It's Hot in New York

Let me just say at the very beginning that I am not complaining; merely surprised. We have this dream of being some place cool in the summer. When summer comes, we head north. When we get there, we find the worst heat wave since recorded history.

We were so excited about our first trip to Colorado. Gonna be cool all summer. Just about the time temperatures hit 100 in Nashville, we were called home for a family emergency. The next year we headed to Alaska. The temperatures were great, but the trip home to Tennessee in the August heat was wretched. The air conditioner on the pop-up was just not up to the task. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan was also cool, but once again we were driving back south during the heat of August. We actually got to stay in New Hampshire for August the following year to enjoy their record heat wave. We were in a really great campground, but there wasn’t a shade tree in sight. So why am I so surprised with temps in the 90s and this isn’t August yet.

So, I made a fake milk shake (one made with skim milk, ice cubes, and no fat chocolate pudding) and dug out the pictures with lots of snow. I feel cooler all ready.

The pictures were all made at Yellowstone National Park, February, 2005. We did a 5-day trip with Yellowstone Expeditions (www.yellowstoneexpeditions.com) with our good friends, Rich and Patti and Charlie and Jennifer.

Getting To Know You

One of our goals when we visit an area of our country is to gain an understanding of the land and people living in the region. We don’t become experts by any means, but we at least fill like we know a little more about the area than we did before we got here. We don’t do anything special, just drive around with an eye on what we are passing and ask questions when we have the opportunity.

Downtown Geneva

Our campground is at the northern end of and about halfway between the two largest finger lakes, Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. So far we have been exploring the area around and north of our campground. It is mostly rural farmland. Closer to our campground, the fields are planted in corn and wheat. Much of the wheat is being cut and baled now. Driving north just a few miles, corn and wheat are replaced by fruit trees—huge orchards. A large variety of fruit is grown here—apples, apricots, peaches, plums. And let’s not forget the grapes which the Finger Lakes area is famous for.

The towns, or villages, are small with populations of only a few thousand. In this area, Rochester is the largest city with a population of about 210,000 and a little farther west Buffalo is about 300,000 strong. As we drove along the byways of western New York we noticed that some “towns” seem to spread out for miles encompassing fairly large areas. At their town limits we saw signs welcoming us to the “Town” of whatever. As we continued to drive around we began noticing signs that welcomed us to the “Village” of whatever. We wondered why some communities were designated “towns” and others “villages”. It was a question for the ladies in the campground office and the answer turned out like we expected. It is a matter of levels of government—county, township, and village.

Lakefront Park on Seneca Lake

Cities, towns, and villages are neat, clean and well maintained. For the most part, the downtown or central areas of the communities are old, dating from the late 1700s and early 1800s. The buildings usually have been at least partially restored. We have found them all to be very charming.

Kitchen gadgets

Most of the roads we have traveled have wide shoulders to accommodate bicyclists even if they are not designated “bike routes”. The official bike routes are clearly marked. We also see the occasional jogger on these wide shoulders. Most of the communities around here have public playgrounds for the children or parks. We can always find a place for a picnic.

A Tim Horton's coffee break

Occasionally, we go out with the intent of just driving around to see what we can see. But most often we are on our way to the grocery, or WalMart, or some other specific place. We take a different route to get there each time, which ends up giving us lots of places to explore. If we see something we like we may stop and browse. We can usually find a coffee shop to go into. This is our way of getting to know the area a little better.

Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

About 15 miles from out campground is Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. It is a large expanse of wetlands (according to the sign about 30,000 acres); just the kind of place the migratory birds like. It is right on the Atlantic Flyway of birds migrating between South America, the Canadian Maritimes and the Arctic Ocean. Like most well managed refuges, there are a few fields planted in whatever birds like to eat. There are two fairly large, relatively shallow pools (about 1,000 acres each) with a lot of open water as well as vegetation around the perimeter. Another area was more swamp-like but without the Spanish moss so typical in the southern coastal swamps of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. There was another area which was mostly dry when we visited with small pools of water from a recent rain. I can imagine this area being completely wet in March from melting snow and spring rains. Near the northern edge of the refuge, ran a connector barge canal from the Erie Canal.

Red-winged black bird

As is our luck with places like this, there are no flocks of migratory birds here right now. This is going to sound like the story of Creamer Wildlife Sanctuary in Fairbanks when we missed the swans by just 2 weeks. I chased all over Alaska looking for those swans. Finally caught up with them 2 years later in Yellowstone in February. Who would have thought. Anyway, spring brings some 100,000 snow geese which were here a few weeks before we arrived. The Osprey are nesting right now, so the trail to see them was closed. They do have a few nesting eagles; perhaps we’ll see one before we leave. There are several Canada geese here now roaming the streets, but 150,000 should show up in the fall.

Grasses on the perimeter of the main pool

Swamp area

We went out early Saturday morning with a thermos of coffee and bagels. I sat up the camera at the viewing platform and we settled in. Not being birders, we were far too noisy in our approach and the three large wading birds that would have been within petting distance flew away before we got there. We did have fun, though. It is not the sort of thing we do, so just that change of activity was refreshing. The quiet and solitude was also a welcome change. The struggle to slow our life down is always challenging so just to sit and contemplate the sounds of the song birds was inspiring even if we couldn’t identify what we were hearing. After a while we moved away from our perch to walk the short 1-mile loop trail. Our short hike was cut short when we got to the area that was closed because of nesting osprey. On our drive through the Refuge we saw lots of birds we were not able to identify as well as a very few we could—Canada Geese, red-winged black birds, and great blue herons.

