BOOKS to BREAD Adventure 6/25/11

Several days ago, I suggested to Terry the possibility of going to the book fair in Cooperstown today. She loves books, so she jumped at the idea. Her friend, Betty, wanted to accompany us and I said that was fine. The three of us met up at PRICE CHOPPER in Oneonta at 10:30 this morning and headed to the CLARK GYMNASIUM in Cooperstown, New York.

I really enjoyed seeing all the old books and other old items for sale but Terry (who likes only contemporary stuff) was disappointed. I met Ed Brodzinsky, a flickr friend who lives in Elk Creek, New York.
He had set up table #1, just inside the door to the fair. I purchased a card with one of his photos on it, under the condition that he let me take his picture. He agreed and I took the picture and here it is.

I asked Terry and Betty if they wanted to have lunch in Cooperstown or if they would rather go up to Springfield to a diner I saw a couple of years ago while exploring with Carol, which is close to an Amish settlement. They chose Springfield. On our way out of Cooperstown, I noticed that the library was having a book sale, so I stopped and while Terry looked at the books, Betty and I went to the three art galleries. This was on display upstairs in the 46th Annual Fine Arts Exhibition of the LEATHERSTOCKING BRUSH & PALETTE CLUB.

We drove up the east side of the lake to get to Springfield and the diner (K.C's Restaurant).
I was glad to see that it was still open. We were pleasantly surprised at how old fashioned and cute it is.
The prices are really good, and all three of us had pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn for the price of seven dollars. The owner of the diner (a man named Bruce) has an extensive collection of old meat grinders which are on display along with many other old items. I took a few pictures. This particular grinder is from Czechoslovakia and dates from the 1800's.


After lunch, it was time to explore the Amish area. Our waitress had given us some good tips for how to find places, plus I had the article from THE DAILY STAR a few months ago, which gave some location information for the Springfield Amish.

Our first stop was at an Amish farm that had tables set up in the front yard where they were selling jams and baked goods.
The pies were only six dollars! Terry purchased a strawberry/rhubarb pie. I purchased some oatmeal/raisin cookies. Then we went to BYLER'S BAKED GOODS.

This was a real treat, as they have a shop in the basement of their home, adjacent to the kitchen area where they do their baking and cooking. I purchased a loaf of bread and some bread and butter pickles.

After that we stopped at a very old cemetery (Middle Village Cemetery) and I took several pictures.
I had a gecocache with me as well as my GPS, but decided to wait and hide a geocache here another time. Then we located the Amish schoolhouse, here is a picture.
The yard is all overgrown as if it is no longer in use. I also stopped to take a picture of a New York historical sign for an old church on the same road as the cemetery. The church must be long gone, as we didn't see any signs of it, and we travelled the length of the road.

We went back to the restaurant so Betty could purchase a piece of coconut cream pie.
And then we headed back down the east side of Otsego Lake. We made one more stop at a yard sale in Milford. The sale was held in front of the building which used to be a gas station in the l940's. The owners offered lots of nice items at reasonable prices. I purchased an old bottle that I liked.

We arrived back at PRICE CHOPPER around 3:30 and it took several minutes to move Betty and Terry's purchases from my car to Terry's car.

We all three agreed that it was a great day! I hope I can go back to that Amish area soon! My full set of pictures for this day can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157627047047114/

New Hartford Adventure

For a couple of years, my friend Carol has mentioned going to RED LOBSTER every now and then. I finally said "lets go to a Red Lobster in June to celebrate our birthdays." A few dates were set and then changed, and today was finally the day to go. We met up in New Berlin and headed towards the nearest RED LOBSTER, in New Hartford, New York.

Before going to Red Lobster, we found two geocaches. One was located where a drive in theatre used to be, but there are not any ruins left. The second one was just outside of a cemetery. Then we went to Red Lobster.
We both decided on a lobster, shrimp and scallop dish. It was absolutely delicious and terribly expensive!

Then we went to SANGERFIELD SQUARE, a huge mall. It had been several years since I
was there. At TARGET, I located the LEGO'S. The display was overwhelming, so I called Megan and asked her for some help in deciding what to purchase for Tyler's
sixth birthday which is fast approaching. I also purchased a couple of items for a baby shower I will attend next month.

After that, we found one more geocache an ALWAYS cache, in a parking lot, pretty easy. Carol said she wished that we had more geocaching information with us, but we didn't.

We headed for home with a stop at Stewart's in New Berlin for ice cream. After much deliberation and price comparisons, we decided to purchase a half gallon of Heavenly Hash. We grabbed spoons and paper bowls and spooned it right out of the container!
You get a lot more ice cream for you money when you do it this way!

On the way back home from New Berlin, I stopped to take a picture of the tractor on the small island in the middle of a pond. It was a great day, even though I didn't take many pictures.

