Sunday, August 10, 2008

Sunday August 10, 2008

Up a little on the late side. We stayed up last night hooked on the Olympics. We arrived at the mall at 10:00 and found out they don't open until 11:00. We found a Dunkin Donuts had a coffee and donut to bide our time. We discussed what we should do and figure out that we both have cell phones with us, Nancy goes to Best Buy, Tom heads to Circuit City.

The line for Best Buy is really long and Nancy thinks oh, no we won't get the computer. Tom calls so we know the phones work inside the building. Nancy finds a clerk and yes they have the Dell laptop, just none of them out on display. Tom calls from Circuit City asking what the Dell has on it vs. what he is finding at Circuit City. When Tom finds out that the Dell has Intel whereas the ones comparable priced at Circuit City are AMD he tells Nancy get the Dell.

Tom leaves C.C. And heads up to Best Buy arriving before Nancy is all written up. “How much time for your Geeks to set up everything for us? About 3 hours. Forget it, I can do it myself at home. So, off we go with a new laptop. We are back up and running with a great new computer an hour later, including travel time.

After getting the laptop set up we find we did not lose any of our photos as we had backed them up on the portable hard drive. Great, what a relief!!

Nancy, now you better get over here and retype your blog that got blown away when the computer went kaput. SO, Here we are!!

Saturday August 9,2008

This is the day we have to vacate our campsite. We can't stay any longer as the campground is booked full. What do we do? I guess we head south to Syracuse and stay at Camping World until our parts come in and we get fixed. So, we must vacate by noontime. We pack up and off we go into the wild blue yonder. This is summertime in the north when campsites are reserved for days/weeks in advance. So Camping World will have to do until we get fixed.

We start to get on line and what is happening? Our computer is kaput. We frantically call Jeff and ask what to do, we need a computer to pay a few bills. We can find a library and get on line but Jeff tells us NO, don't do that.

We have nothing to do, so what the heck, we find a Best Buy and a Circuit City. The clerk at Circuit City has an open box computer, but NO battery. The manager tells him find out how much a battery costs and we can knock that amount off the price of the computer. The clerk get on line and finds the price of the battery on sale for $116.00. When the manager finds that out he decides that he won't come down for that. So, out the door we go.

We head to Uno's for a pizza for dinner, then it's onto Best Buy. The young kid greeting us at the door tells us don't buy tonight, tomorrow they will be on sale. He does manage to find a circular for the computer and price for us. We decideded to wait.

Friday August 8, 2008

Today it rained all day. Sometimes hard, most of the time just drizzly. What the heck, we finally have good brakes on the Saturn, lets head on over to Canada for a ride. We leave and head east towards the nearest bridge. The 1000 Islands International Bridge. It is a bit of a wait at customs, but well worth it.

Arriving in Canada we got on the 401. Wrong road! We finally found the Canadian 1000 Islands Parkway. What a neat ride. The small towns we travel through are picturesque. We drive northeast about 75km to the next bridge before heading back to the U.S.A. The ride down the American side of the St. Lawrence River is just not as neat as the Canadian side.

When we arrive back to Alex Bay we think we will head into town for a bite to eat. Wrong move.It is the start of “Pirate Days”. The town is over run with tourists. We get back in the car and head back towards Clayton. Nancy wants to go into a Christmas shop and she she does, she checks with the locals on where is a good diner to eat lunch at. They direct her to the Kozy Korner. What a great little diner, with a good meal.

Thursday August 7,2008

The Saturn has bad brakes and we know it needs a brake job. We made an appointment with a local service station and this was the day to get the brakes done. Tom awoke early and headed into town. Chris, the owner, brought Tom back to the motor home. We sat and waited. Nancy thought this would be a good day to check into what Camping World found out about the jacks and the steps.

Calling two times to Camping World and not getting a return call she calls a third time. This time Nancy gets connected to Chuck. Chuck explains that he has not heard from Kwik Step, Power Gear or Evenbrake. Nancy takes the bull by the horns and asks for the telephone number of Power Gear and Kwik Step. She gets the number and finds out the Power Gear and Kwik Step are the same company. She makes the call and after numerous different voice prompts get a real live person. This person informs her she can't help, but offers to take Nancy's number. I tell them if I have not heard back by noontime I will call my lawyer. Wow, within 20 minutes I receive a call back. If Camping World will tall with them....well they will call me back.

