Adventure?

Well, really I just had to go to Morris and get a gallon of milk and to check on a geocache that someone reported needed repair, but I am going to call it an adventure. My life is d u l l .

I went to Morris and first I checked on ODDBALLS, ETC. which was my very first cache that I hid. Someone had reported that the box had a crack in it. Indeed, it did, so I replaced it with another one. Then, since it was lunchtime, I went to Nicole's and ordered a burger. I am not used to going out to lunch alone, but it was OK........I sat at the counter and read the Pennysavers while I waited for my order. I hadn't realized that I would get a HUGE side of french fries with it. They were the real thing, and sooooooo good.

Since I had my camera with me, I decided to take a picture of Nicoles to add to the DINERS, DIVES and DRIVE-INS group on flickr. All of a sudden, it started to snow. And then I took the other picture of the 1850 Engine and Town House. That building is still in use, they were counting votes in there on election day.

Then I went to get a gallon of milk and headed home.

The Worcester Inn

The Worcester Inn
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

My friend Judy and I had lunch in the Main Street Cafe in THE WORCESTER INN today. The food was good and the prices were right. The cafe was quite crowded at noon when we arrived. We ran into Judy's daughter there and she gave us a short tour of the banquet rooms, etc.

The Inn offers twenty rooms, some of which have jacuzzis.

There used to be a bowling alley out in back, it was torn down several years ago.

History of this beautiful old inn can be found at

www.theworcesterinn.com

Friday, January 22, 2010

Cooperstown, New York Ruins
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

Luckless and I met up at ten thirty a.m. at her house and we headed to Portlandville. There is a geocache hidden at a boating access area on Goodyear Lake there. We found that one without any trouble. Then we went to find another one, I think it was at a fishing access area. Luckless pretty much told me how to get there. That involved quite a trek in the woods with some bushwhacking. After that we drove to Cooperstown to try to find a geocache hidden near one of the museums. We were not successful in finding that one, but we did find these ruins which are of a private bridge over Glimmerglen Stream. The bridge was part of the

Glimmerglen Estate which was torn down in the sixties.

Down by the lake edge there were two interesting looking buildings. They were built by the New York State Historical Association and are examples of cabins belonging to early trappers or native indians.

We talked a bit about going into the New York Historical Association which seemed to be the only building in the whole museum complex that was open. I was starting to fade a bit, so I suggested going out for lunch.

The place we chose for lunch turned out to have a very interesting history. Originally, it was a meat storage building, where people rented freezer space to keep their meat in. That was before most people had their own freezers at home. The long narrow one story building in the picture is

Jackie's Restaurant in Milford. The menu says its where the locals hang out, and I think thats true.

We headed back to Oneonta and I dropped Luckless off. I decided to stop on River Street and take a couple pictures of a vacant mom and pop type store. I was in it a few times before it closed down. I am not sure how many years it has been closed, but I am guessing maybe eight.

It was a good day, but somewhat tiring. I laid down about three thirty and slept for a couple of hours.

January 21, 2010 Adventure

Some people might find this too boring to be called an adventure.

My friend Connie and I met up in Oneonta to take a walk since it was such a gorgeous winter day, no snow and the sun was shining and the sky was a gorgeous blue. We walked around Wilber Park for about a half an hour. Then we decided to check out the ARTS COUNCIL, a gallery that is in the old Wilber Mansion. The art displayed today did not appeal a lot to either one of us, but I decided to take some pictures of the architecture, which is very interesting because it is very beautiful. The staircase is especially beautiful. There is also a mural on an outbuilding behind the mansion.

After that we decided to to to the Lettis Auction House. This was my second visit. I put in a prebid on a cobalt blue glass boot, it stands about three inches high and would be a nice addition to my collection. I was allowed to take pictures of the facade of the inside of the old post office. I am not sure where it was before it was in this building. I emailed the owner of the auction house and asked if he has any history or facts about it. The reddish brown building is the auction house. The other building is the Wilber Mansion.

Connie suggested we go to a salvage company that she has been to. She wanted to look at old sinks, since she wants to purchase one. The walkway to the building that has the sinks was a sheet of ice, so we decided to try again in the spring.

All in all it was a great day. I was really glad that I had supper in the crockpot so that I did not have to cook tonight.

