Oneonta New York Ruins 11/11/2009

Oneonta New York Ruins
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

My friend Connie wanted to show me a place where she hikes in Oneonta. She said that the land is owned by Hartwick College, a private college in Oneonta. The land is in the west end of Oneonta, right off of Winney Hill Road. There is a small parking area right across from some private homes.

Connie is not interested in urban explorations so she had not mentioned these ruins to me ahead of tiem. They are kind of in a little valley. We did not walk down to them. I was surprised (and delighted) to see them and glad I had my camera with me.

I have no idea what they might have been years ago. Connie suggested that I take copies of the pictures to the Oneonta Historical Society and see if they have any pertinent information.

Anyways, it was a gorgeous fall day, a tad bit on the chilly side. After our hike, we went to the Undercover Eggplant and had a desert.

Posted by JuneNY at 6:41 PM 0 comments

First Trip to Sherburne, June 25, 2009

This is an account of a past "adventure". On June 25th, 2009 my friend Carol and I met up in New Berlin and drove together to Sherburne, NY. First we went into a consignment store. I purchased a pair of capris and a shirt to go with them. Then we went to DOLLAR GENERAL. I was surprised to see some canned food items (Margaret Holmes) that I had never seen before, and I purchased several items. Then we had lunch in the diner.

After that we went to Rogers Environmental Center to hike and find a geocache or two. It was a blisteringly hot day and we were sweating and complaining even before we found the trail. At the trails edge, we ran into another geocacher, Bullseye1. We introduced ourselves and stood and talked for a while. The sun was so hot! After a few minutes of talking, we headed down the trail. I thought it would be cooler in the shade, but it was terrible. Carol suggested we call it quits and come back another day, and I agreed. I was thankful for the air conditioning in my car on the drive back.

I don't think I took any pictures on this short trip.

September 25, 2009, Second Trip to Sherburne

Carol and I went to Sherburne to geocache exactly three months ago. However, it was just too hot outside to walk around Rogers Environmental Center that day.

September 25, 2009 we made our second trip. Instead of eating out, we packed a lunch. I think the first place we stopped was at at consignment shop right on Main Street. After that we looked for a geocache called VETERANS WALK (hidden by Team Nightstalker) in a small park right at the four corners in the center of town. We looked all over, with no luck. We proceeded to another geocache hidden in a bell in front of a church, and we were successful. Close to that church, we had noticed an old schoolhouse (picture is up above on the left). We stopped to see that.

Then we went to the Rogers Environmental Center to find the cache we had planned to find in June. The name of it is GODZILLA. It was a gorgeous fall day, a bit on the warm side, but not terribly stifling hot like it had been in June. A nice walk in the woods, following the trail led us to the cache site, and Carol found it after a short search. It was not in very good shape, and I think it had been moved from its real hiding spot since it was laying out in the open. We signed the log and moved it a few feet so it would match the information and hint on the cache page. There was another cache hidden at Rogers, but we could not find the trail to it. We headed back to town and looked for three geocaches hidden by Team Nightstalker, but we did not have any success. Some of his geocaches have a difficulty rating of four, which is pretty hard, so I was not too surprised that we could not find them. It was fun looking! We did, however, have success finding HARVEY THE TROLL a cache by SIMMONS CREW. It was a "location" cache, which means there was not an actual box or container to find, but an interesting location. The location was a very picturesque bridge in Rexford Falls Park (the picture up above to the right is of the bridge at the park). All in all, it was a good geocaching day with three finds and four do not finds.

What I like about days like this is that we do a variety of fun things: shopping, geocaching, hiking, a picnic and sightseeing.

Earlville Opera House 10/1/2009

Earlville Opera House
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

This is an account of a past "adventure" . On October 1, 2009, my friend Carol and I went to a harvest dinner at a small church in the very small town of Columbus, New York. The dinner was great!

After that we headed towards Sherburne, New York. There is a geocache hidden right in the center of town that we had looked for before. After checking out other peoples logs and realizing that people were finding it, I thought I had a better idea of where to look, but I guess I didn't. We probably spent about ten minutes searching and then we gave up.

We headed to Earlville. On the way we stopped to find a geocache at a fishing access area. This time we were successful, but we were not really thrilled about the light misty rain that we were experiencing. We decided to put geocaching aside and head for the Earlville Opera House.