EXTREME hiking adventure

Leslie and I met up and went to Wilber Park in Milford to work on the Ducky's 5D multi cache. we found part two, which had two sets of coordinates. We gave up on looking for part three after a half an hour or so, and went to have lunch at Pop's Place.

On the way back to Oneonta, we stopped at BEAR POND WINERY and I found 10 Years. Ran into m_king and her friend there.

We had decided to look for SEE SPOT'S RUNS on New Island, even though it meant a long hike on a very hot day. ">
It was 88 degrees when we finally arrived back at my car. It was exhausting but exhilarating. Fruit smoothies at McDonalds hit the spot!

GREAT RACE and GEOCACHING Adventure

Luckless and I met up at her house this morning to go geocaching, kind of a little
late birthday celebration for her birthday. Leslie if you see this: I am sorry I
forgot about our plans on your actual birthday!! I had tucked the newspaper ad for the old cars driving through Cooperstown today in my bag, thinking maybe she might be interested in seeing them, and I was happy when she brought up the idea! I didn't know that she likes old cars, too, but she does!

Anyways, we started out in Wilber Park in Milford. The Duckies have a 5 part multi cache hidden there. There was a man doing some serious cleaning out and knocking down of bushes and trees quite close to the spot where we figured part one was, so we moved on without looking.

Then we headed towards Cooperstown to look for one of Mr. Sciences geocaches. This one was easily found. We started to look for another one of his geocaches which was pretty closeby, but we could not find a way to get to it, so we headed up to Cooperstown. SILLY ME, I thought we might be able to park on Main Street, but it was closed off. Leslie offered to drop me off on the corner of Main and Chestnut while she found a parking spot down the road. We met up shortly and pretty soon the cars started driving in. Here are a few pictures:


We met up with Bear, a geocaching friend and asked him to join us for lunch. The Cooperstown Diner was full, so we went to T.J.'s just down the street. We were able to get a table with a view of the street. I had a burger and fries and Leslie and
Joe had hot dogs. It was a cheap, good meal. The fries were better than I remember them being.

After that, we found another of Mr. Science's geocaches near STEWART'S. And then we returned to his other WELCOME cache. This time we used the coords for the parking area, although I am not sure we actually parked in it. Leslie located the trail rather quickly. There is no easy access to it. I found an easier route, which meant I had to walk on private property........maybe Mr. Science lives there!
Anyways, Leslie found that one pretty quickly. Here are a few pictures from that area.


We decided to stop so I could look for SUSQUEHANNA RIVER BRIDGE cache, but I could not find it, even though Leslie had previously found it and knew the location. Later on we found out that the container had been changed, so possibly the coords and location were changed a bit, too...........?

Back to the park in Milford, we found part one of the five part multi. It was wedged
under a narrow piece of bark that seems to have been CEMENTED IN. First, I tried to pry it up with a knife, but then we realized that with tweezers (which I just happened to have in my hip pack), we could pull the tiny, skinny rolled up log out. The log gave us the coords for the second part.

Time was running out so we didn't stick around to look for part two, but we will do that another time. It turned out to be a great day!!!

DAIRY FEST Adventure

These signs have been all over the place the past couple of weeks.
Linda, Terry and I went to the MEREDITH DAIRY FEST. Linda had been before (she lives in East Meredith), but it was a first for Terry and I. The weather was nice when we arrived, but shortly it began to rain. We walked through two tents that offered items for sale, booths representing various agencies and samples of various foods. Then Linda and I decided to split a BLOOMING ONION,
which was very good! We found a spot under a tent to eat and listen to a band play.

I saw Patricia Page and Ilene Arlet and talked with them a while and got updated phone numbers and email addresses.

One of the booths was giving these bags away:


The band was pretty good,
but after a while we went back to the tents to look around some more.

Terry and I had FUNNEL CAKE (another first for me) and it was very good! Linda had asausage and pappers sandwich, which looked outstanding.

On the way home, I stopped in East Meredith to take a picture of a very old building which once served as a store and post office.
I had seen information and a picture of the building at the fest.

It was a great day in spite of the rain!

BREAKDOWN ADVENTURE

What started out as a fun day ended up being a bit of a trial. Terry and I wanted to go over to New Berlin for a fish fry supper. We invited Betty along. We met at LUMPY'S BBQ just down the road from me and headed out. We stopped in Unadilla to fill up on gas and Terry and Betty went into the convenience store to see if they could get something small to eat. Then we headed on our way.

I stopped at the steel angel location just outside of Bainbridge to check on the coordinates for the geocache I hid yesterday. Somehow, I wrote the coords down wrong, so I redid them today. While I was waiting for my GPS to get satellites, Terry and Betty found the geocache.