Brookfield, New York Adventure: November 2, 2009

On November 2, 2009, my friend Carol wanted to go to a tack shop in Brookfield . I had never been to that area so it was a perfect chance for me to take my camera along and get some pictures of someplace new and different. When I checked geocaching.com I found that there were geocaches hidden in that area, so I printed out the information.

We left mid morning and headed towards Brookfield. Carol had been there before, but she forgot the exact directions. Lndmarks along the way helped a great deal. We stopped at what appeared to be a highway department garage to make sure we were on the right track. While Carol went in to ask, I turned my GPS on and found out that we were within a couple hundred feet of one of the caches: BROOKFIELD STEEL ANGEL. We decided not to look for it just yet, since we would be coming back that same way.

We headed on to the Tack Shop, but found it closed when we arrived. I turned my GPS on again and we headed towards the cache. We found ourselves driving around in the Beaver Creek State Forest. Some of the roads were rather questionable (narrow, winding, lots of potholes, etc) so we went slowly. We found the Quaker Hill Cemetery and were successful in locating the cache hidden there.

Then we headed towards the Little Cross Cemetery to find the one hidden there. Again we were on questionable dirt roads heading out into what my Australian friend would refer to as "the bush". This cemetery was not visible from the road, but we parked in a spot that seemed to be close to the coordinates. A walk through the woods and across a neat bridge took us to the cemetery and we found the geocache.

While we were exploring the Little Cross Cemetery I asked Carol if she tells her grown sons about the places she goes, and she said "no, they would think I am nuts".

By this time, it was well after noon and we were getting hungry, so we headed back to the town of Brookfield. We were happy to see a sign pointing to a DINER, but when we got there, we found that it was closed on Mondays. We decided to head back towards New Berlin where there would be a choice of eating places. But first, we had to stop and look for the Steel Angel. Apparently, its hidden in or on a huge old plow that is standing outside of the highway department, but we were not able to find it. On the way to New Berlin, we spotted another old cemetery and we stopped for a minute or two to check it out.

We had a late lunch at the New Berlin Diner which had recently reopened. On the way back to Carol's house, we noticed an old schoolhouse in the town of Columbus and we stopped to take a couple of pictures. The sign said that arrangements can be made to go inside by calling a certain number. I hope to do that during another exploration/adventure.

From top to bottom, the pictures are me on the bridge leading to Little Cross Cemetery, a view of Little Cross Cemetery, the diner in Brookfield and the Columbus Quarter Schoolhouse.

Richfield Springs and Van Hornesville, New York Day Trip October 19,2009

Clock in Richfield Springs, NY Park
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

On this date, my friend Carol (Coopercar on geocaching.com) met in Oneonta around eleven a.m. We had a quick lunch at Taco Bell and then headed out for town of Richfield Springs, New York. It was a gorgeous fall day, warm and sunny and we just wanted to be out and about and in the fresh air. Geocaching in Richfield Springs offered us a perfect opportunity to do that.

Upon arriving in Richfield Springs, we started looking for a geocache. We drove in a huge circle, ending up back on Main Street. We noticed an interesting shopping center which had a dollar store. Carol wanted to pick up something at the supermarket, so I told her I would go into the dollar store, look around a bit and ask directions to the park where the cache was hid. I purchased a few items and asked the cashier and it turned out we were very close to the road leading to John D. Cary Park. There is a good parking area and after parking we set out. The cache was not far away and involved a short downhill walk in the woods before Carol found it. It was a large, well stocked cache.

Then we located the other park where a cache was hidden, it is right on Main Street. The clock in the picture is at this park. Click on that picture to go my flickr page for the clock, where there is a little bit of information. The park is aptly named Spring Park because a natural mineral spring is located there. I never knew about this spring. We walked around the park a bit and then started looking for the cache. This one was a micro, and micros are small and usually a bit harder to find. Carol found it in the same spot I had already put my hand, she just reached in deeper. When we sat down on a bench to sign the log, we noticed a guy watching us. He came over and offered to take our picture, and at first I said OK, but then I had a funny feeling and I pretended the batteries in the camera were dead. I just had the feeling he might take off with my camera. While not an expensive camera, its all I have and I did not want to take any chances. I took some pictures of the park, which are up above.

