Saturday Afternoon Geocaching Adventure

Leslie and I were both free yesterday afternoon, so we decided
to do a few local geocaches. I picked her up around 12:30 and we headed out.

Our first geocache was STUCK IN THE MIDDLE, which was a quick and easy one..........a magnetic key case stuck on the back of a sign somewhere over near the "small reservoir". After quickly finding that one we checked out the Ducky's Reservoir Cache. We knew it had been disabled due to snow, but so much snow had melted that we thought we might be able to find it. That cache is on a bridge somewhere in the same area of the previous cache, so we located the bridge and looked for a few minutes, but the lower parts of the sides of the bridge have those hard, blackened snow piles around them and, the hint said something about it being "almost underfoot" so we doubted if it was accessible and we moved on. Our next geocache was Stealers Wheels and we needed to take the road towards the SUCO college camp to get to it. A previous finder had warned that the road needs all wheel drive, so it was a good thing we had my Subaru. It didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it might be, just a lot of ruts to try to avoid. We found this one quickly and easily, too.

Our next stop was so I could find PETITE CALLIOU, which was hidden right near the small reservoir.

The Small Reservoir: Oneonta, NY a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Luckless had already found this. It took me quite a while to find this one and it was a definite surprise when I did find it.

We took a "chocolate milkshake break" at Arby's on the way over to Riddell Park where we planned to find a few DOG WALK geocaches. However, once we arrived, we realized that much of the trail was ice covered. We found the closest one to the entrance (DOG WALK 1). I should say Leslie found it. I was busy looking for an easier way to get down to it while she took the hard way and she found it quickly. Its a really big one with lots of stash. I took a couple of small items and left a couple of larger items. Here is a picture I took of the area near the site of the hide. Leslie saw a bird and was taking a picture of it with her new camera.

We debated whether or not to head over to Unadilla and find HOMETOWN ANGEL. Since I had a corned beef and cabbage in the crockpot and needed to stop and get some carrots, I suggested we put that off for another time.

Judy's Birthday Adventure

Judy and I agreed to meet at her place so we could go out to lunch and do some exploring to celebrate her 61st birthday which was a few days ago.

After Judy did a couple of errands, we had lunch at Ardy's in Worcester. As usual, we were not disappointed.

Then we set off to do some exploring. I had never been to the hamlet of South Worcester and I knew of some historical buildings there. So, we headed down County Road 39, and eventually we found Route 40. It seemed like we drove forever until we found East Worcester. We never saw a sign, but a couple of the buildings matched the pictures I had, so I knew we were there. We drove through South Worcester, then through Simpsonville, and then in the Fergusonville area, we stopped to see Buttermilk Falls. It was beautiful today:
Then I turned back and drove back towards South Worcester. I stopped in Simpsonville to take a couple of pictures of the old cemetery where I have a geocache hidden. The ground just before the area of the hide was pretty squishy, so I didn't check on it.

Once we got back to South Worcester, I gave Judy the book LANDMARKS OF OTSEGO COUNTY and asked her to look for the buildings. We located the church, the old general store, the cabinet shop and the doctors office, and also saw the Charlotte Valley Inn. I took pictures of all of these. Here is the cabinet shop:

On the way back to Worcester, we found the one room schoolhouse that the woman at the Worcester Historical Society told me about. It is so cute. Here it is: As I was getting back into the car after taking a couple of pictures, Judy asked me if that was a cemetery across the street. The snowpiles along the road made it a bit hard to see, but I was able to get one picture.

Our last stop was at Preston's Alpaca Farm. I drove in and we saw the alpacas, but did not stay long.


It turned out to be a great day!

Mini Oneonta History Adventure with Dad

My Dad is visiting for a day or so. I suggested that we go to the Oneonta History Center and he seemed to like that idea. This is a picture of the History Center. It's on Main Street. More recently, a jewelry store was in this storefront. Before that it was a candy and ice cream shop named LASKARIS.

We spent about forty tive minutes in the History Center. Dad talked with the man running it today. His father fought in WW2 and so did Dad, so they shared memories. I bought a couple of postcards of the old Oneonta Hotel which is right across the street from the History Center. Here is the postcard,
and here is how the building looks today.

