LOCKPORT UNITED: Memorial Ceremony, Sunday September 11, 2016

This event was held at the Lockport Municipal Building at two p.m. today.  The American Legion put out a flag for each person who perished fifteen years ago today.  I went early this morning to take pictures before the crown arrived.

David and Peggy came to my place for lunch (pork ribs, mac and cheese, corn and bread pudding for desert).  We met up with Betty at city hall.

We also honored our FIRST RESPONDERS.   Mike represented the Lockport Police Department.  The ceremony was very good.  They offered THANKS TO LOCKPORTS FIRST RESPONDERS t-shirts for sale for five dollars each.  I bought two.

My conplete set of pictures can be seen here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157672646808371

2016 Orleans County Heritage Festival: September 10, 2016

I am not sure where or how I heard about this three day event but I already had plans to go to Lewiston for the peach festival, so I did not plan on going.  I told Peggy about it, though, and she wanted to go and suggested I cancel my first plans so she and I could go to this event together.  David decided he wanted to accompany us.  I met them at their house and we headed towards Albion. Along the way we saw this:

  Our first official stop for the festival was at WATT FARM COUNTRY MARKET and the UNION CEMETERY, which is on their property.  

We got our badges and our first two ribbons here.  And then it was on to the Albion branch of Genesee County Community College for Death, Mourning and Justice in Orleans County. We did two events there: visiting the reproduction of a Victorian at home funeral

and listened to a speaker who talked about three famous area crimes.

And then we located the Orleans County Court House

and signed in for the 1:30 tour.  We had a few minutes to spare before the walking tour started so we walked around the Main Street area a bit.   I noticed this ghost sign.

The tour was great!  We got to into three churches, The Catholic Church, the Pullman Universalist Church and the First Presbyterian Church.  Here are a few pictures:

  After the tour, we headed back towards Middleport.  We stopped at the Amish Bulk Food Store along the way. 

My complete set of pictures can be seen here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157673595166296

Supper with Betty and Peggy

Peggy, Betty and I met at Molinaro's for supper.  It was very good  Then Betty and I walked down to the police station for the event honoring first responders.  We had a piece of cake and talked with the legionnaires for a while before walking back to our cars.  We stopped at the YWCA and looked at  a monument/memorial to the buildings use in the underground railroad.

Town of Lockport Nature Trail ADVENTURE

Now, this one was a REAL adventure!!! And one that I will NEVER forget!!!  Betty is on vacation from her job at Rite Aid so we planned a get together.  I decided to NOT geocache today, to concentrate on the beauty of nature.   I picked her up this morning and we headed to the Town of Lockport Nature Trails on Slayton Settlement Road.

We arrived and started hiking the trail.  We had a map which I printed off of the internet.  It SEEMED fairly easy to follow.

But you see those red, blue and yellow trail lines?  There are way more trails there which are NOT on this map! 

We found the large oak tree on the red trail easily, however we did not see any markings or signs indicating it was the red trail.

and then we located the waterfalls.

After that we continued to follow the map, thinking we would just continue to follow the map and exit the park.  However, something happened and the trail map did not seem to be working for us.  We ended up at the other huge oak tree.  It appears to be dead, but it is still magnificent.  

By this time we were tired and a bit hungry and we decided it was time to head back to the entrance, the parking area and my car. We looked at the map carefully and we realized that we were at the  point on the map the absolute farthest from the entrance.  Our route back to the entrance and parking lot appeared perfectly clear to us.  However when we would reach a spot that was supposed to have a turn to either the right OR the left, there were two routes to choose from.  So, we made the best choice possible, but we messed up and after a while, we realized we were going around in circles.  

We started to get nervous, and we shouted out a few times, hoping there were other hikers nearby.  No luck.   Thankfully, Betty had her phone with her and we called Peggy and asked her to find the phone number for the Town of Lockport main office.  We were able to memorize the number and we called and told someone our dilemma.  After a few phone calls back and forth, and after we located the second big tree again and agreed to wait there, we were told that a park ranger, a man named Ken, would come out and pick is up in a four wheeler.  He said it would be twenty minutes, but it was more like a half an hour.  We waited patiently and he finally arrived.  

He was so nice.  He said he is not really a park ranger and gave us another title, but I cannot remember it.  Betty and  I sat in the back for the one mile ride to the entrance.   I noticed that he did not take the route that we had chosen, by following the map.  He said he was surprised  that we were not able to get help from other hikers, but that when he arrived he noticed my Subaru was the only vehicle in the parking lot.  So, we were the only hikers in the forest when we got lost!!!  What bad luck.   We had encountered a young couple and another man a couple of hours earlier while we were headed to the waterfalls.  

