Just Passing Through IN

After a rainy, blustery, gas/diesel guzzling 4 hours we arrived in Ft Wayne IN, our original plan had us staying at an IN state park, after figuring the cost with the extra truck it was going to be double the cost of the city park in Ft Wayne. With cold and rainy weather predicted we decided to head for Johny Appleseed Memorial Park where the city has a small campground, with electric sites, some have their own water and some share water.The campground backs up to the parking lot for the Coliseum which appears to be the local large events center, imagine it can get a bit crazy and noisy here sometimes, this weekend though it has been quiet when inside the rig.While it is no state park for sure it is a nice small campground, lots of trees but we ended up in a sight with fewer trees so our satellite finally found a signal. For $18\night on some cold and yucky days I'm not complaining. It's been a great place to ride out a cold weekend, get some blog writing caught up and do a little shopping.

We did find a farmers market where we were able to get some fresh sweet corn, tomatoes, eggs and straight from the farm beef, a few other treats and our market bag was full. Now why I didn't take any pics is beyond me, have to get back in the habit.

We ended up at a mall close to the campground, Dave's boss is a Notre Dane fan, not much of their stuff in VT but we found some at the local mall. Hope you like what we ended up with John, Dave tried to call you to get your input.

We had another small world moment at Johny Appleseed, we met Kathy & Jerry from Jeffersonville VT one town over from our summer place in Johnson. What makes it even smaller is Kathy's sister comes to Maplewoods, recognized the name but couldn't put a face to the name. Because of the inclimate weather we didn't get a chance to visit with our new friends but maybe they'll come visit our summer campground next year.

Our next stop is Comlara Park in Hudson IL, a county park where we are meeting friends from our NY days, we finally caught up with them last fall after 18 years between visits. We hope to meet Curt and Glenda of the blog Illinois Campers:That's How We Roll we recently went full time, unfortunately they are in the area as Curt's dad is not doing well.

Until next time... 

Ohio-New Friends and Cayuga Valley

Site 89

Our travel day from NY to OH should have been our longest until we head north next spring, 6.5 hours and 385 miles later we pulled into West Branch State Park in Ravenna OH. We were in sync more getting ready to leave Verona, we did have one slight issue that we hope doesn't continue. While bringing in the living room slides one of them didn't want to come in, after a couple of tries Dave gave a big push on the slide and it came in, sure hope this is an isolated incident. All said we were on the road by 8am, an uneventful travel day resulted in us arriving just around 2:30, this is our second stay here and this time we chose site 89, a FHU pull thru site. Most of the back in sites are not big enough to hold us plus our extra truck, the pull thru is. Once again most of the sites have lots of trees but the one we chose is fairly open (as is most of the pull thru sites) has great dish coverage and our Verizon signal is at 3 bars with our booster, the camp water pressure isn't great so we'll fill the water holding tank and run off the water pump, noisier but such better pressure.

Veal Marsala

One of the added benefits is Emma Marie's Italiano, we first went there last April for my birthday. That meal was so great we had to go back, we were not disappointed. The resteraunt is locatedin a historical home, one of it's owners was a founder of Ravenna Quaker Mill Co which later became part of the Quaker Oats Company out of Akron. Our meal started with fresh hand cut potato chip and a crumbled sausage, followed by entrees of Veal Marsala and Chicken Risotto, these were so good we got deserts to go. The Lemon Cake and Maple Pecan Cheesecake were absolutely superb, the bill of $56 for the meal was, to us, a real deal.

Chicken Risotto

The waitress was attentive, we also received a visit from the chef and enjoyed a few talks with the owner Emma Marie, a thoroughly enjoyable time all around. If you find yourself in the area we highly recommend Emma Marie's, hoping to have my next birthday dinner there again.








