JFK Adventure!!!!!

     This ADVENTURE all started when my oldest daughter Megan was making plans to spend the summer in New York.  She  found that she could save a lot of money by flying into JFK International Airport (four hours drive away just outside of New York City) and wondered if I might be able to pick her and my grandkids up when they got there.  My wonderful sister, Peggy, agreed to go with me to get them.  Peggy and I decided to turn it into a short trip to the Catskills where we like to explore the BORSCHT BELT.  

     Peggy arrived late in the evening on Saturday June 30th, and the plans were to drive to Roscoe the following morning and find DUNDAS CASTLE, an old abandoned castle.  However, Peggy had problems with her cell phone which necessitated spending some time at the VERIZON Store in Oneonta, so we got a late start and by the time we got to Roscoe we realized it was too late to look for the castle since we had a four p.m. appointment to visit the LIVING TORAH MUSEUM in the Village of Fallsburg, New York.  So, we went to our lodging (Howard Johnsons) in Liberty and got settled in and then headed out.  Before leaving we found a geocache in Liberty and we drove through Woodbourne because we were interested in seeing how much damage was done to the Aladin Hotel which suffered a fire a few weeks ago.  The Aladin was very busy, it appeared that summer residents (Hasidic Jews) were arriving and moving in for the summer.  We saw the damaged building, but did not stop to take pictures because there were too many people around.  We also stopped at a Jewish bakery.

     We arrived at the LIVING TORAH MUSEUM a few minutes before four p.m. and soon two Jewish women joined us and then the proprieter came and let in.
  We spent the next couple of hours watching a video and seeing ancient artifacts from the holy land.  We actually were able to touch and hold a bowl that existed when Abraham (of the Old Testament) lived.  This museum is a fantastic place!  Then we decided to check out the TAMARACK hotel which also had a fire.  Indeed, the main building was gone (appeared that it had been razed.  We found the bungalow colony associated with that hotel and explored it a bit.  and then we went to Woodbourne and went into a few shops.  We decided we were in the mood for chinese and went back to Liberty to eat at a buffet we had been to a couple of times.  However, it was closed down we drove to Monticello to eat at the other chinese buffet.  .  

     The next morning we decided to walk across the road to GROSSINGERS.  This is a HUGE old abandoned hotel from the Borscht Belt days.  We were able to get inside of a couple of buildings that we had not been in before.  We went back to Howard Johnsons and cleaned up and packed up the car and headed out.  We had the rest of the day to explore the Borscht Belt, get to Hoboken, New Jersey and then to JFK.

     Our first stop was in Hurleyville where I took a few pictures, and then it was back to Loch Sheldrake just in time for lunch at Dizzy Izzy's Knish Shop.  We purchased two knishes and a Snapple and shared them.  Then we went to the nearby antique shop in the old Chinese Cultural Center.  I found a tiny rooster which I wanted to purchase, but the owner wanted TEN DOLLARS for it, so I passed.  She kept saying how inexpensive things were, but they really were not.

     After that, we decided to drive some back roads in search of THE FOUR SEASONS LODGE, which was a bungalow colony that holocaust survivors met at for many summers.  I am pretty sure we found it at 99 Geiger Road (which is the name of the documentary about this), but it appears that it has been sold or changed hands and is now a family camp.

     We then went to Ellenville to go to COHENS BAKERY.  We stopped at the public library to see if the museum was open, but it was closed, and we found a geocache nearby.  And then  we decided to check out the NEVELE we were hoping to be able to walk around the grounds, but a security person at the front entrance told us it was recently purchased and has a new owner and it was clear that he would not let us past.  We were also not allowed to walk around the HONORS HAVEN next door unless we were accompanied by a security guard, so we passed on that.

    We only had a small amount of time left before we would have to head to Hoboken, New Jersey, but we decided to
check out the HOMOWACK lodge and found it was fenced in even more thoroughly than it was in 2009.  We decided to drive to Mountaindale, where I took some pictures of some interesting buildings and we looked briefly for a geocache (not successful).  From there it was time to drive to Hoboken.

     In Hoboken, we went to CARLO's BAKE SHOP, which has been on the Food Network.  There was a long line of people waiting to get in, so we took a number.  I think we waited about forty minutes before we could get in.  It was disappointing because there seemed to be absolutely NO order inside.  Potential customers seemed to be standing around with little movement either forward and the few workers did not seem at all busy.  After about twenty minutes of almost standing still at the back of the crowd)but more people were being let in), I decided it was not worth it and told Peggy I would find a bench outside and wait for her.



