Massena–Where boats sail over cars

It is really interesting why we stop where we do.  Sometimes it is on our way to a city where we have reservations like Kansas City, other times we are offered suggestions on where we should visit.  Massena was one of those places; Richards Dahl, our friend that worked with Tom at the CDE, suggested we visit the Eisenhower Locks in Massena.  We made reservations at the Robert Moses State Park for 3 days.  Normally, we stay 3 days because that gives us 2 days to see attractions then move on.  Recently we have been extending our stay because there are so many fun things to see and do in the area we are staying.  This State Park was real nice, roomy, and $20 a night for 30 amp.

We relaxed for a day or two and just explored the area, did some caching, just enjoying this beautiful upstate New York area.  Every road we drove on was a classic country scene, barns, green pastures, old farm houses; we love this area. 

One of the days we visited the Almanzo Wilder Farm. Remember the Little House on the Prairie book series written by Laura Ingles Wilder?  Her husband, Almanzo’s family lived on this large farm.

We had this cute high school sophomore guide showed us around the barn, the main house, and the other outbuildings.  Her family descended from the Wilders so she was very knowledgeable. The most amazing thing was she looked and talked just like our granddaughter, Jamie.  We showed her a picture of Jamie and she was shocked that she had a double. She said she would just love to visit California. This is our guide on the left and Jamie on the right.  Uncanny.

When we first drove to the Moses state park we had to drive through a 13'6'' tunnel. Tom was a little concerned that the rig would not fit, but hey, if they had a park that was set up for big rigs they had to have a tunnel tall enough for us to fit. And it did (although we did duck).

Now it was not until we had gotten settled, read about the Eisenhower Locks that we realized that what we drove through was ACTUALLY the lock that brings huge ships down the  Greater Saint Lawrence Seaway and lowers them 50 feet in 15 minutes.  We watched for several hours standing only feet from the locks.

		A small excursion boat coming through the locks. VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

A ship this big is too hard to get it all in.  It was interesting to see how the Captain brought the ship into the lock.  He came in real slow at an angle on the far side of the lock.  He then shoved the ship against the outside of the lock until the bow cleared the entrance of the lock then he drove it in.

		A really big ship is hard to photograph. VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We did get a couple of caches to finish our stay in New York, but it was on to Vermont to cache on the road again.

Clayton NY–It’s all about the Family

How do we decide where we are heading next?  Well, sometimes it’s just in the name of the town. Like the little town of Clayton in the Thousand Islands area along the St Lawrence River that we stopped at last week.  Tom’s Mom was a Clayton. Actually, Tom’s Aunt, Vivian married Tom’s Dad’s brother, Frasier, which makes all the children of Aunt Vivian and Uncle Frasier his double first cousins.  Also, as it happens this was the weekend of the Clayton/Westerfield reunion in Pismo Beach, a reunion that has gone on for about 70 years that we missed this year.  So staying in Clayton just seemed right.

We checked into a Passport America and was disappointed in the attitude of the owners.  They were very clear they did not like Passport RV’ers.  I guess they have had some pretty rude people who expect 50% off on everything from firewood to electricity. We were given a spot in the “overflow” area about 10 feet from a busy road, but since we had the TV running all night it didn’t bother us.

We wanted to go to the Antique Wooden Boat Museum.  It was just wonderful. We had a very very interesting tour of the $1.500,000 house boat, La Duchesse. Built in 1906 for George Boldt and has been in continuous use ever since. 

We learned more about canoes than I ever thought there was to know about them.  I just thought all canoes looked about the same, but there are racing, courting, fishing and just plain rowing canoes.  They can be wood, plastic, fiberglass, and metal, but most displayed at this museum were wooden.

		Canoes VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The museum was right on the St Lawrence river and it was just so beautiful to sit and watch the boats in the river, some of them big ocean liners and some small pleasure boats.

We closed the museum and drove to a recommended restaurant, Foxy’s, right on the river with an amazing view of the islands, large & small boats and the boats bringing diners to the restaurant. Tom had delicious scallops, I had shrimp scampi and of course we had Thousand Island dressing on our salads.  We arrived at Foxy's about 5:15 just after the museum closed and got the last window table. By the time we left there was not an empty table left.

		Dinner at Foxy’s VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We pulled out the next day and drove 87 miles along the beautiful St Lawrence River Parkway to the Robert Moses State Park, NY.  It was a quick stop in Clayton, but we stayed 5 days at Moses, but more about that next time.

On to Finger Lakes Region, NY

We left Evangola State Park, NY, along Lake Erie about 10:30am saying goodbye to a fellow Elk in the campground who gave Tom a pin from his Elks Lodge, #25.  We stopped for diesel at $3.59/gal and noted we probably won’t be seeing that price again for a while.  We decided to take the back roads not the Toll Road I-90 as we were just going about 140 miles to somewhere near Syracuse.   We found a Moose Lodge in Waterloo, NY, with enough electric to run everything except the AC.  Fortunately, it rained a little every day so the temperature was down.  It was humid, but we used our fans and were pretty comfortable.  It was a very nice setting off the road and we were the only ones here.  We were about half way between the attractions we wanted to see. 

For those not familiar with the Finger Lakes Region, it is called that because of the long narrow lakes that look like the fingers of the hand that were formed by glaciers as they receded.  Geologists have determined that the bottom of the lakes actually have a bed of glacial sediment over 1000 feet deep.  These are some of the deepest lakes in the U.S., the deepest, Seneca, is 618 feet deep.  All are named for tribes of the Iroquois Nation.  You can see what they look like from the air on Google Earth.

