9/27/2017 The Lower 48 Completed!

Posted on September 27, 2017 by rvrrat520

It took 5 years of full-timing, but we can finally say our wheels traveled through and came to a stop for at least one night’s stay in all of the lower 48 states of the union! And in all but 3 states we actually stayed in at least 1 RV campground/park. Kansas, Nebraska, and West Virginia were our park-less stops, but stops nonetheless with the help of some of the many options available for free, overnight stays. In these 5 years we have learned of several no-cost options for overnight stays during our travels, including but not limited to Walmart, Cracker Barrel, truck stops, some rest stops, Cabelas, Bass Pro, public lands such as BLM and National Forest lands, and occasional open field/private property that allows overnighters. Now, in that time and during these travels, we have seen a lot of beautiful sights nationwide, however we have only scratched the surface and there remains still much more to experience. How much more, on our part, remains to be seen, since we are starting to get the “settle down itch”. What that means – total “get off the road” to maybe becoming part-timers to remaining status quo, we just haven’t sorted the cards we have been dealt yet. But for now I’ll get back to current events.

Finished in Maine, it was time to head back west for some kids and grandkids time. It was not without some minor detours. When Jeanne’s sister Denise left us we told her we were gonna swing by on our way west to check on her in Branson, MO, (she recently lost her husband, Don.) So instead of a northern crossing we headed south. We did an overnighter at the Sturbridge, MA Walmart, then to an overnighter at a place called Aspen Family Campground in Candor, NY. Holy-Total-Pit Batman! This place was off a skinny road, with a skinny, back angled driveway which I BARELY made with the toad, then terrible rutted gravel uphill driveway. We were tired and did not feel like driving more, so we buckled and stayed here. The grass field we were put in was accessed through a tunnel of trees, then was not even close to level, and the sites were not delineated so you park any which way you like near the W/E post. The grass/mud was moist enough that when I tried to use my jacks, they just sunk into the grass/mud. So it was an unlevel, unrestful night’s sleep for us, never to return here again.

Next stop was the Luray KOA in Virginia. While here we took a drive along the Skyline Dr. in Shenandoah National Park and used this stop to take care of some business, car insurance business that is. Texas is a terrible state to have to insure your vehicles through if you are a full time RVer with the Escapees RV Club mailing address in Livingston. Our Jeep insurer, Nationwide, just notified us that the Jeep was going up $1,000 more this year, no tickets, accidents, nothing. After clearing the smoke out of our motorhome from what billowed out of my ears, Jeanne set off on yet ANOTHER insurance search. We ended up at Hartford through AARP (sometimes it’s nice to be an old fart) and got a $100 discount by just taking an online AARP Driver’s Safety course. The hunt continues for a break in our motorhome insurance, currently costing us $4,000 per year (just let that one soak in for a second, don’t say a word!)

Another Walmart overnighter in Hurricane, West Virginia, then it was on to Frankfort, KY and the Elkhorn Campground. While there Jeanne and I were able to finish out the Kentucky Brewgrass Trail (craft breweries in the area) and earned our official Brewgrass Trail T-shirts (sorry, no pic, they had to mail them to us and we haven’t gotten our mail yet.) We also made a visit to the Buffalo Trace Distillery this time around. It is not included in the official Kentucky Bourbon Trail or the Craft Distillery Trail, but it is on the trail. The distillery gives free tours and tastings and is quite picturesque. Also while here we started seeing these small painted rocks hidden around the park, we found 3. It seems there is a Facebook group called RVers Rock! who are the responsible culprits. The tops of the rocks are painted with anything the artist desires, then the backs have instructions printed to keep or rehide the rock, post pictures on the group’s FB feed, and frequently have the location/park of origin or state also included. This caught Jeanne’s curiosity/interest, so it looks like we will become artists now. Our 3 found rocks will also find new homes somewhere along our westward trail to California. You never know where you may find one, they can be anywhere. We will be sticking with hiding them in or around RV parks.

The playground and a pavilion at Elkhorn Campground.

Gotta love the RV lifestyle. For the couple of weeks prior to our Elkhorn stop we have been having more issues with our water heater. Our water only heated to tepid at best. We were putting off looking for a service center until I just blew a gasket (metaphorically speaking). I called Precision Temp and one of their people in the know helped me troubleshoot the issue, discovering the propane regulator was bad. Gasket #2 just went (another one of them there metaphors) since we had just replaced the piece of $h!t regulator last January. It seems somebody imported a buttload of bad regulators, probably from our friend China, this according to the Precision Temp guys. Anyways, on moving day our first stop was at Bluegrass RV in Lexington to get another regulator. The saving grace for the day was that on our way in for service we got treated to an nice sunrise, Kentucky style.