Just before we said goodbye to Ken, a very young couple with a child in a stroller arrived.  Betty asked if it was their first visit and they said it was.  She told them how easy it was for us to get lost and I gave her my map.  

Betty and I left and headed north on 78 and went to Gordy Harpers for lunch.  

What a day.  I made a firm decision: in the future, every time I go out into the woods, no matter who I am with, I will use my GPS and set the coords for my car.  Also, I would like to get a good compass and learn how to use it. 

Labor Day Adventure with Peggy (September 5, 2016)

When Peggy asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I thought about it before telling her that I would like for her and I to spend a day together maybe geocaching, lunch out, exploring etc.  She agreed.  We set a date a few weeks ago to do it, but it was too hot and humid, so we tried again today.
My original plans were geocaching and Trader Joes, but this morning I changed them to include some explorations in DeVeaux Woods State Park in Niagara Falls.

So we headed out mid morning.  On the way to Niagara Falls, we found a geocache on a gate at the abandoned military station. (we explored it many years ago, so we didn't hang around today).

We got gas on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation and then headed towards the Niagara Falls.  It looked like we were going to have difficulty finding the park, but all of a sudden we were there!   It is a very nice park.  I took some pictures of the old orphans school which then became a college.

and then we went into the woods and found the geocache.  We got back to the path and walked through the old growth forest. 

 and then we looked for Niagara Falls Boulevard.  We stopped at the original DeCamillo's and I used two coupons to get a free piece of pizza and a free half dozen cookies.  

We stopped at a storage facility to look for HAND ME DOWNS, but we not successful.  At Oppenheim Park, we were successful in finding two geocaches.  

We decided to keep going on down the boulevard to have lunch. As we passed parking lots full of parking lots for the stores and the mall, I said to Peggy "look at all those dummies who have not discovered goecaching and urban exploring."  We found the Old Country Buffet closed but we found the AMHERST BUFFET (it used to be the Garden Buffet on the Transit, but the moved here.   After dropping off some books for the woman who sells them on ebay to support a missionary couple, we went back and had lunch at the Chinese buffet.  Then we decided it might be a good idea to walk a bit in the Boulevard Mall. Peg told me that we were about to join all those dummies I mentioned earlier!!!!!

We went to Kay Jewelers and we each purchased a Sterling Silver Lab Created Sapphire Necklace.  While walking, we noticed an interesting book store so we went in.  I found Christmas presents for Tyler, Dominic, Dillan and Vincent.  

Our last stop was TRADER JOES!!!!!  It was not too terribly crowded, which was really good.  And then we headed back to Lockport.  

It was a long and exhausting day, but a lot of fun.

Volley Ball!

I went to my step nephews volley ball game at the high school.  He is on the varsity team.  I really do not understand the game, but I think Lockport won one out of three games.  Dominic had a lot of people cheering for him.  His mother, stepdad, brother, sister, two step aunts (Peggy and myself) and his grandparents!  

Lighthouse, Nature Preserve and More September 1, 2016

I have been staying home many days because of the high heat and humidity, so when I realized  that some lower temps were coming, I decided to do a day trip today.  I asked Pam and she wanted to accompany me, so we met up at my house this morning.

I really wanted to turn around a DNF at the Oak Orchard Lighthouse in Point Breeze, so our first stop was there.  Unfortunately, we did not find it.

We did find a letterbox under the main part of the lighthouse.  I just could not get down on my hands and knees and crawl under the ramp, so we left without finding it.  We did enjoy the view of the lake and piers and the geese.  

 We  then went to the supposed location of another cache hide, but I must have put the coords in wrong, since it was not a location where we could search.

We decided to have our picnic lunch at Lakeside Beach State Park.  It is a beautiful park.  I took a few pictures

and then we found our way back to Route 18 and headed west.  We stopped at am Amish roadside stand and I purchased an acorn squash.

We located the Robin Hill Nature Preserve in Lyndonville.  Since their is NO sign, it was a bit difficult and we felt a bit out of place when we walked onto the privste property.  It is a wonderful place with lots of beautiful trees, a nice pond, etc.  

this particular tree is intriguing............it actually seems like two  trees.  

And then we decided to go to Hojacks for ice cream.  This is the first time I noticed this structure behind the playground.  Pam said it is a remnant from when the Hojack line came through the area.