Fish Fry and Roller Derby!!!

Terry and I went over to Columbus, New York for a fish fry dinner at the Columbus Community Church. It was really good! Then we went to Interskate 88 for this event: Geneen from work and Melissa from church are both involved in this, and always talking about how much fun it is, so I figured I needed to find out for myself.

The parking lot was almost full when I arrived at 6:30 p.m. Terry had already found seats and I met up with her inside. I never really figured out what it was all about, but I enjoyed seeing Melissa (Moira Pain) and Geneen (Punky Bruiser) out on the floor. Terry and I left about 2/3rds ofthe way through.

Walk...........

Connie called while I was at work and said she wanted to take a walk. We agreed to meet outside the lodge at the WOODHAVEN GOLF COURSE in Oneonta. She brought her new dog, Petey.

After our walk, we met Phil, one of the new owners. He told us that they will open up in the summer, hopefully around August 1st. They are changing the name to Crescent somthing or other, maybe Crescent View....or maybe Crestview something......... They are going to expand the restaurant and call it ONEONTA PRIME.

Phil gave us permission to walk around the area any time, but asked us to park outside the gates.

Weekend Away: March 23-26, 2012

I decided to go to Lockport for the weekend so I could help my sister clean out our Dads apartment. I left Friday morning, taking my time on a scenic route. A flickr friend had told me about an Amish area in the Lebanon and Georgetown areas, so I decided to start out my trip by following her directions to get there from Earlville.I liked this old train depot in Lebanon. It is now being used as a community center. I saw several farms which appeared Amish and a few buggies, but the Amish seem to be spread all over this area, and none of them offered products in their home (at least none that I drove by). The Village of Georgetown was kind of interesting. I stopped at this store, and also stopped to take a picture of SPIRIT HOUSE, which apparently was one of the hot spots when spiritualism was popular in the early twentieth century. I saw a neat, tiny cemetery somewhere the other side of Georgetown. I kinda geocached my way across the state, stopping in the following villages: New Woodstock, Fabias, and Tully. New Woodstock was the most interesting village, but Fabias has a great small general store, where I purchased a piece of carrot cake.

In Skaneateles, I found two geocaches, one virtual and one a real cache.

I arrived in Lockport around 4:30 p.m. and our mothers cousins daughter Becky joined us at 17 for pizza and birthday cake. Her daughter, Susan, would have turned forty that day, but she passed away a year ago after a valiant battle against ovarian cancer.

The next day, Peggy had a short conference, and I spent the morning weeding through various places in Dads apartment. I boxed some stuff up and got rid of a lot of paperwork. Peg came home for lunch and then we worked most of the afternoon on more sorting. We went out to supper at Rizzo's in East Amherst, NY.

Sunday we went to church, then went to 17 and had lunch, and then we spent the afternoon geocaching and exploring. We found the neatest place to explore on Gooding Street.........an abandoned road, and two old abandoned bridges. All of the geocaches we found were in Cold Springs Cemetery. I particularly liked this old, no longer used water tower. There is a WATER TOWER NIGHTMARE geocache hidden nearby. We went back to 17 to rest up for a bit, and then went out for Chinese Buffet for supper.

The following morning I headed for home. I went through Gasport and found a geocache. I stopped for a neat virtual geocache near Millville which has been featured on RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT and then on to Elba, where I stopped and had a piece of pie at the ELBA DINER. In Jordan, New York I found a geocache in the public library:

After that, I turned on my navigation system and headed towards Morrisville, where I got on Route 20, but then I turned and headed towards Georgetown. Before getting to Georgetown, I went to Eaton and West Eaton. In West Eaton I stopped to take pictures of two abandoned restaurants, here is a picture of one of them: In its former life it was THE CORNERSTONE CAFE.

In a populated place called UPPERVILLE, I saw this Quaker Meeting House: The SOCIETY OF FRIENDS CHURCH was built in l898. I think that was the last picture I took. I drove through Smyrna and noticed that the grocery store on Main St. is still open. I arrived home around 4:30 p.m., thoroughly exhausted!