On the road with HOT water (!!!!Yippee!!!!), another Walmart, and into Branson, MO we rode. Denise hooked us up with a site at her camping club, Treasure Lake RV Resort, in downtown Branson. We had a nice stay visiting with Denise, Cedric, Savonna, Robert, Cooper, Brody, and Khloey (I probably mangled the spelling, sorry kid!). And we had HOT water the whole time!

Jeanne, Cedric, and Magnum enjoying coffee and cinnamon rolls…

Oh the joys of the RV lifestyle, volume 2. We have been having nothing but problems with our satellite reception since we switched DISH receivers to the Wally version up in Maine. Trying to figure out the cable and over-the-air reception has also been a disaster for quite some time. With (4) massive TV’s scattered throughout the motorhome, they never acquire the same channels from one TV to the other at any given stop. And to make matters worse, the jumble of wiring jammed into the small cabinet area is a nightmare trying to decipher. To add insult to injury, Woodrow Wilson (our K9 travel companion) has had one too many accidents on our small piece of carpet in the rig. It was becoming stained from all the shampooing Jeanne has had to do to clean up Woody’s indiscretions. So since we was in Missouri, another detour seemed in order, back to the east to our very favorite and happiest place on Earth…Red Bay, Alabama! (Insert mega-sarcasm here!) Home of Tiffin Motorhomes and the world famous Tiffin Service Center.

Which wire is it? That one, right there!

And the joys of the RV lifestyle are the gifts that keep on giving. So we are southbound out of Branson, heading for I-40 East. No sooner do we get out of town when my yellow check engine light starts going on and off, with the accompanying “ding, ding, ding” and the red “brake air” warning light flashing, the same time my gauges for the two air tanks go to zero. This goes on, intermittently, for about the next hour and a half. I have had issues with my warning lights and gauges since I got the motorhome 3 years ago. We have been to several Freightliner/Cummins shops, every time it occurs. It has gone unresolved from day one, but the audible alarms that go off drive me crazy. So this new occurrence was not surprising, but 90 minutes is a long time to worry if the bus would shut down at any time. The drivability during these episodes has never been affected. Add this problem to my Tiffin list, since Bay Diesel is just down the street.

We stayed at one of the off-campus campgrounds this time around (the service center was jam packed full). We got hooked up with Daniel Humphries, one of the “after-hours” techs who work on Tiffin products, to get new carpet (his specialty). While waiting we tried yet again to obtain full satellite reception. Our big gripe was we have never received high definition channels from the hi-def satellite, #129, since we switched to Wally. Still no hi-def, I did my usual call to DISH to try to resolve it. Gasket #3 went after another hour-long phone debate with the DISH techs and troubleshooting attempt. I hung up on DISH and we put a call into another after-hours tech for Tiffin products, Nick Brewer who specializes in the satellite/TV/electronics stuff. Nick took all of 1 minute and had me go into diagnostics, click one stinking button, and BOOM! I got satellite #129 and all the hi-def I could want. I guess the DISH techs were playing hooky the day they taught that in tech school.

While waiting/dealing with the cable/over-the-air issues, as well as a try to get in at Bay Diesel, we decided to poke our heads in and say howdy to Marion who is the tech in Bay #2, he has done work for us in the past. We also stopped in at the Tiffin parts store for a couple of things and Jeanne blurts out “Dave & Diane!” In the flesh, we see Dave and Diane (Dave writes his blog “Dave & Diane throwing caution to the wind”). Theirs was one of the first full timer blogs Jeanne started following way back in the beginning. And in the small world of RV traveling, we have run into them 3 times now; at the SKP park Jojoba Hills, CA, in the desert boondocking in Quartzsite, AZ, and now at the “real” happiest place on Earth in Red Bay. We chatted briefly and vowed to get together to swap stories, but regretfully we were not there long enough to make it happen.

Well, we got the carpet and hi-def issues resolved during this run to Red Bay. The diesel shop could not get us in for the dash light issue and Daniel tightened up some connections but it did not resolve the cable/air issues for TV. So it was back to the road, westward ho again. We had been watching weather and noticed the North and Northwest were starting to take on snow. That made the decision on routes easy, I-40 it was. A plus with this decision was there are numerous Freightliner shops along I-40 and I was intent on getting my dash light issue fixed once and for all. I settled on the Premier Truck Group Freightliner Service Center in Amarillo, TX. Last December I had been to the same company at their Dallas, TX shop for the same issue. The overall experience, especially this current one, has eroded any faith or trust in Freightliner as a company. Besides having to waste 3 full days, getting NO resolution, and having to pay out of my pocket for the issue which should have been fully covered under the original warranty, I got to listen to numerous truckers bad-mouth and complain about Freightliner’s terrible customer service practices. I was so full of piss and vinegar that I wrote a lengthy letter to Freightliner, with a copy to Bob Tiffin.