The guy from Power Gear calls back and tells me he has faxed paperwork to Camping World and when it is returned he will send out the repair parts. I remind them if they had returned the call on Monday the 4th. That Camping World would already have the parts. Well, if Camping World sends the faxed paperwork back then they would drop ship the parts for us.

Nancy calls Chuck back, and he has already faxed paperwork back to Power Gear. When it comes in they will call us. “How long for the work to be down?” Well, about 2 hours. “Do, I need to make an appointment for the work to be done?” No, just come on in.

Great, we have accomplished a couple of things today.

Jeff (the mechanic) shows up and the Saturn is done. What a great day this turns out to be.

Wesnesday August 6, 2008

Today was sort of a drizzly day. We headed northeast to Alexandria Bay about 14 miles from camp. We drove around town, and the bad weather was leaving so we decided to take a boat tour. We got to the end of James St. (the main drag) and there was one of the boat tours. We parked the car and purchased tickets. We thought we would take the two nation tour.

We have about an hour to kill before our boat leaves, so we shop along the main drag. We purchased absolutely NOTHING!!! Heading back to the docks we decided to sit and wait for the boat. We got on the 11:30 boat and out it goes. The 1000 islands area has many old homes built on the islands and a lot of them were build by millionaires during the 20's, 30's and 40's. Stately grand old homes. This area is called the “Millionaires Row”. The ride takes us southwest, then turns and heads northeast before heading north into Canadian waters. The tour guide is very informative and interesting. He is a young college kid and and ad libs a lot.

After about 2 hours on the boat tour, we arrived at Boldt Castle. The castle was started about 1900 by Mr. Boldt, as a gift to the love of his life, his wife Louise. Well the story goes, that Louise got sick and the construction was stopped just hours after her death because he was so overcome with grief. Anyhow the castle sat abandoned for 76 years before the state of New York purchased it for $1.00 and started restoring the castle. It is something to behold and well worth the extra money to see.

After spending as much time as we wanted at the castle, we caught a return boat to the mainland and headed back to camp.

Wesnesday August 6, 2008

Today was sort of a drizzly day. We headed northeast to Alexandria Bay about 14 miles from camp. We drove around town, and the bad weather was leaving so we decided to take a boat tour. We got to the end of James St. (the main drag) and there was one of the boat tours. We parked the car and purchased tickets. We thought we would take the two nation tour.

We have about an hour to kill before our boat leaves, so we shop along the main drag. We purchased absolutely NOTHING!!! Heading back to the docks we decided to sit and wait for the boat. We got on the 11:30 boat and out it goes. The 1000 islands area has many old homes built on the islands and a lot of them were build by millionaires during the 20's, 30's and 40's. Stately grand old homes. This area is called the “Millionaires Row”. The ride takes us southwest, then turns and heads northeast before heading north into Canadian waters. The tour guide is very informative and interesting. He is a young college kid and and ad libs a lot.

After about 2 hours on the boat tour, we arrived at Boldt Castle. The castle was started about 1900 by Mr. Boldt, as a gift to the love of his life, his wife Louise. Well the story goes, that Louise got sick and the construction was stopped just hours after her death because he was so overcome with grief. Anyhow the castle sat abandoned for 76 years before the state of New York purchased it for $1.00 and started restoring the castle. It is something to behold and well worth the extra money to see.

After spending as much time as we wanted at the castle, we caught a return boat to the mainland and headed back to camp.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Early morning calls us. We want to be on the road early this morning. We are up and at 'em at 7:00 a.m. We are heading towards the 1000 Islands of New York State, on the St. Lawrence River. We arrive at Merry Knoll campground in Clayton, NY about noontime. We decide not to do anything until we drive back into Watertown and purchase lumber and perhaps some scissor jacks.

Off we head towards Watertown. It is much further down the road than we thought it would be. We find a Walmart, Lowe's, Target and much more. Then we find a place to eat. Nancy does not want to do Chinese, and that is what we find lots of. Well, oh up ahead, what is that? Why it's a Greek restaurant and that is where we go. Good food, nice decor and we are full. From there we head back towards all the shopping. Nancy heads into Target just to shop. Tom decides to sit in the car, knowing that makes Nancy hurry.

From Target we go to the Lowe's. Tom finds lumber and has some of it cut. He will need to make wooden ramps. And we find scissor jacks at Walmart. We are ready to return to campsite and hopefully make our campsite a little more level and the motor home not so rocky.

We arrive back in Clayton and start work. Tom makes wooden ramps and we drive the motor home up and it is still not level, but we are up about 3 inches on one side and 3 ¾ on the other side and it still was not enough, but we would have to make do.

