July 2008

Heading northeast, our next stop was Ohio. We really liked a state park in Ravenna called, West Branch State Park. The sites were spacious along with nice facilities to do laundry and ride bikes. Our site seeing trips included Louisville Slugger Bat Company and Hales farm and museum. This farm is the site where the state has collected and restored many building of the 1800s to preserve history and culture of the area.

We then started our State of New York visit along the banks of Lake Erie. It is quite astonishing that one cannot see the other side of a “lake”. We are not in Texas anymore. We camped here to be close to Niagara and take a day trip to visit the Falls. Again, another breath taking experience to visit. Words cannot describe the power of water, nor the majestic landscape it creates. We did all the tourist stuff and got wet, lots of fun. Continued our travel east, we visited the Finger Lakes area of Central New York. Watkins Glen is home to a dense area of wineries surrounding Seneca Lake. Also there is a gorge where nineteen waterfalls are formed. Without saying, we visited a few wineries. Plus, we hiked the gorge trail to see the nineteen stair stepped waterfalls. (We are not in Texas anymore.) Another of the lakes has the village of Cooperstown at its south shore. Here is where it all began. Baseball, Americas sport. Truly a wonderful experience for all to see the Hall of Fame where these men and women excelled at the sport we all grew up playing. Memories of my youth were spawned by the exhibits. Surprising us both, Cooperstown is a little resort community with shops, golf, food, magnificent old homes, wineries, and breweries. We tried to sample it all. I think I have burned out on the wineries tours.

Now off to New England, first stop, Burlington Vermont. Home to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Vermont Teddy Bears, and Lake Champlain. Along with those, an interesting collection of Americana has been collected and displayed here at the Shelburne Museum. It is from a private collection of 80,000 items by Electra Havemeyer Webb, who collected everything from wooden Indians to train cars. The Museum is on 1400 acres of land, using old 18th and 19th century buildings to display horse carriages, folk art, circus tools, quilts, canoes, carved animal from antique carousals. There is even a steam boat that traveled Lake Champlain in the late 1800s on the grounds. Not a place that everything can be seen in one day.

I believe we have reached our most northern point along our route. Next, we continue east to Maine, then start heading south.