Friday, August 19, 2011

Terry's Birthday Adventure 2011

Terry and I have a tradition of going on a day trip together to celebrate her birthday (and mine, if we remember). This year she is working more hours, so we couldn't come up with a FULL day, so we settled for a half day trip.

We met up in Laurens a little before noon and headed to Richfield Springs. Terry had never been there, so the first place we went to was "the sulphur springs" at the park on Main Street. We both tasted the water. I took this picture of a NYS Historical Sign close to the springs. I didn't take any pictures of the springs, since I took them the last two times I went to Richfield Springs.

We had lunch at THE TALLY HO. The place was really crowded! I had THE SARATOGA, a grilled sandwich which had turkey, mushrooms, cheese and thousand island dressing. It was VERY good.

Then Terry went to the tiny museum while I walked around Main Street a bit shooting pictures of old buildings. This old fire station is now used as offices for a home health aide agency:

After that we located an old abandoned SURE CATCH FACTORY on the Elm Street Extension. I think they made fishing tackle here years ago.
The place looks like it is wide open, but there are NO TRESPASSING SIGNS out in front.

Next we located St. Joe's Cemetery in order to find a geocache. On the way there, it got dark and there were rumbles of thunder and an occasional streak of lightning. It was just starting to sprinkle when I parked the car. Terry said she would wait in the car while I looked. I found the geocache really quickly. The trees kept me pretty dry. A few seconds after I returned to the car, the sky opened up and it started pouring. Then we decided to head back to Richfield Springs, but it turned out we were going the wrong direction. We went by THE LAKE HOUSE, a huge elegant hotel/restaurant and decided to go in and ask directions and have desert. The desert was great! We split cheesecake and carrot cake. All we had to was head in the opposite direction to get to Route 20.

We drove down Route 20 about eight miles and turned onto Route 51 heading towards Cedarville because I had read online about an Amish settlement there. I was surprised to see the CEDARVILLE COUNTRY STORE
and decided to go in and buy something and ask for information about where the Amish farms might be. The cashier told me that they are spread all over and suggested I head back to Richfield Springs and look for them around the Prey Hill area. We looked around Cedarville a bit (the small hamlet has a fire department and a few houses), without success even though we followed a road that had a sign showing a horse and buggy. We drove back up to Route 20 and around the Prey Hill area, we saw a road off to the left with the same sign. We drove down it, and right away we passed two young Amish boys. One was driving a small horse and buggy and the other was running along side. However, we never did find any Amish farms or see anything else Amish.

Back in Richfield Springs we stopped at the McDonalds to see the ELVIS display. It was small, but pretty good. Here is a pic. of Terry with Elvis!!!
Terry wanted to know if there were any more geocaches available. I told her about the one at the fishing access where I found an Amish horse and buggy last year. We stopped and I found it quickly. Terry's knee was bothering her and she decided to wait in the car.

On the way down Route 80 on the west side of Otsego Lake, we stopped to find CACHE AT THE MARKET. We met the owner and looked around the shop and then I found the
geocache. Terry was enjoying sitting on the porch chatting with the owner while I
did that.

Our last stop was in Cooperstown. I wanted to find the "hidden" park behind the
Cooperstown Motel, where a difficult geocache is hidden. The park was easy to
locate, and it is really neat, with this beautiful mural. I didn't have the info.
about the geocache, so I didn't even look, and probably would have been unable to
because of a mom and little girl who were playing there. The park has playground
equipment, picnic tables and a porta potty! It also has this mural,
on the backside of a building that was once a bowling alley, and then a supermarket.

I showed Terry the back way from Milford Center to Laurens and we wrapped up
our half day around 5:20 p.m. We had a great time!

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