Tag Archives: Cooperstown

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

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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!
Our home at Swan Bay. Nice and spacious!
Some rigs had waterfront views.
The pool area at Swan Bay.
Tiki bar, poolside of course! 

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.
Part of the “downtown” strip of A-Bay.
Looking out across St. Lawrence River from the east docks of A-Bay. The Power House for Boldt Castle is in full view on Heart Island.
Sunken Rock Lighthouse stands in the middle of the river.
We found another lighthouse, this one in Cape Vincent, called Tibbett’s Point Lighthouse. 
The Fog Signal Building for Tibbett’s Point Lighthouse.
We could not go into the lighthouse itself, but the Fog Signal Building was open for history lessons. 
The view of the St. Lawrence River from the patio of St. Lawrence Distillery.
The main building for St. Lawrence Distillery. 

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.
This is the Power House for the castle. It was built to power the castle. 
The Yacht House. It looks like George’s boats lived better than I ever will…
A view up the front walkway to Boldt’s Castle.
A sort of back yard view…
Jeanne really liked the heart shaped planter.
The Dove Cote, or The Hennery, was the first structure George had built on the island. It was an elevated water tank for water supply, topped with the wooden dove house where he collected fancy birds.
The Peristyle Archway was the “welcome to the island” entrance to Boldt Castle.
Jeanne is enjoying the “front porch” which just happened to wrap a longways around.
The grand entryway staircase, behind the hot babe…
Dining room at the castle.
Now this is a roomy kitchen! 
Comfy library.
George and Louise had separate bedrooms, this one is his.
This is Louise’s bedroom.
For a castle this sure looked like a bare-bones bathroom. In a castle, I would have expected a truly ornate and grandiose throne for the throne room… 
An overall look… 

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…

Beautiful downtown Ganonoque, Ontario.
A little tomfoolery on the piano at the town grandstand next to the visitor’s center, Gananoque.
How about a little literary enlightenment on your way to inner cleansing? Canadian style…
Viewing downtown Kingston from Ft. Henry.
City Hall for Kingston, Ontario. 
Some of the kids are gonna wonder what the heck is this thing? A port-a-pottie with windows?!?
We ate lunch here at the Kingston Brewing Co.
The inside of KBC.
Looking down the main shopping street at lunchtime. When the end-of-lunch bell rings, it will be EMPTY! 
One of the old churches we walked by, St. Mary’s.
This would be St. Andrews.
OK, so I’m ignorant. Sue me. I thought maybe the folks at city planning may have attended some training in San Francisco regarding the naming of city streets. Come to find out, The Tragically Hip is a famous rock band in Canada. Who’d of thunk?!?

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.
Not too rough on passage over to the island…
When we got there we had to disembark through a little water, the dock was taking it on just a bit.
Let’s bike Canada!
Arriving at Marysville, had to stop for pizza at the Wolfe Island Pub & Pizzeria. 
Getting ready to head back to the USA on the ferry, it had gotten a tad bit rougher…

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
Our home in Cooperstown.
The playground area for the kiddies.

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!

The main drag of Cooperstown. 
Jeanne can’t wait to enter this threshold… 
The museum is jammed with memorabilia and equipment used by baseball’s best. 
Here’s a display of a typical locker used by some guy named Honus Wagner. Might have been pretty good in his day or so I hear…(That would be HEAVY on the sarcasm folks!)
The area for the team displays was a bit tight, I could not get the whole Giants up close so I split it in two. Here’s the bottom half…
…and here’s the top half.
The Babe
This guy could throw a baseball pretty good…(Nolan Ryan) 
A bit of difference between today’s rings and yesteryears…
…wouldn’t you agree?!?
1st in the HOF.
He could get a hit now and then…
Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. These statues are carved of wood – no metal, leather or cloth.
A look into the HOF Gallery with all the plaques for the inductees.

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.
Tasting, anyone?
Jeanne’s a ham, at the Fly Creek Cider Mill.
OK, so I am a bigger ham…
Cooperstown Brewing Co.
A little take home fare from Brewery Ommegang. Barrel aged, all 3, the Adoration is a bit sweet but still OUTSTANDING…
And yet some more tomfoolery from both hams (appropriate props I would say!) at the Butternut’s Beer & Ale brewery.
The prize! Will they let me drink my fruit juice out of this at my next AA meeting?!?

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…