I showed Dad what is left of Bresee's both in the front and back, and we also went into the sporting goods store. Then we went into a bookstore, where Dad found a book he liked HOW TO DRAW WHAT YOU SEE. He did not buy it, though, he is going to see if he can get it at the library. I think maybe I will see if my library system has it, too.

I showed Dad the Masonic Temple (he had been interested in the toy car that the little rich boy who grew up there got for Christmas) and the old train station at the end of Market Street. Then we headed back home, where he promptly took a nap.

My complete set of pictures for this outing can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157626276266120/

I used the picture of Dad in the History Center for my Project 365 daily picture.

Breakfast, cache and a photo (or twelve?)

Breakfast, cache and a photo (or twelve?) a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Today was the geo-event BREAKFAST, CACHE AND A PHOTO (or twelve?) which softball set up. It was held at the cafe at the Holiday Inn.

It was a great event, with a lot of good food and a lot of interaction between local and not so local geocachers. I think the highlight of the event was the little game set up by TEAM DUCKY. They drew small pics representing geocachers who attended (or said they would attend) and each person had the opportunity to see if they could identify all of them. Team-Frog won and they got to keep the duck. Here is a picture of it:

After the event, Leslie and I decided to go geocaching. We chose THE BEEHIVE, which is on state land in Milford. We decided to meet at the convenience store in Laurens. On the way there, I remembered that the backroads we were going to need to go on might be better traversed with my SUBARU FORRESTER than with my minivan. So I drove home and switched vehicles. By time I got to the convenience store, Leslie had left and headed back to Oneonta. When she passed a minivan like mine, she decided to drive back to the convenience store where she found me with my Subaru. So we headed to Milford.

We quickly found the area and then headed out into the woods. Leslie went first (the youngest should always go first), and as she stepped over the snowbank along the side of the road, she stepped into some very soft, very deep snow and went down to her hips, almost to her waist. She is a good sport, and laughed and suggested I take her picture and then extricated herself.


When I realized how deep the snow was, I thought we might have difficulty finding the geocache and I was right. But we plowed forward and got as close to the coordinates as we could. I stepped into some very deep snow at one point, and had a bit of a struggle getting out. We gave up after a while and headed back to my car. It was exhilarating to be outside in the cool fresh air, and I was not discouraged by our failure to find the geocache. We can return when the snow has melted.

By this time it was around one p.m. and I was hungry. We headed back to Laurens thinking we could get a piece of pizza at the convenience store or at the pizzeria in Laurens. But then just as I was going to turn onto 205 I noticed Gino's Grill and Tavern. It definitely had the look of a bar,
but Leslie said that since there weren't any bikes parked outside (I think she meant motorcycles) she thought it might be worth a try. The atmosphere was not anything to write home about, but the prices seemed reasonable and we got to sit in an empty area at the end which had a fireplace.

My burger and fries and bottled water only came to seven dollars. Leslie had a fish sandwich, but I don't think she was thrilled with it. When I said to her "next time we will get the chicken wings". She said "next time?". She has never had chicken wings! So, I hope she shares a batch with me sometime soon!

It was a great day!

Winter at Wilber Lake Adventure

Sign for Wilber Lake (near Laurens, NY) a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Luckless and I set out this morning for some geocaching. We met up in Oneonta and found one that is hidden in the parking lot of a local store. Then, with Luckless at the wheel, we headed out to Wilber Lake.

Wilber Lake is so much more than a fishing access area. It is an old road that crosses over Wilber Lake. Cars have not used this road for years, but the road signs are still there. The old road makes a wonderful trail for hikers. It is a beautiful wooded area. So, its a bit like urban exploring when you walk down the road.

We parked at one end of the lake and quickly found a newly hidden geocache. I should say that Luckless found it, because I chickened out at the idea of climbing down the snowy hill. It was a large one, and we both signed the log and Luckless took a travel bug that wants to go to Washington state. From this vantage point, there is a beautiful view of Wilber Lake. This gnarled tree with many trunks can be seen at this lookout point.




