It was a beautiful afternoon ADVENTURE! April 14, 2010

I had to work yesterday morning, and a couple of times I went out to the mailbox and I noticed that it kept getting warmer and sunnier. By 12:30 I decided it was a day to take a nice walk. I asked a couple of people from work if they wanted to accompany me, but both of them said they needed more notice than five minutes!!! wimps!

I decided to go to Neahwa Park to check out the progress of the new Veterans Walk that is being built. Much of it is blocked off during construction, but I walked around about a half an hour. It is indeed going to be beautiful when it is finished. It will be a great place for joggers and walkers. I don't know if bicycles will be allowed.

By then I was really hungry. I went to Subway on Main Street and had a meal deal. After lunch, I called Christa to see if she was up. I had something to drop off for her. She was not up yet, and wanted to stay in bed for a while longer (she works nights) so I decided to go to Wilber Park for a walk.

Wilber was the right choice, for sure. There were a few joggers and dog walkers out and about, so I felt safe walking the trails in the woods by myself. I spent about a half hour wandering around, and taking pictures, some of which are up above.

Before going to Christa's house, I decided to see if I could find Woody's Market, which may be the last Mom and Pop type store in Oneonta. I found it, on Spruce Street, and took a picture to post on my flickr account.

I went to Christa's place to drop off the item and visit with her. I decided to take a couple of pictures of her dogs to send to Cassandra. Christa is moving out west in a week or two, and her dogs will be staying in Oneonta, but I probably won't get opportunities to see them.

It was a great afternoon, and I slept better than ever last night.

Staff fun day (May, 2008) Sharon Springs, New York

Sharon Springs Museum: Sharon Springs, New York
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

In May of 2008, my boss asked me to help set up a staff fun day including a visit to Sharon Springs, New York. She had driven through it before, but never stopped to look around.

I gathered geocaching information and called ahead to ask if they would open the museum for us for an hour or so, since it was before the seasons opening day.

We left early in the morning and headed to Sharon Springs. It was Mary, Geneen, myself and Kim and her husband Dave.

When we arrived, we did some geocaching. There is a multi-cache named OLD HOTELS AND SPRINGS. I had found it on a previous trip, and the rest of the group found it without my help. That is a picture of Geneen and Dave when they found the cache. The picture below it is Geneen and Mary at a building behind the cache.

Then it was time to go to the museum. (look for the picture of it up above) It is a great little place. The first floor has memorabilia from the old hotels and springs. Upstairs there are three or four rooms with antique items. We looked at the old schoolhouse next door to the museum and at the row of cabins that are being renovated. We walked over to the old abandoned Adler Hotel and Spa and looked around. We sure wished we could go inside. We had lunch at THE BLACK CAT (I think most of us had the Thanksgiving sandwich) and went into a couple of shops on Main Street. Then we went to a huge farm type market that was selling a lot of spring flowers, and we had ice cream. Then we took one last look at Sharon Springs as we drove through it up towards Route 20.

We stopped at the TeePee in Cherry Valley, to look around. Mary found a geocache there while the others shopped for souveniers. Geneen tried the chili.

It was a great day!

Earth Day Adventure: April 10, 2010

Earth Day2010April10 012
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

Leslie and I agreed to get together to go on a birdwatching walk with the Audobon Club this morning. I met her at her house and she drove to Riddell Park. We expected to join up with a group from the Audobon Society who were conducting a "bird walk" as part of EARTH FESTIVAL 2010. However, they changed their itinerary and since they did not know we were planning to meet up with them, we found ourselves somewhat stranded. We waited a bit and talked with a couple of other people who were trying to meet up with the group and then decided to take a walk of our own.

I tried out the binoculars my Dad gave me at Christmas time, and found out that they worked great. Leslie was able to identify several birds by their various calls and appearance. All in all, I think we spent over an hour in Riddell Park, hiking on their trail, watching birds and I took a lot of pictures. I was happy to find the ghost sign for a rod and gun club on an old barn (see the picture up above) Originally, the property was the Riddell family farm, and several dilapidated buildings still stand as well as the remnants of a large old sled. It was a great walk in Riddell, even if it was cold and windy at various times.