Anger set aside, breathing deeply, chanting in a meditative state, we continue our trek westbound, a couple of days out of California. And soon, well, take a look for yourself…

Until next post…

7/5/2017 Surviving Another Holiday on the Road

Posted on July 5, 2017 by rvrrat520

We found space at the Arrowhead Marina and RV Park near Schenectady, NY. I wasn’t real thrilled with the customer service as we pulled in, however. We find in these here parts a lot of the RV parks boast an early check-in fee and late check-out fee. This one was no exception, and we knew ahead of time coming in. Some check-in times are much later than others, here it was 2:00. We have encountered parks that advertise that fee but then do not enforce it. So we motored in at noon, hoping this was one such park. No soap. The check-in employee steadfastly refused to let us check-in early without insisting on the half day’s fee for early check-in. I half expected that and took note of a large RV storage yard off the driveway which had plenty of empty space. I asked if we could leave the rig in the storage yard area while we Jeeped into town for lunch. She flat out denied my request and had no suggestions for nearby parking areas big enough for the beast. And she did it all with that “Hey, dumbass, what part of early check-in fee do you not understand?” look. So much for looking out for your customers. Even though this park was a nice park on the Mohawk River, I will never return just because of the attitude. Enough ranting.

We still fought the weather gods, it seems we have been rained on quite a bit since we entered Pennsylvania back in May. We managed to get a break long enough to venture into Albany where we did a walkabout around the Empire State Plaza area. The Capitol building was pretty impressive and not of the typical Capitol architectural styling (Greek, heavy on the columns, and usually a dome of some sort), but looked more “colonial”. The Egg was a unique structure, used as a venue for the performing arts. And there was a series of 4 look-alike buildings that are legislative offices (according to a local). We went up to the top observation deck for the Corning Tower and got a bird’s-eye-view of the plaza area as well as the surrounding countryside, including the Governor’s Mansion. At lunch time we meandered a few blocks to The Olde English Pub and had an outstanding lunch of fish and chips (Jeanne) and Beef Stout Pie (Moi). We no sooner paid the check when it opened up and downright POURED on us! We had to hole up in the doorway of the pub for 5 minutes while the storm passed.

One day Jeanne wanted to go to Waterford and check out the lock system along the Erie Canal waterways. They have an extensive 524 mile canal system which contains somewhere around 53 locks to assist boats along the waterways. We got to Waterford and found Lock E2. We just happened by at the right time, we got to see the lock in action as a boat approached. This particular lock transitions from one waterway at 48.75’ elevation to the lower waterway at 15.2’ elevation. After watching the boat continue on its way, we drove to a couple of other locks before heading back to camp.

The boat approaches the lock with the gates open for it.

We lucked out on our last night with the weather. The city of Albany puts on a summer concert series at Jennings Landing called “Alive at 5”. There is a nice, small amphitheater area on the river and this night The Outlaws happened to be the headliners. What an awesome show!!! The guitar shredding that went on with “Green Grass and High Tides” was amazing. These guys still got it!

So, moving day included a massive thunder/lightning torrential downpour upon our arrival at our new home, Autumn Moon Campground, just a mere 25 miles north of our last home. Being in upstate New York, we are always tempting fate by using Google Maps with the “avoid tolls” function enabled. New York has been our most challenging state as far as navigation goes; they have WAY too many low clearance bridges, we are running into WAY too many weight limited roads on the back roads, and steep grades are not well marked or forewarned. But we made it, unscathed. Autumn Moon Campground is a bit out in the sticks, terribly unlevel sites (wheels-off-the-ground unlevel), and only 30A service on the electricity. But, try finding an RV space on 4th of July week at the last minute…

We got up the next morning and decided to start with a breakfast date in town, Saratoga Springs. We found a little dumpy diner as we entered town called “Shirley’s” which had a jam packed parking lot. We took that hint and stopped. Breakfast turned out to be the most perfectly cooked eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and English muffins that I have EVER had. That is counting 58 years of stuffing my face with restaurant fare covering 43 of the contiguous 48 states. WOW! (Nutrisystem, here I come!).

With full belly and tired of all the off-the-grid stops we are encountering in this northeast part of the country, we set out on a quest to get some form of improved wifi system. It was becoming tiresome having to hit a Walmart or a Starbucks to download photos or do any updates on “the machines” because we were either getting no service or were slowed down to a snail’s pace. We are currently Verizon users, using a Verizon Jet Pack for our wifi needs. We got unhappy with Verizon when first they convinced us to give up (and not available to reinstate) a 40 gig, 4G speed monthly plan for an “unlimited” plan that throttles down to 3G speed after 10 gigs of use, then possibly slows further by putting us in a “priority” mode depending on the entire area’s usage, after reaching 22 gigs of use. (If that is all Greek to you, that’s OK, it is quite Albanian to me!). It translates to, after we switched to “unlimited”, we were less than satisfied (nice one, kept my 4-letter vocabulary in check!). And to top it off, FMCA had just announced an unbelievably awesome deal they were working on with Verizon for unlimited data for members of FMCA, and that one lasted a couple of seconds before Verizon pulled the plug on the deal. So Jeanne was on a mission to find a better data usage deal. She found AT&T offering an AT&T Homebase (to replace the Jet Pack) with 250 gigs at 4G speed for about $70 monthly (of course, 2 year contract to initialize, month-to-month thereafter). So, bing, bang, bong, we’re off and running to see if we achieved our goal. So far, we are happy with the change, I’ll try and fill you in on how it is working after a month or two…

