Today we decided it was time to cross the road and check out the re-opened Seneca Trail, and take a trip to the waterfall, a nice destination trail that always makes for a good time. Glad I put it in my GPS, though, there was one turn that would have never been found without it! When we reached the road, I got down and put Lola on a lead, because we had to traipse up the side of the road for a bit, and didn't want to take any chances. Fortunately, the only vehicle that came by slowed down for us. Seneca Trail had been closed earlier in the season because of all the rain, and frankly, it probably should have stayed closed for a while longer, the mud was pretty bad in some spots. But we made it through okay, and the rest of the trail was very nice. We got a bit turned around in an area that had been so washed out the trail was invisible, and had to go dangerously cross-country until we ran into it on a ridge again. That led us back to the trail that took us to the waterfall, where we enjoyed a few moments in quiet solitude until a family of tattooed and pierced parents with badly behaved kids came along, so we wrapped it up and headed back, stopping briefly to pay our respects at the family cemetery that is along the trail. We could hear the race in the distance as we were riding, though it faded out a bit by the time we got back to camp. We got the horses put away and started packing up for tomorrow's departure, then I got a call at dusk from my brother, who had suddenly decided to "avoid the traffic" in the morning by coming up and spending the night here. I had to talk him along until he got here, then we joined the camp in an ISS sighting before heading off to bed. He suggested we have breakfast together in the morning (interpret this as "You can fix us all breakfast"), and we all went to bed.
Archives for August 2015
Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015 – Lunch with Brother Glenn
As we approach our family reunion week, the kin are assembling. Brother Glenn decided to come up in his motor home with his daughter, and take in the big Watkins Glen Race this weekend. They arrived last night, so today we decided to have lunch down at Matt’s Place, because the traffic in town was bound to be bad. In fact, he had taken a trip into town to shop and discovered just how bad it was. Anyway, they met us there and we had a nice lunch together before they headed back to the race and we headed back to camp. We had planned on riding today, but of course that changed with the lunch plans, so we just hung around the rest of the day, doing a bit of laundry before settling down for the night.
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015 – Ride Day to nearby Goundry Hill State Forest (Almost)
Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015 – Car “Repair” Day in Watkins Glen
Last week I had made an appointment at Smalley’s Garage to get our leaking Air conditioning condenser on the Savana van fixed, with an appointment at 8:00, so we were up before 7:00, fed the horses, heated up coffee (which I promptly left behind) and headed down to the shop, arriving right on time. We explained the problem again, then went across the street to Burger King for a quick breakfast before heading out to Walmart to shop. My Sierra truck has been needing front tires, and we priced them at Walmart, but they didn’t have my size in stock, though they could get them by tomorrow. Unfortunately, they couldn’t mount them because they don’t have a floor jack big enough for my truck! Then I called around and found another place that could put a set on, so we decided to get that done while we were in town, so set an appointment for 11:00. Then we got a call from Smalley’s saying they couldn’t fix our AC because it required a “body” shop to get into it. Really? A body shop to remove the five screws on the grill? Even the manual says that’s all it takes to get to the parts that need replacing. Obviously he didn’t want to do the job, but he could have told me that before making the appointment. Anyway, I ended up making an appointment at a shop in Rochester for next Tuesday, an old friend of one of my brother’s who has very good reviews online. Finished shopping and headed over to the tire place and hung around while they did the job, then headed to Great American for frozen custard for lunch (I had Kahlua flavor and Hubby and German chocolate, mm-mmm.) Got back to camp by 12:30, put the horses out on anchors again, and spent a relaxing afternoon in gorgeous weather!
Monday, Aug. 3, 2015 – Rest Day
We were both a bit tired today, so we took the day off, watching another one of the TV series we’ve been DVRing for the last few months. A great relaxing day!
Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015 – Last Minute Travel Day to Sugar Hill near Watkins Glen
Though we had originally planned on leaving for Sugar Hill tomorrow, the weather forecast has deteriorated, with now a 60% chance of rain tomorrow, so we made the last minute decision to head out today, even though we’re paid through tomorrow. Got packed up in no time, and were out the driveway at about 1:00, with several stops along the way. Walmart in Geneseo to pick up Hubby’s Rx, then Travel Centers of America in Dansville for fuel, propane and to dump (never again!) They had a lock on the dump, and a different lock on the water, and no hose to rinse away the spillage! They only gave us the key to the dump, so that meant another trip for another key, so we didn’t bother, particularly since there was no hose without dragging on of ours out. That and the fact that there was a broken down car sitting in front of the dump, which the staff had to push out of the way. What a mess! The dump was $5 besides! The only good thing was the propane was the best price I could find around, just $2.39 gallon, which is still high compared to other states, but a lot less than anywhere else I could find along the way. By the time we made stops, and then my GPS sent us to the south side of the forest instead of the north side, which added another 20 minutes or so (I should have checked it more closed, mea culpa), we finally arrived right at 5:00. Fortunately our “usual” spot was open, and most of the rest of the campground was clear except along the edge of the trees to the west, where there was only 2 or 3 trailers, only one of which was a horse trailer. Hubby could even still see the outline on the grass of where we had the satellite dish before, so setup was a breeze! We put the horses on their anchors to graze for a while, and settled down for our usual evening routine.
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015 – DVR Day
Spent another day relaxing today, knocking out another series we’d been saving, in between exercising and training Lola, of course! Also did some laundry, had a great dry wind from the west that was drying every load in about 30 minutes. Love it! Smells so good!