Carol noticed a consignment shop across the street from the park (she LOVES consignment shops) but it was closed. We decided to head for Van Hornesville to look for the Amish area. Carol had been to it before, when she had a harness repaired by an Amish man who has a shop there. On the way we stopped and found another geocache, this time just outside of a cemetery.

In the Van Hornesville area, just off of Route 20, we noticed some dining room table chairs for sale and Carol wanted to stop to look at them. I saw the old washing machine at the same location and took a picture. Then I noticed the old library across the street. Unfortunately, my picture does not show the year that was on the building.

Carol was able to tell me where to turn on Route 20 to get to the repair shop. We found it, but it was closed and a sign gave a new address. The picture way up at the top shows the sign for the original repair shop (before it was moved). Unfortunately, it was starting to get dark, so we decided to put up off exploring the Amish area until another time. We headed back to Oneonta where Carol had left her car. We agreed to return to the Amish area sometime soon and do some more exploring.

Unfortunately, as of today, January 18, 2010 we have not been able to work out a day to do that and I think we may have to wait until spring.

Mini-Adventure November 7, 2009

The day was so nice, and I noticed a new cache listed hidden in Barbour Brook State Forest near Masonville, New York. I called Luckless and asked her if she was free, and it turned out that she was. I was getting ready to leave my house when I got called into work for a four p.m. shift. I decided that there was enough time to get to Masonville, find the cache and return to Oneonta in time to start that shift. I grabbed an extra set of clothing (just in case) and put that in my car, too.

We found the road to the cache. Since it was steep and looked like it was getting narrower, I parked my van and we started to walk up to it. It was only supposed to be .2 of a mile, but we never seemed to be getting any closer....perhaps the road was twisting and turning just enough so that we really weren't. After a few minutes we realized the road was probably OK and we walked back to my van and got in and proceeded up. There was a small parking area near where our GPSs' told us to go. I parked and we grabbed our gear and headed into the woods. Just before entering, another group of geocachers arrived. We talked for a minute, but we did not enter the woods together.

Getting to this cache site involved a LOT of bushwhacking, since we never found the trail that was mentioned in the cache information page. We finally got to the area of the cache and Luckless found it right away. She backed off and let me find it on my own. It was a large cache, AND we were first to find!!! We signed the log and started back to my car. It was a good thing that Luckless has a good sense of direction, because I would not have known which direction to head. The other group of geocachers were heading towards the cache when we got back to the road.

As we went through Masonville again on the way back to I-88, I noticed a very interesting appearing general store right at the four corners. Unfortunately, we didn't really have time to stop and check it out. I got back to Oneonta in time to pick up a take out meal from a chinese restaurant to take to work and I arrived at exactly four p.m. for my shift.

Sharon Springs, NY Day Trip October 16, 2009

Adler Hotel, Sharon Springs, NY
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

My friend Terry wanted to do one more day trip before cold weather, so we chose Friday October 16th. She told me to decide where to go and what to do. She had never been to Sharon Springs, New York, but I had been several times and I still love it there, so I chose Sharon Springs.

We left early in the morning and headed out. Our first stop was at Glimmerglass State Park, just north of Otsego Lake. Terry had never seen the covered bridge there. Our second stop was at TeePee Pete's a souvenier store shaped like a huge TeePee along Route 20 near Cherry Valley.

Our third stop was just before Sharon Springs. I had read about the former Commodore Cabins which closed in the l960's. The small separate units are now used as storage spaces that are rented out. Talk about creativity and practicality! We drove in and around. The cabins have been maintained well and appear to be in top notch condition. The large building in front was originally used as the motel office, restaurant and residence. It is located at 428 Highway Route 20.SInce we were approaching Sharon Springs from a different direction (avoiding I-88) I got a little bit lost, but we only wasted about ten minutes.

We arrived in Sharon Springs. I parked in front of the old Imperial Bathhouse and we set out on foot. We looked around the Imperial and went to the spring next door before heading to the Adler Hotel. On previous visits, there had not been POSTED or NO TRESPASSING SIGNS, but they were there this day, along with orange snow type fencing across the entrances to the huge front porch. So we avoided the building itself, walking around to the back. This was the first time I had seen the Adler's swimming pool. It seemed rather small for a hotel this large. We quickly continued to walk around the hotel, stopping to snap a few pictures, and then got off of the property. If you click on the picture of the Adler Hotel and Spa up above, you can see a few more pictures and a bit more information on my flickr.com page.

