Our Last Weekend in New York

That weather forecast mentioned in our last post has been accurate.  Saturday was cooler and cloudy so we took the car to Corning and spent the day indoors – in the museum of Corning Glass.  The place was packed.  There were tourists from all over the world.  It was an entertaining and educational visit for us.  We saw a glass-breaking demonstration (how different glass breaks, ie safety glass for cars, etc.), learned about fiber optics, and watched vases being created by a glass blower. 
We recommend this tourist stop to anyone coming through this area.

 

We recognised the work of Dale Chihuly from across the room:

 

Sunday started out even cooler.  (I can’t say “cold” since we looked up the weather back home in Minnesota.)  After a local church service here in Campbell, where we were the only strangers, we visited a couple of vineyards/wineries back in the Finger Lakes.  Bully Hill is highly recommended for being low-key and fun – and they have good wine!  They also have a great restaurant which we tried out – yummy!

Here is some more Finger Lakes scenery.  Just imagine if the sun had been out.

In some places, it is like being in a jigsaw puzzle (with all those colors).

 

Fall Colors are Peaking

Thursday was another short travel day, but included a little Interstate driving for a change.  We moved to the southern edge of the Finger Lakes area.  The local long-range weather forecast had said to expect a beautiful Thursday, an OK Friday with rain moving in late, a wet Saturday, and a cold/wet Sunday.  As of Saturday morning, that was very accurate. Here is the view out our windshield:

We got settled into our latest campground early and unloaded the motorcycle for a very nice afternoon of riding on back roads, along the Canisteo River Rd.  It was a gorgeous afternoon.  So many homes decorate for Fall with pumpkins and mum plants – beautiful. 

We used the car on Friday for a trip to Watkins Glen and along the shores of Lake Seneca and Lake Keuka.  We have been here a number of times in years past and it remains a favorite place to see.  Pictures of Watkins Glen don't begin to capture the beauty, but we will try:

 

The rain moved in, right on schedule, while we were enjoying a local Friday night fish fry.  Light rain has stuck around all night and into Saturday morning, as this is being written.

This is Columbus Day weekend, and Monday is a school holiday around here.  The campground will be closing for the season very soon, so this is their last big weekend.  A lot of “weekenders” have arrived yesterday filling the campground, and the staff has pumpkin carving and trick or treating planned for later today.  The rain is likely to put a damper on both activities.

We will be here through the long weekend.  While the “weekenders” will likely leave sometime Monday, we will wait until Tuesday morning to pack up and continue our rambling south.  Our next stop is planned for a Corps of Engineers park in Pennsylvania where no reservations are taken.  Campsites are “first come/first served” but we don’t expect an issue this late in the year.  After we get our mail by the middle of next week we will continue further south, but both the route and the schedule are uncertain. 

 

The latest forecast shows possible frost, so it’s time to move further south.

 

Tourist Time, Once Again

After moving only 50 miles on Tuesday, we spent Wednesday playing tourist again.  Letchworth State Park is near here and is touted as “The Grand Canyon of the East”.  It is composed of over 14,000 acres along the Genesee River.  The southern entrance is less than 10 miles away.  Inside the park, the river drops over 3 waterfalls and flows through a narrow gorge over 600 ft deep in some places.

 

We walked a number of trails on the southern end, and drove the length of the park, exiting through the north gate at Mt Morris NY.  At the end of the park is a “dry dam” built by the Corps of Engineers as a flood control project.  There had been devastating floods about every 7^th year before this was operational.  It looks like there is room for a lot of water when it is needed.

The town of Mt Morris has a lot of well-kept older buildings, and we found a nice deli for a late lunch.

 

We got back to the campground and had time to do laundry and make a pot of chicken with spaetzle soup.  Yum!  Good end to a nice day!

Tourist Time

Sunday was cool and drizzly, so we stayed home and read and napped after attending the local church in the morning.  The Buffalo Bills football team turned a surprising lead into an embarrassing loss, but we really haven’t been following any of the teams yet this year.  We are camped at the fairground which is pretty close to the stadium – we could see the blimp hovering over the stadium furnishing views from above during the game. 

Monday was forecast as a nice day, so what did we do after renewed our wedding vows last week?  We went to Niagara Falls!  We have been there a couple of times before, on the Canadian side.  Yesterday we played tourist on the NY side of the falls.  The NY side is not as touristy and the city is actually a pretty depressed looking area.  The park is pretty and scenic but the shopping area is pretty vacant and unkempt. 