We wanted to check out the Lake George area so the first chance the weather allowed we took the short drive to the Village of Lake George. It is a quaint little town, and I do mean little. The lake is a popular destination for summer boating fun. We took Woodrow Wilson on a walkabout in town and along it’s beach, then decided to do the drive around the lake. It was about an hour’s drive, the west side of the lake was scenic and led through several little town areas that were packed with vacationers. The east side was not real scenic, rarely in sight of water, either Lake George or the Erie Canal. But hey, no rain, whoopie!

When we got back to town we dropped Woody off at home and returned to Saratoga Springs for a walkabout and dinner. Congress Park was a large town park where we found one of the town’s namesake springs, Columbian Spring. The locals fill up jugs for home use at the springs that are scattered around town. While we were there a young man showed up carrying a large Red Tailed Boa which Jeanne had a burning desire to get her photo taken with so she could impress the grandchildren. The snake was a 50 lb. female which her owner feeds rats. It took some time for Jeanne to build the courage, but she did it!

The 4th of July we “celebrated” by going to town for groceries and supplies. Oh boy! But we just had to make time to go see the All American Celebration free concert. The performers were a local band called The Audiostars. They played a mix of genres and were OK according to Jeanne. I was not a fan, especially after the incomparable Outlaws experience. I was surprised that the masses appeared to behave themselves, not a lot of alcohol induced misbehavior. Definitely not what I am used to from years gone by back in California at the Guerneville 4th of July celebrations.

The Audiostars doing their thing on the 4th of July…

Saratoga Spa State Park was suggested as a must-see by our hosts at Autumn Moon. It is a state park built on site of a whole lot more natural springs that had been developed into a spa area with the springs, mineral baths, and a performing arts center. The springs and spa date back to the 1800’s. They now have 2 golf courses, an automobile museum, some pool facilities, and numerous picnic areas, among everything else. We took Woody on a walk of some of the park, finding the most popular spring called the State Seal Spring, and discovering the performing arts area closed to the public due to an upcoming event. We had a nice picnic lunch in the shade (again, no rain!!!), then called it a wrap.

I could not figure out the name of this particular spring. But it produces “carbonated” water…

With the weather looking good for at least a few days, tomorrow I think will be a “Give the Beast a Bath” day to wash a few layers of dirt off the bus. Then, we are headed for an exit to the state of New York, enroute to the state of Connecticut. Until next post…

6/23/2017 Thousand Islands area on the St. Lawrence River, NY, then on to Cooperstown.

Posted on June 23, 2017 by rvrrat520

Our home for our visit to the Thousand Islands area was the Swan Bay RV Resort in Alexandria Bay, NY. This was an outstanding find for our week’s stay. Their normal rates are a bit high, but they are a participating Passport America park and we were able to get the week for $180. Gated park, paved interior roads, concrete pads with brick patios, ample spacing between sites, nice pool with a tiki bar, right on the river with boat ramps and docks, playground for the kiddies, fenced dog walk area, and right next door to a grocery store.

Hard to miss the sign at the driveway, that’s for sure!

On our arrival we immediately met our friendly neighbors, Andy and Adair. That first day was pretty much set up, then we hit Foxy’s, a recommended establishment, for dinner with Andy and Adair. We had a table overlooking the river and it would have been a spectacular sunset scene, except the weather gods did not want to smile upon us and it was overcast. But we had a nice visit with our new friends.

Our first full day Jeanne and I took a reconnaissance spin around the area. We drove into Alexandria Bay (AKA: A-Bay), down to Cape Vincent to scout the ferry to Canada, and stopped to do a little tasting at the St. Lawrence Distillery. A little later in the week we would hit Clayton Distillery and Dark Island Spirits as well. They were nice little local distilleries, but I’m afraid New York distilleries have got nothing on Kentucky distilleries.

A look at the dock area at the west end of town, Alexandria Bay.

A visit here would not be complete without seeing at least ONE of the castles, our choice was the Boldt Castle on Heart Island. We took the local ferry over from A-Bay and spent a few hours wandering the grounds and interior of the castle. Boldt made his money from a couple of small little “bed & breakfast” places called the Waldorf-Astoria, in NY, and the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia, then wanted to build a monument to the love of his life, his wife Louise. She died at 42 years old before he was able to finish the monstrous castle and he ceased construction immediately. The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority now owns the property and is currently doing renovations/repairs to restore it to where Boldt left off on the original construction and then points beyond, possibly to finish it off. What has been done thus far is very nice, not on the magnitude of a Hearst Castle, but very impressive nonetheless.

