On to IL and family

Monday after a shopping trip to Camping World where we (Dave) bit the bullet and purchased the things we need to set up for dish network. By 10:30 we were back to the rig and just about ready to get out of Indianapolis. While convenient Lake Haven was no place we wanted to linger, so off to Effingham we went a day early.

What a difference in private parks between the two days, Camp Lakewood in Effingham is less than 2 miles off the interstate, back in and pull thru, some sights share a pedestal which makes for some closeness on one side. We have site 7 which is on the end which makes the site feel roomy,our site is near the office so we are entertained by all the rigs coming in off the road at the end of the day, think over 15 came in yesterday we'll see how many stay awhile. Our neighbor has SD plates so assume he is a full timer, there are a few TX plates too, we shall see who we can meet while here.  There is a IN Good Sam chapter meeting here over the weekend, evidently there is a covered bridge festival in their area and they are escaping the madness.

Around 5pm my folks arrived, they have passed by the road to the campground for a few months now but had never had a reason to come down to the campground, they were quite surprised to find such a pleasant spot tucked into town. So while its not the COE we had planned as alternative it's pretty good, during the day we hear some distant road noise last night we slept fine, we've always used a white noise machine and once it was on I heard nothing from the outside. Wally World and many other major retailers and food chains are with in a mile of here, there is a small "lake" that Dave can throw a line in. Mom and Dad treated for dinner, thanks Mom and Dad (I know he reads the blog :)) at a local place nearby, forgot the name but dinner was great and Dave once again made our waitress's night-he was voted the funnest customer of the evening.

Dad & Mom

Camp Lakewood, Effingham IL site 7

Obviously we came to the area to see my folks but it is also like a homecoming of sorts, my folks have move is  back to my mom's hometown. Every summer no matter where we lived, TX or NY, my mom would bring my brother and I with her to Neoga IL, either by train or bus, where we spent a month at my grandparents home. Family picnics and gatherings with lots of cousins, aunts and uncles, car rides through the countryside to see covered bridges and other sites always made for a fun month. In '76 & '77 my folks let me ride the Greyhound from NYC to Effingham by myself so I could work as a corn detassler, my first real job which in later years was an interesting job to have on a resume, made for some great ice breaking conversation.  My grandmother died in '77, during the years following I made a few brief trips out. In '85 a special trip was made, my grandfathers' 100th birthday, that was the last time I gathered with most of my cousins and their families, I've seen some of them over the years as we've traveled through and some have been out to VT for a visit, but since the 70's this will be the longest we've stayed in the area, we might even get some sightseeing in on this visit.

3 generations

Frank Overmyer with some of his grand kids

Tuesday morning after watching lots of folks leave early we took advantage of having a Wal-Mart nearby, since we are riding bikes so much I decided I needed one that fit the riding we do now, so while Dave got the truck oil changed I found myself a new cruiser bike with only 7 speeds :) The rest of the day was spent at my folks new home, Dave did some painting and I visited with my folks while taking advantage of their washer and dryer. We headed home and ended up watching the parade of rv's come in for the night,leftover pot roast for dinner,  a fire and a few drinks then we called it a day. We're looking forward to the next few days which will be spent reconnecting with some of the family and helping my folks out where we can.


And since it's Wednesday

Until next time...

Ohio to Indiana

We arrived Wednesday around 1pm at Grand Lake St Mary State Park our last Ohio state park, again another beautiful but different park. After getting set up we took a bike ride around to familiarize ourselves with the campground. Lots of sites, some back in and some pull through, to us the back in sites are nicer and larger. We are on a bend so the site is extra large, it's going to be a shock when we get to a tight campground, asphalt pads with 50amp service only, don't forget to take on water before you unhitch like we did :)

The park and lake have suffered in recent years from blue green algea, we learned this when one of the camphost came over to deliver a refund, we were not charged the discounted rate they have been charging the past few years.  The rate is not $25/night it's $12.50, love to save money, due to the blue green algea, which is harmful to humans, several dogs have died from ingesting the algea,the camping here has dropped off quite a bit since the break out so to entice them back they are charging half price. Blue green algae grows from feeding on phosphorus from manure and fertilizers that rain washes from nearby farm fields, in VT some of the bays in  Lake Champlain were affecte, here the lake is shallow and stays warm, perfect environment for the algea to grow.