LEGISLATIVE DAY: 2012 March 20, 2012

My sister suggested that I go to the annual LEGISLATIVE DAY put on by the organization NEW YORKERS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS. After thinking about it for a couple of weeks, I decided to go. She arrived the evening of Monday March 19th. We got up at 4:45 the following morning and left my house at 5:30 a.m. Before leaving, I turned on my crockpot which had corned beef and cabbage and assorted vegetables in it.

When we arrived we registered and were given these tags: Then we chose seats and then helped ourselves to the continental breakfast. It was fruit, assorted breads, cereal, juice and coffee. The scones were particularly good!


One of the special speakers was Alex Kendrick, writer, producer and lead actor in the recently released film COURAGEOUS. He was very good! The other guest speaker, Congressman J.C. Watts, Jr. from Oklahoma was not able to make it due to fog preventing his flight from taking off in Connecticut. Some of the other speakers were:

Peggy had set up an appointment with her Assemblywoman Jane Corwin and I went with her for this short meeting. Ms Corwin was very gracious and she remembered Peggy from last years meeting.

Sounds of Praise offered some musical entertainment. They were very good!

Participants were on their own for lunch. Just prior to lunch they announced that DURING lunch there would be a Q and A session. Since we wanted to be there for that, Peggy and I decided to pick up a quick lunch at McDonalds instead of choosing something else that would probably take longer. The question and answer session was pretty good.

There was a "straw poll" conducted of the four Republican presidential hopefuls. Santorum won by a landslide. The results were announced just prior to the closing prayer.

After the event was over (2:00 p.m.) Peggy asked me if I wanted to walk over and see the Capital Building. It had been several years since I was there, so I said yes. I think the last time I was there was in l983. I know it was before Christa was born in l985.

We viewed the Assembly Chamber and the Senate Chamber (both are magnificent), saw the historic restored staircase and went to the Hall of Governors. There is a lot more in the capital building that we could have gone to see, but we were both pretty tired. We stopped at McDonalds for a cold drink and then headed back to Oneonta. We made one stop, at Daddy Al's so I could pick up some pancake mix.

The corned beef and cabbage dinner was delicious. I made a gravy out of the abundant liquid. Peggy and I worked a bit on our fall trip plans. I think I was asleep by 9:30 p.m. It was a looooooooooong but good day.

Corned Beef and More Adventure

Today didn't exactly turn out the way it was supposed to, but it turned out to be a lot of fun anyways.

Carol and I planned to meet at the Waltzing Horse Farm so I could take videos of her riding her new horse, Mystique, and then to go to South New Berlin for a corned beef and cabbage dinner at the fire department there. When I arrived at"the farm" at the appointed time, I noticed that a huge truck loaded with hay was unloading in the riding arena. When I found Carol, she said that she had to call off the riding and picture taking because it was going to take a while for the hay to be unloaded.

She said to me "well, what do you want to do before the dinner?". I thought for a minute and asked her if she knew how to get to West Edmeston where there is a small Amish area, which I have wanted to explore. She told me that earlier that day she saw a bunch of Amish buggies all traveling together. I told her that they were probably heading to their Sunday morning church service. She said she thought she might know where they were headed, so I drove and she navigated and we headed down Route 80 towards Burlington. The first thing I saw that I liked was a tiny cemetery. It appeared to be on private land, but not fenced off. Its not far from the road, but a swampy ditch separated me from the cemetery, so I settled for taking a couple of pictures.

Next, we found the Amish farmhouse where the service is held........we knew because of the many buggies parked outside of one of the barns. I took a couple of picturesbut the sun was so bright that it was hard to see the monitor on my camera.

Carol wanted to show me an Amish business which builds small storage sheds. We found it, but there is not a sign for it, and she said that most likely they are waiting until spring to start building again. In Edmeston, I stopped to take a couple of pictures of a second hand shop that Carol is familiar with THE CATS MEOW. It looks like it is housed in an old train depot. There is a sign saying something about there being a pet rescue center at the same location.

Then we headed to South New Berlin and located the fire department. This was the absolute best corned beef and cabbage dinner I have ever had. Corned beef, potatoes, whole cooked onions, carrots, gravy and rolls with butter.

CornedBeef 011, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Sherbet with vanilla wafers for desert. Drinks included (free will offering).

After we were finished eating, we decided to look around since the area we parked in seemed to offer some interesting things. Just outside the side entrance to the dinner we saw this area: The sign says Village Treasure Chest. I think that is the name of a shop in that residence. From the front you can see all sorts of knicknacks on the window sills.

