We are on a 3 week trip in the immediate northeast. First stop Keuka Lake State Park to visit with Deb Friedman and Scott Mackler, then on to the Adirondaks, too long since we have been there. From there on to Shelburne VT for an overnight with Sandy and David before entering the Essex Fairgrounds for the FMCA Northeast Rally. After that is up in the air. We need to return to Rochester by the 22nd and we fly to St Petersburg FL on the 26th for five days. Whew!
As we set out from Rochester I noted oil on the right rear wheel. A stop at Balantyne RV suggested a leaking seal, but there is plenty of oil in the differential and we determined it would be ok to travel so long as it did not get worse. The beginning of 4 AM wake ups for me, one more thing to worry about. 350 miles and so far no problems. Need to go another 80 to get to the rally, then we shall see.
Our first stop was at Keuka Lake State Park, only 51 miles from home. Why have we not explored this park before? Probably because it is so close. After arrival late afternoon on Tuesday, we set up and drove to Deb and Scott’s for wine on the dock
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
and great food and more wine on the deck. We agreed to lunch at Knapp Winery
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
and a shopping trip to Long Point Winery where we tasted our way through most of their selections. I bought three bottles of their Zinfandel Reserve, Deb and Scott bought more, but they don’t have to find storage in a motorhome. We returned to their cottage after a stop at Gee 2 for us to change clothes and for Carol to pick up a salad she had made. Wine on the dock turned into a wonderful boat ride after which we had dinner. As we were cleaning up, there was the sound of fireworks on the lake and a trek down to the dock was rewarded with a splendid fireworks show in Branchport at the northern end of the lake. It was time to say farewell and be on our way north in the morning.
On Thursday morning we began to retrace roads we have not driven since we started RVing. We took I 81 north to the Ft Drum exit north of Watertown. We stopped at Longways to fuel up (a frequent stop back in the 90’s when Dan was at Ft Drum) and continued up Rt 3 to Saranac Lake Village where we picked up 86 through Lake Placid past the entrance to Whiteface Mountain and took the turn into Lake Placid/Whiteface Mountain KOA. We are too big to reserve in most Adirondack State Campgrounds so here we are in a KOA for the first time in over a year. This is a very nice KOA with pleasant staff and plentiful clean restrooms and showers, we needed the showers because we did not a sewer connection and Carol was doing some fun cooking which uses water. Our first day in the ADK we reprised a climb we had done in 1965, Ampersand Mountain. I think the trail in has gotten longer and the steepness of the ascent has surely increased in the ensuing years. We summited in time for lunch and the weather was perfect to enjoy the views.
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
On the way down Carol developed a sore toe and my back began to ache a bit – oh oh. The next day we set out to climb Cascade via Porter, but we couldn’t find the trail head along rt 73 and decided to hike in to Round Pond and continue on to Noon Mark another sub 4,000 ft mountain. Three hours on the trail found us a half a mile from the summit of Noon Mark and the previous half mile had taken an hour – Noon Mark is steep! We were running out of time and calories, It was already 2:30 and it appeared we would not exit the trail until after 7 if we kept at it. We turned back after appreciating the views at the halfway clearing.
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
As we hiked out Carol’s toe became very sore and my back was pretty bad. This was to be our last hike on this trip. As I write 10 days later, Carol is healed and my back is fine, but I think we will reconsider trying 6 hour mountain climbs on consecutive days for a while.
The next stop was Shelburne VT for an overnight in my sister and brother-in-law’s driveway on the way to the NEAR (North East Area Rally) of FMCA in Essex Junction,VT. On our way from the house to the rally we made a planned stop at the home of Starbase a program for middle schoolers run by the Vt National Air Guard at the air guard base adjacent to Burlington Airport. The site visit was inspired because our foundation has funded transportation for the program for three years. The program is quite thrilling and visit included a tour of the active duty base as well with flight simulator and live takeoff a walk through the maintenance hangar where F 16s were in various states of repair. All in all a very exciting tour arranged by my brother-in-law David Coen.
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
As we set up at the Champlain Exposition Fairgrounds I was hoping to find someone to take a look at the right rear wheel which had continued to ooze oil through out the trip. None of the vendors had a chassis man present so a call to my road service (Coach-Net) yielded the name of a local truck chassis specialist – Bailey’s Chassis and Spring – who promptly sent a man over to check out the differential oil level and look at the wheel. He found that it was leaking and there was plenty of oil in the differential to continue on. He refused any payment, so I decided to bring the coach there for the repair. But first we called a friend we had not seen in many years, Brad Schwartz. Brad and his wife Jacquie run the Inn at Buck Hollow Farm outside of Fairfax VT. They invited us to park the coach in their yard and we stayed for a two night visit.
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
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| From August '09 Trip NY and VT |
The Inn is still quite lovely and we had a wonderful visit. Leaving there we retraced back to Essex Junction for an appointment at Bailey’s Chassis and Spring where the right axle was pulled the outer seal replaced and everything restored in just under an hour. I slept very well last night at Apple Island Resort in the Champlain islands!
Tomorrow we will leave Vermont and head for an overnight stop in Sackets Harbor, NY before heading on back to Rochester so we can leave for Florida, by plane on Wednesday.