During our stay at West Branch we met our neighbors, Toni came over late one morning apologizing for stopping the mowing as acorns had been bouncing off of her rig. We knew how she felt and assured her it was no problem, well as happens in this lifestyle a lengthy conversation ensued. Toni and her husband John are from the Cleveland area and enjoy a few trips each year to West Branch, one thing led to another, we gave her a tour of our rig and then sat and had a lengthy conversation about full timing, something Toni wants to do but John is hesitant to try. Our conversation picked up the next afternoon when we got back from our bike ride, Toni had come up with more questions that we were all too happy to answer if we could. Suggested she read the RV-Dreams journal that has been so helpful to many folks, just hope we can make a rally someday. We finally met John the morning we pulled out, he had been off to work every afternoon, don't we know how that is. Toni and John if you're reading this and I hope you are, it was great to meet you and we'll see you in April on our trip north. Have a safe winter and don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. Sure wish I had taken a picture of their rig, graphics had gone bad so she had pictures put on, she had actually looked through my brothers pictures when looking for the right pictures, small world stuff again.

One foggy morning we drove over to Cayuga Valley National Park, to the Peninsula Visitors Center to catch the train north 13 miles to Rock Side. While at the visitors center I purchased our National Park Passport book, wish I knew about them years ago, looks like we'll have to go back to all of those National Parks :)  

As a kid I spent time around trains and trolleys thanks to my dad's love of them, the train ride up the valley brought back lots of memories, childhood times and then when my boys were young there were visits from my folks, inevitably some kind of ride on the rails was in order.

What a great deal, $3 a person with your bike, we found a seat and enjoyed the ride up the line.

Peninsula Station-Cayuga Valley Scenic Railroad

Lock 39 is found at Rockside station, the trail follows the historic Ohio and Erie Canal route through the valley. Our first stop just a mile or so down the trail at the new Canal Visitors Center, where there were tons of kids. The visitor center had numerous displays of the orgin and folks who made it all possible, I just can't imagine folks digging the canal, the sheer amount of earth that was moved to put in the canals is astounding, then for the most part they were used for such a short time. I do wonder what it would have been like to travel that way....

Lock at canal visitor center

The first part of the ride just across the canal was a busy road, eventually we lost the road and the trail wound between the Cayuga River and the canal, the railroad follows the far side of the river.

Some OH color

Our final stop on the towpath was at Trail Mix (had to get my passport stamped) in Boston, we were ready for a break and decided to try their featured ice cream, wasn't as good as the Guifords we serve at Maplewoods but it hit the spot.

Boston OH

We enjoyed our ride on the trail but there were lots of folks out, can't imagine how busy it must be on the weekends or during the summer.  We biked 13 miles and are looking forward to finding some bike trails.

We are off to Johny Appleseed Campground, a city park in Fort Wayne IN, the weather is suppose to be cold, the state parks are almost twice the cost and we'll probably be inside more than out. Might as well go for the budget friendly place instead.

Until next time...

Verona Beach State Park & Erie Canal State Park

While it was a less than stellar departure we did manage to get the wheels rolling by 8:30 for a six plus hour of driving, it always takes so long to get out of VT. With detours and a few quick stops we arrived at Verona Beach State Park by 3pm. Verona Beach State Park is less then 10 miles north of I-90 (exit 34) on the eastern shores of Lake Oneida, the park opened in 1947 with campsites being added in 1970 and more in 1995. There are 45 sites but only 12 have electric, the sites along the shoreline have no services but will fit smaller rigs, we opted for site 17 with electric, we can see the lake from our site. Our site happens to have no tree cover, not a bad thing when acorns are falling all day and night.

After a long drive we enjoyed a walk along the lake while the sun was setting, a great way to finish the day.

One of the reasons we chose Verona Beach aside from it being at the max we like to drive in a day, there is also the Erie Canal State Park nearby with a biking path on the old towpath. Four miles away is a parking area, we arrived at the towpath 10'sh and decided to head north. For much of the first part  NY 46 was running parallel to the Erie Canalway Trail, while not busy there was somecar noise.

 This part of the towpath runs through farm country, the trail in this area had an old smaller unused canal that didn't have much water, what water was there was green and very stagnant (skeeter breeder area) and at some points there was no water just some nasty looking muck.

Erie Canal

                                                                                                                                                             

Erie Canal below lock

After a while the bike path took us over to the Erie Canal at Lock 21, we continued on and eventually the trail separated from the canal and we rode along what appeared to be an old rail bed.

At Stark's Landing, a hamlet of Verona, we see this mural is on the Verona town garage facing the towpath. The mural was done by local artist Jane Grace Taylor, there are three scenes depicting life along the canal in the mid 1800's in three nearby hamlets. You can read more about the mural and artist here.




