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. 

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

. 

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...

We'll Miss You Kevin

Last week we lost a family friend, Kevin, tragically to suicide, our lives are a little less brighter with out him in it. Through the years in Huntington Kevin was a fixture, coach of our son's soccer team, his oldest girls are our boys age. He and I chaperoned many a field trip together, if possible we'd reject the school bus for one of our cars, great times yakking away. I was exactly 2 days older than him, a fact he always reminded me of on my birthday. In the early years he would refer to our son Tom as the kid who ran with his hands in his pockets, later years he confided in me his daughter was in love with Tom and just waiting for him to grow up. I met Colleens fiance last weekend, they both enjoyed hearing of our lifestyle and thought full timing was a great idea. As the kids grew we didn't see Kevin as much, running into him at the local store or coming into the bank when I worked there. The last time we saw him was last year at our last garage sale, we spent some great time talking about the our new lifestyle changes, another friend who so understand our desire to live this lifestyle. Kevin and I were FB friends and would comment once in awhile on each other posts. Less than a week beforehand I sent him a message asking if he was going to an usher at an upcoming concert I was attending. He messaged back he was working as little as possible and thanks for thinking of him, less than a week later he was no longer with us. I know he had to be thinking of taking his life even then, he wrote his obituary, sent letters to his wife and each of his daughters, emailed a friend soon beforehand, paid the next months bills and set up a family trust. He headed to a ski slope nearby where he and his family had spent many wonderful years, he was found a few hours later. He wanted no funeral but instead a celebration of his life, we along with our good friends from Huntington attended, he had touched all our lives. On Sunday we attended the celebration held at the family home, we spoke with his bewildered wife, gave our love to her and the girls, spoke with a few of the hundreds of folks that were there. People we hadn't seen in years all expressing the same disbelief that of all folks Kevin would be the last we would expect this to happen to. The words his wife spoke to me as we hugged of the special bond Kevin and I had still bring tears to my eyes when I think of them and of him so gone, not to see again. Our hearts,thoughts and prayers go out to his girls whom we know he loved dearly. RIP Kevin until we see you again.

Catching Up

I started this post over a week ago, wanted to get it done before my best friend from high school visited. On Wednesday the 20th we received word a friend of ours had committed suicide, my next post will have more about that. Needless to say I am way behind now, thanks for continuing to follow, we'll be on the move 9/28 or 9/29 taking a slow 7 week trip west and south.

It's been just over a month since our last post, yes we're still alive and while we don't seem to be doing much a month has gone by in another flash. We have been enjoying lots of our rv friends summer travels, some have been traveling through areas we've been to years ago, our appetites are wetted and we look forward to exploring them again someday. We have another 6 weeks and we'll be out of here, route planning to the Texas Gulf Coast has taken a bit of time. I usually plan out a loose route then we sit down with Google Earth and look at COE and State parks nearby, finding ones that have decent reviews and look to at least have some roads to walk or ride the bikes. For our trip south this year hiking isn't a priority, fishing, walking, biking and local attractions will be what we are looking for.

 Our free weekends have been spent with friends we hold dear, time is quickly running out, only one more gathering of the 3 couples who for 10+ spent most every other Saturday night in each others company. Treasured times spent with good friends, laughing till our sides hurt, recalling times gone by as kids grew up, always there for each other when ever needed. Dreams of visits to see us on our beach in Texas, hopes they come to fruition.

We have taken next weekend off, my best friend since high school will be here for a visit. For many years we've been getting together for a weekend in August, usually involving a concert we are attending at the local county fair. Rene and Ed will be here on Friday, still don't know if they will bring a tent or use our new air mattress in the living room. Saturday late afternoon we will head to the fairgrounds for dinner then for 3 band concert. Plain White T's, Goo Goo Dolls and Daughtry entertaining us from the first row of the grandstands. We learned many years ago at the Styx & REO concert we want to be under cover, VT August weather can be unpredictable and the show usually goes on.
                                                                                                                                  

no other lighting on

 The UPS driver has been making frequent trips to the campground on our and Amazon's behalf, among other things we've been prettying up the inside of the rig. We have installed some under cabinet lights to add some ambiance, thinking of adding some similar white lights to a few places to help brighten some dark areas. 