So we raise the new sissor jacks and make ourselves at home.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Monday August 4, 2008

Monday, the day started out with Tom rolling out of bed early at 6:25. We managed to have all things ready for an early start by getting ready the night before. We were on the road at 7:00 and heading for Camping World in Syracuse, N.Y. To have a few things fixed on the motor home. We had good weather and had no problems finding Camping World thanks to “Brit” our GPS. She guided us right to the front door.

Tom went into the service dept. at about 9:30 and told them, the steps weren't working the control module wasn't working: the jacks had a burned out left front jack and last but not least, the Evenbrake controller in the car was blinking red fast, all the time. After about four hours the service tech came back and said, “yes, you were right”. The service tech put a call into the three companies in which we needed an o.k. For them to fix at their expense as they all have a two year warranty. We sat around all day waiting for the companies to call back, and they have not returned any calls, so we are camping out in the parking lot of Camping World for the night.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring some good news. The service parts dept. has the needed part to fix the step immediately. Not so lucky for the jacks. The part would have to be sent from Indiana and would take about one week. And as for the Evenbrake, well Camping World sold it to us, installed it for us and they don't have the slightest idea just what the heck is wrong with it. Maybe Evenbrake will call back and then we would have something to go with. Hopefully, Evenbrake will know what is wrong and what needs to be done to fix the problem.

Oh, well tomorrow we will head for 1000 islands where Nancy called and had to cancel tonight's reservation. Our campsite there is right in Clayton, where from the description it is right on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Sunday August 3, 2008

Today is rainy to start the day. After much guessing what the weather is going to do Tom says “let's go for a ride". Perhaps, “the Catskills look inviting.” So the weather looks like it will break and off we go for a ride into the Catskills. They happen to be about an hour east of where we were camping.

We head east on route 17 (future I-86) to exit 90. There we get off the divided highway and head up the north edge of the Catskill Mountains. We drive through tiny villages heading for Downsville. In Corbet we find a small village with a one lane bridge going into town. It is a quaint village and Nancy just has to get out and take photos of the bridge.

Upon arriving in Downsville, we find a covered bridge built in 1746! Nancy has to have photos and she gets out to snap them, getting in the car to travel over the bridge. Then Nancy wants photos of Tom and Charley driving over the bridge so she walks back over the bridge to snap her shots.

Looking at the map we decided to drive to the north out of town on a back country road. We traveled up the north side of the Pepacton Reservoir. The road is twisty, winding and lots of fun. We both imagined what a fun ride it would be if we were on our motorcycles. We came up to a bridge and passed over it and found out the Pepacton Reservoir is the reservoir for the City of New York's drinking water and the headwaters of the Delaware River. Apparently when the reservoir was filled, several small towns were submerged as there were signs “Former Site of ???town”. We continued driving with the intention of finding a road traveling right through the center of the Catskills, when we find out the road is closed for repairs. Our only way to travel is back the way we came or continue on down the road ending up back at Downsville. We had rain off and on but the drive is still lovely.

In Downsville we found a 40's style diner. We had lunch before heading back to our campsite.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Today started out with a drizzling rain. Charlie had to go.... bad. I walked her using an umbrella and her leash. Finally she did her thing and we went back inside. I let her loose and she ran for the bed and jumped on Nancy. Charlie was soaked and Nancy was still sleepy. I almost lost my happy home!

Later in the morning, the sky cleared and we decided to go to Watkins Glen and then to Ithaca, NY. The Glen because it is a famous race course and Ithaca, the home of Cornell University. Our first home in Bay City was on Cornell Street. We also saw both Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, 2 of New Yorks “Finger Lakes”.

We couldn't get on the grounds of Watkins Glen Racetrack. A Porsche Racing Club from Philadelphia, PA had the track booked and it was totally PRIVATE. The guard at the gate said if I parked by Gate #4 and walked up to the chain link fence, I should be able to see a fair amount of them racing on the “Boot” portion of the course. Nancy stayed in the car. Charlie and I walked the quarter mile cross country to the fence and sure enough. I could see probably 1.5 mile worth of the road course ... worth the effort, I thought.

We drove to Ithaca then. What a waste of time. Didn't even get a real good look at Cayuga Lake .... just a few quick glimpses from the high road on the East side of the lake. Lots of sailboats. Must have been races. Hard to tell when your doing 65 mph in heavy traffic and only catching flashing breaks in the trees along the highway !!!