Ten or fifteen minutes later, she came out without making a purchase.  HONESTLY, I think they could do more inside to move people along better than they do now.  We had planned to eat at a Cuban restaurant just down the street from Carlo's, but Peggy checked it out and was not impressed.  So, we had supper at TUTA PASTA, and it was very good, but a bit on the expensive side.
    Then it was time to head for JFK.  Unfortunately, the GPS led us right through midtown Manhattan, right through Times Square.  We arrived at JFK about an hour and a half before Megans flight arrived, so we waited, and read, and walked around.    Their flight arrived at exactly midnight and about ten minutes later, Cassy came running through the doors, followed by her mother and Tyler.  We had a happy reunion, waited for luggage and then went out to the car.  We had a bit of a time finding room for everything, but we managed.....poor Tyler was way in the back, with stuff all around him, but, he did fine.
     We stopped at a Dunkin Donuts for food and drinks around 1:30 a.m.  I think we arrived back at my house around 5:30 a.m.  I slept about an hour before the phone woke me up and then I had to stay awake for TIME WARNER's delivery of a new modem.  Peggy and I spent most of the day napping off and on hoping to catch up on our sleep.  Megan seemed to recover quickly and her and the kids went to see relatives in the afternoon.  I prepared BBQ pork ribs, scalloped potatoes and succotash for supper, and we all watched MALL COP in the evening.
   

Geo-Event and Geocaching Saturday June 23, 2012

After some extremely hot, humid and very uncomfortable days, we were blessed with a gorgeous Saturday!  Not too hot, but warm enough, sun all day and one of the most beautiful skys I have ever seen!

First on the agenda: attending a "meet and greet" geocaching event in Neahwa Park in Oneonta, New York, For this event, I packed a sandwich and a drink.  It turned out to be a small group, but it was very nice and very enjoyable!Here is a picture of the "log"

for the event:

Then Leslie and I set out to geocache the afternoon away.  We found five geocaches:  First stop was at Chase Cemetery on Kinney Road in the Town of Hartwick.  This is a very tiny, very old, non-maintained cemetery. Most of the stones are so old that  the names and dates are LONG GONE.  Some are still easy to read.  Then we stopped in Cooperstown so Leslie could replace a log in one of her caches.  I took that opportunity to pick up some tourist info. at the VISITORS CENTER.  Our  second and third geocaching stops were find two GEOCACHING JEOPARDY geocaches hidden by

Mr.Science. And then we stopped to attempt to find BEST CACHE NEAR A DAM SIGHT, and we were again unsuccesful.  Our fourth find  was  at K C's Corner in Springfield.  And last but not least, a return visit to Phoenix Mills where this time the micro BEADLES BARRICADE was found!  I am really glad to get that off of my DNF list.  It is hidden at an absolutely gorgeous fishing access area.

The sky and clouds were exceptionally gorgeous today!  Once we returned to Oneonta, I decided I was too tired to cook so I stopped at Arby's and purchased a salad and at Brooks for chicken.

Leslie's 500th Geocache!!

I suggested to Leslie that we go out together so she could find her 500th geocache, which I hid in her honor a couple of weeks ago.  We met up at 12:35 at her place and headed out, stopping at Arby's so I could get a chicken sandwich for lunch.

We were well on our way when we realized that neither one of us had the coordinates for the as yet unpublished geocache.   We didn't let that stop us......and we arrived at SACKRIDER CEMETERY.  I gave Leslie a few ideas and we realized (well, she realized) that the cache was hidden in an area of heavy
poison ivy growth.  For a couple of minutes, it seemed like the cache was missing, but she found it.

I decided to move it to a nicer place and we found one and hid it before moving on.

We found two geocaches near Hobart on the rails to trails.  It was a really hot afternoon, and the heat was starting to get to me, so we quit after two and headed back to Oneonta, taking a different route.

WEEKEND of June 15-18, 2012

I drove to Lockport on Friday the 15th. I looked for a couple of geocaches near Waterville, without any success. I arrived around four p.m. to find myself locked out of my sisters house, even though she had given me a key a while back. Apparently, it was not the right key!

That evening, my brother had a cookout at his place. We surprised Peggy with a mini-FIFTIETH birthday re-do, since we kinda skipped over her actual fiftieth birthday last August 27th, because we were so caught up with our Dad's medical issues. Janie had picked up a cake and she got ice cream and candles, etc. and it was truly a surprise for Peggy which was great!  Mike, Janie, her three kids, Jen and her boyfriend, Peggy and I were there for the festivities.  

After that, Peggy and I went to the park of East Avenue where there are monuments to men who fought in the various wars.  My brother recently had these two bricks placed there, for our father and grandfather: 

    Saturday morning and well into the afternoon, Peggy and I worked on cleaning the rear portion of our Dad's family room.  We boxed lots of stuff up, some for me to bring back to Oneonta to donate to FSA, and some for other purposes.