sunset from our site

Wednesday we watched a number of campers come in, seems Ohio State Parks are all having a fall festival this weekend, most of the sites are full for the weekend. What is surprising is to see so many people driving their campers across the grass, the sites are all back in on 4 "u"s which are all along the road in a row. People will go down the road behind their site and pull through the site that is behind theirs on to their pad, guess no one around here knows how to back into a site. I've never seen anything like it, it's not just one it's the majority of them, just surprising is all I'm saying.

driving through the grass on way to site

trailer, rv & boat-who says you can't take it all

Thursday started off rainy so decided to do a grocery run, now we have a Krogers card, the collection keeps growing. The afternoon was spent getting reservations for a different place in IL since our campground is closed, a private one with 70 TV channels and full hook ups. We got a message from my mom, Dave for many years has been her handyman, she would like some painting done if we have the time. Over the years they have had Dave do lots of work for them and since they do pay :) they have never hesitated to ask Dave to do things, we've always had one fund or another that could use an influx and now is no different, a win win for all of us.

By the afternoon the park was full, I think schools must be closed on Friday, we tried to do a walk but it started raining again. Spent the afternoon doing absolutely nothing productive, have to take those kind of days once in awhile.

getting ready for the weekend

Friday we headed to IN for our last stop before IL, Salamonie Lake-Lost Bridge State Recreation Area site 56 was quite nice. We road bikes all around when we could, there were a lot of roads and loops to ride, a beach area and horse campground to ride through. We thought about taking the canoe out but the weather didn't cooperate, we did stop by a Heartland dealer and window shopped. The campground was nice but too buggy and no internet, limited tv and rain made our decision to move down the road a bit easy.

Nice site, too bad about the bugs and rain

Dave's favorite OH beer-so far

On Sunday we drove part way around Indianapolis and we are now at Lake Haven RV Park, nothing to write home about but it will serve the purpose for a night or two. Dave watched the Nascar race and I caught up with the world. This morning we are headed to Camping World to look at satellite dishes, Dave is ready to get some real stations to watch. When we get back we'll see what time it is and if we'll move on or stay here another night..

Until next time...

A new appreciation for Ohio

In years past Ohio has been a state to get through on our way to somewhere else, traffic was always bad and we never lucked out on decent hotel rooms for a long time. We've been know to drive to IN just to get out of OH, our boys could tell you stories of their dad ranting about the traffic and drivers,  The only time we did anything fun in OH was a few years back when we stopped at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. A definite must if you grew up in the early years of rock n roll and loved the music, one room is a continual video, played out over a large screen, of the Hall of Fame inductees through the years. You sit in a room with sofas of the 60's era, wavy backs and very comfy with music all around you. Guess you can tell we enjoyed our visit :)  We are now forming a new opinion.

I was born in Cincinnati, we moved to TX a month after I was born, but came back every summer to visit my grandparents, so I do have good memories of Ohio but for Dave it has never been a state he has anything good to say about. We enjoyed our stay on Lake Erie, checking another Great Lake off of the never ending list of places to visit, and are now enjoying our stay in north central Ohio. From the shore to a small park, 838 acres with a  93 acre lake, miles of roads to bike and a mountain bike trail that we didn't ride. There is a disc golf course and lots of trails, 16 miles worth, to walk on and I'm sure in the summer there are lots of programs going on. We haven't seen anything since we've been here and leave tomorrow to move on down the road another 150 miles to another OH state park. Our day has gone as many have gone this past week, get up in the 6am hour-much better than the 4am  hour- spend an hour or two awakening and figuring out how the day will go. A bike ride before the gas run, then as Dave would say it was time to rub some meat, dinner Tuesday was a pork rib done with his own rub. After he lovingly rubbed his meat (sorry but that's my husband a little crazy-pictures next time I hope) we let them refrigerate for awhile, before heading out to paddle Findley Lake we put the ribs in the slow cooker on low.

 Dave decided to spring for a fishing license so off we went in search of fish, we started from the launch near the campground and headed up the lake, since Dave was fishing he put me in charge of steering. Not always a good idea but off we went anyway, for the most part after a bit I was steering fine, helped to have a tailwind but I knew for sure I wasn't wanting to steer on the way back into the wind. We spent a good hour or so floating along the shoreline while Dave tried his hand at fishing with no luck, thankfully no worms were sacrificed in this futile attempt. We changed jobs for the ride back, I can do fine steering when we float along but trying to it when Dave is in the front and we trying to move along the water. Between the bike and canoe I think we've exercised most of the body for one day.

 

 Fall foliage starting at Lake Findley

Enjoying the sunshine

 Blue Skies :)

Returning to camp the aromas coming from our home were mouth watering, the wait till dinner was a long one but as usual well worth it.

