HO HO HO Adventure and more!

Today was the Ho! Ho! Ho! A season of caching 2 get together at Our Town Cafe and Pub at the Holiday Inn in Oneonta, New York. It was a holiday gathering of local geocachers and the local geocaching group STUCK IN THE MIDDLE GEOCACHERS. It was not a huge group, but we had a great time. Most of us had breakfast, and everyone brought a wrapped Christmas ornament and names were drawn to exchange for another one.


After the event, Leslie and I went geocaching. We looked for three, but only found two. One of them will probably have to wait until spring, since it is "dirty down low" and to get to it now would involve a lot of digging around in the snow.


Leslie headed for home and I ran a couple of errands before meeting Linda at the Foothills Performing Arts Center for the opera AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITOR. Before the play we looked at all of the trees in the FESTIVAL OF TREES and we each voted for our favorite. I experimented with taking some close up pictures of some of the decorations on the trees.
The opera was one act and both Linda and I enjoyed it. This was the first time I saw a production at the new facility. Many of the performers were kids and they did a great job.


After it was over, we went to Pondo's 2 for a late lunch, we had salad and cheesy bread.

Afternoon in Cooperstown ADVENTURE

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T.J.'s Restaurant in Cooperstown
Originally uploaded by JuneNYYvette, Terry and I were planning on going to the lunch buffet at the
Otesaga, but Yvette could not make it due to car trouble. Terry and I were going to go without her, but I remembered that T.J.'s Place in Cooperstown offers a five dollar fish dinner for lunch in the winter. I suggested to Terry that we go there instead, and she thought it was a great idea.

This gave me an opportunity to drive my new (used) Subaru wagon, which I picked up yesterday@ We met up at Price Chopper at 11:30 (by this time I had been to two grocery stores and purchased over a hundred dollars worth of food) and headed to Cooperstown. We quickly located T.J.'s and went in. What a delightful atmosphere.......I LOVED the statue of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO and had to take a picture. They have lots of COKE memorabilia around.



The five dollar fish lunch special was great. I had the beer battered fried haddock and Terry had the broiled haddock. The mashed potatoes were the real thing, and very good. The vegetable was corn. It was very filling!

After lunch, we walked around Main Street, Cooperstown a bit, stopping at Schneider's Bakery where Terry bought some donuts and I bought some rolls. We went into a Christmas store.
and a great book store.
On the way back to Oneonta, we stopped at the BEAR POND WINERY to look around and geocache. There was too much snow on the ground to look for the geocache, but we went inside and looked at the merchandise.

Back in Oneonta, we decided to go to FoxCare and walk around a bit. They had some new artwork up, so we looked at that. It was a great afternoon!

States I have been to.........

States I Have Visited.....

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Otesaga and Glimmerglass Adventure

The Otesaga: Cooperstown, New York
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

When my friend Terry heard about the Festival of Christmas Trees at Glimmerglass State Park, she said she wanted to go. I suggested we combine a trip up there with a buffet lunch at the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown. The Hawkeye Bar and Grill is offering a lunch buffet every Friday during the holiday season. I had eaten in the main dining room (upstairs in the Otesaga) a few times, but never eaten in the Hawkeye.

I met up with Terry at Price Chopper and we headed to Cooperstown. We located the Otesaga and the grill and ordered the buffet. It was wonderful. The soup was "She Crab" and it was delicious. The entrees were talapia with a lemon sauce and turkey with stuffing. The deserts were incredible. I was tempted to take more than one, but I settled for a piece of Red Velvet Cake, which was delicious.


This was Terry's first time in the Otesaga so I suggested we walk around a bit. It truly is a grand hotel. She was even impressed by the ladies rest room! I have to admit it is very nice.

Then it was on to Glimmerglass State Park to the Festival of Tress. It was a nice drive up the east side of Otsego Lake. We arrived and found the building where the festival was set up, and spent a half hour or so looking at the trees and taking pictures.
Terry noticed a lot of birds on the beach and we went down and took a few pictures.

We started to look for a geocache hidden near the entrance to the park, but it was so cold and there did not seem like a good place to park near it. We decided to come back in the spring when it is warmer.

We headed back to Cooperstown, taking the same route. I stopped to take a picture of the historical sign for NATTY BUMPO. Once back in Cooperstown, we looked for two geocaches, finding one of them. We stopped at the Fenimore House to take a picture of the totem pole in front.
I pointed out the Indian Mound to Terry, she had never seen it before. Then we headed back to Oneonta.

