9/30/13 Day Five of long weekend trip: Drive from Lockport BACK HOME!!!! MONDAY

I packed up my car early and headed back home.  The day started out a bit overcast and gloomy but as I headed west, the sky turned blue and things brightened up and it warmed up very nicely, too!

I made a few "photo-op" stops.  First in Gasport, then Middleport and then Medina.  I definitely need to go back to Medina for some exploration..........Medina has a very interested, old time downtown area and a train museum that I would like to go to.   A bit later on, I stopped to take a couple pictures in Clarendon, NY.  This building is known as the "Stone Store" and is right at the crossroads.

After that, I got on the thruway for a while.

I exited at 40 and headed to Camillus.  Unfortunately, the SIMS STORE MUSEUM that I wanted to go to was closed.  I looked for a geocache near some remains of a stage coach stop.  I didn't have the hint with me, and that would have helped.  I didn't find it, but the ruins are interesting.

Then I headed south to get on Route 20.  I stopped at the SUBWAY in Morrisville and purchased a sub to take home for my supper.  

Day 4 in Lockport (Sunday Sept. 29th)

At church this morning, I met Peggy's "guy friend" and he took us out to lunch at Panera's.  It was a nice lunch.  In the afternoon, Peggy and I headed out to go to a small GERMAN HERITAGE MUSEUM just outside Niagara Falls.  It was very interesting.  Then we went back to 17 and rested up a bit before going to Mike and Janie's house for supper.  Janie served a great meal.  I gave the boys a few small gifts I had brought with me.  On the way home, we stopped at LAKE EFFECT ICE CREAM where I had a small FROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE cone.

Day Three Lockport Trip (Day Trip to Wilson, Youngstown and Ransomville) September 28th)

Since yesterday was our "work day", today was a "play day" and Peg and I decided to go to Wilson for some exploring and geocaching.    Just as we were leaving, Peggy received a phone call that a friend had died of a heart attack, so we took some time to go over to her daughter's house.  I offered to "scratch our plans for the day" but we didn't.

We stopped at a farmstand on 78 on our way towards Olcott.  We were getting hungry and it was getting close to noon, so we had a picnic lunch at KRULL PARK at Olcott Beach before heading west towards Wilson.

We found our first geocache outside a historical building and ran into Peggy's friend Ursula.  Then we went to the Wilson Historical Society.  It was closed, but we looked for a geocache and I took several pictures.  I would like to go into this old schoolhouse someday.

I had read online about a huge fossil of a turtle at Erway's Tree Farm, but their was nothing going on there when we arrived and we could not find it.  We did see a couple of animals there!  

Imagine, a ZEBRA in New York State.

The highlight of the day was hiking a trail at the WILSON-TUSCORORA STATE PARK and finding a geocache.  The trails are very well maintained, but not very well marked.  After Wilson, we got back on 18 and headed towards Youngstown where we found two more geocaches near a couple of public docks.  Our total for the day was FIVE finds, but there were a few we were unable to locate.

On the way home we stopped at a restaurant south of Ransomville.  Our meals were very good.  

DAY TWO: A Work Day in Lockport (September 27th, 2013)

Peggy and I spent the better part of the day working in the downstairs apartment.  Also, Home Depot delivered the new stove.  I prepared dinner in the crockpot (bbq ribs and baked potatoes) and we invited Peg's friend Betty to join us for supper.  We went out for lunch and Peggy stopped at Subway and then we went to Reid's where I had a white hot with sauce..........it was sooooooooooo good.    In the evening, we went out to find a geocache, which quickly turned into three but then we had to quit because it was getting too dark.

Day One: Trip to Lockport (September 26th, 2013) THURSDAY

Everything fell into place and I was able to leave before nine a.m. this morning.  I had mapped a route and had put together info. about several geocaches along the way.  The weather was just perfect.  South of Eaton, NY I was on a route I had never driven when I stopped to take a few pictures.  I had never driven by HATCH LAKE before.  Here is a pic:

 On Route 20 between Cazenovia and Skaneateles, I stopped at a farm stand and made a few purchases.

I ventured off of Route 20 to check out BEAK AND SKIFF APPLE ORCHARDS where I bought some cider and had pulled pork tacos with fruit salsa for lunch.  It was delicious.  

I found three geocaches along the way including a really interesting one in the CHRISTIAN GRAVEYARD just west of Clarendon.  