We drove by it a couple of times without realizing it. We finally went into a small gift shop to ask, and the proprieter was able to point us right to it. We were actually parked across the street from the old opera house.

We went inside and were greeted by a woman who worked there. She told us a bit about the place, and suggested we just look around. We browsed two art galleries on the first floor. One of them had an ammo can on display (geocachers will know why I find this interesting). But the highlight was our self guided tour of the restored opera house, on the second floor.

It is an example of turn-of-the-century architecture with ornate stencilling, a pressed tin ceiling and a beautiful proscenium stage. It is still used for various types of performances but presently it is not heated, so not used in the winter. We wandered around and I took several pictures.

After that we debated about doing further geocaching, but the weather was still pretty awful, so we decided to head for home. We stopped at a farmstand between Earlville and Sherburne, and then at a small grocery store in Sherburne.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Maple Syrup House
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

Today, Luckless and I spent a good portion of the day on a geocaching expedition. We like to do other activities on a geocaching day, and today was no exception.

After I picked her up, we headed towards Delhi, New York. Our first stop was at a tiny park on the corner of Main and Franklin Streets, where we found a very tiny geocache. We noticed the Historical Society across the street, but it did not seem to be open today. That was right next door to an interesting looking store, so we went in there. I think it was an organic food shop. After that we headed to the DELHI COLLEGE OUTDOOR EDUCATION CENTER, which is a beautiful park with trails. AMERICORPS has done a lot of work on the maintenance. We found a geocache here and saw this small building, as well as a couple of others. We saw a large, strange looking piece of old equipment in the woods. Who would have thought that hiking in the winter could be so much fun?

After that, we were a bit worn out, so we headed back to Main Street, Delhi and we ate at the Diner there. After lunch, I asked Luckless if she wanted to see what I refer to as "the old fashioned store". My friend Connie told me about it a while back, and I had been there before. Luckless agreed and we walked to it, and this time I talked with the salesgirl. She was happy to talk about the history of the store and she said I could take pictures. The picture at the top right shows one of the glass cabinets where items for sale are displayed, with a small old wooden
display cabinet on top. Going to this store is like stepping back in time to the fifties.

Then we headed to the SPCA hoping to find a geocache hidden off of the trails there. We found the location of the cache and Luckless found the cache, but it was iced in, and we could not get it out. We walked through an old cemetery located in front of the SPCA and behind the Delaware County Museum. One of the pictures I took there is at the top on the left hand side.

Then we headed home. We pulled over at a really old cemetery on Route 28, but there was no place to park, and too much snow on the ground to pull into the driveway. We will stop there another time and explore it. Another day, another adventure!

Does this count as an adventure?

Maybe it does. I asked several friends and none of them were interested in accompanying me to go see the movie AVATAR, at Southside Cinema in Oneonta. I guess they are not as adventuress as I am. I do not like science fiction or fantasy and most of the time action films do not interest me. But, a couple of people who saw this movie told me about the wonderful 3D and visual effects, so I decided I wanted to see it. Waiting for it to be released on DVD or for television was not going to work for this movie because of the 3D stuff.

So, today I bit the bullet and went to the movies all by myself. I thought it would be really strange doing that, but it really wasn't. In fact, I think there are some benefits to going alone. The movie is WONDERFUL! The scenery in the fantasy world is just marvelous, and the 3D effects are so great. I thoroughly enjoyed this very long movie. I usually start to doze off during movies, but I did not have any problems with that today.

I followed through one of the traditions Christa and I started years ago. In order to avoid paying high prices for drinks and popcorn, etc. we would sneak our own food and drink in. I had a huge cranberry orange muffin and a bottle of Cherry Dr. Pepper with me when I went in.

I strongly recommend this movie, even to people who do not like science fiction and/or fantasy!

Fiesta Mexican Grill and Cantina

Fiesta Mexican Grill and Cantina
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

This is a picture of my daughter, Christa. She works at the FIESTA MEXICAN GRILL AND CANTINA in Oneonta, New York. I was surprised to see her there yesterday when my friend Carol and I went there for lunch.

The FIESTA has such a great atmosphere. Nice music and interesting decor!