It turned out to be a great day, in spite of the cold.

Birds and Butterfly Adventure

Joseph L. Popp Jr. Butterfly Conservatory
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

My friend Linda and I finally got together. We met up at my workplace and then drove to Colliersville and had lunch at PONDO's 2. It is a little log cabin right on the main highway, and mostly they offer italian food. Today we split an antipasto salad and an order of cheesy bread. Both were very good.

Then we went to the Joseph L. Popp Jr. Butterfly Conservatory. Both of us had been before, a few years ago when it was newer. The butterflys seemed to be few and far between today, or maybe they were in spots where we could not see them. Their were a lot of beautiful birds to see and take pictures of.

We took our time and walked around and looked around. It is indeed a great place.
The gift shop has a lot of very nice items. Linda plans to return to purchase some
Christmas presents.

Black Friday 2010 ADVENTURE

The Columbia Hotel: Sharon Springs, NY
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

The day after Thanksgiving this year(two days ago), Dad, Peggy and I headed towards Sharon Springs, New York. We discovered this town about five years ago and I have returned about once a year to explore. Formerly a HUGE tourist town, it then declined to the point where it was called a ghost town (not sure why, since several hotels were operational during that time), and now it is gradually being revived.

The main goal of this days trip was to attempt to go inside THE COLUMBIA HOTEL, one of the old hotels which closed around 2005. I had taken pictures from the outside during previous and had heard that it was easy to get into now.

Indeed it was easy. We had to do some serious bushwhacking of some overgrown bushes along the side of the building to get to the back door, which was indeed wide open. We walked right in!

We were surprised that there has not been vandalism........no spray paint or trashed items. I think it probably looks much like it did on the day the hotel was closed. You can tell that people have been there (empty wint bottles, etc.). We quickly walked through the first and second floor, but did not go up to the third floor. The KINGSTON LOUNGE still has the piano. At the front desk, keys still remain in their appropriate boxes. After we came out the back door and went around to the front to take pictures of the outside of the building, we noticed NO TRESPASSING SIGNS on the front doors. YIKES!!

It was a cold day and we were shivering when we left the hotel, and Peggy suggested we find a place to eat lunch right away. We went to THE BLACK CAT. Peggy and I shared a Lebanese dish and a Reuben and Dad had Lebanese potato salad and a goat cheese sandwich. I was somewhat surprised that he was so adventurous regarding his order! While Dad and Peggy had desert(Dad thoroughly enjoyed the carrot cake and tried to talk me into making one when we got home). I went to the new mercantile in THE ROSEBORO, owned by the Beekman boys. It was a bit of a disappointment, being small and not offering a whole lot at this time.

We had heard that THE IMPERIAL BATHS could be accessed by an open door in the back, but it appears that door has been sealed up again. That was a disappointment. We drove by THE ADLER, noticing that the driveway/road going up to it is a real mess. A few years ago, we drove right up it to the front of the hotel, but that is not possible now.

The day would not have been complete without finding at least one geocache. We drove a few miles outside town into a backroad area with some farmland and found THE GRASS IS GREENER. Actually, Peggy found it and I did not even get close enough to get a good look since I was on the wrong side of a maze of small trees and bushes, and I had already managed to NOT get wet and muddy in the huge tractor ruts, and wanted to stay clean and dry. Here is a picture of Peggy at the geocache site.
http://junenysadventures.blogspot.com/2010/11/black-friday-2010-adventure.html

We headed for home, going a different way, Route 20 to 80 to Cooperstown and then the back route through Hartwick to my house.
Dad and I were exhausted and immediately took a nap, but Peggy
went into Oneonta to take a walk and do some shopping. After all, it WAS Black Friday!

It turned out to be a great day, but I still have not seen all of Sharon Springs. I need to return in the spring and drive some of the back roads and see more of the current revitalization.

My pictures for this day can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157625350062537/

MISSING IN ACTION: Doc Branta Adventure

Team-Ducky hid a series of geocaches at Gilbert Lake State Park for their halloween bash. I missed that get together, which is too bad, because it sounds like it turned out to be a whole lot of fun.I think the theme of the series is mythical animal/creatures that have been spotted, but never found.....or something like that.