We hung out in the RV the first day we were at Waterloo Moose as it rained most of the day.  The next day we drove west on Hwy 5/Hwy 20 about 20 miles to visit the Sonnenberg Mansion and Gardens in Canadaigua.  We began our visit with a quick wine tasting of the New York wines and a lively discussion of the difference between California wines and New York wines.  Now we consider ourselves experts in California wines having lived exactly 4 miles from the Gallo Winery, one of the largest in the world as evidenced by the small round white images in the picture below.  Each of the largest ones is a tank 30 feet high holding 1,000,000 gallons of wine. You can see the perspective by the specs on road to the left being a car.

Well, after that fun discussion and getting some great tourist information from the volunteer wine tasting staff, we went to lunch. Tom even enjoyed (he told me he did, honest) seafood crepes, and a tomato and basil salad in a quaint old house on the estate.

We then walked through the green houses. Awesome, only wish Jennifer, superintendent of Floriculture at the Big Fresno Fair could have been with us.

Orchid House VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The Hydrangeas were spectacular.  There were blues, purples, pinks, greens and even whites.

Hydrangeas VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We had a tour of the Mansion by a young lad of 12 who knew everything about the Mansion and had only been a docent since June. He had read everything about the history, architecture, and furniture. When we asked him if he were going to study history, he said, “Possibly”. Such a cute boy.

The grounds included an English Garden, Blue and White Garden, Oriental Garden, Rose Garden and many restored other buildings like the Carriage house, Ice House, and Bird Houses.

The Gardens VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We have visited many Estates from the Huntington Gardens to Hearst Castle, and this is one of the best.  If you are interest in learning more about Sonnenberg and the philanthropic family, Frederick Thompson and his wife, Mary, check it out at http://www.sonnenberg.org/store.asp?pid=30000&catid=19990.

Our next adventure took us into Syracuse to see the Erie Canal Museum.  I must tell you that growing up in Fresno, the Ag Capitol, what I learned about Erie Canal in elementary school looked like a little dirt ditch with a boat being towed by a mule.  NOT.  This was an undertaking as enormous as the Transcontinental Railroad only 60 years earlier.  This endeavor literally opened up the Eastern Seaboard to Westward settlement beyond the Appalachians.  Little is left of the canal system save a few miles here and there, but we can share a couple of stories that we learned.  There were Weighlocks along the canal to charge the boats to travel much like the toll roads today.  The museum in Syracuse is the last Weighlock building standing and it has a replica of a boat as it would come into a lock, the water drained with the boat coming to rest on a scale and would be weighed. The Captain would pay the toll, the lock would then be filled with water and the boat be on its way. This would take about 15 minutes.

The weigh lock as it looks today.

It is interesting how the building of a canal involved engineering feats that I never would have thought of like pulling trees that were in the way and were hundreds of years old and BIG.  This is one way  the stumps were pulled after the trees were cut down; the other was with mules or horsed pulling the fulcrum.

Another engineering feat was how do you pass by another river or creek on your way from Albany NY to Buffalo NY?  You build a bridge filled with water called an aqueduct over the top of the river.  There is only one working one left that has been restored on 9 Mile Creek.  We went to see it, but it was raining so hard I decided I’d better stay in the car just incase I had to move to higher ground. If you believe that… I have a bridge… 

This is Tom, in the rain, with umbrella to match his tie dyed shirt approaching the aqueduct. The railing is where the aqueduct crosses over the top of 9 Mile Creek.

These pictures show the canal as it passes over 9 Mile Creek and underside of the aqueduct and 9 Mile Creek.

We loved all the places we visited in the Finger Lakes Region and this is only a little of what we did. But this is already too long and it is late too, so tomorrow we will be On the Road Again Caching Places that We’ve Never Been.

Food, Falls and Flutes

We arrived at Evangola State Park in Irving, NY on Sunday. This is a beautiful park with huge spaces just about 50 feet from Lake Erie.

As usual we checked our Droids to see what restaurants were nearby and rated at least 4 star.  Aunt Millies fit the bill and the review mentioned reasonable prices. Again, that fits the bill.

We ordered Scalloped Potatoes and Ham-Tom, and BBQ Chicken – Melted Mozzarella  – Blue Cheese Sandwich – me.  Outstanding! Tom said he had never had better. We will definitely be back.

The next day we drove into Buffalo, NY, to visit Niagara Falls.  We decided to splurge and buy the package that lets us visit, hike, and ride anything in the park.  What a great time we had.

The Niagara River rapids were awesome.

The River right at the Horseshoe Falls was incredibly powerful.

Standing in along side the falls, the roar of the water was so loud we could hardly hear each other.

We could see why Niagara Falls is romantic.

We climbed to the base of the American Falls – and wondered why anyone would want to smoke here.

We were pretty soaked but that didn’t deter us, we were on to ride the Maid of the Mist. These are pictures that I took of The Maid (right side of the picture) from the top of Horseshoe Falls.  To protect my camera I took a couple of shots through the blue plastic of my rain coat, but it did not turn out.

We went to the top of the Observations Tower and got some good shots.

		Niagara Falls from the Observation Tower VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The next day we went to the Original Kazoo Factory and bought this cute French Horn for granddaughter, Jamie, since she is an awesome French Horn player.

Before we left town we got a couple of caches and revisited Aunt Millies.  This is our dinner with leftovers that we paid $12.88 for. We actually paid more for less at MickyD’s

Delicious soup Cheddar Chicken and Biscuit  and can you believe the size of the Crisp?

We’ve had a great week and we’ll keep traveling On the Road Again Caching Places that We’ve Never Been, Tom Barbara & Pansy