Events of Monday, September 27, 2010

          We awoke this morning, fairly well rested, despite another night of boondocking in a Walmart parking lot. And our boondocking education continues. As Jim mentioned, this Walmart was fairly small. Not being a Super Walmart, it was NOT open 24 hours, which cut down on the noise and traffic considerably. Secondly, we were able to park off to the side, in a small parking lot near the nursery, but far from any truck deliveries. I was a little concerned as behind the parking lot ran the alley behind the other stores in the complex and behind each store was its large metal garbage bin. However, it must not have been garbage pickup day, because those noisy contraptions sat quietly all night long. So we had a nice dark (thanks to parking behind a series of tall pines that blocked the store and parking lot lights) and quiet night. Even the street sweeper machine that cleaned the parking lot was quiet and it didn’t even start until 7 am.

          After our daily routine of making beds, stripping and converting some back into the couch and table, getting dressed and ready for the day, we headed out on the Seaway Trail. The Seaway Trail is a scenic drive in upstate New York that hugs Lake Ontario, providing for spectacular views and a journey through rolling farmland and quaint fishing villages. Our first destination was to find a breakfast spot in view of the lake. Despite knowing we could probably never find a spot half as good as last night’s dinner locale, Jim directed Gypsy to find us a park on Lake Ontario. When that didn’t work very well, we started looking for anything lakeside and ended up, much to the kids’ dismay, in Lakeview Cemetery. We drove to the back of the cemetery, parked behind some trees and had breakfast. It took a bit for the kids to relax and enjoy the meal, but eventually they were able to look past the tombstones and enjoy the view.

          As our scenic drive continued we passed orchard after orchard of trees just filled with apples. On some branches the apples were so thick that it looked like a bunch of grapes on a stem. Jim wondered out loud if there were child labor laws for apple trees, as we saw young apple trees, with only a trunk and two branches bearing in some cases 20 or 30 apples. No wonder New York is called the Big Apple. Wanting to refill our refrigerator with fresh produce we stopped at several roadside stands. However, we were dismayed to find few open at 9am. And we thought farmers knew the adage of “the early bird gets the worm”. Soon we were successful and stopped at three different stands ending up with a wide variety of apples, vegetables, squash and baked goods. Jim had been on the hunt for grape pie, a supposed delicacy of the area, but had no luck. However, at the last stop, Ben discovered huge cookies and decided to treat the family. We each got to choose a six-inch diameter cookie for lunch. Jim chose a “German chocolate cake” cookie. It was chocolate chunk for me, a frosted sugar cookie (with a pumpkin design) for Caitlin, a maple walnut for Ben, a white chocolate macadamia nut for Lindsey and an M&M cookie for Abby. After finally running out of lake and scenic drive, we turned south to Syracuse for the next part of our day.

          We were headed to the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, New York. Having whetted our appetite for canal boat history at our last national park stop, we were eager to learn more. As we drove through Oswego, the last port on Lake Ontario, we noticed locks being used to bypass the dam system for the hydroelectric power plant and to get boats from the lake level up to an estuary that led to another lake. It was amazing to see these engineering marvels still in action. Excited to learn more, we headed on to Syracuse. Finding the museum was not difficult, but finding the visitor parking was a challenge. And parking Harvey in said visitor parking lot was more challenging still. But having accomplished that, we sat down to a quick lunch and then headed off to the museum. To get to the museum we had to cross Erie Canal Street, which we learned later was the location of the Erie Canal. The museum was housed in the only remaining weigh station from the Erie Canal era. The museum was full of interesting exhibits and tidbits and interactive displays. We learned that the Erie Canal was conceived in the mid 1770s by George Washington and was brought to fruition by Governor De Witt Clinton. Known initially as Clinton’s Ditch, his critics were soon silenced when the Erie Canal was finished in eight years, changed the commerce and migration paths of the nation forever. It also paid for itself in twenty years through tolls. The weigh station we visited played a very important part in this process. Canal boats were weighed empty at the beginning of each season. When the loaded canal boat passed a weigh station it entered the weigh station lock. Then the water was drained until the boat rested on the plates at the bottom of the lock. The canal boats weight minus its empty weight was then multiplied by an amount determined by its cargo and the toll was paid. The weigh station could weigh four boats an hour and did brisk business 24/7 before that was a popular concept. We had the opportunity to walk through a canal boat replica as well as learn about other important people and inventions to come out of Syracuse, New York. Then it was back to the parking lot and some skillful handling of Harvey by Jim (guided of course by me) to get Harvey out of the parking lot and we headed off to the beautiful and scenic Adirondack Mountains.

          The plan was to take the scenic drive through the Adirondack Mountains, find a good camping spot with showers, full hook ups and all the necessary amenities and then take tomorrow as a “chill” day. We have learned that we need occasional “chill days” to not be on the move, not have things we need to see and just have a chance to just be. We use these days to have Mark manuscript studies, catch up on blogging or editing and posting pictures, taking hikes or just sitting and enjoying being still. Well you know what they say about best laid plans….. The scenic drive lived up to its billing. Fall has arrived in the East and the hillsides (the locals would say mountain sides) were ablaze with color. Vibrant reds, blazing oranges and bright yellows left my kids, who have never truly seen an autumn, just amazed. For once I didn’t have to insist they take in the scenery – they just did.

          Although part one of our plan went well, part two, the good camping spot, failed to materialize. Jim and Ben had done some research and identified six or seven potential sites. The first two we stopped at were out of our price range, so we moved on. No big deal, it was still early and the scenery continued to distract us. The next stop, a state park, had spots and showers, but no electricity or water – sort of a necessity for a chill day. On we went. The next two possibilities ended up being rabbit trails that never materialized. Now it was growing dark and was way past dinner. As Jim went jogging down a road to see if it led to a campground (it didn’t) I fed the kids a snack. Now it was very dark and we realized that there isn’t much benefit to taking a scenic drive when you can’t see the scenery. We decided to try one more spot. We arrived to find it closed for the season. We decided to pull over and stop for dinner at the next parking spot we found. A few minutes later we saw signs for parking at the Grassy Pond trailhead and we pulled into more of a muddy pullout then a parking lot.

          Now we have learned that every state has laws regarding overnight parking in rest areas, etc. Some say yes, some say no and some, like New York have a “P” in the chart for posted; as in “allowed unless otherwise posted”. Jim decided that this was one such parking spot. We are in the middle of nowhere (with very spotty cellular reception), safely parked off the road, so he figured it is a good spot to spend the night. So after some maneuvering to get level, we slid out the slide-outs, had a picnic dinner of “pull-bread”, sliced pepperoni stick, cheese and left over yams and settled in for the night. Thus we had a new boondocking experience. It is VERY dark – no lights for miles. VERY quiet, we counted nine cars passing by during dinner and I have heard none since ten o’clock, and VERY peaceful. So hopefully we will have a restful, uninterrupted night and will continue on our adventure in the Adirondacks tomorrow.