Our destination was Bainbridge, so that we would go to the FROGPOND and PINE RIDGE GROCERIES (commonly known as the Mennonite Store). We noticed that the historical museum was open and we stopped for a few minutes there, too. Then we headed over towards New Berlin.

We stopped in South New Berlin because Betty had never been to TOBY'S. Toby was there today and he let us in the side room, but would not let us into the main room of his shop, because of the roof and floor damage. (last time I was there, the room was leaking badly). We looked around a bit and I took a couple of pictures and I purchased two small ceramic birds.

After that, we decided to stop at the library because they have a small museum. The library was open and the librarian opened the museum for us. It is a very nice museum with an extensive collection of artifacts.

When it came time to leave and I started the car, I felt a very slight shuddering, and then the battery light came on, the car started, went into gear but it would not move. OH OH. I knew this was trouble.

We went back into the library and I called AAA and they sent a guy from CARS over to give me roadside assistance. He started the car and had the same problem I had, and he said it would have to be towed. However, he did not come in a tow truck. He took the key, gave me his name and phone number and took the information about where to tow it (Mike's). He said he would go get the tow truck, have a quick supper with his wife and come back and get it. Here is a picture of my car broken down in front of the library.

Terry's daughter Rhonda came and picked us up and brought the three of us back to West Laurens.

Route 7 Geocaching Adventure!!!

Leslie and I met up at her house this morning to set out towards Bainbridge for some geocaching.

Our first stop was at PIE IN THE SKY, where she found HEAVEN ON ROUTE 7. Then down the road a bit to find WHY DID THE DUCKY CROSS THE ROAD? This one is hidden at the local landmark in this picture:
It was quick, easy and fun!

Then on to Wells Bridge to look for a couple of geocaches hidden by NitroZack and his Dad. We found the location of one, and Leslie went after it. I started down the hill but decided that for my own health and well being, I should return to the car, which I did. I sat in the a/c and read a book and waited for Leslie to return. When she did, she was scratched up and bug bitten, but happy because she found the geocache. She said she forgot to take the "coin" she wanted to hide in it, and I suggested she go back and she didn't want to do that. We couldn't really find the location of the second geocache.

We stopped at a hot dog stand on the way to Unadilla.




In Unadilla, we found HOMETOWN ANGEL. I know I looked in that spot before unsuccessfully..........anyways, I found it today.

Then on to Bainbridge. The best thing about today was that Leslie baked cupcakes and brought them along. She said they were "birthday cupcakes". My birthday was a few days ago, and hers is coming up in a few days. I should have taken a picture of them. We ate them in a small shelter in General Clinton Park and then we looked for a couple of geocaches hidden there. We found one but could not find the other one. I have a feeling there is a trick involved!
one of the geocaches is hidden near this interesting tree.

After that I found WETLANDS, Leslie's geocache and she checked on it. It is in fine
condition.

On the way back down Route 7, we stopped to hide a geocache in the steel angel just the other side of Bainbridge.
Unfortunately, I wrote the coordinates down wrong, so I need to go back and get them again.

Richmondville Days: Richmondville, New York

I heard that the annual Richmondville Days was offering free tours of an old mill, so I arranged to go. Terry and Betty accompanied me. We arrived at a bad time, while the parade was still going on, so we got stuck in traffic and sat and waited for about twenty minutes. Then we had a bit of a hard time finding a place to park, and then we could not find the information booth. We asked several people for information and nobody seemed to know anything! But the festivities seemed to revolve around this area:

We finally just hopped on a free trolley
and it took us up to the BUNN MILL,
which is also the Richmondville Historical Society. We spent about a half an hour walking around inside the mill and looking at the displays. Some items are remnants from the mill, but there are several other items on display. I purchased A HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY (hard cover for only two dollars). When we finished up, the trolley was returning. We hopped on and took a ride around town. We went to a rummage sale at one of the churches on Main Street. Unfortunately, the pies were all sold out at another church right across the street. Betty was really disappointed when we found that out! But at this church:
we hit the jackpot. When we arrived at their rummage sale, we were told to fill up a bag for $2.00. Terry, Betty and I filled up one bag between us. I got a beautiful hand crocheted afghan that goes SO well with my living room furniture, and some antique glassware!

There was not much in the line of food available so we decided to take Route 7 into Worcester and see if Ardy's was open. On the way we stopped at a yard sale. I bought a tin and a hobnail glass dish. We had a nice lunch including desert (the peach raspberry crumble with ice cream was delicious). Then we went to a large yard sale just down the road. We stopped for a few minutes at THE STOREHOUSE, a used clothing shop which recently moved from East Worcester. I noticed that a new hardware store opened up across from the WHITE HOUSE INN and stepped inside for a look. It appears that they are using some of the old cabinets from the old store which closed down several years ago. I noticed a quilt display in the front windows of the Worcester Historical Society.

