Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, totally worn out, shouting "Wow...What a Ride!"

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

On the road



Rainbow over us on our last day in VT
 Robin sent me the above picture she took our last day at Maplewoods, just wanted us to remember where our home (base) was, at least for now. Yes everyone we will be back in VT the end of April, at least that is the plan.

Our goal Monday was to get on the road between 8 & 9, getting out of VT takes such a long time since it is all back roads. By 8:15 we were ready to roll, might have something to do with the 4:30 wake up, some habits will take awhile to break. Our destinations was Glimmerglass State Park near Cooperstown NY, a mere 250 miles away. As I followed Dave I wondered how things inside were riding, VT has a lot to do to their infrastructure, this years heavy rains have left roads patched and bumpy, doubt they'll be much better when we get back in the spring after the winter abuse they will take.

We made a couple of quick stops and arrived at the campground around 1:30, stopped at the visitors center and then took a ride around the camping area. While there are many sites available in both loops we chose one just off the second loop site #36. 
Site 36
It is a large site with a fire pit and grill, only 30amp something we've never hadbefore (at least reliably) so now we'll see how many things we can turn on at once. We've noted a few sites for future visits, I think this will make a nice first days drive no matter what way we are headed, south or west. We haven't decided yet on satellite tv but wonder how long that will last, there are only 2 air channels we can pick up, we'll see what the next few months bring.
 
Glimmerglass State Park has 600 acres and has 39 electric (30A) only sites, a few sites can accomadate 40' but not many. All the sites have lots of space, and there is plenty of space between sites.The park is located at the north end of Otsego Lake, there is a large beach area and judging by the parking lot gets a lot of day use in the summer, there is a place to launch canoes and kayaks near the campsites and a few trails to walk.
The park was once part of the estate of George Clarke who inherited it from his great grandfather Colonel George Clarke the Lt Governor of NY from 1736-1744. The grounds include Hyde Hall Mansion and is considered one of the finest surviving examples of Classical Revival architecture in America, there is also the oldest existing covered bridge in the US. While we didn't see the mansion, saving that for a time when the weather isn't great, we did see the covered bridge, more on that later.

After settling we took a walk around the two loops and then started on dinner, while watching Dave get the charcoal going it struck me, this is our life now. How lucky we are to be able to live life like this, No one pinch me because if this is a dream I don't want to wake up. After dinner and another walk we got a fire going, s'mores for me and a Blackberry Wheat Long Trail for Dave to celebrate the start of our next adventure.  

Tuesday I woke up about 4am but quickly fell back to sleep, it was almost 7 by the time we finally got up. After a slow start to the morning we headed into Cooperstown to Ommegang Brewery, a belgian type brewery, which a friend had told Dave about. While I don't care for beer, aside from Seagrams flavored beer, Dave loves to try different craft beers, after a free tour Dave stayed for the sampling where for $3 he could sample 6 different beers and he got to keep the souvenir shot glass.




In conjunction with Cornell University Ommegang is trying to bring back hops to the area. This area once supplied the US with hops, shortly before prohibition a blight occurred destroying all the hops.






Afterwards we headed into Cooperstown, since we're not baseball fans we were there for lunch and to walk around downtown a bit. Ended up at the Back Alley Pub, french dip for me and a blue cheese burger for Dave, not bad but we've had better, found out too late about a diner in town to try, oh well, there will be a next time. After a short walk on some of the side streets looking at the beautiful older homes and a stop at the grocery store we headed home, there was a lake to paddled on after all.

Glimmerglass Lake, which gets it name from the James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, is about 5 miles long and it was already 3:30 so we weren't going to get very far but out we went anyway. What a beautiful hour we had, since it was windy we headed into the wind so our return would be the easier part of our paddle. There were lots of Canadian geese, seagulls and a few ducks out on the water with us, we saw a few fisherman on the shore and paddled across Hyde Bay, even if for only an hour it was good to get back on the water.




After our paddle we had to check out the oldest covered bridge in the US, being from VT where we had visited at least 80 covered bridges during our time there we were skeptical about this one.



While there is a historical plaque documenting the bridge it appears to have been completely rebuilt in the 60's. It doesn't appear that there is anything remaining of the original structure, if someone knows something different be sure to let me know.






 We then took a few of the trails around a meadow, walked down to the beach, as we headed back to our site we saw a few deer and  found a disc course. Sure wish our son Tom was with us, he would have enjoyed that.

We rounded out the day with a fire and some star gazing. We haven't been able to see much of the stars since we moved out of the house, many a night in our hot tub we would enjoy the beautiful starry sky.

While we managed to stay up to 10pm last night I find myself up at 5:30 this morning finishing this. Today we move on down the road 140 miles, should be a short travel day to Cayuga State Park near Seneca NY, this sure beats the long travel days we used to put in.

Until next time...




6 comments:

  1. Welcome to the good life :) But, sheesh, I'm tired just reading about your day yesterday! You will find yourself slowing down...eventually :)

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    1. It wasn't as crazy as it sounds and yes we will slow down... eventually, probably about the time we get the gulf

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  2. Faye, no need to excercise today, you guys just wore me out. Time to take a nap.
    Dave, do you know what day it is? Yup, that's right, it's hump day!

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    1. LOL yep he knows and then let me know, think of you every time we see the commercial or when Wednesdays come around. Glad we were able to help with your exercise and yes a nap was in order that afternoon.

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  3. Great pictures Faye, I think you will have to publish your version of Travels With Suzan. Adventures with Dave.

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    1. Hey Al, anything is possible glad you found the blog and thanks for commenting. As you know it's always been an adventure with Dave, and now that the stress is being left behind he's really unwinding.

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