We walked and drove around Sharon Springs, generally just looking and reading historical signs. We had lunch at THE BLACK CAT and it was very good. There is another shop in Sharon Springs that is quite interesting: COBBLER and CO. It is in the building that was once used for shoe repair, and the old sign and some of the old equipment is displayed in the front room.

After lunch we drove around Sharon Springs a bit more. We stopped to take a picture of a house (shown way up at the top) which I was able to go into a couple of years. It had just been purchased and the owners allowed my sister, my Dad and I to go in and look around. That particular building had been used as a rooming or boarding house. The new owners said their plans were to fix it up and turn it into a Bed and Breakfast.

Then we decided to head towards Van Hornesville along Route 20. We stopped a couple of places along the way and found geocaches.

The reason we wanted to go to Van Hornsville was to drive through the Amish area, but we were not successful in finding it. The closest we came to it was seeing a sign with an Amish buggy on it. We did see something very interesting though on a back road in Van Hornesville and that was the limekiln in the picture up above. I cannot find any information about it online.

On the way home, in Springfield Center we went into a gift shop and a very interesting antique shop in Springfield Center. Our last stop of the day was for supper in Oneonta.

October 30, 2009 Visit to Local Monastery

Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery, Otego, NY
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

A couple of weeks earlier, I was driving down Main Street in Otego and saw a sign for Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery. I turned down the side road, thinking maybe I could locate it, but I could not find it that day. At home later on, I did a mapquest and got an exact address for it.

I asked my friend Linda, who is Roman Catholic if she would be interested in checking it out and she was. So, on October 30th, we set out early in the day. With the help of mapquest, it was easy to find.

We were met at the door and welcomed in. The nun who let us in handed us over to Sister Michaela (pictured to the left) who gave us a tour and visited with us and answered all of our questions. Sister Michaela was an Episcopal nun for a long time before she became an orthodox nun. We attended a short prayer ceremony at noon, just before the residents were going to have their lunch. Linda and I were not the only "civilians" there, there were two young girls who I think were staying in the retreat house.

The outside of the monastery is rather plain, but the inside is very beautiful as you will see from the attached pictures. They rent rooms out in their retreat building and raise farm animals and vegetables. The monastery is very small, I think there are six nuns living there.

After leaving the monastery, we headed to Bainbridge where we went to The Frogpond, a huge fruit and vegetable stand, and we also had a buffet lunch at a restaurant there.

Oneonta New York Ruins 11/11/2009

Oneonta New York Ruins
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

My friend Connie wanted to show me a place where she hikes in Oneonta. She said that the land is owned by Hartwick College, a private college in Oneonta. The land is in the west end of Oneonta, right off of Winney Hill Road. There is a small parking area right across from some private homes.

Connie is not interested in urban explorations so she had not mentioned these ruins to me ahead of tiem. They are kind of in a little valley. We did not walk down to them. I was surprised (and delighted) to see them and glad I had my camera with me.

I have no idea what they might have been years ago. Connie suggested that I take copies of the pictures to the Oneonta Historical Society and see if they have any pertinent information.

Anyways, it was a gorgeous fall day, a tad bit on the chilly side. After our hike, we went to the Undercover Eggplant and had a desert.

Posted by JuneNY at 6:41 PM 0 comments

First Trip to Sherburne, June 25, 2009

This is an account of a past "adventure". On June 25th, 2009 my friend Carol and I met up in New Berlin and drove together to Sherburne, NY. First we went into a consignment store. I purchased a pair of capris and a shirt to go with them. Then we went to DOLLAR GENERAL. I was surprised to see some canned food items (Margaret Holmes) that I had never seen before, and I purchased several items. Then we had lunch in the diner.

After that we went to Rogers Environmental Center to hike and find a geocache or two. It was a blisteringly hot day and we were sweating and complaining even before we found the trail. At the trails edge, we ran into another geocacher, Bullseye1. We introduced ourselves and stood and talked for a while. The sun was so hot! After a few minutes of talking, we headed down the trail. I thought it would be cooler in the shade, but it was terrible. Carol suggested we call it quits and come back another day, and I agreed. I was thankful for the air conditioning in my car on the drive back.