On the way back to Oneonta, Betty noticed an old cemetery. I turned around and she and I explored it. I particularly liked how the tree is growing around this gate leading to a family plot.
(and I hid a geocache there) while Terry picked some wild flowers.
After that it was time to go home. Betty tried to get me to stop at more yard sales, but I told her I was worn out and needed to get home. It was a great day!

Postscript: I used the OTSEGO COUNTY CEMETERIES MAP and found that the name of the old cemetery is SPENCER CEMETERY.

It was a great day!

Jefferson, New York ADVENTURE

A while back, someone who saw my Stamford pictures on flickr.com told me that if I liked Stamford, I would really like Jefferson. Today was the day I found out if that was true.

It actually was Yvette's idea for her, Terry and myself to get together. We had a few dates set that were cancelled for one reason or other, but it looked like today was going to be the day. However, Yvette's daughter got sick and wanted her to accompany her to the doctor so she cancelled. Meanwhile, I had asked my friend Linda if she was interested in going with us. So, it ended up being Linda, Terry and
myself. We met at Walmart and headed out in my minivan.

We found Jefferson pretty easily and went to THE HEARTBREAK HOTEL for lunch.
This was the main reason for going to Jefferson and we were not disappointed. This very old hotel was closed for a few years but recently purchased and restored. Terry and I had burgers and Linda had a salad. I took a picture of the beautiful tin ceiling.

After lunch we backtracked to PANKIN'POON to meet up with Sue (I had found her phone number on the internet and she offered to show us the old schoolhouse. She was ready and waiting for us and took us across the road from her house and shop and let us in. The FULLER DISTRICT #1 SCHOOLHOUSE is a one room Jefferson schoolhouse which was moved to this location and restored.
It is fully restored and furnished down to the last detail! We thoroughly enjoyed seeing it and learning about it. On the same property, Sue showed us some remains of a very old mill. Not much is left, but they can be seen through a fence.

Sue then showed us the manmade pond and waterfalls on the rear of her property. It is absolutely beautiful. Then we went into Sue's little shop PANKIN' POON. It is delightful and her prices are great. Terry bought some Louis L'Amour books for her friend in the nursing home, I bought a small clear glass pedestal dish and some tiny figurines of some past presidents. Linda bought a ring for her niece.

After that we headed back into Jefferson (less than a mile) to explore. I stopped to snap a picture of a very old interesting looking building. A man was leaving the property and he told me the history of the place. A long time ago, their was a blacksmith shop in the rear of the building.

We decided to go to T and T's Country Kitchen and have desert. It is the neatest diner/gift shop combination. We all had strawberry rhubarb pie...only two dollars per slice! It was delicious.

We saw the Maple Museum, a historical building that is not really set up as a museum yet
and some old millstones in front of it.
Then we headed out of town the opposite way and located theParker 13 sided barn.
We saw a few other interesting buildings.

At last, we headed home with vows to return again someday. Jefferson is the neatest small town!

HORSES and more adventure with Carol

Carol had asked me to accompany her on a drive to a farm near Cortland where she wanted to look at a horse that she might purchase. We met up late morning in South New Berlin and headed out. We stopped at Price Chopper for some sale items and at a smoke shop so Carol could get some supplies for her husband.

Our first stop was in Greene, New York
mainly to find a spot to eat the picnic lunch I supplied. We drove down Main Street a bit and saw a few places we would like to return to. Greene has a real old fashioned downtown, lots of places to eat and shop.

We got our directions mixed up a bit on the way and stopped near Marathon at a large convenience store. When I came out of the store after getting the directions, I noticed several Amish folk with buggies parked at the rear of the parking area.
I took a few pictures and Carol struck up a conversation with a young Amish man.

After getting a bit lost, we found the horse farm and met up with Teresa and her horse, Mystique. Mystique is a white Arabian. Teresa rode for first and Carol asked a lot of questions and then Carol rode for a bit.
I think Carol is VERY interested in purchasing Mystique and I hope it works out!

We stopped in the tiny hamlet of Virgil when I noticed an old fire station which has been given a second life as a museum:

While driving through Marathon, Carol noticed a very old building so we stopped. It appears to have been a hotel in a former life:

The route we took went right through Smithville Flats. Carol had said there is nothing there, but she was wrong! There is an old store, an old hotel and several other old interesting buildings. Even a schoolhouse, which we did not really see. It is a private residence now, and set way back in a lot full of trees. I think the highlight was going into the old Inn which is now an antique shop.

Back in Greene, we went in the Old 5 and 10
and I went to RiteAide and purchased a new memory card for my camera. The one I was using was not allowing me to add new pictures even though I kept deleting old ones.

We went through Oxford on the way to Norwich and stopped for a piece of pizza. We arrived back in South New Berlin about 5:30 and I got home at six p.m. It was a great day.