After that we drove around and located the other entrance to Wilber Lake. We parked and went beyond the ROAD CLOSED BARRIER, and started walking. I told Luckless that last fall I saw a strange structure on the left hand side, and we watched for it. She spotted it, and we climbed over a ditch and up a bit to look at it. Unfortunately, it has deteriorated a lot with time and the weather. Here is a picture of what we saw today:

We decided to hide a small geocache near the mystery structure. We did that, and then continued walking the trail towards the lake. We quit when we came to a small creek or ditch that was a bit too wide to jump. We headed back into Oneonta.

We had lunch at the Corfu Diner. I tried the THAI special. Thai Chicken in garlic/black pepper sauce with rice and vegetables.
$7.75 included soup and a soft drink. It was very good. Luckless is not as adventurous with food as I am. She had a ham and cheese croissant with fries, it looked very tasty.

Luckless dropped me off and I headed home. At the intersection of Route 7 and Oneida Street, I noticed this ahead of me:

POSTSCRIPT: the new geocache was published within a few hours of submission. A couple of hours later several cachers got together and went out to find it in the dark. Their stories are a "comedy of errors" which can be read here: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=aa6e6b58-eef2-4b99-9dcb-08b72501b18b

McDonough Adventure

Ever since seeing a photo of the McDonough General Store in McDonough, New York in Chenango County, I have wanted to go to McDonough to check it out.

Today was the day! Carol and I met in South New Berlin late in the morning. We headed towards McDonough. We stopped first at TOPS so Carol could get some dog food. We also thought we might have lunch at Millie's Diner in Norwich, so we stopped there. However, they were out of burgers, and it had that "greasy spoon" odor to it, so we decided to have lunch in McDonough.

We had a bit of a hard time finding McDonough, but after some backtracking and stopping to ask directions at a residence (that used to be a church) in East McDonough, we finally found it. The old store is right at the intersection, amidst many other old buildings.

We had lunch at the store (pizza panini sub and iced tea), and I bought a couple of postcards. I was allowed to take pictures and the two women working there answered our questions as best as they could. After that we drove around and I took several pictures of buildings and churches. The highlight was finding the old COOPER SHOP. If there wasn't so much snow on the ground, we would have liked to peek in the windows.

On the way back to Norwich, we drove through East Pharsalia and Preston. I stopped to take a few pictures in both towns. Here is a picture of the vacant store, gas station and post office in East Pharsalia.
I am not sure I will want to return to either of these towns, but I do want to return to McDonough.

We looked for an "ALWAYS" geocache in Norwich at WalMart, but we were not successful this time. Then we picked up a few sale items at Price Chopper and then headed back to South New Berlin, where I dropped Carol off before heading home.

mt entire set of pictures taken today can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157625959054845/

COOPERSTOWN WINTER ADVENTURE

We had another STAFF FUN DAY yesterday, February 11, 2011. We all met at FSA at 9:30and headed towards Cooperstown. Along the way we stopped to try to find a geocache called SUSQUEHANA RIVER BRIDGE, in the Index/Hartwick Seminary area. It is supposed to be "winter accessible", but this winter there is just so much snow that it was impossible to get near to the area where it is hidden. Also, traffic became pretty heavy and included a corrections officer from the nearby jail who looked at us very suspiciously............so we quit after about five minutes, deciding that most likely the geocache is buried under piles of snow.

We headed off to Cooperstown. The two cars got separated, but a few cell phone calls resolved that issue and we met up near the old Smalley Theatre on Main Street.

Our first stop was the Cooperstown General Store. Then we went to the library for the quilt show. We saw some beautiful quilts. I particularly liked the old ones that had a card attached telling some of the history of the quilt. This one is being raffled off, but I didn't purchase a ticket.

After the quilt show we went to TJ's for lunch. I had the five dollar fish lunch special. Just like before, it was very good. Then we went to a few gift shops. We also walked down to the lake. Here is a picture of everyone at the end of Pioneer Street.

The last gift shop we went to was THE TIN BIN. After that, I headed back to Oneonta with Carol and Kim. I think maybe Mary, Geneen and Eileen did a bit more rambling around, because they were not at FSA when I dropped Kim off.

It was a good day except for one thing. During the times when we were outdoors, I kept wondering WHY the cold was bothering me so much, it usually doesn't. It didn't seem to phase the others. By the time I got home, I realized that I did not feel well and I started with diarrhea. UGH I started taking zinc and vitamin C. It took me hours to warm up, I kept adding more clothing, more blankets and turning the heat up.