I don't think I took any pictures on this short trip.

September 25, 2009, Second Trip to Sherburne

Carol and I went to Sherburne to geocache exactly three months ago. However, it was just too hot outside to walk around Rogers Environmental Center that day.

September 25, 2009 we made our second trip. Instead of eating out, we packed a lunch. I think the first place we stopped was at at consignment shop right on Main Street. After that we looked for a geocache called VETERANS WALK (hidden by Team Nightstalker) in a small park right at the four corners in the center of town. We looked all over, with no luck. We proceeded to another geocache hidden in a bell in front of a church, and we were successful. Close to that church, we had noticed an old schoolhouse (picture is up above on the left). We stopped to see that.

Then we went to the Rogers Environmental Center to find the cache we had planned to find in June. The name of it is GODZILLA. It was a gorgeous fall day, a bit on the warm side, but not terribly stifling hot like it had been in June. A nice walk in the woods, following the trail led us to the cache site, and Carol found it after a short search. It was not in very good shape, and I think it had been moved from its real hiding spot since it was laying out in the open. We signed the log and moved it a few feet so it would match the information and hint on the cache page. There was another cache hidden at Rogers, but we could not find the trail to it. We headed back to town and looked for three geocaches hidden by Team Nightstalker, but we did not have any success. Some of his geocaches have a difficulty rating of four, which is pretty hard, so I was not too surprised that we could not find them. It was fun looking! We did, however, have success finding HARVEY THE TROLL a cache by SIMMONS CREW. It was a "location" cache, which means there was not an actual box or container to find, but an interesting location. The location was a very picturesque bridge in Rexford Falls Park (the picture up above to the right is of the bridge at the park). All in all, it was a good geocaching day with three finds and four do not finds.

What I like about days like this is that we do a variety of fun things: shopping, geocaching, hiking, a picnic and sightseeing.

Earlville Opera House 10/1/2009

Earlville Opera House
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

This is an account of a past "adventure" . On October 1, 2009, my friend Carol and I went to a harvest dinner at a small church in the very small town of Columbus, New York. The dinner was great!

After that we headed towards Sherburne, New York. There is a geocache hidden right in the center of town that we had looked for before. After checking out other peoples logs and realizing that people were finding it, I thought I had a better idea of where to look, but I guess I didn't. We probably spent about ten minutes searching and then we gave up.

We headed to Earlville. On the way we stopped to find a geocache at a fishing access area. This time we were successful, but we were not really thrilled about the light misty rain that we were experiencing. We decided to put geocaching aside and head for the Earlville Opera House.

We drove by it a couple of times without realizing it. We finally went into a small gift shop to ask, and the proprieter was able to point us right to it. We were actually parked across the street from the old opera house.

We went inside and were greeted by a woman who worked there. She told us a bit about the place, and suggested we just look around. We browsed two art galleries on the first floor. One of them had an ammo can on display (geocachers will know why I find this interesting). But the highlight was our self guided tour of the restored opera house, on the second floor.

It is an example of turn-of-the-century architecture with ornate stencilling, a pressed tin ceiling and a beautiful proscenium stage. It is still used for various types of performances but presently it is not heated, so not used in the winter. We wandered around and I took several pictures.

After that we debated about doing further geocaching, but the weather was still pretty awful, so we decided to head for home. We stopped at a farmstand between Earlville and Sherburne, and then at a small grocery store in Sherburne.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Maple Syrup House
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

Today, Luckless and I spent a good portion of the day on a geocaching expedition. We like to do other activities on a geocaching day, and today was no exception.

After I picked her up, we headed towards Delhi, New York. Our first stop was at a tiny park on the corner of Main and Franklin Streets, where we found a very tiny geocache. We noticed the Historical Society across the street, but it did not seem to be open today. That was right next door to an interesting looking store, so we went in there. I think it was an organic food shop. After that we headed to the DELHI COLLEGE OUTDOOR EDUCATION CENTER, which is a beautiful park with trails. AMERICORPS has done a lot of work on the maintenance. We found a geocache here and saw this small building, as well as a couple of others. We saw a large, strange looking piece of old equipment in the woods. Who would have thought that hiking in the winter could be so much fun?