Anyways, Luckless wanted to do the series so she suggested we go to Gilbert Lake on Friday, November 12th. It was a beautiful fall day and we met up at my house around ten a.m. in the morning and headed for the park.

Once arriving, we attempted to find a good place to start. This took a while, but we ended up on Gilbert Lake Road. We could not locate a trail, but we knew where to go, so we did some bushwhacking to find T-D C.C.U. - Chupacabra. When we got to the area, both Luckless and I headed to the same exact spot where our GPS's were pointing and indeed it was the spot. This is a picture of the geocache, which was hidden in a really neat spot.

Geocaching 11/12/10
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

We signed the log, got the clue (written on a piece of fur) and headed back to my car.

After that we decided to go look for T-D C.C.U. - Beast of Montauk. Luckless had previously found it, but she thought maybe she wrote the clue down wrong and wanted to check it again. This took us to another area of the park but this time we used the trail, which made it a lot easier. The geocache was hidden in an area with a LOT of cut down logs and it took me a while to find it. We retrieved the clue (Luckless had looked at it upside down) and headed on our way.

We decided to try for one more: T-D C.C.U. - Werewolf This one was near the large pavilion. Unfortunately, we did not find the trail ahead of time, so we had to bushwhack up hill about a third of a mile or a bit more. And unfortunately, a half hour or more of searching was not sufficient and we gave up, but we did find the trail during that half hour and were able to take it down to the road. While walking back to my car, I noticed that the lake was a beautiful shade of blue, and I took this picture:

We decided to call it a day and head for home. We took a different route back to Route 23.

ANYWAYS, when I got home, I logged my two finds and then checked the logs for the one we we were unable to find. A previous finder mentioned getting some help from another finder which made it possible for her to locate WEREWOLF. I emailed artfullybare and I was given some interesting information...........that Team-Ducky moved the geocache from its previous spot and I was also given a new clue, which will be very helpful when Luckless and I return to look for it.

THE NEXT DAY, SATURDAY the 13th, we met up at my house again around ten a.m. and headed to the park, with Luckless driving. We took the same route there as we took home the previous day: 23 to Potato Farm Road, and staying straight until we got there. Along the way we saw something very interesting.........kind of a replica of Stonehenge in a field. It was not at all close to the road and it did not appear to have a road leading to it, so we did not stop for pictures. BUT, I will go again some day and try to get closer so I can take pictures.

Once at the park, we returned the Gilbert Lake Road and went to look for T-D C.C.U. - Big Foot. We walked into the woods close to the spot where we started yesterday and kept walking until we found the trail. The trail took us right to the area where Big Foot was hidden. There are a couple of abandoned trailers and outbuildings there (which I saw as an opportunity for urban exploration), but we didn't check them out. Luckless did not want me to tell her the hint from the cache page, so I didn't, but when I saw a certain something that I was sure was in the hint, I asked again and she said OK. I told her and then we both started looking. It took Luckless a couple of minutes before she located it.
Here is a picture of BIG FOOT GEOCACHE. She pulled it out, we retrieved the CLUE, signed the log and we headed back, this time we took the trail all the way to the road. On the way to the next search, we stopped at a tiny fenced in cemetery. It is right on Gilbert Lake Road, close to some campsites. Here are pictures:
I love old graveyards!


Then it was time to look for T-D C.C.U. - Hodag. We drove to a parking area and located a trail and got to the area. Luckless found this one fairly easily. Here is a picture.

We decided to call it a day and headed for home. We will return another day soon and find the last two in the series.

UPDATE: November 22, 2010. It turned out to be a great day to be outdoors, so I called Luckless and suggested we go to Gilbert Lake to look for Doc Branta. We had noticed that some of the caches in the series were disabled due to hunting season,
but not this one. We found it without benefit of the clue that is in the werewolf geocache. It was a great cache, in a neat spot. Actually, we were in the exact spot last week. After that I found GONE FISHING, and then Luckless and I did a bit of what I shall refer to as "backroading"..........hoping to find a way to get close
to something that resembles Stonehenge that we had noticed last week. We found the neatest farm stand named "Foolish Farm" and I purchased some gourds. We saw a woman outside working in her yard at the farmhouse we thought the stonehenge replica might be associated with. We talked to the owner who told us that it is indeed a replica of Stonehenge, which her husband and friends made out of slate. She gave us permission to walk on her property to get closer to it....we will do that another time when I have my camera with me.