Saturday April 27th in Lockport, NY

This morning Peggy and I worked more on the apartment.  For lunch I wanted to go to REIDS but she didn't, so we stopped at SUBWAY so she could get a sub and then went to REID'S.  Then we went to the Amish bulk food store, and explored the Amish area a bit.  We saw a lot of Amish buggies and Amish people at their school, it looked like some sort of sports event...........?  We also went to Miller's General Store.

Then we decided to go to Golden Beach State Park and check out the lighthouse where Mike and Janie are planning to get married in a few weeks.  We were able to take a guided tour of the lighthouse.  Peg remembered finding a geocache at some neat ruins nearby, and we found the location of that.  I found the cache and we checked out the ruins.

We had a bit of "down time" before we needed to be at Mike's house for pizza.  They had pizza, chicken fingers and desert.....everything was good.  Then we all went to Cold Springs Cemetery where we walked around a lot and Mike showed Peg and I the graves of many of our Bowler ancestors.

It was a great day!!!

Friday April 26, 2013 (in Lockport)

This morning, Peggy and I worked on the downstairs apartment.  There is still a lot of stuff to find homes for.  I put a lot of items in my car to take back to Oneonta.  Then I went to the library to use the internet and check out the annual book sale.  I purchased four books.  Peggy had a couple of errands to do and then we met up at McDonalds for lunch.  We had the new wraps and fruit smoothies.

We spent the bulk of the afternoon geocaching and looking for the castles in Lyndonville...........no luck finding the castles but we found five out of the six geocaches we looked for.

That evening we went to the SONRAY'S banquet at Samuel's Grande Manor.  Peggy's friend, Pam, was
honored.  The meal was great.  They auctioned off several items.

Day One: trip to Lockport (April 25th, 2013)

I headed east towards Lockport around 9:45 a.m., following the directions given to me by my navigation system.  It seemed like a strange route to start out on, but I knew I was headed in the right direction so I just went with the flow.  :)   I drove through Georgetown and saw the SPIRIT HOUSE, and kept going since I took pictures of it not too long ago.

I had no idea where I was, when I saw a sign for an Amish buggy, so I decided to turn and drive down that road a couple of miles, hoping that I might find an Amish stand selling home baked goods.  I didn't, but noticed a neat old building that looked like an old time store. I turned around and drove back to see the old building that I thought might have been a store.  I stopped to take a picture and a guy came out and offered to let me go inside and look around. Turns out it is a l830s building that was originally a general store and post office, had many reincarnations over the years and now this guy (I think he said his name is Glenn Marks) has a business called Shed's Bottles & Cans Redemption Center.  He said I could take pictures, so I took a few, but the most interesting and picturesque thing in the old store is the facade of the original post office (at least I think its the original).

I took a few pictures and he showed me some old pictures and he told me a bit about some of the
nearby buildings, like this tiny building right across the road that used to be the fire station! 
This building which now is a dog grooming business used to be a school. 
It turns out that I was in the village or hamlet of Sheds, New York, but I don't think there was a sign announcing this.

I  continued on, realizing that I was two hours from home, and had not yet driven fifty miles, so I decided it was time to do more driving and less sightseeing and picture taking.  But I stopped at this old cemetery. 

Once I got to North Tonawanda, I saw the WURLITZER BUILDING and the WURLITZER museum, but didn't stop.  I had supper at a place called Granny's Cafe..... .....turns out they offered Greek and Mediterranean food instead of old time food that gramma probably prepared!   I had an open faced sandwich and greek salad, both were good.

I attended a meeting at Heritage Christian Services in North Tonawanda and then drove to Lockport, arriving at 17 around quarter to nine.   Peggy had just arrived home herself after an extremely busy day, so we talked a bit and then I went to bed.

Bella Michaels

Connie called me this morning and asked if I wanted to go to lunch.  I said yes and she chose BELLA MICHAELS.  We met up at 1:40.  She got an eggplant dish and I had a steak with mustard sauce on sauteed vegetables.  But the best part was desert......we split a piece of chocolate cake with fudge frosting and a piece of lemon cream cake.  They were both scrumptious!  Connie treated me because I helped her with taking her mother out of the nursing home one afternoon last week.

Harpursville Adventure!

I had tentative plans to go to Bloomville geocachiang with Luckless today, but the plans fell through, and I had that "all dressed up and noplace to go" feeling.  So, I called Carol and asked if she might like to go on a daytrip with me.  She said "make a plan and I will be there".

I went through my list of ideas and decided to go to Harpursville, New York to see the old store.  Then I found information about a historical museum in Harpursville, and I contacted someone who agreed to meet Carol and I there and open the museum (first time in 2013) and also to take us to the restored one room schoolhouse down the road.

Carol arrived at 9:35 and we went to Oneonta to get gas and so she could go to NBT bank, and then we headed out to Harpursville via I-88.  Harpursville was easy to find and we pulled up to the church just as
our tourguide was getting out of her car.   Fran opened up the church and showed us the displays in the museum and told us about the church.  Then we followed her down to the one room school house. We spent about a half hour there.  After that, we found a geocache hidden near an l890's bridge that is no longer used.

