Sorry I took a few days off!
TUESDAY
THRU FRIDAY August 13- 16
Much of what we hoped to cover in the Adirondack mountains
was located in the North East quadrant of this huge park and yet we, (I
especially), wanted to see the entrance to the St. Lawrence Seaway that brings
the ships from the Atlantic level up to the elevation to enter the Great Lakes.
But we also had to take care of some shopping needs (good ol Wal Mart aka wally
world ) some small repairs to our reliable
“Big Wheelie House” (Jakes term for the motorhome), and find another reason for
a dinner at the campground!
Wednesday
We drove to a Casino that was huge and at least a little
more friendly in taking our money more slowly! We didn’t realize it was almost
back to the Onieda area and only 5 miles from the Mansion House! We didn’t take
any money away but we had a good time playing with the few dollars we had left!
We got back early enough to get in on the hot wing special
for Wednesday night and took enough home for one more dinner! This place is so
convenient to take advantage of and the prices are right! $2 draft beer and 10 wings,
$7.99. But the cook makes her own deserts and….well I’m a huge fan of peanut
butter pie which was delicious and enough for Deb and I to split! Take out
wings in hand we returned to the motorhome to get ready for tomorrows
adventure!
Thursday
If we followed the
weather reports for the area, THIS was going to be the day for a L_O_N_G drive
all the way across the mountains and then all the way to the Canadian border
and then back south to our campground without ever taking one of those
U&%$#&## TOLL roads! We established a 6 AM start time but we had
acclimated to a later sleep time! So at 7 we brewed some strong coffee and took
off on our adventure drive!
New York makes it very difficult to go EAST to WEST without
tolls and some of the roads that are free are just not really that good, but
today we picked out some real scenic roads. Up to Watertown on I-81, tEast along the boundary of US Fort Drum,
Americas training base for mountain warfare, NY # 3 into ADIRONDACK mountains
to Saranic Lake where we found a McDonald's! Then Rt86 to Lake Placid where in
1932 and 1980 the Olympic games were held, All good stuff to see but then right
after we exited Lake Placid we had Santa’s North Pole.
Having made sure that Santa knew we were pretty good boys
and girls and that the doggies were in fact very good, we made a few twisted
turns that took us to the base of Whiteface Mountain which was our goal for the
Adirondack part of this trip but it took a long time to get here and this was
only ½ of our intended goal.
Taking back roads and following the GPS we came up to the
border with Canada and the Province of Quebec. It is here that the seaway
narrows from its Atlantic Ocean access to the series of locks and dams that
make it possible for huge cargo ships to go into America and Canada’s
heartland! At the start of it all is the Eisenhower tunnel and locks. Here in
1953 Queen Elizabeth and President Ike together dedicated the opening of the
Saint Lawrence Seaway a joint venture between two friendly countries.
FRIDAY
Our last full day at Bass Lake, we decided that after we got
the, “get the motorhome ready for a road trip” chores done, we would go to one
of the pools and chill out for a couple of hours! The one pool was closed
because someone over chlorinated it , so we ended up at the pool with the big
water slide and right next to the restaurant! Talking to some of the “regulars”
the fish on Friday was something not to be missed! So when dinner time finally arrived and since all the chores
were done, we went up to the home of the Wings and got in on the Friday
special! Deb got this huge 14 inch fish fillet and I got a big bowl of the best
clam chowder I’ve had in years! We also
learned about “SALT POTATOES” which turn out to be a real thing enjoyed by the
people of Syracuse, They are sold in grocery stores and served at restaurants all over the area! It is a late summer early fall dish with specially raised
small spuds that merits some thinking! Look it up it is a upstate NY tradition
founded in Syracuse!
SATURDAY
We failed to get up as early as planned and we took a bit
longer to leave than anticipated but this was our return to Ohio day. The NY
toll road people want to take you I- 90 to Buffalo and then another stretch of
I-90 toll road to Erie PA! In a motorhome pulling a car that’s about $40 just
in tolls! Several hours of “map studies” pointed us to take the toll road to
Rochester and get I- 390 south to Dansville, a short two lane section to Ark
Point and onto I-86 right over to Erie PA.
The non- freeway portion was beautiful and good road and the
total toll was $10 ChaChing! We were able to make it back to south of Cleveland
before we had to feed the V-10 gasoline demands where our same Sams Club we
filled at 4 weeks back was waiting for us in a summer downpour ! The gas tank
was more than happy to see the pump, but it ONLY needed 63 gallons(about 2/3 of
tank capacity) and at a relatively good $2.35 per gallon. This fill up
would first take us to Pickerington, and
later on take us deep into West Virginia or hopefully Whtheville Virginia or
even Winston -Salem North Carolina, where fuel is reasonable.
We arrived at Linda’s before dark, chatted and let the
puppies play chase, had a glass of wine and settled in as temporary Ohio folk
for two weeks + two days
ruth
2019-09-04
You're having too much fun.
Rita
2019-09-04
I agree, too much fun without me