Alster Tower of Boldt Castle. George built this I believe as an “entertainment room” for his guests.

For our foray into Canada, we decided to drive the Jeep over the Thousand Islands Bridge, then tour south through Gananoque and into Kingston. We did a walkabout in downtown Kingston and ended with lunch at the Kingston Brewing Co. The weirdest thing I ever saw happened while we strolled the main drag with all the restaurants and shops. As we strolled at about 12:30ish the sidewalk was jam packed, felt like we were walking in downtown NYC. We walked off the main drag to check on a couple of anciently old churches and when we returned at about 1:15ish the main drag sidewalk was a GHOST TOWN! I guess Canadians take their lunch time seriously…

The weather cleared just enough one day to allow us to give the bicycles a little workout, so we loaded them up and drove to Cape Vincent to catch the ferry over to Wolfe Island (Canada). We left the Jeep parked in Cape Vincent because I am a cheap bas#%rd and only wanted to pay the bicycle fee for the ferry, $3 each. A 10 minute ride got us to Wolfe Island and it was off to cruise some Canadian asphalt. We took a nice, leisurely pace through the countryside with all their wind turbines, to the only town on the island, Marysville, where the other ferry delivers one to Kingston. The Cape Vincent/Wolfe Island ferry is a private enterprise and very small, the ferry may be able to carry (6) vehicles at best. The Wolfe Island/Kingston ferry is run by the Canadian government and is free for use. The only problem is this is a very heavily used ferry for the island dwellers and the vehicles line up all the way through the tiny town. One local told me the ferry here could carry maybe (55) vehicles, tops, and having to wait for the next ferry is not uncommon. We were happy we were on bicycles.

Taking the ferry to Wolfe Island, Canada.

Our last hurrah here we got together with Andy and Adair while Andy smoked some chicken and que’d some corn. We had a good time talking all things “full-timing” and about the places we were headed to.

Of course, moving day meant Murphy had to stick his big nose into my business, it rained steadily while I prepped (outside) for our travels. But we got the jacks up and it was Cooperstown, here we come!

Our home while in Cooperstown was Hartwick Highlands Campground for 3 days. At $49 per night it was about as inexpensive as could be found for the area as far as pay campgrounds goes. The campground was very nice, had a nice open field area where we were and another heavily wooded area for more of that “camping” feeling. They had a pool, arcade, store, playground, lots of cabins for rent, and a nice dog run. The site was large pull through, level gravel, lots of space (grass) between sites, and the interior road was easy to navigate.

Some of the cabins for rent at Hartwick Highlands Campground

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was ultra cool to see. 3 stories of everything baseball, it took us a good 2 hours to wander through, and I know I “glazed over” parts and pieces of it. The town of Cooperstown is a quaint little hamlet that contains shops for all things baseball as well. And just for once I got Murphy to show favor upon us. Cooperstown is also home to a large youth baseball complex called Cooperstown Dream Park. The weekend we were there just happened to be check-in weekend for a tournament about to start, involving a large army of young ball players and families. We picked Saturday to visit the HOF and luckily the teams were all busy so it was normal tourist traffic at the hall. Strolling through town one day later on Sunday and holy smokes(!!!) was it wall to wall kids in uni’s, all lined up out the door to visit the hall. Thanks, Murphy!

Well, heck. Hereabout these parts they have something called the Cooperstown Beverage Trail. OK, twist my arm. Ouch. So their “trail” includes a distillery, breweries, and wineries, 8 to be exact. Piece of cake, nailed ‘em all! Got customized pint glasses for the effort. Thanks to Butternuts Beer & Ale, Rustic Ridge Winery, Fly Creek Cider Mill, Pail Shop Vineyards, Cooperstown Distillery, Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown Brewing Co., and Bear Pond Winery. Now someone we spoke with on the trail mentioned this area also has another trail…an ice-cream trail. Oh, crap, there’s the kiss of death!!!

A few words of wisdom from Abe Lincoln written on the wall of Cooperstown Distillery.

I guess I’ll put a cork in it for now. Moving day tomorrow, our short term goal right now is to survive past the Fourth of July holiday as far as getting places to stay. This corner of the world is getting harder to find parks for any length of stay because they have such a short season and we are in it. We are also finding many with size restrictions that do not allow for 40’ rigs. However, press on we must…

6/15/2017 A Little Upstate Beauty in New York.