Barge canal

We're thinking this might be a beaver.

Bicycling Along the Erie Canal

The Erie Canal stretches 363 miles across the state of New York from Buffalo to Albany. This waterway, constructed in the early 1800s, provided a link from the Atlantic seaboard to the Great Lakes. Then, horses and mulls plodded up and down the towpath pulling barges and boats along the canal. Today, that towpath has been transformed into a trail system for bicyclists and hikers. Canoes and kayaks, as well as motorized boats, float the canal passing through lush farmland and historic canal towns.

The Canalway trail surface is primarily crushed gravel and is wide enough for bikers to pass comfortably. The route is well marked with maps listing distances to points in the area as well as signboards explaining the history of the canal. Along the trail are benches and parks, comfortable places for the traveler to rest. We even passed a McDonald’s along the section we road today. Now that’s a place with real resting possibilities.

We happened to pass Lock 30 just as a young family in kayaks was approaching the lock. We watched as they came in, rode the water down, and floated out the lower end. I’m far too afraid of water to have done that, but it sure was exciting to watch. And, they looked like pros. I don’t think it was the first lock they had navigated.

We did a short, 6-mile section beginning at Palmyra and going west then back again. Twelve miles was plenty for us since we haven’t been on a bike in many months. A feller can get pretty seat-sore in that amount of time. We hadn’t gone far before we ran into (almost literally) a flock of Canada Geese. They reluctantly moved out of our way letting us pass through lots of goose poop which was then flung from my tires onto me. We’re having fun now!

Kayakers coming into Lock 30

Leaving the lock down stream

The entire 363 miles has not yet been completed, but most is. The section we rode today is part of a100 mile segment. There are hotels and B and Bs along the way making it possible to travel the entire length as one event.

One of several signboards we passed.

Whether for a relaxing outing for a day or a multi-day excursion, the Erie Canalway is definitely a worthy adventure.

Happy Birthday, America

This is America’s birthday—232 years. There is no other country I’d rather call home.

Americans celebrate this Independence Day in many, many ways—picnics, families get together, parades, fireworks, hotdogs and apple pies. At our campground, trailers, pop-ups, tents and motor homes were decked out with the colors that represent our country—red, white, and blue. At the end of the day with the haze of campfire smoke and the smell of hamburgers and chicken floating on the air, we watched the “Parade of the Golf Carts”. What fun.

Getting Mail on the Road

Any traveler away from their home base for an extended period of time has several issues which must be resolved for the time they are away. One of those issues is mail. For travelers away for only a month or two, they may have the post office hold their mail or perhaps have a neighbor, friend, or relative collect it for them. For those travelers away for longer periods of time might consider other options. We have known people who spend 6 months away from their home and have their mail forwarded by their home post office to a PO Box in the community where they vacation each year. Some post offices accept mail for General Delivery and will hold that mail for short periods of time.

Mail for the full time traveler is a big issue, but one that has several options for solving. There are mail forwarding services such as UPS Stores, Escapees RV Club, Good Sam Club, and others. These services will collect your mail and send it to you upon request. The draw back with using one of these services is that you must change you mailing address on any mail you want them to receive. If you still own a home and go back there periodically, you might not want to change your mailing address. Many of these companies have very good reputations and offer more services than just mail forwarding.

For full time travelers who no longer have real estate, and thus no mailing address, the problem of mail looms large. Many full timers use mail forwarding services, but they go one step further. They change their state of residency to the state in which the mail forwarding service is located. For example, Escapees RV Club is located in Texas so those full timers using Escapees change their state of residency to Texas. They get Texas drivers licenses, car tags, and register to vote in Texas.

Some full time travelers use family or friends to take care of their mail. They change their residency to the home of a son or daughter, for example.

For us, since Gene is still employed, we have changed our residency to his office address. Every couple of weeks, he calls the office and has a conversation that sounds like this, “send that...trash that....send that if there is room”. He has supplied the office with a number of prepaid, flat rate mailing envelopes. This works great for all of our mail. However, we have experienced a snag. His office has a non-residential address. This is not allowed for voter registration. We have to have a different address for that. When we tried to get one of those coupons for the digital television converter box the government was giving away, we were denied because we did not have a residential mailing address.

When travelers want their mail, they simply have the mail forwarding services, family, friends, or office forward their mail to the campground where they are located. We have been in many campgrounds and have found that most accept incoming mail for campers. One campground we were in even brought it to our Montana when it arrived. Can’t beat that and it is always exciting when the mail comes.

A Stroll Along Lake Ontario

It was a beautiful, clear day in western New York--a great day for a stroll along the shoreline of Lake Ontario. We made the short drive up to Chimney Bluffs State Park. We were in full sun, of course, but cool temperatures and a light breeze blowing off the lake made for almost perfect conditions for our walk.

Crystal Clear Lake Ontario

Here are a few more photos of the bluffs with a big, blue sky for the background. Enjoy.