 

Before going to the Falls, we stopped at a store we had heard of – Made in America Store.  Everything in the store is made in America.  Apparently this store has been featured on some of the national news shows.  It was very nice and since we were there at the same time a tour bus was, the owner gave us the 10% discount and homemade cookies! 

Today we’re taking our time getting ready to move to a different campground.  It’s another dreary, drizzly day again.  Minnesota weather is sure looking better than this!!

Scattering

The Nomads Annual Meeting came to a close on Friday morning and the members are drifting away to meet up again at some future service project or the next annual meeting.  We have made a lot of new friends and look forward to working with them sometime/someplace.

We went back to the county park where we spent some time last week, but we didn’t stay.  The “weekenders” had taken over, and we didn’t have reservations.  We might have been able to grab a last spot, but it was crowded, noisy, and already smoky.  We came back to the fairground where a very few NOMADS haven’t yet left, and returned to our original spot.  It is quiet and flat here, and our neighbors are great.

The drive to the county park was very colorful!  The leaves in some areas are almost at 100% color.  With all the hills and windy roads around here, it is a very pretty time of the year for a drive.

By the way, the fairgrounds are in Hamburg, NY which is where the sandwich of the same name was originally offered to the public.  According to local legend a couple of food vendors at the county fair had been serving sliced, grilled sausage to their customers until they ran out of sausage and began to substitute spiced ground beef in its place.  That was in 1885.  Similarly, the nearby city of Buffalo is supposedly the birthplace of spicy chicken wings.

The forecast is for rain tomorrow.  We’ll probably go to church in Hamburg, then have a quiet day as we smell the delicious sticky chicken cooking in the crockpot.  It’s nice to have a stay at home day – just so the rain doesn’t stay around too long!

Nomads Annual Meeting

There are only two days left of our first Nomads Annual Meeting.  We’ve met so many friendly fellow Nomads here!  There are about 210 attendees at this meeting, some from as far away as Seattle. 

On Monday, we opted to participate in an excursion to ride on the Erie Canal.  We went through 2 locks on the river.  The weather wasn’t too bad so Bob sat on the upper deck and enjoyed the scenery.  Paige spent her time on the enclosed lower deck and some time outside also.  Here are a couple pictures:

 

While on the boat, Bob spotted a Friendly’s Restaurant – a sandwich and ice cream restaurant we knew from our time in Strongsville, OH.  After the boat ride, Bob suggested that we stop for a quick lunch and ice cream.  Other Nomads from the tour also stopped there so we got together at tables and met more new people.

Yesterday was the big auction day to raise money for the agencies that need financial help in order to get their work done.  They have a silent auction as well as some items sold in a traditional auction.  Most items go for outrageous amounts as everyone knows the money goes to a good cause.

We’ve been attending seminars relating to different aspects of our project work.  Tomorrow Bob and I will be taking the training to become Project Leaders. 

We also eat a lot!  Tonight was a potluck dinner where we had the opportunity to meet more new people.  Tomorrow night is a catered meal and a ceremony for everyone who wants to renew their wedding vows.  As of tonight, we plan on participating in that.

 The meeting will be ending on Friday morning.  We plan on doing a boat load of laundry after the close and then probably go back to the county park again.

Anticipation

We have relocated, from the county park mentioned in our prior posting, to the Erie County Fairgrounds in Hamburg NY.  Here is another shot of where we were in Erie County

Our friendly neighborhood deer – 5 of them

 

And here is our current location

We moved on Thursday so that we could get settled early.  One of the local people suggested a few things to see and do, including a trip to a grocery store.  Wegmans is a local chain that is known to be an innovator.  Paige’s first reactions were “Oh my!” and “Oh, Wow!”  It’s hard to put into any other words, but size, selection, and staff level were all outstanding.  A shopping trip became a unique experience.

A cool and rainy weekend has been forecast, so we took advantage of Friday’s weather (cloudy and mild, with only a couple sprinkles) to ride the motorcycle: south to Jamestown, northwest to Lake Erie, northeast along the shoreline to the Dunkirk lighthouse, and back to Hamburg.  We forgot to bring either the camera or the smartphone, so we have no pictures to share, but let’s say it was very pleasant.  Lots of reminders of Fall – leaves are starting to turn colors and many pumpkins for sale along the ride.  Very pretty!

As of Saturday morning many RVs are already here, with more Nomads pulling in today and tomorrow.  The annual meeting doesn’t officially start until Monday but nearly half of the people are here.  We have found it so easy to meet and talk to many new friends and a few we have worked with in the past 19 months.  Today is a big “garage sale” next door at the county’s event center.  We also have a local farmers’ market and a yarn store to check out.