Pictures I took at Riddell Park can be seen here http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157623702298385/

After leaving Riddell, we headed to the Earth Festival in Milford. However, as we approached Milford, we saw signs saying it started at eleven a.m. Since it was only about ten a.m. I suggested we continue on to Cooperstown so we could look for the geocache A DAY AT THE MUSEUMS, which we tried to find a couple of months ago when there was snow on the ground. Today, Leslie found it. I was too interested in the remains of an old canoe that I found and let her do the searching. Also, I had NO intention of climbing down that hill that far. Anyways, it is a great geocache, and each of us were able to take an arrowhead, seen in the picture up above.

You can see a picture of the old canoe I found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/4508132549/in/set-72157623174173539/

We arrived at the Earth Festival around eleven fifteen. We walked around, looking at the exhibits. I signed up for a few things and picked up a bunch of "freebies". There was a display of skeletons of various animals. Up above is a picture of the bones of a HUGE turtle. We decided to have lunch right there at the festival. THE LUCKY DOG was offering a few items, as well as some items from other organic restaurants. I had homemade cream of tomato soup with a piece of delicious bread. Leslie had quiche.

On the way home, we stopped to check on one of my caches: CHRISTMAS ALL THE TIME. Someone had reported that it had water in it. I cleaned it out, put a new notebook in it (thanks Leslie for always being prepared for any geocaching need) and hid it a bit further away from the water. Hopefully, it will stay dry.

It warmed up beautifully and the sun was shining in the early afternoon. It was a great day!

Out and about in Bainbridge, New York and more!!

Frog Pond Farms: Bainbridge, New York
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

I met Carol at the auction house in Unadilla at around 12:30 today. We were not planning on staying, but she wanted to get a good parking spot. There were a lot of cars there already, but she found a good spot and we headed to Bainbridge.

Our first stop was at Bob's Diner. We both had egg salad sandwiches off of the seniors menu. Then we went to Pine Ridge (the Mennonite store). I bought several items, and Carol bought a few things.

Then on to Frog Pond Farms. I have never been there this early in the year. They had a lot of Easter displays and flowers. It was so colorful. I could not resist taking several pictures. That is Main Street in Bainbridge up at the top. The picture on the bottom was taken at Frog Pond Farms.

Then we headed back to Unadilla to the auction house. I went in with Carol and stayed about a half an hour, but it was between auctions and I did not feel like waiting the hour or more until the next auctioneer arrived. So I headed back to Oneonta. I stopped the other side of Otego and had an ice cream cone. I made several stops along Route 7 to take pictures.

I went to the library and picked up four DVDS and several books. Then I went to the Fiesta to catch up with Christa. She has to work Easter Sunday, so we agreed to have our Easter dinner on Monday. I decided to take advantage of the beautiful warm weather to go around Oneonta and take some pictures to put up on flickr. I went to The Depot (restaurant in old train station), along Market Street, Foti's on River Street and to an old cemetery on Corporate Drive. (thats a picture of it in the middle up above).

Geocaching and Exploring on March 26, 2010

illars: Abandoned in Guilford Center, NY
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

Leslie and I set off around ten a.m. this morning (after scraping snow off of my car) for some geocaching and exploring.

