Day 95, 96, 97 & 98 of 166 Days of RV Adventures in the Summer of 2026

Sunday August 9th is day 95. Have I told you about the great local tomato stand? It is on my morning walk route. They begin the tomatoes early in the season in their greenhouses. They are big, juicy, tasty and very hard to get! Many times we drive past the stand and there are no tomatoes. We are told they put them out early, so I was going to out smart the other buyers. I grabbed money and I was going to purchase some on my walk. Well, when I got there, the stand was fully stocked. I pulled the ten dollar bill from my pocket. Oooppps, it is a twenty-dollar bill. There is no change at this stand. So, it looks like I am getting twenty-dollars of tomatoes! Two big bags added a bit more weight to my walk, so I called Charlie to come and get the goods!

We made a trip to Best Buy in Henrietta, to grab some printer ink. I used the Best Buy bucks I had and it was almost half-off. We took Route 15A up and Route 15 back. This statue is carved from wood and sits on Route15 in Rush. It has been there for many years! So, here is the "rest of the story"... Corporal Robert Frank Hodes (Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division) was killed in action at age 19 on February 21, 1945, during the intense early stages of the Battle of Iwo Jima. In 2004, Fellow Rush resident, Captain Richard Updaw, a local USMC Vietnam War veteran, was visiting the cemetery with a friend, he noticed a headstone next to one of his friend’s, Mike Hodes, with the name of Bob Hodes. Dick asked Mike’s widow, Yvonne, who Bob was and she explained “He was Mike’s older brother who died in World War II. Bob was the golden boy in the family. Following his death, his family was so deeply traumatized by the loss that they rarely spoke of him, and his story faded over time. Dick made it his personal mission to research and preserve the memory of the young, largely forgotten Marine. He was profoundly moved by the fact that nobody seemed to remember the young corporal, Updaw traveled to Iwo Jima to trace Hodes' final steps and meet people who knew him. In 2012, Captain Updaw commissioned a distinctive hand-carved wooden statue depicting a World War II soldier holding an American flag. He placed it on a highly visible location on his own 59-acre farm property right along Route 15. Bob is memorialized with the statue in Dick’s front lawn and now proudly stands watch over his great-great-grandfather’s farm. The land, and those memories, will now be passed on for generations in the Genesee Land Trust.

Over this past weekend was the Rochester Air Show. Today is Monday August 10th. While we were enjoying our morning coffee outside the RV, we saw this plane and a jet going overhead. Where is Larry Blankenship with his airplane identifier app, when you need it!

Today we are driving to Hornell to see Charlie's sister, Mary, and her husband, Jerry. On our way down, we went through Howard. Wow, there were no wind turbines in this area, the last time we were over here! The Howard Wind Farm is a 55-megawatt operating renewable energy project located in Steuben County. Commissioned in late 2011, the facility features utility-scale wind turbines spread across local agricultural farmlands, producing enough clean electricity to power roughly 12,500 homes annually. 

In May of 2022, Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company purchased Howard Wind Farm from the BlackRock Global Renewable. The Howard project marks Greenbacker’s first wind asset in New York, building out the company’s presence in a renewables-supportive state and increasing access to cheaper clean energy.

We enjoyed a nice visit with Mary & Jerry and Charlie brother, Kenny, and his wife, Joyce. Mary and Jerry sold their place in Florida and moved back to NY. So, this was our first visit to their new house. We were going to stop and see our friends, Ron & Julie, but it was getting late in the day. So, we headed back to the RV.

Day 97 is Tuesday August 11th. I enjoyed a morning walk along my normal square 4-mile loop. 

Most of the day was spent working on finalizing the plans for our next RV caravan job with Yankee RV Tours. All of the initial contacts have been made and we just need to confirm numbers. Touch base with the vendors and get them final payments.

Sheila planned a night out at No BS! It is steak and taco night. 

Donny & Donna and Tony & Natalee came too! Not all of the "NY Camping crew" came, but the ones that were there had a good time! 

I have to get all the PB&J Cream Ale that I can, before we leave NY! PB&J Cream Ale is a craft beer that replicates the flavors of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using a smooth, light cream ale base. No BS Brew Company has perfected brewing this novelty beer It tastes like a liquid childhood sandwich without heavy malt or stout weight. The only other one I have found, but it is not a cream ale, is from Broad Street Brewing in Brooksville, FL. "Field Trippin'" is a popular PB&J Social Sparkler, a seltzer that they have brewed.

If No BS brews it this winter again, I will have to ask Sheila to bring some more down in her suitcase in March!

Wednesday August 12th brought more time to work on our Yankee RV Tour music caravan. Of all the caravans and rallies we have worked for Yankee, this is our favorite. We are true music lovers and are so very blessed that we get to share all of this music with so many others! Thank you Sheryl & Gary and Rod & Helen for creating it and entrusting the success of it to us!

We enjoyed some time outside this afternoon, before the weather started to turn. Tonight, there was no cooking for me. We were lucky and are here for the Livonia Methodist Church Take Out dinner. It is Charlie's favorite, Spaghetti! The take-out meal consists of a huge container of spaghetti with house sauce, meatballs, undressed side salad, and garlic bread. We will get a few meals out of these meals for sure! I should have taken a picture of the feast!

Stay tuned for more Two Lane adventures!