Got back to the campground and fixed beer brats for dinner. Mmm mmm good.

Friday August 1,2008

The beginning of the new month and we are in New York State. Tom's father passed away when he was 52 years old back in 1974. His father's only living brother lives in Vestal Center, N.Y. About 45 minutes away. This is our day to visit Uncle John and his wife Aunt Vivian.

We headed out early in the day, taking Charley with us. It was a beautiful day. We arrived at their home at 10:00 am to find them ready and waiting for us. We started out talking and trying to find out a little information about the Milton side of the family. Tom's father was orphaned at 3 years of age so we don't have a lot of information about this side of the family and we try to learn every little thing we possibly can while any relations are still living.

When lunchtime came we wanted to take John and Vivian out for lunch. They wanted to go to Old Country Buffet. Not what we would have picked out, but this was what they requested.

After lunch, they took us to their lake house, this is in Pennsylvania, which is about 14 miles away. The setting is just as pretty as a picture. John just loved showing Tom his lake house. On the way to the lake house we passed cousin David's home so we stopped to see David and wife. After the lake house visit we headed back into New York to visit with cousin John and wife Lisa. They have lots of land and David has 4 barns with lots of old cars and trucks that he restores in his spare time. Many more than he will ever get a chance to restore in his lifetime. But, that is what he enjoys doing.

Son John and wife Lisa have ponies, chickens and goats. Charley was not too brave. She would go up towards the fence and when the animals would come towards her she would lurch back away and bark at them.

It was getting late in the day so we returned Uncle John and Vivian to their home. Saying our good-byes we saw tears in Uncle Johns eyes. He is not in the best of health and pushed himself all day long to try and show us all he wanted us to see. On our way down the highway we spotted some hot air balloons in the air and then saw one landing. We found our way around and Nancy managed to run up the hill and get some photos of them re-packing the balloon and then of a few others in the air.

Thursday July 31,2008

Here we are the end of the month and we must leave Hershey today. We are headed into New York and our new campground this evening is Forest Lake Campground, 15 miles East of Binghamton. We leave Hershey early in the morning like 8:30 am. We had pretty much everything picked up the night before so we just had to pump the black water tank, then the gray water tank. Pick up the electric and of course pick up the ground cover rug. After all of that we needed to still hitch up the car. To do this we needed not to be blocking the roadway so it was up to the clubhouse and the parking lot there.

Tom wanted Nancy to put the parking brake on the car before we tried to hook up. We managed to make the connections, which took a little time. Then we were on our way. We heard this terrible noise and Tom had Nancy get out and check the auto. Everything looked o.k. And a man who was walking by told Nancy that his brake system does the same thing. So, off we went on our journey to New York.

Arriving in New York at our campground we were very impressed. Nancy went in to register us and Tom stayed at the motor home to disconnect the auto. When Nancy was finished registering us she came out to an angry Tom. Nancy had not dis-engaged the parking brake, so we had driven from Hershey to Forest Lake (180 miles) with the damn thing on. Wow, was Tom upset with Nancy!!!!!

When Sandy, the, camp owner, took us around to our campsite we were really impressed. We drove around a lake and our site was right on the water. What a beautiful camp ground. I think this is the best one we have ever had. When we had cocktails out under the canopy that evening, we were looking at the lake and the mountain behind, what a spectacular site to behold.

Wednesday July 30,2008

Today is “Laundry Day”. Nancy is downstairs in the Clubhouse doing the laundry and I am here in the Recreation Room at the computer, trying to do the Blog thing. I hope you are all enjoying our adventures and ramblings. It seems to be a good way for us to remember what we did, too. The days seem to run together if we don't write this stuff down regularly.

I need to return some stuff to Wal -Mart. I bought some ratchet tie down straps and discovered I had two spares hidden away in a bin in the motor home after all. Maybe we will go for a ride this afternoon and discover something else new in the Harrisburg, PA area. Charlie loves to go for rides with us. The back windows in the Saturn have so many “Nose Prints” she can't hardly see out some parts of the windows.

It's supposed to be in the low 90's with 90% humidity today. Almost the same as Florida this time of the year.

There are days that I wish we had brought the Harley's along and rented a car. Today is not one of them. Too Hot and Humid. Yesterday would have been great to go riding. The car worked out great though.