After that, we were a bit worn out, so we headed back to Main Street, Delhi and we ate at the Diner there. After lunch, I asked Luckless if she wanted to see what I refer to as "the old fashioned store". My friend Connie told me about it a while back, and I had been there before. Luckless agreed and we walked to it, and this time I talked with the salesgirl. She was happy to talk about the history of the store and she said I could take pictures. The picture at the top right shows one of the glass cabinets where items for sale are displayed, with a small old wooden
display cabinet on top. Going to this store is like stepping back in time to the fifties.

Then we headed to the SPCA hoping to find a geocache hidden off of the trails there. We found the location of the cache and Luckless found the cache, but it was iced in, and we could not get it out. We walked through an old cemetery located in front of the SPCA and behind the Delaware County Museum. One of the pictures I took there is at the top on the left hand side.

Then we headed home. We pulled over at a really old cemetery on Route 28, but there was no place to park, and too much snow on the ground to pull into the driveway. We will stop there another time and explore it. Another day, another adventure!

Does this count as an adventure?

Maybe it does. I asked several friends and none of them were interested in accompanying me to go see the movie AVATAR, at Southside Cinema in Oneonta. I guess they are not as adventuress as I am. I do not like science fiction or fantasy and most of the time action films do not interest me. But, a couple of people who saw this movie told me about the wonderful 3D and visual effects, so I decided I wanted to see it. Waiting for it to be released on DVD or for television was not going to work for this movie because of the 3D stuff.

So, today I bit the bullet and went to the movies all by myself. I thought it would be really strange doing that, but it really wasn't. In fact, I think there are some benefits to going alone. The movie is WONDERFUL! The scenery in the fantasy world is just marvelous, and the 3D effects are so great. I thoroughly enjoyed this very long movie. I usually start to doze off during movies, but I did not have any problems with that today.

I followed through one of the traditions Christa and I started years ago. In order to avoid paying high prices for drinks and popcorn, etc. we would sneak our own food and drink in. I had a huge cranberry orange muffin and a bottle of Cherry Dr. Pepper with me when I went in.

I strongly recommend this movie, even to people who do not like science fiction and/or fantasy!

Fiesta Mexican Grill and Cantina

Fiesta Mexican Grill and Cantina
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

This is a picture of my daughter, Christa. She works at the FIESTA MEXICAN GRILL AND CANTINA in Oneonta, New York. I was surprised to see her there yesterday when my friend Carol and I went there for lunch.

The FIESTA has such a great atmosphere. Nice music and interesting decor!

Stone School House, Margaretville, NY August 20, 2009

Stone School House, Margaretville, NY
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

This is an account of a past adventure. My friend Terry's birthday is August 20th and I suggested to her that we take a day trip to celebrate. She left the planning up to me. I decided to head into the northern Catsills to the town of Margaretville because I knew about a geocache at an interesting place, this old school house in the picture.

We left early in the morning. Our first stop was in Delhi, New York. I wanted to show Terry a very old shop on Main Street. It is referred to as "the old fashioned store". The store has not been updated inside, and the shelving, display cases remind me of when I was a child in the fifties. Unfortunately, the shop was closed today.

On the way to Margaretville, we passed through the small town of Andes. We had not planned on stopping there, but we did. We went into a few shops and looked around. Andes is a very colorful and interesting town. We arrived in Margaretville at lunch time, and found our way to The Cheese Barrel where we had soup and sandwiches for lunch. The Cheese Barrel is a neat shop that sells all sorts of imported food items, but I don't recall seeing any cheese for sale. We checked out a few shops. One is a clothing shop which is in the lobby of an old theatre. We located the old stone school house and I found the geocache.

We headed back towards home in the early afternoon. We stopped in Andes again and had ice cream. Instead of taking our same route home, we decided to go to Hamden. I wanted to show Terry The Lucky Dog, which is a restaurant, bakery and shop. The shop has all original shelving and display cases. It was more of a rural general store than the one in Delhi. We stopped and went inside and spent a few minutes and then headed back to Oneonta. We also stopped to see the Eagles Nest that is visible from the road.

It was a great day!