Findley State Park getting ready for their fall festival

Today we head to Grand Lake St Mary's State Park where we will spend 2 nights, with family obligations westward we have to keep plodding along. Most of our days are under 250 but in a few weeks we will have a 370 mile day but the reward at the end will be well worth it. We are meeting up with friends we haven't seen in 18 years, Mark & Nancy have a goal next year  to spend 100 nights in their camper. Full timers one day? Mark and I have know each other since high school, Nancy and I spent the first six years of our kids lives being a support system for each other, Dave and Mark went on a few manly fishing trips back in the 80's, we've all vacationed together, lots of history and we're looking forward to making some more memories with them. We'll be camping in WI for 6 nights with them, can't wait.

We have reservations at a COE campground next week, wonder if my folks driveway is long enough to fit us. Guess we have some things to think about over the next few days.

 Until next time......

Geneva to Findley

Friday at Cayuga State Park we opted to try bike riding instead of getting the canoe out. The primitive area of the campground is flat and very quiet so it was a great place to start bike riding after a very long time. On my 40th birthday I decided I wanted a bike,well not much ever happened with it until today, I probably rode it more on it today than in the past decade. Dave has a bike that was our son's before he got his first car, it seems a better way for him to exercise, doesn't put stress on his heel\bone spur. Three bike rides later the bikes are loaded back on the truck and ready for our next park.

While this was a pretty park I doubt we'd be back, with the proximity to the road and the electric problems we'd probably look at other options in the area. Since we've been here our EMS (electrical management system) has shut us down at least half of a dozen times. The road noise never ceases, I can only imagine what it's like in the summer, though in a pinch it would be okay for an overnight stay.

Saturday we head down the road about 250 miles to Geneva State Park on Lake Erie in Ohio, earlier this week it seemed the park was filling up, not a surprise with the great weather. I went ahead and made reservations since we would be coming in on a Saturday, I just took a look and it seems there are no sites to be had so glad I went ahead and made those reservations. 

Our goal Saturday was to get on the road between 8 & 9, at 8am we were leaving the dump station and on our way. A few stops along the way and we were entering Geneva OH around 12:30, in the midst of what we were later to find out was the Grape Festival. Downtown Geneva was closed and we along with many others were rerouted through town, small streets with lots of people paying no attention to anything and crossing the road where ever was convenient.  Eventually we made it through the madhouse and out to Geneva Lake State Park, I imagine the festival also contributed to the full campground.

After unhitching and finding gas for the truck we took a bike ride, we were still sore from our previous rides so new seats were in order. After two trips to Wal-Mart we both had new bike seats and enjoyed a final evening ride along the lake. What a beautiful campground this is, with lots of large sites, some larger than our seasonal site in VT, a few TV stations over the antenna which is nice but our Verizon service is very limited on the computer nothing but my smartphone has a bit of a signal that I can check emails and the weather but everything else takes way too long

.

Sunday morning we watched the once completely full campground empty out, in our loop there were only half a dozen sites still occupied.

site 11, we did get asked how the Honda did pulling the trailer

 Our day was spent taking bike rides and sitting outside talking with people, on one of our rides by the lake we encountered the queen of Ohio with her court. They had been in town for the Grape Festival and were getting some photos at one of the beaches along Lake Erie Dave the photographer didn’t get any pictures. While sitting enjoying our afternoon liquid refreshments our entertainment was provided by a caravan of three vans, one being a Salvation Army van. After circling our loop three times they finally settled on two sites across from us, about a dozen men got out with two clearly being the leaders. Soon they were getting a lesson in putting up the two room cabin tent with a few more tents waiting nearby to be raised. By the time they started on the fourth tent most of them had gotten the hang of it and Dave was commenting it was a four beer job but I do believe Dave had a two beer head start.  While dinner was cooking one of the leaders stopped by and invited us to dinner with them, since our dinner was already cooking we declined but did visit with him for a few minutes. Seems they have brought a few men out to experience something they have never experienced before, camping. They do this a few times a year and come during the week so as not to bother too many people. They come for two nights and have campfires, do movies in the evening on the side of the one of the tents and during the day some “hiking” on the park trails. We stopped by to say hi after our dinner, one of the leaders is the owner of a catering company and when he started telling Dave what had been for dinner you could see Dave get intrigued. Marvin offered us some leftovers, they were supposed to have been eighteen more so they had lots of leftover food and didn’t want to waste it, well I went home and got some plates which were promptly loaded, a ham and rice entrée and a turkey stir-fry entrée with white rice.  Lunch for when we get to Mondays destination of Findley State Park.