I arrived at 17, a few seconds before Peggy and we decided to go to her new favorite Chinese Restaurant.  It was a great buffet, with a couple of items I had never had before.  

September 25, 2013

It was an absolutely gorgeous fall day here in New York State.  After a medical appointment, I decided to enjoy being outdoors.  I went to the bank and then to THE DOLLAR TREE and then I went to find a geocache behind Hannafords.  Then I went to Denny's for a light lunch.  I had the Baja Quesadilla Burger for four dollars............it was very good.  Then I went to WalMart and then I went to Neahwa and took a short walk and then I went to the Swart-Wilcox House to see the historic corn crib that was moved there not too long ago.  

Carol and Connie

Carol showed up at FSA a few minutes before quitting time and wanted to go out to lunch, so we went to BROOKS.  (I think this is only her second time there).   After that I called Connie and asked her if she wanted to take a walk.  She suggested I go to the East End Cafe and buy some cupcakes and go to her house and we could walk in the cornfield.  I picked up the cupcakes and met up with her at her place, where we ate them, and then we took a nice long walk.  I helped her take Daisy out for a walk before going home.

THE BUTLER

My plans for today were to go pick Ann up at Fox Nursing Home and then she, Connie and I would go to Connie's place for a while.  However, Ann was not feeling well, so Connie called and cancelled.  I decided it might be a good day to go see THE BUTLER.  I called around until I found someone who was free and wanted to accompany me.  I picked Betty up and we went to Southside Mall to see it.  It is a very good movie.

Rambling Around Adventure

Wendy told me about a diner she likes in Cassville, New York (off Route 8, south of Utica) and I wanted to try it, so I suggested that we go there for lunch today.  We set out late morning and headed to Cassville.On the corner of 8 and 20 we noticed a small Amish produce stand, so we stopped and each of us purchased a couple of items. At WENDY'S DINER, we both had the fish fry, their Friday special, and it was delicious.  It is a very cute little diner.

in the same building as the Cassville Fire Department.  After lunch we did some geocaching (Wendy's first time).  The first one was COP WATCH, and fairly easy. Just down the road from this geocache, we saw this very old car.  A KAISER!!!  We did not find the second cache we looked for, in a nearby cemetery, but Wendy found the third one in a cemetery just south of Bridgewater.  

We decided to to to the Amish bulk food store in West Edmeston, since Wendy had never been there before.  She purchased several items.  On the way back to New Berlin, we stopped at another Amish produce stand and we each made a couple of purchases

We hoped to stop at a Amish baked good stand that we both remembered, but we did not see it.  Once back in Morris, we stopped at the supermarket  and at THE VALLEY CAFE, where I bought a cherry pie for us to split.  It was a great day!!!

WILBER LAKE ADVENTURE

It is a gorgeous early fall day here and I was starting to do some housework when Connie called and said she wanted to go to Wilber Lake.  I quickly abandoned the vacuum cleaner and started getting ready.  We met up at FoxCare and took my car.  We hiked all the way in to the Lake from one of the entrances.  We thoroughly enjoyed every single minute.  I took several pictures which can be seen here:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157635657858826/

On the drive back to Oneonta we debated about where to have lunch and finally settled on the East End Cafe.  I had Pasta Fajoile Soup with a Foti roll and a piece of peach custard pie for desert.  It was all very good.  Then we went to the Lettis
Auction House and looked around.  

Another Frogpond ADVENTURE

DSC02997, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Linda and I met up after work today and headed to Bainbridge to go to the FrogPond. It was a good day to be there, not too crowded and they have some fall decorations up.........and lots of pumpkins all around! It was a gorgeous early fall

Also, this is the first time I saw signs inviting customers to go back behind the farm house and look at the other animals. Linda and I walked back there.

After the FrogPond, we went to PINE RIDGE GROCERY and we each purchased a couple of items.

On the way back, I noticed a new place:
Riverside Farm Market. We stopped and checked it out. I think the owners are Mennonites..........they offer produce and baked goods including whoopie pies!

It was a nice afternoon.

September 16th Geocaching in and near Bovina and Bloomville

Leslie and I met up at her house this morning and headed to Delaware County for a day of geocaching.  My GPS took us directly to Bovina Center where we found our first cache "BOVINA CHURCH"......behind a church on Main Street in a pretty area along a creek.  Because of our late start and the long drive it was very close to noon.  We had noticed a new business TWO OLD TARTS in a storefront that had been vacant the last time we were in Bovina Center so we checked it out.  It is mostly a desert/coffee shop but they offered a few lunch items so we ordered two sandwiches and shared them.

