For those of you chronologically challenged, this may present some difficulty.
We are in a N.Y. state park located just north of
Ithaca on one of the
Finger Lakes, Cayuga.
We haven’t had internet for a couple of days, so this posting, along with others, has been delayed.
This evening, I met a couple from Ontario (Canada not California) and asked them about Quebec. For some reason, I have been anxious about traveling in Quebec. This probably emanates from that whole French language thing, but if they don’t speak English, then what the hey, it’s not something we can’t overcome. If I were in Germany, would it not be the same? Stan, the gentleman from Ontario (Can. Not CA.), said that when we would be in Gaspe, it would be exclusively French, but not to let that bother us, it would be well worth the trip. He and his wife, Wilma, gave us numerous pointers on places to see on the Gaspe Peninsula, in New Brunswick, P.E.I., and Nova Scotia. Now, I’m excited again about getting there and seeing things. We were going to spend some time in the Adirondack Mountains, but Canada begins closing the first of September and is closed by October 15, so time is critical and we need to move on.
If you remember, I dedicated out 54 mile day, Monday, to Denny and Jill. That was all we needed to travel to seen my niece Susan and her family. We had a wonderful visit. When Susan’s husband, Bart, arrived home from work, he fired up the BBQ and fixed some chicken Susan had marinated. We had a wonderful dinner with chicken, hamburgers, a great green salad, a pasta salad, potato salad, chips and salsa, and a great local beer (ok, it was a fine brown ale) to wash it all down. Spice received a lot of love and attention from the kids. Susan mentioned that we were camped near the Genesee County Village and Museum at Mumford. It sounded interesting, so on the way home (ok, back to the RV) we drove through Mumford, but didn’t see anything.
Tuesday morning, we took the truck and found the GCV&M. It wasn’t open yet, but we could check out the parking. Hallelujah, there was RV and Bus parking with lots of access. From there, we cruised to a fruit and vegetable stand that Carol had seen the previous day. She wanted not only to buy some corn and veggies, but take some photos as well. Mission accomplished, we returned to the campground, mated the truck to the RV and headed back to GCV&M. The village sits on several hundred acres of what used to be farmland. Over 45 buildings, all 19th century, have been located throughout N.Y., deconstructed as necessary and moved to the village. The biggest of which is over three stories and has four bedrooms on the second floor. All of the village staff dress in period costume. In the Tinsmith’s Shop is an actual tin smith who will tell you first person what a tin smith does. There was a woman baking breads in a wood fired brick oven. She used a reflector oven in front of a small wood fire to raise the dough. Down the street, a potter was busy firing his wares in a coal fired kiln. When you stepped into one of the many homes, the woman of the house would greet you and tell you about the home and its history. The house that George Eastman lived in until he was four years old is in the village. All of the flyers, notices and posters in the village are generated from the newspaper office where the print is set by hand. Three hours after we entered for what we thought would be a 45 minute walk through, we left.
On the road again, Carol announced that she had pick out our next site, which is where we are until tomorrow when we leave; which will actually be sometime prior to you reading this as I have no internet access. So after a grueling 87 mile drive, we rolled into Taughennock State Park. It has a waterfall. It has trails. It sits just above Lake Cayuga. Ok, all that is good. After a good nights sleep, we awoke to a beautiful day. While Carol took Spice for a walk, I threw together pancakes and brewed some coffee. Well rested and nourished, we set out to hike the trails above and to the water fall. It began with a trail from the campground down (note the down part) to the trailhead for the north rim of the gorge. From there we climbed up 120 steps which brought us to the opposite side of the campground from which we had started. So instead of going down and up, we could have just gone over. O well, Spice enjoyed it and we need the exercise. About halfway up the trail was an overlook from which you could see the fall. A very tall fall (215 feet, more vertical drop then Niagara) it must be spectacular in the spring with the thaw. It is impressive in September with just a modicum of water crossing the precipice. From there, the trail climbs up above the fall and across the stream where it joins the south rim trail to complete the loop. While you can not view the fall from this side, the vistas are pretty and sometimes quite dramatic. In all, it was about 2.5 miles around. Back in the park parking lot, we opted to take the gorge trail which would lead us to the base of the fall. Being only ¾ of a mile to the fall, this trail is much more popular with families. At several spots along the trail, you can step down on to the slate and limestone which makes up the stream bed. It gave Spice a chance to cool her feet while walking in the stream and get a needed drink of water. From its base, the fall is quite a site to see, but like Yosemite, in the spring it must be awesome.
The rest of our day was pretty quiet. We had a lunch and then drove down to the lake. It is a beautiful lakeside park with a ton of grass area in which to walk or picnic. By now, Spice had her fill of walking, be it grass, rock or asphalt, so we took the truck into Ithaca to see what was there. Actually, I wanted to find somewhere to change the oil in the RV. But as a side note, Cornell University is in Ithaca. I didn’t know that. Consequently, lots of Ithaca looks like a college town. We found an oil change place and started back to the campground. Carol remembered that we needed some groceries and I saw a Wegman’s grocery store. Picture a Gelson’s but about 30% bigger and not as expensive. If I had been shopping for the house, I would have been in trouble, but there is only so much you can put into the RV. $40 dollars later, it was off to the campground. We had a dinner of pasta with green pepper and onion sausage. Then my discussion with Stan and Wilma and that is where this all started. So now we are all caught up. Tomorrow, we start for Quebec.
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