Walking back towards where I parked my Subaru, I noticed several old buildings. In fact, it kind of looked like if I kept walking I would be walking into a ghost town. Here is a picture of one of the buildings. There is a huge old building that looks like it used to be a mill. I did not have time to go around the mill to see if there are any more old buildings beyond it. Someday......... Also, there was a very interesting garage sale.
Carol found a chair that she likes and she may return and buy it.

We drove back to THE WALTZING HORSE and I dropped Carol off and headed home. On the way, I stopped to check on my WILLIAM YATES geocache just outside of Morris. It is fine. Both Carol and I had a very nice time!

All over the place on St. Patricks Day

It was a gorgeous spring day here (even though technically, it is still winter). I decided to spend some time with my friend Judy. On the way to her house, I stopped to take a picture of this building in Schenevus.
It used to be a store in the l800s. When I arrived, I asked Judy what she wanted to do and she said that she wanted to go to Cooperstown and eat at the Cooperstown Diner. So we headed out.

Lunch was good. I had liver and onions and she had tuna casserole. We then went to Price Chopper and she picked up a few items. It was too gorgeous to go home, so we decided to go to Richmondville, New York ONCE AGAIN to look for the place that a friend told Judy about........the story is that this place just reopened and has GREAT HOMEMADE PIE.

So we headed in that direction, stopping first to drop off Judy's groceries.

We went to Richmondville, and looked around and asked around and did not find a place that offers homemade pie. I took a picture of this business which is in a building which used to be a school.

After I dropped Judy off, I still felt energetic so I drove towards South Valley hoping to find a former schoolhouse that was built in l822. a flickr friend told me about. I found it on Braun Road, and here is a picture.

former Braun Road Schoolhouse, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

It is very well maintained as a private residence. Then I headed back towards Interstate 88. I stopped at the BADEAU CEMETERY where a geoacche is hidden. I didn't have the coords or info with me, but I decided to look around for an easy way to get up to the cemetery which is on top of a hill. I found it! I looked around the cemetery a bit and took a couple of pictures.

Another Cooperstown Afternoon

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Terry and I decided to go to THE HAWKEYE BAR AND GRILL for lunch today. I had called yesterday and was told that they would be serving pot roast and talapia. However when we got there, they had changed the talapia to cod. The lemon sauce for the cod was so tasty.

We had a great table in the bar area near the fireplace. The buffet was not as extensive as it was the last time we went, but the desert table looked a lot better. We enjoyed our meal. The cream puffs were especially delicious this time. The red velvet cake was a bit on the dry side.

After that, we went to the local funeral home because Terry was getting concerned that they may have forgotten to call her about the date of her friend Bill's burial. The director of the home answered the door and assured us that we did not miss it, and that it may take place early next month. He said that the clothing Bill requested was purchased for him. He gave Terry his card and suggested that she pick a couple of possible dates and call him and he will try to set it up with the local episcopal minister. I told Terry that I will go with her, and that we need to tell the funeral director that we are NOT going to drive or walk up there, that they will need to provide transportation for us. The last time Terry was at LAKEWOOD CEMETERY, she was with Bill, and when he started to walk down to his parents grave, he fell and broke his leg, and after that he spent the rest of his life in a nursing home until his death a couple of months ago.

We decided to take a ride over to the cemetery where Bill will be buried (Lakewood Cemetery). This cemetery is a series of terraces going uphill and according to Terry after the last uphill terrace, the cemetery goes downhill. I did NOT drive up there, as the road is so narrow and I had no way of knowing if it would continue on to an exit or if I would have to back out. As it was, when I reached the exit gate below the first level where I entered, I found it locked and had to turn around in a very small space. I took a few pictures.



I showed Terry FAIRY SPRINGS PARK, which is not yet open for the season. She said it is "quaint" and I have to agree. We noticed a new art gallery right next door to the VINTAGE CHOCOLATES shop (where Sherry's Famous Restaurant used to be.) Since FAIRY SPRINGS PARK charges $5.00 per person to enter, we decided to check out BADGER PARK to see if picnic tables are available. They are and we plan to someday purchase sandwiches at Spereck's and have a picnic there.