      Late Saturday afternoon we went to the local RELAY FOR LIFE where we met up with our other sister, Gail.  We arrived in time for the opening ceremonies  After that, we each purchased a bunch of chinese auction tickets and placed them, purchased luminaria and decorated them, had pulled pork and salt potatoes for supper, walked around and looked at the displays and met up with our cousin Becky for a few minutes.  Then Peggy and I went back to her house for a little while, but we returned at ten p.m. for the LUMINARIA CEREMONY.    It was absolutely beautiful.  Here are the front of the three that Gail, Peggy and I made:    

Sunday morning we went to church.  Peggy won some free meals at a huge buffet restaurant, so we went there for lunch, and then back to 17 where I took a nap, and then we worked for about an hour on sorting

through Dad's kitchen items.  We only made a dent in that.

We decided to go out for some geocaching, and we each found three and had a good time, ending up at

Reids for banana milkshakes!  It was a great day.  

I headed home this morning.  While looking for a geocache (unsuccessfully) in Seneca Falls, I saw a sign for SAUDERS STORE and I followed the area to a very large, and very nice Mennonite store.
  It is well stocked with all sorts of Mennonite products and run by the Mennonites.  I bought a sub for my lunch and a couple more items.

I explored the Village of Munnsville a bit before I got back onto Route 20 and headed for home, arriving around four p.m.  It was a wonderful weekend!!!

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June 11th, 2102 The Secret Woods and More

The Secret Woods, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Recently, I found a couple of trails in a wooded area behind a facility/business in Oneonta. I don't think I should give out the location, so I will refer to it as "The Secret Woods". I told my friend Connie about it and she and I set up a time to meet and take a walk.

There are two trails and we chose the one that appeared shorter. It was wonderful! We encountered a falling down log cabin,

 a creek, some huge old hemlocks, a skull, some giant ferns and more. It seemed like every few feet there was something to take a picture of.

After our walk, we decided to meet up at SIMPLY THAI  (former Corfu Diner)

 for a late lunch. Our meals were delicious and we vowed to go again as soon as possible.

I noticed the FORD ghost sign on top of the old Ford dealership as we walked towards the parking garage and stopped to take a picture, and I also stopped in West Oneonta to take a picture of this: 


It was a great afternoon.

Basswood Pond State Forest Adventure

Leslie and I met up in Laurens for a short trip to Basswood Pond State Forest to find a few geocaches.

Along the way we stopped to do a bit of birdwatching and also so I could take a picture of a home that looks like it may have been a one room schoolhouse in a former life.

I need to try to find some information about this schoolhouse (if indeed it was a schoolhouse at one time)

       A local geocaching family has hidden a series of twelve geocaches in the BASSWOOD POND STATE FOREST.    We had a bit of trouble finding the way to get there, as we never found Basswood Road.....but eventually we found the parking area which was the place to start the caches from.  We grabbed our walking sticks, GPS's, cache information and put our boots on and got started!.  


Her is a view of the picnic area.

Here is a view of the pond from the trail:

It was a glorious morning in a gorgeous and so PRISTINE forest.  We found all five of the five geocaches that we looked for. Here is a picture of one of the geocaches!

  The last one required a walk through a pricker patch, and since I had capris on, I opted to skip this one.  Leslie found it fairly easily, though.   I think both of us were pretty worn out by then and we  backtracked to the parking/picnic area.  We had our lunch (which we each had brought from home) and then headed back to Laurens.

In the Village of Hartwick we saw an Amish woman who had a tiny corner stand set up where she was selling baked goods.    I would like to stop if I ever see this set up again.  I did not know that Amish had moved into Hartwick.

It turned out to be a glorious day!  I am always amazed at the new and interesting places geocaching takes me!!!

WORCESTER ADVENTURE

I decided it was a good day to go see my friend Judy, who lives in Westford, and does not drive.  A phone call confirmed that she was free and I arrived at her place around ten a.m.   Judy said that she needed to have some copies made, and she said that she could do that at the Worcester Public Library, so we headed out.

We arrived at the library and found out that it would not open until one p.m.  So, we decided to do a few other things and have lunch and return at one p.m.  I told Judy that I would like to go into the newly reopened hardware store,

 and she said she wanted to, also.  The store has kept its old time feel and look, and I took several pictures.  The owner was happy to point out some of the old things and tell us about some of the work he has done since he opened the store.

Then we went to the second hand clothing shop (I think the name of it is the WEAR HOUSE, and Judy found several pairs of shorts and a couple of shirts.  Then we went to what Judy refers to as THE WHITE HOUSE (I think thats a slang name for THE WORCESTER INN) where Judy treated me to lunch as an early birthday gift.   We both had the cold salad plate for lunch, potato salad, chicken salad and macaroni salad on a bed of lettuce.  It was VERY good, but not very filling and we both ordered a piece of pie for desert.  I had chocolate cream and she had lemon.

As we finished up our lunch, it was around one p.m., so we went back to the library for the copies.
Once back at Judy's place in Westford, we visited for a while and then I headed home.  It was a good day.