     And then we headed out for more geocaching.  Without my cars navigation system on, we ended up driving on some VERY back roads, not all of them paved, but we eventually made it to BOVINA ROCKS, another geocache in an interesting spot along the road.  I think it was then that we realized we were pretty close to Bloomville so we drove there and found a couple of TURF WAR caches along the hiking trail and another one along the road.  in Bloomville I remembered that I had something to mail so we located the Post Office.  I noticed this building  across the street from the Post Office.  Then we headed back towards Bovina where we found a few more geocaches.  

     Altogether, we found EIGHT geocaches before time ran out and we needed to head back towards Oneonta. One last stop was at this old cemetery on Route 6 a couple of miles from Bovina Center:   It was late and I did not have any plans for supper, so I stopped at UNDERCOVER EGGPLANT and bought a pizza for supper.  

LOOKING UP: A Tour of Downtown Oneonta's Upper Floors

Betty and I attended this event today.  Several upper floors of several old buildings on Main Street were open to the public (for a fee).  I particularly wanted to see the old ballroom on the third floor above the history center and it did not disappoint.  It is currently being restored.

Our second stop was at the STEVENS storefront.  I was surprised to see that not all of the items from this very old store (which closed in 2012) were gone.  Several remained.  Visitors were allowed up on the second floor.  Mr Stevens jacket is still hanging at the bottom of the stairs.  

     Snacks were offered at a few of the sites, which was nice.  Doing this tour meant climbing up and down LOTS of stairs, but it was worth it  

     For me one of the highlights was seeing some memorabilia from TOYLAND, which was on one of the floors above where Newberrys used to be.






I loved the stain glass windows up above KEY BANK.  I think, though, that going into the MASONIC TEMPLE was the best part of the afternoon.  We did not take the guided tour, but we were allowed to walk around all three floors.

My complete set of pictures can be seen here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157635556106392/
   

Oneonta Etc. Adventure

The plans were to pack a lunch and meet up with Connie at FoxCare and then we would go in one car to Wilber Lake for a hike.  However, when we arrived at FoxCare, it was so chilly and windy that we thought maybe a hike in the great outdoors might not be a good idea.  We took our lunches into FoxCare and ate there.  I found several books on the book cart outside of the cafe.  We decided to scratch our plan to go to Wilber Lake and instead to go to the CITY OF THE HILLS ART AND MUSIC FESTIVAL in the Dietz Street Parking Lot.  Connie drove and we agreed to split up and meet after twenty minutes.  I didn't purchase anything, but I ran into Solveig, a woman who at one time ran the DV shelter that I work in.  She now has three children!  We talked for a while.

When Connie and I met up, she asked me "what next?"  I suggested we go somewhere for a desert.  She said "why not try the new cafe attached to the laundromat?"  I agreed to that.  When we got there, it was closed, but one of the owners opened it up for us.  We each purchased a few desert items to take with us and talked with the owner for a while.  She told us about her catering business "Patty Cakes".  

After Connie dropped me off, I went to the library and picked up some "holds" and then came home.

Friday the 13th!!!!

I decided to use this free day to visit Judy in Westford.  On the way there, I saw Vera walking and I offered her a ride.  She needed to go to SFCU,  and we were in one of the "drive through" lanes when we looked over and saw this guy waiting!!!!  When I got to Judy's place she was ready to go.  She had banking to do and needed to go to the post office and she wanted to go to the thrift store in Worcester, too.  She found several items and I found a couple.  Then we had lunch at the Worcester Hotel.  We both had a half sandwich and cup of soup.  The cream of cauliflower soup was outstanding.  After I took Judy home, I found a geocache on a back road at a fishing access.
     .

HALL of FAME Picnic 6

I missed several local  geocaching events during the past year or two, so I was happy to be able to go to this one.  It was the Sixth Hall of Fame picnic and it was held in Fortin Park in Oneonta.  Everyone brought a dish to pass and we did a lot of mingling and played a couple of geocaching games.  There were prizes and at the end a group picture was taken.

