Good Morning from the Great State of New York at Allegany
Mountain Resort! On Sunday we packed up
from our 2 weeks stay at Rocky Fork and began the 300-mile drive to Northern
Ohio skirting Cleveland and drove along Ohio’s “snow belt” along Lake Erie. We
were able to find a Sam’s Club gas station that welcomed us with open lanes and
$160.00 of gas let us continue on to the Pennsylvania border!
Probably the two most notable things about the gas stop were
a man at a pump over who said your co pilot is ready to drive” since Deb was
outside with me, I had to think who could he be talking about?? Who is in our
motorhome?
The second notable thing was a woman walked up while I was
filling up the tank and asked politely if “can I ask you something?” Of course,
I felt bad thinking she was in line behind me, “how many gallons does that
thing hold? How far can you go on a tank?” And then the real killer, “what’s
its miles per gallon, probably just 15? Relieved that she was not the person in
line behind the motorhome I told her, about 100 gallons, that the MPG was, on a
good day, 8 and the nice lady left with a “ Oh MY!” and a head shake!
Entering back into the motorhome, we found the mystery
driver was Jake all set up like he was going to drive away, but Debbie insisted
NO JAKE! We made one quicker stop before the Ohio border to top off the tank
and fill the Jeep because gasoline is SO EXPENSIVE in PA and New York and off
Deb drove entering PA and eventually
choosing the Southern Expressway into New York, construction, and heavy rain!
Ohio friends will probably find it hard to believe but gasoline is much more
reasonable in the Buckeye state.
Driving the southern expressway saved us from another New
York pain! The toll system in this state is really rough on travel in a
motorhome. You pay for the MH and the tow car and the thruway, will be a route
we have to take later to get to the Adirondacks mountains but this camp is in
the Allegany Mts.
I had prepared myself for a letdown, as this camp listed
only a lake to swim in, 30 Amp maximum electric and no sewer hookups, so
leaving Rocky Fork I figured we would “rough it for a week” ! Well we soon
found out that this place is beautiful and it too earned the title “RESORT”
there is a beautiful lake centered in this resort and far from having no
swimming pool, there is a complex with indoor-outdoor pool and spas in its own
separate building overlooking the lake
(photo) There are two more pools scattered around the 600+ campgrounds as well
as a boathouse, store, and plenty of restrooms! A couple of years ago they
added a few 50 Amp sites!
Debbie picked up on the several 50 AMP sites real fast and
when security was escorting us to pick a mountain or a lake site, she spotted 2
lake sites that had the larger 50 Amp boxes! She then sweet talked the young
security guard into letting us pick one of those sites. What a special surprise
to find our anticipated “rough camp” was going to be a lake view, with all the
electric we wanted! Suffice it to say after the roads and rain to get here,
this was GREAT! A cold beer and lawn
chair provided the extras for an evening view of Rainbow Lake.
Jake and Dat Cody settled in, while Deb grilled some ALABAMA
Conacga sausage and as we sat there an Amish buggy came down the lane in front
of the lake among all these large RV this really looked strange!
Wine cooler
infused and relaxed we settled down and watched the movie STRIPES. This was
going to be a good site!
Monday, we awoke to full sun and glistening water on the
lake! While we can’t do wash, due to limited waste water capacity, there is
something about a HOT Towel, following a warm shower and Hazelnut coffee to
really make this day of exploration start off great!
In the Mike and Deb tradition we celebrate each day of a
birthday week and this is Debs birthday week! We took several back roads,
making right and left turns to follow the country trails and saw we are really
in a historical farming area, East Otto, Otto, Little Valley, Gowanda, Ashford
Hollow are several of the small towns surrounding our camp. A bit further and
we found our way back to Ellicottville which turns out to be a quaint town full
of SKI lodge housing and fairly empty at this time of year! You can tell that a
We located the Indian (Native American) town of SALAMANCA
where several of the stop signs were in both English and Native language and we
found a huge casino that we are going to visit later Tuesday. We also found an
AMC theater where we can go catch a movie for free on a rainy day if we lose
all our money at the aforementioned casino!
We came home and fixed a rack of Baby Back Ribs and hash
browns for dinner and began the opening of one gift per day tradition that we
try to follow on Birthday Weeks! For one of the first time ever, I actually
have 7 gifts wrapped for daily opening by Deb, as she usually does better than
me at this! Planned Wal Mart shopping at Rocky Fork camp paid off! Oh Yes, our Amish guys rode thru the park
again Monday night STRANGE !!
Ruth
2019-07-30
Looks like you are having a great vacation. I finally got caught up today as our company has FINALLY departed and things are back to normal. Debbie, hope you enjoy your birthday week!
Mike Mixon
2019-07-30
I love it!! Looks so peaceful, I need a seat next to unc! Have you guys heard of Kartrite? We may check it out soon. Safe travels and NO JAKE!!!!!
Paul
2019-07-30
Looks like good fishing. Where’s your pole.
Cookie
2019-08-01
Beautiful pictures. What a way to relax. Enjoy! Safe travels.