We've also been working in the bathroom, as is typical in rv's the palette is a beige with dark brown cabinetry. After years of white and light cabinets I like the dark woodwork in the rig, in the bathroom there are no doors on closet which is fine, I've worked around that and am glad for no doors it might make the bathroom feel real dark. I've been looking at curtian panels but haven't found the right one yet. What we have done now is install the Smart Tiles as a back splash, thought it came out not to shabby. The tiles were easy to install, peel and stick, add a negligible amount of weigh, not bad for under a $100.

Dave has been working on improving our internet signal also, we now have a Wilson Sleek Cellular Signal Booster along with a trucker antenna to help pull in a stronger signal. So far so good, we've had much better internet since it's been hooked up.

We used to have a map hanging in our office in the S&B, it wasn't practical to bring it and we've found we miss having a larger US reference map. Our new dining table came with a glass top that place things under. Recently ordered a laminated US map and placed it under the glass top, we find ourselves using it when we are doing route planning :) 





FOOD

pork loin stuffed with pork sausage wrapped in bacon

We've enjoyed lots of great meals....

peach pie :)

Shrimp po'boy, from Cajun's a little hole in the wall just up the road a piece 

this pic appeared on the I Love TX Recipes FB Page

The campground hosted a pig roast one weekend

Our garden is producing lots of tomatoes which Dave is enjoying immensely, along the recipients of his abundance of tomatoes. I've been enjoying the flowers blooming, one of my favorites is the fuchsia plant I have.

I had planned to end the post here last week when I started it, so for now that's what we've been up to. Haven't read any blogs in the last week so need to catch up on what everyone else has been up to for the last week too.

Until next time...

We're still here :)

Wow it's been a month since I last posted, there has been a lot of nothing going on still. While Dave has been busy working as much overtime as he can I've been keeping myself occupied with a very relaxed life. Most days I've been staying around home, if I work it is for 5 hours or less a day, so far this season I've put in about 165 hours, I expect to put that many more in again before we leave. Looks like it'll average out to a little less than 20 hours a week for the site.

The campground has been busy since the end of June, the holiday weekend went off with out a hitch. Lots of young shoppers, gallons of ice cream scooped, ice and firewood flying off the porch all kept the store was kept hopping. Last weekend was another full weekend with a local baseball tournament going on, lots of tent campers some came prepared with 700 Jello shots. Our fears of trashed bath houses and torn up sites were unfounded, by 11am Sunday all the weekenders were gone. The past 4-5 days we have had the Hudson Valley Allegro group here before heading the FMCA rally in Essex Jct VT.

I worked on the 3rd & 4th of 4th of July but over the weekend we had company. Saturday we had friends out, Les & Deb provided most of the fixings for a shrimp boil, thanks guys.

We even had overnight guests, friends Mike & Carol pitched their tent in our yard and stayed a few nights.This worked out great since the next morning we headed out for a canoe trip on the Lamoille River. Unfortunately I forgot to put the card back in the camera so had to use the Iphone instead, most of the pics didn't turn out well :(

And then we came home and had pulled pork for dinner.









Dave's foot continues to improve slowly, the addition of the lift to his other shoe has made walking in the cast much easier on his back. At work he keeps the cast on but while home he is going with out it more and more.
My father has been released from the nursing home and is back resting at home, he reads the blog so I'm sure he'd second me saying again,  thank you all for your concern and support over the past few months.

So aside a lunch date with my girlfriends, some reading of thousands of pages in numerous books over the past few weeks, the usual running around that life requires and working a few hours ere and there not much else is going on. We are making notes of some of the places folks are traveling this summer, a file we hope to take out and use in a few years. 

Until next time...  whenever that might be :)