Richmondville and Cobleskill with Linda

Linda wanted someone to go with her to visit her mothers grave in Richmondville so I agreed to accompany her.  We met up at Price Chopper in Oneonta and she drove us there.  We found a strange bush or something in front of her mothers grave stone, so we tried to remove it, but all we could do was flatten it down to the ground.  We cleaned out some of the tall grass around it.  
Then we headed to Cobleskill where we had a picnic lunch at a small park at the edge of Main Street.  Then we found a geocache at a large local cemetery.  We tried to find an ALWAYS cache in a WalMart parking lot, but it appears that the pole has been vandalized.  All sorts of wires were hanging out and it looked like a plate covering them had been torn off.
We went to GRAPEVINE FARMS and did a wine tasting and I purchased a bottle of wine for Linda's upcoming birthday.I noticed this cute "bug" in the parking lot at Grapevine Farms: 
On the way back we stopped at a farmstand and I bought three ears of corn.  It was a short but fun trip.  

DELHI GEOCACHING ADVENTURE 9/6/13

Maple Shade Farm Market: North Franklin, NY, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Leslie and I met up at her house this morning and headed to Delhi to do some geocaching. We found six out of the eight that we looked for. My favorite was FLOW, RIVER FLOW, which was under a very narrow bridge.

We had lunch at Subway (we split a twelve inch sub) in the middle of geocaching.

We decided to take a different route home, through Treadwell.  We stopped at the old cemetery where we hid a cache a couple of years ago.  Leslie owns it now and wanted to check on it but we could not find it.

We stopped at the small farmers market in the picture and our final stop was for ice cream at The Golden Guernsey.

Mini Franklin Adventure: 9/5/13

Mel in the Doodlebug Clubhouse, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

The Episcopal Church in Franklin was offering a buffet supper tonight. I asked Betty and Carol if they wanted to go and both of them did. We left a bit early because I wanted to take them to MEL'S ANTIQUE RACE CARS to look around.

Mel and some of his friends were there and as usual, they were friendlly and willing to answer questions and pass on information about the collection, both inside and out.

Mel took us into the Doodlebug Clubhouse.  He said that they meet once a month and its MEN ONLY, but that  they have parties a couple of times a year and women are welcome.

Mel;s friends: John and Denny and a young man who I think is John's son posed for a picture.

The buffet supper at 

thechurch was very good, especially the fresh corn with avocado salad.  

My complete set of pictures can be seen here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157635395649917/

September 4, 2013

Work was kind of stressful today.  The fall calendar is all ready to go, but we still needed address labels  for the approximately 500 parents and professionals who are on our databases (which I am responsible for).  I spent the first hour this morning updating both databases to reflect new people and delete names of people who have not responded to the calendars for several years.  Then it was time for labels, something I have never done in the past.  (I was shown how to do it once several years ago, but never did it on my own).  With no interns available to help out and Mary working shorter hours, I figured it would be up to me.  With Kim's help I was able to get both batches of labels completed right around quitting time.  I took an extra fifteen minutes to put stuff away and put some order to my two desks and then breathed a huge sigh of relief as I walked out the door.

I decided I was going to do something relaxing, since it was an absolutely gorgeous late summer day.  I went to SUBWAY and bought a six inch sub and a drink and took it to Wilber Park where I sat at a picnic table and read and ate.  Then I took a fairly long walk in a circle starting in the upper level, across the bridge and then across the lower level and up the hill.

Then I programmed Temmingtons Treasure into my GPS and headed towards it.  It was a very easy find, and I was rewarded with one of Team Ducky's Duckies!

It was a great way to spend an afternoon!

l 

Labor Day 2013

Labor Day and NO PLANS!!!!! What to do?  I called Connie and asked her if I might go to her house and try out her lap top computer.  So, that's what I did, and she made us a nice lunch.

It was absolutely delicious....I told her it was "restaurant quality"..  It was a chicken breast and a slice lof ham with eggplant on top and a bit of sauce, with spaghetti on the side.  She also threw together a fresh cooked corn and cucumber salad.  Everything was soooooooooooooooooo good!!!

August 31st, Out and About

My plans for today were to look around for a new computer, but both of the places I went to were closed as part of the long holiday weekend.  By this time I was already in Oneonta and decided to make the most of it.  I went to the Oneonta Public Market (I think that's what it is called) and looked around and then purchased a six inch sub at Subway and went to Wilbur Park and enjoyed reading and eating my sub.  The park was almost totally empty.

Then I went to Neahwa Park hoping to see the hot air balloons but they were not there.  I talked to the guy at the fried dough stand and looked at several old cars.  Then I went to the new candy store on Main Street.  Then I went to WalMart and got groceries.  Then back home.  So, while my plans did not pan out, I did accomplish a few things!