our afternoon entertainment-watching all of this go up

bad picture-Great lunch

We took one last walk around the loop and met a nice couple, Barb and Dale, who came in on Monday and had seen us riding and walking by earlier. From discussions of Lebanese cooking, places we’d been over the years and our lifestyle choice we spent an en enjoyable half hour talking. Barb will retire in 18 months and was surprised to find we were fulltimers at our age, of course that led to the discussion of waiting till it’s too late and never enjoying retirement for one reason or another.  We gave her our card, if she checks us out and some of our blog friends she’ll see there are a lots of us young ones out there, for one reason or another we’ve all decided that it’s never too early to start living this lifestyle.

We are now at Findley State Park near Hungtington OH, it was an easy 115 miles around Cleveland and we were here and having lunch by 1pm. Just the kind of travel day we've come to like, not looking forward to the few long days we'll have-but they'll be worth it. Nice campground, not too many people here now but they are expecting a busy weekend, their fall festival is going on and most electric sites are reserved. There is 50amp service all are back in sites and looks like they have plans to add sewer to the sites as a waste facility is in the process of being built. We've already scavenged wood, enough for both nights and taken a ride around the campground, our internet works great and we have some TV all is right with the world.

Now it's time to catch up with the world :)

Until next time...

 

Name Change

Dave is getting more involved with the blog though I doubt he will ever do any writing. That being said he has been trying to come up with a name for our blog, now he has. Dave's surname of Malouf is of Lebanese descent and he has always had an affinity with camels. So we are now tada

The Wandering Camels

Think he'll have to start coming up with some camel pictures for hump day :-)!!

Corning & Rooster Fish

Wednesday was moving day, time to get a few more miles down the road. before we left though we tooka walk to the primitive campground. Very nice but facilities were a ways away though there was a port-a-pottie, uck. What a beautiful park, I'm sure we'll be back. While we do have 7 months we do have plans to have Thanksgiving in AZ with our son, before then there are some week long stops we will be making to visit family and friends, so time to get the wheels moving. By 11 we were ready to leave Glimmerglass State Park and head down the road a 135 miles, considering our past trips we would either make Cleveland OH or Dunn NC the first night, depending on our direction we were headed 135 miles nothing. We arrived at Cayuga Lake State Park about 1:15, very different from our last place, the park is on the lake but straddles NY 89, the electric campsites are near this road (I can see the road from the site) and it's very busy with lots of road noise. After getting set up and unwinding for a bit we took a walk around, across the road is there primitive area and dump station and looks like it get's lots of use during the summer months. Around 4pm lots of 5th wheels started arriving, looks like a lot of folks use this park as an overnight since it is 10 miles off of I-90.

Thursday we took a ride to Corning NY for a repeat visit to the Corning Glass Museum which is about an 1 1/2 hours away. Part of the drive was down the west shore of Lake Cayuga then through the rolling hills of the Finger Lakes, if you are a wine lover this is the area for you. Both Cayuga and Seneca Lakes have wine trails, seems like there is a different winery every few miles. Our ride home along the east shore of Seneca Lake was also populated with wineries, instead we stopped at a farm stand and picked up some local apples and cheeses.

Corning Glass Museum is a glass lovers paradise, different exhibits chronicle the history of glass making throughout the world, then there is a Tiffany Glass display and another area large glass bead exhibit., there is of course the display of glass art objects. I've posted a few pictures of our favorite displasys. We didn't stay for any of the free demonstrations but did spend a few enjoyable hours wandering the museum, there is also an innovation room that we visited last time but decided to skip this time.

Our ride home took us through Watkins Glenn were we stopped for a quick look at the speedway since we were going by nayway. There were a few groups of cars going around the track, Camaros, Chargers and such afterwards it was time for lunch. We found Rooster Fish Brewery, the picture tells it all and while he didn't care for any enough to buy a growler,  he did enjoy sampling all the different beers.

4oz each all for Dave

Dave has a few goals for this seven months: find breweries, eat rattlesnake (and get a rattle), wrestle an alligator and ride an ostrich, for those who know Dave know he's just a tad (fill in the blank) so none of these surprise them. We are doing pretty good on the breweries but need to find a different climate for the rest.

2011 last time Dave was alligator wrestling

 

At least he doesn't want to wrestle a bear again

Until next time...

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...