9/25/2009 The Sugar Maples Resort, Maplecrest, NY

The Sugar Maples Resort, Maplecrest, NY
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

My friend Judy told me that the summer after she graduated from high school, she worked at the Sugar Maples Resort in Maplecrest, New York. I suggested that we take a day trip and check out the Maplecrest. We finally got to do that on September 25, 2009, a gorgeous fall day.

I picked her up in the morning and we headed towards Maplecrest. We stopped to have lunch at Michael's Diner in Windham, New York.

We had no problems getting to Maplecrest (thanks to mapquest). I was surprised at how small the town was, it seemed like most of the town was part of The Sugar Maples(or whatused to be the Sugar Maples).

A couple of buildings have been remodeled and are used by an art society. The rest are abandoned and empty, and for the most part, they are wide open. (an urban explorers dream come true!)

This is a picture of the main building. Judy worked and lived in this building at first, but after a few weeks she was given a room in a small cabin at the rear of the property. Since there were workmen near the roadway that led to the rear area, we did not go back there.

The front door to the main building was open and I poked my head inside and took a picture, but I did not go in. I took several pictures, some of which are posted in my photostream on flickr.com If you click on the picture, I think it will take you to my photostream where you can access the "set" of pictures of the Sugar Maples Hotel in Maplecrest, New York.

On the drive back, we passed a small church and cemetery. I stopped and got out and looked around. The sign said it was THE SMALLEST ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE CATSKILLS. There is a very interesting green grave marker in front that tells about several Irish girls who perished in a fire.

I would like to return to Maplecrest someday and look around more. So many places to go........so little time.

Lunch at Sal's

A couple of months ago, I won a gift certificate for a large pizza at Sal's Pizzeria on Main Street in Oneonta. Today I asked my co-workers if they wanted to go to Sal's to share this pizza with me. Altogether, there turned out to be seven of us. We had pizza, salad and soda, and it only cost each of a couple of dollars because of the gift certificate. Not much of an adventure, but it was fun to have lunch with Mary, Geneen, Kim, Eileen, Robert and Dave.

Grandchildren

Grandchildren
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

This is a picture of my precious grandchildren. They are not only the most beautiful and smartest kids, they are also a lot of fun to be with. Tyler is so smart for his age. You should see him put puzzles together and play dominos. Cassandra is so smart and she is so good to her little brother. She is the best reader!

The "Adventure" of being a Gramma

Being a Gramma is sometimes a mini-adventure. Last night, my nine year old grandaughter, Cassandra, called me and said she had an assignment to interview a relative about an obstacle that he or she overcame. She said her father was busy and her mother said she was not good at that kind of thing. After thinking about it for a minute or two, I told her this story.

When I was 16 or 17, my father was teaching me to drive. One day I was driving and had a minor accident, I think I turned too hard and the result was hitting a guardrail as I came off of a bridge. After that, neither my father or I were in the mood for further driving lessons.

Several years later when I was 21, my husband was trying to teach me to drive and that did not work out. The only available car was standard transmission and I was not doing well learning that as well as the basic fundamentals of driving. I thought I was NEVER going to get a drivers license! But, I knew that I had to.

According to Cassy, I then needed to tell her how I overcame that hurdle. So I told her what I did. I looked in the yellow pages and found a professional (I stressed the word professional to Cassy) driving teacher, and I took lessons. After a couple of months of weekly lessons, I passed the drivers test on my very first try, although to this day, I cannot really parallel park! So, while it took several years (at least four years since my first permit), I DID finally get my drivers license.

Cassandra, who is in fourth grade, told me last night that her teacher keeps telling her that she is reading at a fifth grade level! Sometimes I am surprised at the words she uses during our conversations.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009
Originally uploaded by JuneNY

This picture was taken on Christmas Day, 2009. I can't remember exactly why or how Dad wound up sitting at the kitchen table peeling potatoes, but he did not stay for long. I asked him if he had peeled potatoes when he was in the service, during WW2 and he said "a few times."

January 2, 2010

Today, I stayed home and made split pea soup, started to put Christmas decorations away and

cleaned. I had to spend about a half an hour shovelling snow and moving cars around. Attached are pictures that I took of my two mangers, both were gifts from my sister, and they are my favorite Christmas decorations. The wooden one is from Israel.