Posted on June 15, 2017 by rvrrat520

We decided we would not drive too long when it was time to leave NYC, but just long enough to get us out of the hectic mess and try for a couple of days with full hook ups for laundry catch up. Calling around looking for space we found Sylvan Lake Beach Campground in Hopewell Junction. We only got one night’s stay there, if we wanted the original 3 night’s we wanted they were going to have us move to a different site each day…a big “no go” for me. So with a destination plugged into the onboard GPS (trucker’s version), off we went. All I can say is, I needed some phenobarbital by the end of the travel day. “Rosie” started me off navigating some of the narrowest and most crowded side streets no bigger than alleyways, to get me onto the 95 North. Any of you wish to come visit this whole northeast corner of the USA, be prepared for toll road after toll road. I should have done better with my navigational research, 95 takes you across the Hudson River via the George Washington Bridge. That bridge alone was a mere $84 toll for a 40’ bus towing a Jeep. All in all, I think we got fanged for a total of about $130 give or take for all the tolls we had to cough up on just this one travel day. I think a few bourbons to wash down the phenobarbital was now in order! But we got to the campground and were able to put a big dent in our pile of dirty laundry in just the one day. The park itself was SO not worth the $50 per night rate. But parks in this state are all pretty much overpriced, and there are not a lot of alternative choices available.

Our home at Sylvan Lake Beach Campground.

We did find our next stop for a week’s stay, Pinecreek Campground outside of Ithaca, NY, in the area of the Finger Lakes. Ithaca is on Cayuga Lake. The weekly rate worked out to about $40 per day which was about as reasonable as we could hope for. The campground is OK, we had a lot of space, but it was in the trees and our site had no satellite reception. And the WiFi/cell service was HORRIBLE! But the area is beautiful around the Finger Lakes.

Our first outing we wanted to check out Watkins Glen on Seneca Lake. We drove to Watkins Glen State Park and walked the Gorge Trail. That is a very nice trail along Glen Creek that has some 19 or so waterfalls. I guess they classify the smallest of drops as falls around here, I was not real impressed with the falls here as a whole. But it was a nice walk. This was the one park in this area that did not allow K-9’s on the trail, so Woody had to stay home.

Along the Gorge Trail at Watkins Glen State Park.

Since the state parks charge for parking at most of them, and the parking pass is good for the same day at all the parks, we decided to hit a couple of the other waterfall sights. Taughannock Falls State Park contains it’s namesake waterfall, which is touted as the tallest single-drop waterfall east of the Rockies (215 feet, 3-stories taller than Niagara Falls). They do allow doggies on the trail here, so we picked up Woodrow Wilson and took him with us. The hike to the foot of the falls was only 3/4 mile along the Taughannock Creek.

A shot from the high viewing point looking down on Taughannock Falls.

Woody got to go with us to check on Buttermilk Falls at Buttermilk Falls State Park. That was no hike at all, the falls are right off the parking lot. We walked the stairs up the hill along the falls so we could get a view from the top.

Buttermilk Falls with a large swimming pool at the base.

The next day we actually drove all the way around Seneca Lake, with a stop in Geneva to walk Woody along the boardwalk area. On our way home driving the west side of the lake we discovered pretty much the whole west side was their Wine Country area, nothing but wall to wall vineyards and wineries. Sorry, but the tiny size of the vineyards we saw is NO COMPARISON to the size of those from whence we come from (Napa/Sonoma Counties and the central coast area in California). California’s vineyards cover whole mountains and valleys and acres and miles, many for as far as the eye can see…

Seneca Lake from the Geneva (north) end.

A few other waterfalls in the area called to us. We found Ithaca Falls in downtown Ithaca. Triphammer Falls is located on the campus of Cornell University. Both of those required no hike. Our final waterfall was a few miles of hiking, right from our campground into Robert H. Treman State Park. We took the Gorge Trail here to Lucifer Falls. This was a very nice trail, a bit strenuous (series of steep stairs), but Lucifer Falls was very scenic.

Jeanne wanted to visit the Corning Glass Museum, a tribute to all things glass. This was a neat little museum, with displays of art, science, and live demonstrations of glass blowing.

Tomorrow is moving day, headed up to the Thousand Island region near Canada. We’ll tell you all about it…next post…

6/2/2017 The Concrete Jungle!