Richmondville, Summit and Jefferson Adventure

Leslie and I set out this morning for the Richmondville area to find some more geocaches. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera along.

We got off the Worcester exit and went to look for WHERE OUR JOURNEY BEGINS.
This one is a 1,1 and should have been a quick and easy find, but maybe the little bit of snow we had hindered us. Anyways, we gave up after about fifteen minutes and continued on towards Richmondville where we went to the BUNN MILL hoping to finish up the multi-cache (Jimmy Crack Corn) we started a few weeks ago. Here is a picture of the Bunn Mill that I took on another excursion. No picnic tables today!! This geocache totally eluded us, and we started to get discouraged. We then went to look for DOGGONE, and finding this one took us on some remote, windy, hilly back roads. Luckless DID find this one, though, after I had given up and was sitting in my car waiting for her. After that, we got fairly close to HIGH VIEW CACHE, but I was not in the mood for hiking uphill on a seasonal road, so we skipped that one. Somewhere on these back roads, we found a really strange place. There were signs that said something like LIVESTOCK SAFETY ZONE, and high cloth covered fences along the road on both sides. At one point we could see some deer way back inside this area. Strange....................... Then we went to look for OLD CAPE HORN. The first spot we landed at was a dead end parking area just below Route 10. No luck here, but we soon found the road and parked and walked to our destination where the cache was found quickly and easily. There is an interesting small outbuilding that is leaning that I would have liked to take a picture of.

While waiting for Leslie to clean up the cache container, I looked at the map to try to figure out where we were, and I saw that we were not all that far from the Village of Jefferson. I suggested to Leslie that we head to Jefferson instead of trying to find our way back to Richmondville, I-88 or Route 7. and she agreed.

Unfortunately, T and T's Country Kitchen in Jefferson was closed down, so we had lunch at the HEARTBREAK HOTEL. Here is a picture from the other time I went: I had a burger and sweet potato fries and Leslie had a wrap and we split a piece of strawberry shortcake cake (which was very good).

I showed Leslie around Jefferson a little, since I had been there before (June 3, 2011) and then we turned on my GPS and headed back to Oneonta, arriving around 3:15 p.m. It was a great day!

Post Script: Leslie did a google map (I think) and found out that the strangely fenced in area we saw on Gott Road is Caskey Mountain Deer Farm.

Old stores, tack and geocaching, all in one day

Carol and I had planned to go to the Waltzing Horse Farm so that she could ride Mystique and I could take pictures, but when I called her this morning and we discussed the cold temperatures, we decided that it was TOO COLD to do that today. She said she still wanted to go out, and asked what I could come up with. I did some fast thinking and remembered the old general store in North Brookfield that I found on my way home from Lockport a while back. Then she suggested that we also go to to the tack shop in Brookfield. I quickly located my Madison County map and found information for a geocache in Hubbardsville and we met up in New Berlin and headed towards Brookfield. We found the tack shop (Taylor's Tack and Field) and Carol brought some leathers, and then we headed towards Hubbardsville. It took us a while since we made a wrong turn, but we finally found it. We located the HUBBARDSVILLE MALL, which is really a convenience store that serves some food items. It also has a post office! There was a picture of the store that originally stood on the same spot before it burned down. Here it is: The postmistress told us that the Hubbardsville Post Office is not on the list for closing, and that they are crossing their fingers that it will be able to stay open. The other name for the HUBBARDSVILL MALL is COUNTRY PEDDLAR and they offer subs, wings, pizza, burgers and deli sandwiches as well as fried seafood. We decided to wait and have lunch in North Brookfield. On the way out of Hubbardsville, I stopped to take a picture of a historical sign for a schoolhouse, and the fire station, and also to find HUBBARDSVILLE BELL, a geocache hidden right outside of the fire station.

We drove to North Brookfield and found Kling's Mills. The store is way down at the right hand side of the old mill building. We decided to have lunch there. Carol had a hot turkey sandwich and tomato soup and I had the special of the day Sloppy joe and french fries. We each had a piece of pie.....I had banana cream and Carol had Coconut Cream. The food was good but the pie was OUTSTANDING! We decided that we need to return JUST to get more pie.

March5_2012 031, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

We headed south on 12 to Sherburne and then on to New Berlin, where I dropped Carol off at her car and headed home.