Tuesday - Monday, August 29th – September 5th 2022 … Two Lane Adventures Continue!

While I was on my last walk in Letchworth State Park this morning, I walked all the camping loops and I found this unique camper. Only our military friends will know what it is!

Today we travel back to Chemung County for our last week in New York. Although, we have spent just about 40 days in New York, we were only close to where we raised our family for about 10 of those days.

We had to go to the grocery store and get gas, so we decided to go to the diner for breakfast. That is the name, The Diner. It is a renovated railcar, located just outside historic Hanover Square in Horseheads NY. 

It is a local place that treats visitors just like family. We were well taken care of and we overheard conversations between staff and locals that just made my heart melt. The owners or staff, whichever, were so caring about the health and well-being of their regular customers. 

Charlie had 1 giant pancake and I had the veggie omelet, minus cheese. We enjoyed our breakfast and then we headed into town for groceries and gas for the car.

We enjoyed a few quiet days here, just sitting out relaxing and enjoying the nature that surrounded us. The setting in this park is just so beautiful!

It is starting to look a lot like fall around here. The locals say the leaves are changing early because it has been such a dry summer. Leaves changing tells me winter is getting closer and I don’t like the thought of that!

Charlie and I agreed to have dinner ready for everyone when they arrived on Friday. So I simmered sauce for 2 days. I made one chock full of vegetables and the other all meat for the goulash! It will be a yummy dinner, when everyone arrives!

On Saturday, Rob & Sheila and Charlie & I headed into Watkins Glen. There was a store that Rob wanted to go to. I am always up for a ride! We enjoyed the shopping at Famous Brands Store. Famous Brands including Carhart, Columbia and Patagonia have been sold in their Watkins Glen clothing store since 1983. Yes, they are a real brick and mortar clothing store. They started with only 900 sq. feet, but now they have grown into three shopping floors consisting of over 13,000 sq. feet of casual clothing, outerwear and footwear representing over 600 brands. Everyone struck out at finding bargains, but me! I found 2 pairs of smaller sized shorts for $20 each, regular price $60! Charlie got 1 pair of shorts and I got 1 shirt! Great day of shopping for the Parsels!

We stopped at Rooster Fish Brewing Pub for lunch. They offer passionately brewed, uniquely world-class craft ale from locally sourced ingredients. They have a rotating offering with at least 5 craft-style small batch beers and up to 4 seasonal and special brews. Charlie & Sheila got a craft beer, I can’t remember the flavor. Rob got Pepsi and I had water. 

Today is Sheryl Lalonde’s birthday, so Rob, Charlie and I channeled our inner vegetarian. Rob had a portabella burger, Charlie had French Fries and I had cauliflower tacos. Shelia was the renegade she had a chicken burger.

After lunch, there was a set of “angel wings” on the wall of a building. I am a sucker for these and I made Sheila pose for a picture. 

She snapped a picture of me too! After seeing the picture of myself, I realize this shirt and shorts need to go into the “too big” bag!

We also drove to these “big” waterfalls that Sheila raved about. But, the weather has been so dry … there is hardly no water! Shequaga Creek, which begins in the hills 8 miles west of here, near and shortly after falling over Shequaga Falls, it flows north and empties into the Seneca Lake inlet. Normally, it is a large frothy cascade of water, 156 feet in height. It passes under the Mill Street Bridge as it starts and empties into a large basin at the end of the park.

At the base of the falls is a sign labeled "She-qua-ga", a transliteration of its Seneca name. A bridge above the waterfall spells the name as "Che-qua-ga". Many historic names have been recorded under a wide variety of spellings, especially as various peoples tried to transliterate them from one language to another.

There is a second waterfalls that we passed by on the main road, it too was dry!

 

On Saturday night, we all chipped in with ingredients for a pizza night. Royce & Karen brought their pizza oven and we had many varieties of pizzas created! 

Karen was the chef and Charlie was her sous-chef! 

It was a great night with friends, food and fire!

Saturday night gave us the best sunset of our time here! Beautiful, just beautiful!

On Sunday, it threatened rain most of the day and Dana wanted to be sure that his wood stayed dry! I called it camping with a “city boy” … he said it was like camping with a boy scout … always prepared!

Dana and Dawn treated the NY Camping FRamily to a low country boil for dinner. 

It was delicious and everyone enjoyed it! Rob made Dutch oven corn bread, which was excellent too! 

The rain spitted just a bit, but held off so we could have a fire too! Rain came after 9pm and lasted all night!

Monday morning should have been our last day to sit around with “our gang” … but Mother Nature kept the rain coming. So, we wandered around to each of our friends, as they packed up in the rain and headed out. It is always bitter sweet, but it is never good-bye, just see you later! There were hugs and a few tears. But we stay in touch, when we are not in NY!

It rained all day Monday, so it was a great day to clean the RV and do our laundry. It was the first day that I have not walked since May 28^th! I tried to head out a couple times, but Mother Nature kept the rain falling!

  

  

All the walks I did here covered almost every trail that they have here! I got to see deer a couple times and get a picture. I saw several other deer, but was not quick enough to get a picture! I enjoyed every walk I had here. Tuesday, we head west and out of New York.