More upstate New York adventures

We took a tour on the Erie Canal aboard the Sam Patch.  Sam is famous for jumping off of things like waterfalls and didn't make it on his last jump off Seneca Falls.

  

some of these packet boats can be rented for a week.  They sleep four couples and are equipped with staterooms, kitchen and living area.  A couple of hours of instruction and you are ready to cruise the canal.  

Some of the sights along the canal.

There were many families of ducks on the water.

Entering Lock 32.  

There are no pumps in the lock system.  It's all operated by the science of water to seeking its own level.  

Ice Cream Social 

 

We all tend to gather in the afternoons for camaraderie and drinking.  

Two-fisted drinker

Belhurst Castle is a hotel and restaurant.  

We visited several wineries and now we have another case of wine to add to our stock.

We're off to wine again so more later.

We had a short trip on Sunday to our rally destination at Canandaigua/Rochester KOA.  On the way, we saw some more beautiful scenery and some things that begged to have a picture taken.   

 

We passed many vineyards and wineries overlooking Seneca Lake

 
We're back in Amish country.  As we head down the road, we try  not to drive through fresh horse exhaust.  It makes a mess, don't ask me how I know.

Travelling secondary roads allows you to see scenes like this that you won't see on interstates.  We prefer these views much better.

While Vickie takes pictures of the scenery, I look out for sudden deposits of exhaust.

We arrived on Sunday and that night, we went to Rochester and had dinner at an authentic old English pub.  All of the staff are English exchange students on a one year paid internship learning the food service business.  

I had bangers and mash and Vickie had shepards pie and we both washed it down with Guinness.  

After dinner, we spent the evening playing trivia at the bar with the owners, John and Betsy Roman.  They have a trivia contest every Sunday and Monday.  Betsy and I were friends in high school.   

We're now settled at our site for the next ten days.

The sites on either side of us are occupied every night with the big boys who are just passing through.  Starting today (Wednesday) we'll have Montana's next to us for the rally.  

 

The park has a big bounce pillow for the "kids" to play on.  

This is the view from our campsite.  

Here is another view of our home for a while.

Last night, we made chicken for dinner and then sat around the campfire with the other early arrivals.  

We'll do a bit of exploring today before the meet and greet at 7 PM tonight when the rally starts.

2016 Upstate New York

We haven't had the RV out since the beginning of March, so I took care of some maintenance issues that needed attention.  If I can't travel in it, I'll play with it. We replaced the slide topper on the dining slide that got ripped in high winds in January, installed a new back flow preventer for the tank flush, installed a new tailgater satellite dish and two tuner boxes, replaced a bad CATV cable to the front TV, installed new barrel locks on the bin doors, flushed the water heater, installed two new batteries and replaced the tire pressure monitor ( under warranty, thank you TST ) that I broke trying to tighten the antenna too much.

 Our first  fuel stop was at the Pilot truck stop in Emporia, Virginia.




Our first overnight stop was Candy Hill campground in Winchester, Virginia. We've stopped here several times before.  It's a very nice park.  Good level sites and a friendly staff.




We had dinner that night with Jeff and Stella, our son-in-laws parents who live near by.




We had a nice drive through some beautiful scenery.







We enjoy this sign every time we see it.




South Williamsport, Pennsylvania is the home of the Little League Museum and Hall of Fame.  No time to stop this time but it's on our list.







Our second nights stop was Ferenbaugh Campground in Corning, New York. This is another place we have stayed at before.




We spent the evening sitting around the campfire at this RV meeting two couples working the glass show.  It was amazing how much we had in common.  Places we lived, wineries we liked on Long Island, Northern California, etc.




We are on our way to our destination at Canandaigua Lake for the rally.  It's a short trip today, less than two hours.  More to come!