Niagara Falls

July 23-31, 2012
(This week will be broken up to be a few posts since it is photo intensive.  It was a busy, wonderful week!)

Youngstown, NY
Four Mile Creek State Park (NY) site 65

If you want to be a tourist, then Niagara Falls is the place to be.  We set up camp next to Dan and Tricia at a NY State Park that was about 13 miles away from all the hubbub so that we could enjoy a little quiet time also.  Tricia’s son Brandon and his wife Amanda flew in from Wake Forest NC to join us for the week.  Also in camp was Mac and Moe who are a hoot of a couple that Dan and Tricia met this past winter in Cedar Key FL.  We all went to the Falls on the first day along with a few thousand other people.  It is Beautiful!!

 

We all enjoyed walking around the NY side and I just marveled at the power and beautiful color of the water.  Since we had our receipt from the other state park cg, we didn’t have to pay for parking.  That was nice.

 

 

It was indeed a lot of people there, but the park is set up so that it didn’t feel all that crowded.  There are a few different attractions to get you closer to the Falls and to get a bit of history of this Natural Wonder so that helps to spread out the crowd.

 

One of those attractions is Maid of the Mist which is a boat ride upstream to the base of the Falls.  They run a boat from the Canada side and another from the US side.  They issue a blue poncho to you so that you won’t get completely wet.

 

The next three shots were taken from the boat before I had to put the camera away due to the spray.  The awesome power of the water is just indescribable.

 

There were lots of posed pictures taken with beautiful backdrops…

 

and some pictures developed much slower.

Another attraction that we took advantage of on this first day of Niagara was the Caves of the Wind walk on the Hurricane Deck.  The decking and stairs are replaced every year due to the extreme winter weather.

 

We finished off our first day at Niagara by walking over to Three Sisters Islands which isn’t nearly so crowded.  It was a nice way to end our extreme tourist experience.

The End

Where Are We?

Athens, PA

We left Wilkesboro, NC and wandered north.  After a few days we made it to the PA/NY border to spend some time with Dan and Tricia who are staying on Dan’s family farm.  We were invited to join them for a few days before we all head to Niagra Falls next week.  He grew up in this wonderful setting.  After meeting most of his family, I can understand why he is such a great guy.  Here’s a few shots of the farm.

 

 

It was a working dairy farm until shortly after his father passed away in 2001.  His mom, Pauline, leases out the land for crops.  Even though she is in her mid 70’s, she takes care of the yard and gardens.  It’s really beautiful.

 

We have parked the rv’s between a couple of the barns facing each others patio.  It’s almost like having a private little campground. 

 

It’s been nice meeting most of Dan’s family.  They have made us feel very welcomed here.  Pauline went out of her way on Saturday and had the family over for a homemade pizza dinner.  There was also homemade pie, cake, and ice cream.  Good thing I’m continuing my morning walks (up that hill is tough).  It was all delicious.  I’ve been told that she does this great family dinner get together quite often.  She’s pretty amazing.

The farm land borders the Susquehanna River so I had to walk the corn field to check it out.  Hopefully we can get the SeaEagles out there if it cools off a little bit.

 

 

On Sunday, we drove over to Nichols, NY to Tioga Downs to watch the harness racing.  It was quite interesting to see the horses run with the riders in the sulky (cart).  They throw t-shirts into the crowd between races and I caught one.  Just my size too.

We’ve enjoyed relaxing here and spending time catching up with Dan and Tricia.  I think tomorrow may be “tourist day”.  Enough for right now.

Thanks for dropping by and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Where’s the Time Gone…

Kerr Scott Reservoir COE
Wilkesboro, NC

As you may have guessed, I took a long break from blogging.  I guess I’m falling into my rving routine.  I’m not a writer who has to share my thoughts or entertain folks.  I’m glad there are many bloggers out there who have that talent, but I’m retired and I don’t feel like working at a blog that much.

We’ve had a busy enough month though.  We went to Camp Freightliner in Gaffney, SC with Nancy and Bill and learned that we have complicated machines.  The four of us stayed at King’s Mountain State Park in SC for a week or so and enjoyed each others company.  It was a very wooded cg and the sites were not that level.  It’s not big rig friendly but we managed.

One of the things I liked there was the Living History Farm.  We all walked the grounds one day.  It is set up much the way it would have been in the 1800’s.  Too much manual labor for me but it was a very peaceful setting.  One of the days there, they had volunteers in period costume sharing information about how life was lived back then.

 

 

Also right beside the SC State Park is the King's Mountain National Military Park.  We all went over there and enjoyed the very nice visitor center/museum.  The Battle of King’s Mountain was fought in 1780 and was a pivotal point in the Revolutionary War.  We walked the nicely paved path around and up the mountain.  I can’t imagine a battle on the steep hillside of this hallowed ground.

 

 

After enjoying our time together,  we went to NC while Nancy and Bill made their way to another SC Park.  We have landed at Kerr Scott Reservoir near Wilkesboro.  It’s a COE project and there are 3 cg’s around the lake.  We stayed at Bandit’s Roost CG for a few days and we’re now at Warrior Creek CG which is a better fit for us.

 

I might get around to posting a few pictures of this place in a few days when it cools off a bit.  It’s been around 98* here and very humid.  Glad we have 50 amp!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Surprise!

Lazy Days RV
Seffner, FL

Any time you buy a new rv, you have to keep track of the little things that aren’t quite right so that the repairs can be made while under warranty.  No matter how good the rv is, there will always be something to put on that list.  A couple of the main things that we need to have fixed are the fireplace (which blew out something and almost burned) and the jacks which just aren’t coming up properly.  But the main reason we didn’t let it be known that we were coming to Lazy Days for those repairs is because we wanted to surprise Sherry and David who were staying at Lithia Springs Park.  Mission accomplished!
We did our part to help control the bug population in Florida.  Naturally, I washed off the front of Tawanda as soon as we set up on Thursday.

 

Friday morning after discussing things with Shawn, our service advisor, we drove over to Lithia Springs and found Winnona parked down a long driveway on a beautiful site in the jungle.  The car was gone but the MH door was open.  We sneaked down the driveway and Gin knocked on the hood to get Sherry to the door.  Surprise!!

 

After a little visit with her, she called David who was out in the car.  He came back to get a big hug from us.  We certainly did surprise them!

We spent the day with them and walked around the park.  The spring was quite low but there were a few folks playing in the cool water.  We sat outside back at camp and Sherry whipped up a great pasta dish for supper.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time with these two people and hope and pray that they find the inner strength needed to fight the battle against David’s cancer.

Carpe Diem!!