We drove to Mt Upton first and attempted to find LADY UPTON RIDES AGAIN geocache. We found part one easily enough, but we could not understand the hints and clues that were included in it. Those hints were supposed to help us figure out the coordinates of the second and final part of the cache, but they didn't. We went to the VALERO and I asked if anyone knew about the monument to Lady Upton. Lady Upton was a famous racehorse that apparently was born and died in Mt. Upton. One of the customers gave me directions to find it. It was close by and we found it quickly, but without knowing the necessary coordinates, we had little hope of finding the geocache. We saw an old building nearby that appears to have been a train depot in a former life and is now a museum.  This picture is of Lady Upton's grave in Mt. Upton.
We headed towards Guilford, and looked around. We saw the building that used to house a mom and pop type store, the first Guilford doctors house, an interesting church and an octagon house. We saw a young bald eagle soaring overhead while driving out of Guilford.
While driving back to Mt Upton, we went through the small hamlet of Guilford Center and stopped to see an abandoned restaurant/hotel. The Pillars was formerly known as Angel's Inn because it had a huge angel on the roof.
Then we headed back towards Mt. Upton. We managed to miss our turn and drove somewhat out of our way, but we made it. Once back in Mt. Upton, we stopped to take pictures of another empty store and of the local historical association which was closed. That building seems to have been a baggage storage room for a train depot.
We went back to the cache site to look at the clues again, to see if we copied something wrong, and I noticed some huge old buildings on the other side of the creek. We found a way to get close to them, and I took some pictures.  We saw these abandoned buildings in Mt. Upton and stopped, but Leslie refused to get out of the car, but I got out and walked closer to them.
We headed towards Gilbertsville and stopped to have lunch at the country store there. Then we went to the old cemetery where I have a cache hidden. Leslie found it. It was damp and dirty inside, so I replaced it with a new cache (the one Leslie gave me for this past Christmas.)
It was a great day: geocaching, exploring, urban exploration, picture taking and lunch out! My kinda outing!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Trail at the Oneonta Watershed
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

I met up with Connie this morning at ten thirty a.m. at Price Chopper in Oneonta. It was a gorgeous spring day, but a bit chilly when we started out.

We drove to the end of the dirt road that leads to the Charlotte Creek Fishing Access area and walked in. We started down the path from the area where the fishermen part, but we were not able to continue because the pathway was flooded. We hiked around that area, and saw some old trees.

Then we went to the Oneonta Watershed area, which is adjacent to the area we were in. There is a very nice trail, which we took. It is short. On the way back we bushwhacked a bit to see the actual water. I took some pictures of an old stone wall, an huge old metal barrel, a white birch and also a picture looking down through the hemlocks to the watershed itself.

We had lunch at Gersters Family Market, and then Connie showed me the buildings behind the Farmhouse Restaurant which used to be part of the Emmons Farm years ago. Some of the buildings have been made into rental units. I took a bunch of pictures, the one I like best is the one of the fire bell.

Then we went to the Lettis Auction House and looked around, and then we called it a day.

Stamford, New York

Ming Moon Restaurant: Stamford, New York
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

Yesterday I had my hair done and my hairdresser Linda and I decided to meet in Stamford, New York for lunch today. Its a pretty long drive (probably 40 miles for me) so I decided to combine a visit to an art gallery in an old hotel and some general exploring with our lunch date.

I headed out around ten a.m. and did a couple of short errands and then headed out Route 23. I stopped to take a couple of snapshots of the diner in Davenport Center for my DINERS, DRIVE-INS and DIVES group on flickr and then continued on 23. I stopped in Harpersfield to take a couple of pictures and then headed on to Stamford. My Harpersfield pictures can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157623529703619/

I found the CYR CENTER easily enough........in its former life it was the REXMERE HOTEL, which opened in l898 and closed in l955 or so. I had seen the building from the outside before, but never been in it. The art gallery gave me a perfect reason to go inside. I glanced at the art gallery and then explored the first floor. I asked permission to go upstairs, but that was denied. No matter, I could get a good feel for how the Rexmere must have looked from the stained glass over the doorways, the fireplace, the bathrooms and stairways. I took a lot of pictures, both inside and out. They can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157623529683533/

After that I spent some time driving around, and I saw a couple of huge old buildings that must have been hotels years ago, or perhaps they were rooming houses. The second picture down is of the huge old building that is just above and down the street from the Ming Moon. I also checked out the Delaware Inn, which is being renovated. I had seen it a couple of years ago while on my way to West Point with my sister and my Dad.

I met up with Linda a couple of minutes after one p.m. and we had a great lunch at the Ming Moon. The place does not have much atmosphere, but the prices, food and service are very good.

After Linda and I parted, I headed towards home. I stopped near Fergusonville to find a geocache that had previously eluded me, and to take a picture of Buttermilk Falls (thats the picture at the top).