We didn't quite make it to Rome NY but by the time we turned around we had ridden over 8 miles, we then rode the 8+ miles back albeit a little slower. We had a great time just being out again, love the retired part of semi-retired.

Our wonderful fall day was topped off by another beautiful sunset across Lake Oneida.

Until next time...

Goodbye VT

Our last days in VT were filled with work and goodbyes. Dave was busy during part of it working his last seven day stretch, on one of his OT days I went into town with him. A stop at one of the largest maple syrup producers who just happens to be a friend from our days in Huntington. After a nice catch up on our families I left with wa winter supply and some for the boys when they visit us this winter. A final stop at my hairdresser of 18 years and then off to a girls lunch with two wonderful ladies, just forgot to take any pics.

cooking wannadingers

One evening we got together with some of the seasonals who were in the park during the week, I had heard about wannadingers in a post on another blog and had made the appropriate sticks and laid in the necessary accompaniments. Sean & Helen and Dan & Lois were great sports in our first try at wannadingers, Pillsbury Grand biscuits smoothed and stretched over the end of a wannadinger stick then cooked over a fire, when done fill with whatever you choose, we did both sweets and savory.  See you guys next summer.

Helen, Lois, Dan & Sean

Last Thursday was both of ours last days at work, by 5pm we were both off and done for the next 7 months. To all of those who were a part of Dave's send off at work a big thank you, it meant a lot to him, he'll see you on May 1st all rested and ready to take care of your tools and projects.

Friday there was a small goodbye pot luck held for us at the campground, great food and better company. Again thank you, we had a great summer with you all and look forward to seeing you next summer. Afterwards we joined the group around a campfire and tried wannadingers again, still a work in process, another few times and we should have the science of wannadingers down.

Saturday our friends of many years from Huntington came for our last get together of the summer. A great dinner followed by the start of a game of Farkel ended up abruptly when our friend Mike went into annaphylatic shock. After Mike lost consciousness a few times and refusing an ambulance his wife, accompanied by the other couple, took him to the nearby ER where it was determined he is now allergic to shrimp probably. He was finally released about 2:30am after recieveing 4 IV's and having had a number of test done. What a way to end our summer with them, so glad Mike is okay and he'll just have to learn to live with his new found allergy, no more shrimp po'boys for him.

Vermont decided to grace us with her beauty before we left, what a difference a week makes. 









 

Until next time (from the road)....

Just About Ready

One of the definitions of morass is: an overwhelming or confusing mass or mixture. For a few weeks after losing our friend to suicide that was how my mind felt. Eventually I stopped crying every morning in the shower, still don't understand why. For us though life goes on with a touch of sadness that will always be there.

 September has been a quiet month for us, Dave continued his crazy work schedule and is now a handful of days from being done, none too soon. One of my coworkers quit (the owners sister) so I've worked a few extra shifts, not a bad thing as we wanted to get some new chairs here from the store. The campground has quieted down since Labor Day and some of our seasonal friends have already left, the days at the store are quiet. Before the leaving started a lot of us had one last meal together.

Unfortunately our friends from our former VT hometown have been busy all month, expectations of lots of visits this past summer never materialized. Hopefully next summer will be different, the days do get a bit boring when Dave is working a 12 hour day. While old friends haven't been around we've been enjoying the company of new friends.
 

Not to long ago we met Alison and Dave, soon to be Grand Design Solitude owners. Until last weekend we hadn't seen them since the got their new rig, Their new front living room Solitude is 42.5' long so when Alison called we got them into a site with plenty of room. Dave and I spent a great evening visiting with them in their beautiful rig, it was nice to get to know them better. Alison has started the Grand Design owners group on Facebook so we "talk" all the time. They hope to be full timers before too many years, still have one left in high school so it shouldn't be too many years. Forgot to take a picture so borrowed a picture from Facebook of them and their new beast, see you next summer guys.

Guy (coworker) and Rich

One of Dave's coworkers came in for a weekend along with some of their friends, a few nights around a campfire and new friendships were born. They were here for Halloween weekend and voted in the site decorating contest, I'm sure they were instrumental in our taking second place. 

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Second prize was a free night stay, hoping our friends from IL will be coming out next summer so saving it for them. 

