ON THE ROAD AGAIN! A short trip.

MONDAY:

For once, we did not have appointments for a couple days!  We had plans to get up early and leave for Cayuga Lake State Park Campground.   True to life, we slept in.  So punt, and get on with it.  All hook ups went smoothly so we started off.  The thruway was very busy, in a couple weeks when schools start up, it will be different.  We ate lunch at a thruway rest area and arrived at the camp office about 2:30.   After set up, we went for a ride along the lake.  In and out of roads, driveways etc., okay Bob enough!  There are many beautiful homes, many for sale, and many in a run down state, needing attention.   After supper we read all the  vacation books on the general area,  deciding on some of the attractions to see.  No wwi fi here but $21.00 a night is cheap compared to some camping places.

SITE 29
CAYUGA LAKE STATE CAMPGROUND

CAYUGA LAKE

 TUESDAY:

We went to the downtown Skaneateles area for the shopping experience which I had heard about from a couple people.   This town located on the lake edge has converted all the old buildings to shops of all kinds, even the banks are in old renovated buildings.   The sidewalks were very busy with vacationers, gawking, making some purchases.   We went in and out of stores, walked all over, had lunch at a Johnny Angels, a hamburger place that reminded us of Johnny Rockets in the Galleria Mall.   It was set up in cafeteria style with seating at long tables.    Naval antiques were all over in stores.  Back at the car, we were happy to sit down,  Bob drove thru town and we saw the old, big homesteads.  I noticed that commercialism was not apparent any where; no Mac Donalds’,  Wendy’s, Tim Horton’s,  Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or etc.  The city fathers must fight to keep them out!   

THE WHITE SLEIGH
CHRISTMAS STORE

A CHILDREN'S SHOP

MANY COLLECTIBLES

LUNCH AT JOHNNY ANGELS

I ORDERED A BUFFALO SALAD
THE CHICKEN WAS HOT!  JUST LIKE CHICKEN WINGS!

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THIS HOME

We were leaving the Skaneateles area and decided to look at the vacation book to see if there was anything else we wanted to see/do there.  I found a flour mill store that was still open.  We went all thru the store, many products from candy to pancake mix.  There were all kinds of dried beans, soups, flavors, baking products, cereal grains, dried fruits, gluten free  and desserts.  We enjoyed the shopping and made a few purchases. 
   WWW. NEW HOPE MILLS. COM

ALL KINDS OF PRODUCTS

Driving back to the camp ground, we stopped at the Montezuma National  Wild Life Preserve.  We have always been curious while driving the thruway how cars entered the area.  We enjoyed the birds, ducks, and flowers.  The NY STATE BARGE CANAL & CAYUGA SENECA BARGE CANAL  runs thru there and there was an area where the Carp fish tried to enter the ponds from the canal.  They had a sign that stated they would corrupt the ponds if they were left in.  We got out of the car an looked down in the drainage tube area; those Carp were huge, fighting the current from the tube.   Outside of the preserve we saw three huge nests on the top of telephone poles.  The pamphlets said it was Eagles nests.   www.fws.gov/r5mnwr

VISITOR CENTER

THESE FLOWERS WERE ALL OVER EDGES OF PONDS
THEY LOOK LIKE HOLLYHOCKS
PRETTY!

A GREY CRANE

FOLLOW ME

BEAVER HUT

REFLECTIONS

I made supper in and then we watched TV and did some reading.  As our site was up in the morning, (or move to another site) Bob called the Canandaigua KOA for reservations.  They had one site for one night.  Busy time this summer.  

WEDNESDAY:

We left for Canandaigua early.  Check in wasn't until 11:30. We pulled in anyway only to learn that in addition to the camping fees we had to pay $10.00 for early arrival.  What?  Lesson learned!  KOA'S are not cheap anyways.  It took a long time to register as Bob was fighting this policy and they were still looking for two nights stay for us. 

Set up was a snap!  That's one thing good about a KOA, their places are pretty much standard with level sites, patio, fire ring, and utilities.   Nice and clean.  We were escorted to our site. Nice!