Posted on June 2, 2017 by rvrrat520

Big Apple, we have arrived! Not without some stress points however. Just about the only place to stay in the area for RV’s is the Liberty Harbor Marina and RV Park in Jersey City. This is truly a dump of a park but the proximity to NYC is outstanding and the staff here are about the friendliest and most helpful you’ll find anywhere. $95 per night makes you want to cringe, but it is the only game in town. And to get to the park in a 40’ beast towing a Jeep traveling through the skinny streets jam packed with traffic will certainly test your mettle. More like melt your mettle…

Looking out toward the Hudson River from our temporary home at Liberty Harbor RV Park. There’s some famous lady out there, standing in the middle of the river, that you can make out through the haze…

Like I mentioned last post, we learned quite a bit of information from Nina of wheelingit.us as far as getting around without using your toad. There is a PATH train-stop just outside the park, and 2 different ferry docks at or near the park that will get you to either the 911 Memorial area on the Hudson River side of the city or to the back side of the peninsula at Pier 11 at the mouth of the East River. Then all kinds of choices for transportation abound. It appeared the main choice of transportation for the folks was shoe leather. The city has a large fleet of City Bikes that are rentable and stations for renting or dropping off are everywhere. Then there’s good ol’ taxi cabs, Uber, or Lyft. And for the adventurous there are 26 subway lines covering the city. I’ll talk a little more about our chosen methods of transportation a little later in this post. The entire post may turn out a little disjunctive. There is SO MUCH to see and do in NYC and a week is nowhere near enough time to explore, so we are going full speed each day and I will be adding to the post every now and then so I can try to avoid leaving things out. And I apologize in advance for my photos and whether I get any of their information mixed up. There really is a lot to see and some of it just runs together in my pea brain. But I’ll do my best. Some of my pics will probably be cutting parts and pieces off too, the dang scenery here is so immense I can’t fit a lot of it onto a simple screen. (Good thing I did what I did for a living, I would never make a decent living as a photographer!).

The Liberty Harbor Ferry that leaves from Warren St. and takes you to the World Financial Center.

Our first excursion was to take Woody on a walk over to Liberty State Park, just a few miles walk from the RV. The stroll took us by some pretty fancy boats moored along Morris Canal. There was a very nice viewpoint at the end of the park facing NYC, it gave us a nice skyline shot. Fog and smog were regular features here and they offered some eerie viewing of the big city. Circling around the Hudson River side of the park got us a fairly close view of Lady Liberty’s back side and of Ellis Island. By the time we got back to the rig, I think we broke Woody. He was about as wiped out as I have ever seen him. (And he had a big limp for the next couple of days to boot…).

Walking along the Morris Canal on our way to Liberty Park, we were forced to look at these watercraft along the way, especially with that ugly skyline in the background…

The ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island was a nice smooth boat ride. It gave us a real good view of Lady Liberty from her front side. We did a walkabout at Ellis Island, the immigrant processing station, now a National Park. Then another short ferry skip to Liberty Island. For me, it was awe-inspiring in similar nature to Mt. Rushmore. We were glad to be here at this time of year, I think we beat the REAL crowds that I can only imagine appear in, say, July-September.

We got back to Liberty Harbor early enough to go eat, regroup, then decided to head over to the 911 Memorial. The Liberty Harbor Ferry has a landing at the end of Warren St. just a short walk from the RV park. We purchased the 10-ticket special right on the boat, 10 1-way rides to or from the 911 Memorial area for $55, then sat back as we headed out to “sea”. Maybe a 5 minute ride and we were stepping onto NYC soil (OK, concrete). A couple of blocks walk and there we were, Ground Zero, with a very large contingent of fellow tourists. The whole WTC area was pretty much an emotional rollercoaster; between the 2 memorials and the Memorial Museum, it evoked some of the initial feelings of rage from that dark time.

Still some “gas in the tank”, we hoofed it down to the financial district to check in with the Charging Bull. This little jaunt was just a quick pass-by of Wall Street, we would return another day to spend more time there. Basically just across the street was the Trinity Church. Originally dating back to 1698 (original buildings had been destroyed by fire in 1776), there is a cemetery on the grounds that contains the final resting place of Alexander Hamilton, among many others.

Jeanne striking a pose with the Charging Bull in the Financial District.

The Brooklyn Bridge was quite the beast to see. Hordes of people (most of them foreigners of the rude variety) on foot and on bicycles packing the pedestrian part of the bridge. You learn real quick to stay clear of the bicycle half of the path, they scream down the road with their hair on fire. It gave a nice view of the Brooklyn skyline. We trouped across and back, acting like human pinballs, then found ourselves near City Hall and the courthouses. Of course I had to get my photo in front of One Police Plaza. And then I had to take Jeanne’s photo on the “Law and Order” steps (from the TV series, one of the opening shots is the stars on the steps of this building).

From there we wandered back to Wall Street. We got to check out the area of the Stock Exchange, the Federal Hall Memorial, the Federal Reserve building, and the other half of the Trinity Church cemetery.