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on the way to the top

 We did finally take a day and play tourist for part of it, we had never been to Jay Peak Resort so took a ride to the north hoping also to find a bit more color. While we are not skiers and you'd never catch us up on the mountain top in the winter we do love visiting VT ski resorts in the summer and riding to the mountain top, taking pictures and riding back down. While the color hadn't changed and it was a bit overcast it was good to be out playing again.

Top of Jay Peak

The Long Trail which runs across the VT high peaks is here at Jay Peak. We've done parts of the Long Trail in various places over the years, our favorite hike was up Camels Hump which was in our former hometown.





 

We've finished up running a bit more LED lights over one of our cabinets, still trying to figure the best way to add some ambient lighting in the very back. The basement has been reorganized and inside I've gone through the closets and cabinets getting things ready to travel. We were expecting (and received) a hard frost so Dave harvested what was remaining on his tomato plants, cut back the herbs for drying and brought in a few plants that we are going to try and take with us.

Heading into the big city tomorrow, an appointment with my hairdresser one last time and lunch with my two best girlfriends in VT. A few stops to replenish some made in VT products (maple syrup and Switchback beer) a few goodbyes to some local business owners, a visit to UPS to make sure all is good with our mail forwarding then off to rescue Dave from his OT day. A few days to get the inside spic and span, the weekend to get the site prepped for winter, last visits with friends and we're out of here.

We will leave VT on Sunday or Monday, plans are to stop three times before getting to IL where we will spend a few weeks camping with friends and visiting family. Our first stop is Verona State Park on the eastern side of Lake Oneida, nearby is Old Erie Canal SHP where if the weather cooperates we will get in some much needed exercise on our bikes. Our next stop will be West Branch State Park in OH where if the weather once again cooperates we hope to bike in the Cuyahoga Valley National Forest, after reading about it on Sherry's blog In the Direction of Our Dreams. We'll then head to somewhere in IN to wait over the weekend before heading into Hudson IL to again camp with friends. We do have some long (6 hour) travel days but none are back to back and for the most par it's roads we've been on before which helps.  





Our time here is ending like it began with mice trying to visit, early detection on our part surely helped. Dave set the traps, we went to bed to watch tv and before we had hardly begun the trap went off, the intruder got lucky but then decided to chance that luck a second time. Needless to say he didn't learn as he was caught before we the tv went off, the morning brought news of the demise of another intruder. Time to move on!!!!

Until next time... 

Getting By With A Little Help From Some Friends

On Friday we learned that Dave's leave of absence was approved, we will be once again coming back to VT next summer. Robin, the owner here at Maplewoods, was relieved to hear the news, it took a lot of stress off of her, one of her sisters is not coming back and she didn't want to have to think about us not coming back too. We'll leave on 9/28 probably, we have a week or so to get to IL where we are meeting our friends whom we reconnected with last fall. 

My best friend from high school came up last weekend amid all the chaos our life was in, it was a good distraction and time spent with a treasured friend. Rene and I met in the spring of '75, we've been the best of friends ever since, in 10th grade we had identical schedules, where one was the other was too. Our friendship has survived the test of time, we get together when we can usually once a year and these days it's usually in VT. Since 2001 Rene and her husband Ed have come up many August weekends and we've attended concerts at the local fairgrounds, some of the shows we've seen Rene and I saw together back in the 70's. 

They arrived Friday after rainy 6 hour ride, told her how to go but she listened to the GPS, oh well she got to see Burlington. A late evening of catching up led to sleeping in late, they were our first inside overnight guest and the new mattress worked well they said. After a slow morning we headed into town mid afternoon, spent time wandering the vendors booths just looking slowly working our way back the rv area. What a bust that was, the rv area had only one dealer who had predominately used rigs, the only new 5th wheels were some Bay Hills, didn't do a thing for us except make us appreciate our Solitude more. Our entertainment for the evening was provided by the Goo Goo Dolls and Daughtry, great shows and a great evening with my "sister". They headed home early Sunday as we had commitments that had to be kept. Thanks girlfriend for the visit, just what was needed right then.

So for the moment the blog is caught up, now I can go read blogs and see what everyone has been up to for the last few weeks. Labor Day is almost upon us, folks start rolling in tomorrow, it's our weekend off but we'll be around here if needed. 31 days to go!!!

Until next time...