Completing the Circle

Saturday, September 1st

Happy First Birthday Sweet Antonia Rose

first experience with corn on the cob

  Well it's been almost a month since my last post but I'm back on the road to complete my circle of travel around the US of A.

Mommy & Antonia visit the Franklin County Fair

To catch up:  

This is how we slept 3 in Rhoda

A beautiful sunset welcomed me back to the Lake

Fran, Bev, myself, and Linda (the www's) take a ride
on the hand-made Adirondack animal carousel in
Saranac Lake, NY

This was the scene this a.m. before I left

This is where I've been for the month - mostly

This is Fish Creek State Park in the Adirondacks
where I plan to camp next summer for a week or 2

OK, so today: closed camp and drove out about 10:30, stopped for farm-grown tomatoes, strawberries, concord grapes, sweet cherries, and peaches.  Refrigerator was already mostly full of NY State apples and Chateaugay cheese curds.  Tastes of "home.

All the lake areas from Long Lake to Old Forge on Route 28 were FULL of people and cars for the last hurrah weekend.  Lots of water activities, lots of shopping, lots of back-packers looking weary and dirty.  Old Forge was so full of people and cars parked on both sides of the road that traffic just crawled through town and I felt like I should be waving from a convertible.

I had thought that by late Saturday everyone would have been where they wanted to be for the last weekend of summer but there was a steady stream of cars driving north into the Adirondacks all day.

Stopped to see niece Anna & family in Oxford, NY in their charming, old, full of character home.

Stopped in Endicott, NY to buy Spiedie marinade for Buzz & Lorraine and then on to Owego for a night in a motel as I couldn't find any campgrounds.

New Feature:  I'm trying a new route to FL from upstate NY so I'm documenting it here with brief comments so I'll remember next year or for those to follow:)

Malone to Blue Mountain. - Rt. 30 S
Blue Mt. to North of Utica - Rt. 28 and at that point it becomes 28/12 (road becomes 2 lanes)
In Poland 28 & 12 split - stay on 12 all the way through Utica and to N of Binghamton (this route is
     now just 1 lane but a lovely drive with rolling, green hills, farm country, well maintained, cute
     small towns)
N of Binghamton, get on I-81 S for a couple of exits - get off at Rt. 17 W (the future 86)

DATA:

Mileage:  303           Gas:  $89 @ $3.99              Motel:  $120 (first night since I started my this 3 month

                                                                                                    journey so I guess I can swallow this)

Look out above !

Tuesday, May 29th

Happy Anniversary Patrick & Joanna!!

     Woke up again needing the heat but it warmed up quickly, did my extended morning routine and thought I was doing well to drive out at 10.  I needed to mail a pkg so first stop was the P.O. and was surprised that it wasn't open yet.  I asked someone what time they opened and they said 9 - in just a few minutes.  OK, I'm now in Jeff & Katie's time zone so I gained an hour again except that that means I got up at 6 instead of 7 and I don't like to do that.

     In case you've been wondering - Gertie's been doing better.  She's a typical woman - if you know what she likes then she performs better for you.  You have to talk her language, tell her exactly what you want and read between the lines with what she's telling you.  When she says to turn Left onto King St. then turn left - she doesn't mean to take the next left - she means to stay left and in a minute she'll tell you which left she wants you to take - ask me how I know:)

     Reflections on:  at what age do you really appreciate and enjoy seeing the country and it's wonders?  I've observed all ages on this trip, in addition to adding in the feedback from my own 3 on our wonderful cross-country trip when they were pre-teen and teen.  Some young children are engaged but with lots of help from their parents and my guess is that they've been at this a while.  I've seen some teenagers who've been what you might expect - totally bored and yet others who are as enthusiastic as their parents at seeing such things as the Petroglyphs.  Obviously all the adults are enjoying the sights because it was their choice to come.  I haven't seen as many "seniors" as I expected - maybe it's the time of year?  So, I don't know what the best age is for this kind of sight-seeing.  My parents took us to see the sights at each new city we lived in and we lived in many but we didn't take vacations to see sights or National Parks, we went camping at the same state park each year Fish Creek in upstate NY or we went to visit Grandparents.  So, what do you think?

     My highlight for the day, again not planned or something I even knew about but followed a sign along the road - was to Meteor Crater, west of Winslow, AZ.  Again it was a few miles off the highway and again traveling over flat, flat, barren land to another surprise.

Do you see that black speck just right of center?

     The meteor hit earth 50,000 years ago and left this crater which is 1 mile around and is the best site in the world of a meteor crater.  The black speck at the bottom is a 6' tall cardboard cut out of an astronaut (all the moon-landing astronauts trained here to experience being in a crater) to give you an idea how deep and large it is - 20 football fields and 1 million spectators could fit on the floor of the crater.  Anyway, it was well worth the detour.  I didn't take the guided tour walking the whole rim as it was getting really hot and I felt that between the museum and movie I'd learned enough.

     And lucky for all you blog readers - the battery in my camera died after this last picture so I (you) were out of luck for the rest of the day.

     Drove into Flagstaff and did something very unlike me - I went shopping or rather I walked the streets of the old part of town.  Didn't buy anything except a Mango Gelato. Drove about another hour to just outside of Williams, AZ to a KOA which is the most expensive so far but later found out why - it's very near the turn off for the Grand Canyon.  Oh well, it's a nice one with big pine trees - haven't seen those in a few days.

DATA:

Mileage:  138                              Camp:  $42                          Meteor Crater:  $17

Gelato:  $3.25

Weather:  for the most part - perfect but tonight it's suppose to get to low 30s :(