We did not get to enjoy the big city without rain intrusion. One day of rain and it became a road trip day. I got to experience driving in downtown NYC as we took the Holland Tunnel over, then dodged potential TC’s (sorry, that would be “traffic collisions”) through a small part of downtown to get to the Manhattan Bridge. That took me over to Brooklyn/Queens area, past La Guardia and JFK airports, then on out to Long Island. We drove to the Hamptons, Southhampton to be exact, and immediately found the rich folk are not real invitational with regards to their beach areas. The only beach accesses we found were $40 parking with no surface street parking allowed at all. Not a particularly nice day for beach-bumming, we passed on the beaches and just drove around the residential areas gawking at the mansions scattered about. On our way back we stopped off at the Long Beach boardwalk where we found ample free parking, hoping to let Woody give us a walk along the boardwalk. But the city of Long Beach is not a dog-friendly city, no dogs allowed on the boardwalk, so back in the Jeep we went and it was back to the rig we went. By the time we returned to Jersey City, the skies had cleared and we took Woody on a walk over to Liberty Park to view the NYC skyline at sunset and beyond. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Long Beach, on Long Island, as you look along the boardwalk.

We wanted to give the PATH train (subway) a whirl, since the Grove St. station is just a few blocks away from our “home”. We caught the Journal Square to 33rd St. train and a mere 20 minutes or so later we were walking the midtown area toward Times Square. It cost us a whopping $2.75 each for the ride. The cost and convenience sure made me a believer. We wandered midtown on foot with a few thousand others while we saw the sights. Times Square was very cool. We got to see things like the Radio City Music Hall, St. Patrick’s Church, Trump Tower, the Empire State Building, NBC studios HQ, and FOX News HQ. What made my day was while we were standing in front of FOX, Ambassador John Bolton walked up on his way to work as a FOX contributor. He actually took the time to take a photo with us! And the kicker to that…just a few blocks away we happened upon Ed Henry, FOX News’ Chief National Correspondent and he, too, took the time to take a photo with us! We had to end our foray into midtown for the day, Woody had to be left at home and he is only good for 5-6 hours before we need to return and tend to his needs. But rest assured, there is more on midtown to follow, there is so much to see and do.

The big kid had to have play time in Times Square…

More rain was not enough to dampen our exploratory spirits. Another foray into midtown and we got to experience Central Park. We saw Strawberry Fields and walked over to the Dakota, the apartment building where John Lennon was living when he was murdered. Central Park was very scenic and nothing like what we expected. We passed by Madison Square Gardens and Penn Station, spent more time around Times Square, and walked an old elevated train line that has been converted into a park called The High Line. Very cool “park” to check out.

Our last day venturing into the city landed us in the midtown area. New things we saw were Union Square, Grand Central Terminal (Station), Bryant Park, and ate with the rich folk at Del Frisco’s across the street from FOX News. It was a weird feeling, they have no dress code and we were in shorts (but I DID have on the rare button up, collared, Hawaiian print shirt). Everyone else who came in were wearing $1,000 suits (OK, probably not that much but still pretty hoity-toity). Good lunch though…

So, final tally on our preferred method of transportation (shoe leather) according to my Fitbit. For the 8 days we spent here at Liberty Harbor RV Park, I walked 192,665 steps for 87.99 miles. We used the Warren St. Ferry to get to the World Financial Center, then hoofed around town from there. We never used a cab, City Bike, or the NY subway system, we preferred the foot experience. We used the NY Waterways Ferry that took us from the Paulus Hook dock to Pier 11 by the Brooklyn Bridge. And we used the PATH train which is a subway train that runs from Jersey City (our stop was on Grove St., just a few blocks from the RV park) to 33rd St. in NYC. We expected a navigational and transportation nightmare during our stay here but were pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to get around and find your way in the megalopolis that is New York City. As far as safety concerns, we had none. We could not turn around without seeing multiple law enforcement personnel everywhere. I spoke with one of the Port Authority coppers and he said that NYPD alone had over 40,000 sworn. Add to that the Port Authority, school cops, Homeland Security, State Police, and whatever other L.E. presence is in NYC and that adds up to a couple of flat-foots on the beat.

Walking amongst the masses, and I do mean masses, was also not as bad as we expected. Yes, we did play a little pinball, it is pretty much unavoidable because of the sheer numbers, but it was entertaining to watch so many walking with head down in their cell phones; every now and then one would not see a low hanging branch until it was too late. The car drivers were the rude bunch, nobody obeys lanes, lights, or signs. I think I figured out the national anthem/fight song for NYC. Sung to the tune of Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns, & Money”, it must be titled, “Jackhammers, Horns, & Sirens”.

Tomorrow, we are outta here. Still trying to figure where we are headed, but it will probably not be too far so we can decompress for a couple days, catch up with laundry and shelf stocking, and then get back focused on our chosen profession of “Recreational Wanderers”…

Road Trippin', Watkins Style

Prowled county roads for a living, prowling country roads in retirement!

Category Archives: New York

9/27/2017 The Lower 48 Completed!

7/5/2017 Surviving Another Holiday on the Road

6/23/2017 Thousand Islands area on the St. Lawrence River, NY, then on to Cooperstown.

6/15/2017 A Little Upstate Beauty in New York.

6/2/2017 The Concrete Jungle!