Tom was having battery problems with his cell phone, so we drove around and found a Verizon store. They swapped out the battery and Tom asked about the Verizon Wireless Internet card. Long story short, that's how we now get on the internet while on the road. Works pretty nifty too. Nancy plays her AARP games, nightly, does this blog, does e-mail and Tom does his fianacial thingsdoes e-mail and surfs the net in the comfort of our motor home, instead of screwing around with those wi-fi things sometimes available where we end up for the night.

Tuesday July29,2008

This was a day to remember. We headed into Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. We enjoy the history that we learn of each capitol. We have stopped at almost every State Capitol Building we have been able to during our travels. (MI, OH, FL, GA, TX, NM, AZ, OK, IL, MN, WI to name a few.) The Pennsylvania capitol building is magnificent. It was built in 1906 at tremendous cost. The building has Italian marble, marble from other sources, solid mahogany doors, the brass handle of each door has the seal of the state on it. There are numerous stained glass windows each 4 foot in diameter. The building is a must see for anyone who is a history buff. We sat in the Senate gallery, the House gallery and in the Supreme Court room for short lectures by our guide.

After visiting the State Capitol Building, I asked a lady at the information desk, “Where is a good place to have lunch?” She said to try the “Firehouse” on 2nd Street. What a recommendation. The Firehouse is a converted 1902 fire station. In fact it was actually used until 1980 by Hope Engine Company #2. I had a Ruben. Nancy had a shaved prime rib sandwich. Both were outstanding. The building and interior décor were absolutely beautiful ...... made you think you were in someplace real special.

Monday July 28,2008

Today we were going to just sit and be lazy. Instead we called ahead for reservations for this coming week-end and next week. We found out both places only take cash so we found the nearest bank for us and drove there and cashed a check. That took the whole morning.

It was hot and humid so we thought we would have an early dinner, then go to Hershey Gardens. We arrived at the Gardens about 5:00 p.m. It was still warm but the sun was going down so it was an enjoyable time to take a walk in the gardens. We picked up the self guided tour map and proceeded into the gardens. Wow, I must say the gardens were impressive. They have large rose gardens, conifer tree gardens and so much more. The children's garden was nice and I think all my grand-daughters would have loved it. We had a guided tour of the Butterfly Pavilion, learned all about butterfly eggs, larva and pupas. Also very informative and interesting. We talked to 2 guys who were filming with a TV camera. They have been creating a documentary of many private gardens in the US. They are now planning on visits to both Hendrick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids and the Dow Garden in Midland, Michigan.

We finished the gardens about 6:30 and we were hot and tired so we headed back to the campground right away to enjoy the a/c.

Sunday July 27, 2008

Sunday is a day of rest and that is what we did. We got out our recliners and sat under the trees and read our books and took a nap. What a day. Saw lots of motor homes and 5th. Wheels leaving the park and I would guess heading for home. Friday, we had seen a lot of motor homes and 5th. Wheel vehicles pull in and I think they might have been there just for the week-end.

Saturday July 26, 2008

Saturday is a great day to travel. We have had quite a few items on the motor home go kaput. We are thinking of a new motor home. This time we will go with a more known brand name. We are thinking along the lines of a Newmar or Monaco. We get on line a find a Newmar dealer north east of where we are located. So, off we go to look at new or used motor homes.

We travel through some of the prettiest countryside we can imagine. The GPS directs us along back roads most of the way with the last little stretch of road being a busy 4 lane divided highway.

When we enter the dealership we were greeted by a nice receptionist. First of all we went into the store part of the dealership and purchased item we needed for our current motor home. We know that is where we could purchase these items, not being able to purchase in a camp store.

She got a salesman for us and when we told him we were from Florida and wanting to see the new Newmar's he said just drive along the front, they are all open and help yourself. I would never ever go back to a dealership like that. No personal rep for us to interact with. We drove around on our own and found the motor homes we were interested in and toured them. They were nice, but had a lot of extra options we definitely would not want. We had no one to ask what was included, and what was extra options on the models. The motor homes themselves were very nice. But when you are looking at motor homes in that price range you expect a salesman to be there to answer questions for you. Bummer, what is wrong with an RV dealership that won't even show customers even the easiest of courtesies.

We left and headed back to Hershey. On the way, we stopped for a late lunch at a Taco Bell. Absolutely the slowest and crappiest fast food restaurant we ever tried. Don't even want to remember exactly where the place was.

Friday, July 25, 2008

This day we really did not do much of anything. We went grocery shopping and returned a few items we had purchased at other campsites which we found we did not need. But the day was relaxing. Tom and Nancy still managed to put a few miles on the car.