in had an old carousel… vintage 1880. I mentioned it had been decades since I’d been up close and personal with a carousel and the next thing I knew we had tickets and were riding. Look like the Admiral is having a pretty good time riding that wild bronco.

Ans the pair of rabbits caught our eye as it pictures the name of our other web site: rabbit-rabbit.org.

Check rabbit-rabbit.org
The Admiral’s got a little out of control I guess.

Lunch at an old fire house

After a brief stop at the beach we were off to lunch at Hose 22. And before your imagination gets to carried away, this restaurant is named after the fire fighting company stationed here… Hose (Company) 22.

And this is where we had our first fried pickles. Hose 22 uses dill chips (some places deep fry dill spears) that are battered then deep fried and served with a dipping sauce that is incredible.

We loved the lunch, then had to head for the trailer to rescue the doggies before they claimed too be abandoned. The clouds were just trying to come in when we left Rochester, but it was completely socked in by the time get back. By 10:30 it was raining and didn’t stop by the time we pulled out of the park the next morning.

Le Roy, NY was a great stop for us… thanks guys. We’re spoiled rotten!

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Postcard from New York- 1

Posted on Saturday, 9 June 2012 by bruce10b

Lost the first version of this… went to the great bit bucket in the sky. So here’s a second try…

9 June 2012

Le Roy, NY

The huge transient area. At the far end is an opening
in the trees that leads to a small golf course.

We’re stopped in Le Roy cuz it’s about as close as we could get to Rochester. And from the number of folks we see here (Rochester locals) it would seem the locals agree.

Parked in the corner of Genesee Country CG

We’re in a bull pen of sorts. I’d wanted a pull-thru with full hook-up and the closest I could get was Genesee Country Campground. He told me the area was huge and I’d have plenty of room to get straightened out and then have a straight shot into the space. Ooooh-kay. I had my doubts.

I was happily surprised to see that what we got was exactly what he said. Sort of. Turns out there’s full hook-up and then there’s full hook-up. What you have to ask is something I’d not had to ask about before: is the sewer connection a septic sewer connection? In this case it is not… it’s a grey water sewer connection only. First time we’ve run into that.

And just to keep the campers honest, the connection must be made thru a garden hose and an adapter ($3.25). The concept is self policing- if you try to dump the black tank thru this adapter, the garden hose will get blocked and you’ll have a mess to deal with. Hmmm… maybe this is where the Brown Knee Society was created!

So we bought the adapter and sacrificed a couple hoses and Presto!… we can do laundry and dishes and showers. Looks like it’s going to work OK as we can usually make it a week on the black tank.

Dinner out

The subject of BBQ had come up and I guess I had that in mind when it came time to find somewhere to eat. I found Center Street Smoke House 15 miles away in Batavia, NY, so off we went. Turned out to be a very appealing place with great atmosphere and way more ribs in the half order than I wanted. 2 half-orders of ribs and 2 diet Cokes was $38 + the tip… welcome to NY!

Day off

I had planned to go to Niagra Falls on Saturday, but that went up in smoke when I woke at 4 AM with a belly ache. It couldn’t possibly be the ribs, could it?! Rhetorical question: if you don’t have your gall bladder, you really shouldn’t expect to get away with eating a lot of fat. Not sure how many times I’ll have to learn this lesson, but so far 10 years hasn’t been enough!

Side trip tomorrow

We’ll make a run over to Rochester tomorrow to see friends Steven & Gordon. They have a new apartment overlooking the Genesee River so we want to see how the high-end folks live! 🙂

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Postcard from Pennsylvania- 1

Posted on Thursday, 7 June 2012 by bruce10b

6-7 June 2012

Erie, PA

High-end pool if you like that sort of thing

After 2 nites with limited facilities, we were ready for a change. And that’s what we got after the drive to Erie, PA. I’d made reservations at the KOA which has been our least favorite chain of campgrounds. Well, now I have to eat my words cuz Erie KOA is a wonderful park.

Pavilion for special events

Admittedly we had a very classy (and $$$) site with patio, lawn furniture, Weber BBQ (the same Spirit model I bought in Santa Fe). But the rest of the campground (or kampground as KOA likes to say) is really amazing. We took the dogs for a walk after we arrived and wandered around thru the dense trees at the back of the park. Even found a small dog run (20’x30′?) which Kelly loved. She pretended it was an open field and ran about 3-4 long strides in each direction till she’d burned off some of the stored up energy!

Catch & release in the lake

Apparently they have a lot of call for their cabins as they’ve built a lot of them. And there’s a very large swimming pool with a pavilion beside, plus a catch & release fishing lake. And they have the usual toys to rent to kids (pedal trikes, etc.).

And there’s no freeway noise… it’s miles away from the Interstate. The park is right on a state highway, but that was very quiet after about 9 PM so there was no broken sleep. Of course you have to keep in mind that we both sleep like the dead, so your mileage may vary!

 

 

Side trip

Celia read thru a booklet prepared by the Pennsylvania state department of saomething or other which I’d picked up somewhere in Indiana. She spotted a mention of Daffin’s Chocolate Kingdom in Erie County. Well, if it has anything to do with chocolate, we’re there!

Order two, not one

So off we went to Sharon, PA, about 50+ miles south. We found our way to the Sharon town center, walked the dogs, and then the Admiral spotted the Sharon Hot Dog Shop across the street. Life is good.

Daffin’s Chocolate Kingdom

Fortified with a couple chile-cheese dogs, I was ready for whatever. Celia asked our waitress if she knew of any large candy stores in the area and she immediately told is about Daffin’s just up the street a few blocks.

So off we went to a huge candy store which was in fact the place we had come to see. In the back of Daffin’s enormous showroom was a display of huge chocolate figures plus a chocolate village all crafted from the elixir of life. Out in the sales area they had a display of various kinds of chocolate so large it puts See’s (big in California) to shame. We of course wanted to help the local economy and bought way more than we should have (gotta have gifts for the kids, right?!), then headed back to the RV park 60 miles away.

So we had a good outing and saw incredible countryside that is resisting the change to urbanization… there are still farms with large open fields bounded with dense tree growth. Looked like a lot of corn, but we’re city-folk and our ID is suspect for plants just emerging.

Our stop in PA was too short and we both thought we’d like to come back. If you like driving low traffic, small country roads thru lush farm land as we do, you will have lots to explore here.

Next we’re off to New York. Later…

 

 

 

 

 

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