Then we went to the BREAD AND BUTTER STORE, which started out as HEGEDORN's many years and has been a store continuously.  Carol bought some liverwurst and I bought some bananas.  We also went to the feed store where Carol asked about a  certain kind of feed she needs for her horses.  In that area, I took a few more pictures.

By then it was close to one p.m. so we headed to GRAMMA'S COUNTRY CAFE

where we had a very nice lunch.

On the way back to Oneonta, we stopped at the FrogPond and at PINE RIDGE GROCERIES.

After the FrogPond, Carol wanted to go to Sidney to buy a new cigarette machine for her husband.  Just before the turn to take us to Sidney, I noticed the fishing access area so I pulled in and Carol found the geocache that I looked for last fall when it was missing.  Then we went to SMOKERS CHOICE and then to PRICE CHOPPER and picked up a few groceries.  

We arrived back at my house a few minutes before five p.m.  I was totally exhausted!  

My complete set of todays pictures can be seen here:  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157633307534793/

OPERA Adventure

Leslie and I had plans to go to a CITO event and then go geocaching, but both Leslie and her mother are a bit under the weather, so we cancelled.  I called Penny and Linda to see if we could do our "opera get together" today and both were free for a few hours in the afternoon, so we agreed to meet up at my house around 12:30.  I ran errands in Oneonta in the morning and picked up Subway lunches for Linda and I (Penny said she does not eat lunch)

Penny had chosed THE TALES OF HOFFMAN in order to introduce Linda and I to opera.  She told us a bit about it before we watched it, and we stopped a few times (between each segment) to make sure Linda and I were understanding it.

We watched 3/4 of it, and will need to schedule a day and time to get together to watch the last segment.

DROPPED CAKE ADVENTURE

I met up with Connie and her Mom at Fox Nursing home today.  Anne was just finishing up her lunch, and when she was done, Connie called a cab to take the two of them out to her place.  We did not really like the first A and D cab driver.  Connie had been told ahead of time that they could provide a driver who could help with getting the wheelchair and transfers, but this guy only had one hand!  And he was a bit on the unfriendly side.   Also, we were planning on a regular car (sedan) and instead we got a mini-van.  Neverthless, we persevered and Anne and Connie rode in the mini-van cab and I followed behind them with some groceries Connie had gotten that morning.

We had a bit of difficulty getting Anne and her wheelchair into Connie's trailer, but we managed.  Connie provided a really nice lunch of coldcuts and salad.  Anne told some funny stories and some of her favorite memories, including singing a few very VERY old songs!

When it came time for desert, we had a bit of excitement.  Connie had just taken the cake out of the box and set it on a plate and was moving from her counter to the kitchen table when the cake slid off the plate onto the floor.  You should have seen the look on her face!

I had missed out on taking a picture BEFORE the cake got wrecked, so I took one AFTER.  As you can see it was a marble cake with chocolate fluffy frosting.  Connie was able in a straight line and rescue the bottom part of the cake and we all had a piece along with some gourmet cookies, brownie bites and other assorted pastries from Hannafords.  

We called A and D again to ask for another taxi, and we requested specifically someone who could help us more.  Mike showed up in a sedan and he was SPECTACULAR.  I asked if we can request him the next time and he said we can.  He wheeled Anne and the wheelchair down the ramp and he was willing to take as much time as possible to get Anne and her wheelchair and the walker into the cab.  Connie felt so confident in Mike that she said I did not need to accompany them back to Oneonta!!!

Lunch and geocaching

old oil can, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

I had two free lunches at the PARKVIEW DELI between Unadilla and Sidney and I offered to treat Leslie to lunch today.

I got the free lunches by donating this old oil can and a bumper sticker for the North Pole (a theme park in the Adirondacks) to the owner a few weeks ago.

We had a nice lunch (free is ALWAYS nice) and then we looked for two geocaches, finding one of the two.

Austins and More

I met Linda in Oneonta where she was leaving her car to have some body work done.  We both had some free time so we decided to "hang out".  We went to the AUSTINS AUCTION HOUSE and previewed the items in their current auction and then to the AMISH BARN, and then we had a light lunch at Arby's.  We stopped by her Aunt Penny's house so she could clean one of Linda's DVD's.  And then she dropped me off (she is borrowing my Subaru).  I went into Oneonta to get a couple of items and to take a walk at FoxCare.

Judy

I stopped at SUBWAY and purchased a twelve inch sub and took it to Judy's place.  I spent the better part of the day with her.  We had planned to go to Elke's shop in Worcester, but when I called, I got an answering machine, so we figured she was closed today.

On the way back, I called Leslie to see if she could meet me at Neahwa for a walk.  Her Dad told me she was already at the park, but by the time I got there, she was gone.

Came home and started my annual spring "yard pick up".......worked for about fifteen minutes.

Monday April 1st: LASAGNA DINNER

Terry, Betty and I made arrangements to go to one of the churches in Unadilla for a lasagna dinner. At the last minute, Betty backed out.  Too bad, since Terry and I had planned a neat Aprils Fool Day joke to play on her!   The dinner was great!