KOA SITE 

Victor mall  /Apple Store: We drove to the Victor Mall to visit the Apple Store.  It was about a 20 minute drive from the campground.  Bob had some questions about his phone.  It wouldn’t allow him to up date and several other things.   While Bob was with the service person, I walked around and viewed (again) all the beautiful new machines: Mini IPads, Mac Air, Mac Pro etc.   Someday I need to face replacing the Dell as it is continuing to give me problems.  We were in the store for an hour or better; coming out we were parched as in thirsty and directly near was a STARBUCKS!  Ahe, for an iced coffee.

We are doing so much that we are exhausted!  Nappie time back at camper.   But not before Bob went next door to meet some campers that he noticed had a business logo on the front of camper & car that said Erie, Pa.  They have a waste disposable business - LOF or LOV  Bob couldn't remember.  Their motor home was a Newmar and it was long and beautiful.  

Betsy sent a text about a German restaurant that her friends have gone to when in Canandaigua.  Bob looked it up on his phone and then called to make reservations, they had a 6:15 opening.    Arriving at the Rheinblick German restaurant, we had to walk up an  alley, customers were seated outside.  It didn’t look to promising!   Inside was small, tables very close, and sparsely decorated walls.  Our reservation card was on the table in a cute holder.  The waitress took our drink and appetizer order.  We wanted the Kartoffelpuffer!  (German Potato Pancakes)  They were delicious!  Then our salads came and on to the Wiener Schnitzel!  (Veal-the classic recipe from Vienna) It was served with spatzel noodles.   Oh so good.  We were not disappointed.  A big meal for us, so we ordered dessert to go.  www.restaurant-rheinblick.com

RESERVATION CARD

EIN  PROSTING!

OUR WAITRESS WITH OUR MEALS

After dinner we drove up to the Finger Lakes Casino,  our first trip there.   We registered and cards were made for us.  They gave us a $10.00 coupon for registering first time, plus lots of future coupons and info.   We found machines and that money was gone in fifteen minutes.  Swish!  The machines said a penny a play; but there was only buttons for 25 lines and up.  So really a person is playing a quarter each time.  Tricky!  Bob put more money in.  We lost what Bob put in but it was fun to check the place out. 

Back to camper  to eat our take out dessert: Bob had the Apfelstrudel /Apple Strudel and I had Heidi’s Homemade Cheese cake with Raspberry Swirl Syrup.  Um mm.

I wanted to use the computer for my Blog so I preceded to get that all ready.  I must have typed a little bit, when I woke up, the lap top was still on my lap!  I couldn't stand myself so I headed for bed.  Cranky!

THURSDAY:

We both made sure that we had everything done and ready to leave before 11:30 as I didn't want to pay another of their fees.  The roads were busy but we moved right along and arrived home about 11:30.  We had such a good time and now back to reality!  Unload and clean the camper.

FRIDAY:
What a blah day!  No excitement here at home.   Now we have to pay the fiddler so to speak.  Bob washed the car and motor home and helped me with some computer work.  I did some washing and computer entry work.
Bob spent some time doing phone work for our next camp out with our camping group.
SATURDAY:
In the morning as I was going thru Face Book, I saw a photo of a girl who lived on our street while growing up,  I quickly ask her to be a friend.  She now lives with her family in Virginia.  She has her doctorate and is a pharmacist at a hospital there.  She had been "home" for a high school reunion.  We chatted back and forth probably for an hour, about my kids, her kids and parents, other neighbors etc.  Love that Face Book.  

Pretty much another quite, warm, enjoy the pool, kinda day.  We had a few ideas on changing the pool patio set up around.  Some ideas worked, some not so good.  Since the solar lights are burned out, we drove over to Home Depot after supper to buy new batteries.  Like every shopping trip; more than batteries went in the shopping cart.  
SUNDAY:
Well, today went by fast.  All the plans of weeding and trimming bushes did not get done because it was too hot.  Also to many bees!  we spent the day in the pool.  How sweet it is.  

There isn't much else to add so I may as well post this and go see if I can pull weeds now.

There's suppose to be a preview of Downton Abbey on tonight at 10.  Hope I stay awake to see it.  

It's been a good week, hope you have a good week.  Thanks for clicking in.

GOLDEN GRAM