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Smugglers Notch RV Village in Jeffersonville, VT (June 26-July 10)
6-26- We moved to Smuggler’s Notch RV Village in Jeffersonville, Vermont. This is a very new park that just opened and there were not very many campers here. It is well laid out and the owners are very eager to make the campground a great place. After we got settled, we visited Cupboard Deil in Jeffersonville, Ed got a pizza and I got a calzone….it was very good!
6-27- We went to Burlington to do some errands and see the area.
6-28- We drove through Smuggler’s Notch and visited the village of Stowe. In order to go into Smuggler’s Notch, you have to go through this weave to ensure you can make it. I have a video of our drive through, but it is too long to upload here. We ended up going back to Jeffersonville to eat, as Stowe was super crowded. We ate at the Burger Barn and Oh My!!!! It was delicious!!! We will be back for sure!
This is the Bleu Royal Burger and it was so good. I got it 3 times while we were here!
6-30- We spent the day visiting with Miryam and her partner, Brie. We had brunch together and then visited at a park until evening. It was so wonderful to catch up with them and spend the day with them!! I’m trying to get Ed to work a bit on his photography skills, but you know….
7-1- We went to the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury Village. It was a fun little tour and the cemetery of discontinued flavors is funny! We got to taste a sample of Churray for Churros. It was pretty good! I thought the handicap spot label was too cute!
6-2 & 6-3- We went to the Shelburne Museum. It is like an entire village and it took us two days to see it. There is a huge ship on the property which is interesting to see. It really is a cool spot. I took a ton of photos, but believe it or not, I do try to keep my photos limited on here!
7-6- We spent the day with Miryam & Brie. We had lunch and then went to their apartment to visit. Another great day with them. Ed and I were able to get a bunch of photos and videos together for Miryam of Steven and from her childhood, as she doesn’t have much from the time spent with us.
7-9- Went to Montpelier and did some letterboxing. Found a really cute park in Winooski that had all these cool buildings and a riverwalk that lead down to some ‘falls’.
Tomorrow we are on to New Hampshire!
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Clinton County Fairgrounds in Plattsburg, NY (June 23-June 26)
June 23- We moved to the Clinton County Fairgrounds campground in Plattsburg, PA. We were the only camper here aside from the camp hosts! We had the place to ourselves. There was one tent camper…he didn’t have a vehicle, just a bicycle and his tent. I somehow managed to forget to take a photo of the site/area. It is basically a huge open field with hook ups for each site. We did have sewer hookup, which is always a blessing!
Scooby had an opinion of their sign. No worries though, as that only applies to when the fair is actively running.
We spent the few days here just exploring the area of Plattsburg. We found a great bakery called Rambach’s Bakery and did some letterboxing. We will keep this place on our list, as we really would like to spend more time in the area and the campground is great for us!
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Ft Drum FamCamp in Ft Drum, NY (May 23-June 23)
We arrived at Ft Drum on May 23. We got a great site that is very long and our door is facing a large field. I am very happy with the site and since we will be here a month, it is even more appealing.
May 30- We took a boat tour around the 1000 Island area of NY into Canada. It was a beautiful cruise and we got to tour the Boldt Castle. The castle is so stunning and it was cool to see the supplies that were still packed for transit. Mr. Boldt was building this beautiful castle on the island as a gift to his wife, but when she passed away from illness, he just abandoned the entire thing because he could no longer bear to continue the project without her.
June 1- I was supposed to fly out of Syracuse to Dallas, but the night before, the flight was cancelled. They moved my flight to June 2. I had several doctor visits and got to spend lots of time with my boy! Seeing family is always such a wonderful blessing. I extended my stay in Dallas by a day so that I could accompany James to a tattoo convention where our tattoo artist worked all day on James’ sleeve to freshen it up and enter it into the competition. James sat like a champ and his sleeve looks fantastic! I flew back to Syracuse on June 10.
June 12- We went to a small zoo in Watertown. It is a really different and neat zoo. It is like a large city park with animals…it made me think of stories my mom told me about when she was in school and she used to go to the city zoo and eat lunch in front of the lions area. I imagine this zoo to be similar. We enjoyed it. They had a butterfly house and the attendant pointed out the teeny little eggs on the underside of a leaf and also a newly hatched caterpillar!
June 13- We returned to the 1000 Island area to take a boat cruise to Singer Castle. This is from the family of the Singer Sewing machine fame. It is more like a real castle in the design and decor. I enjoyed exploring this one also! As we were leaving the island, we saw a beautiful sailboat (schooner?)…I don’t know for sure which it is.
June 17- We went to Tupper Lake Wild Center. It is a beautiful place in the Adirondacks that has 115 acres of trails, a nature center, a wild walk that has a thousand feet of bridges and platforms, many outdoor exhibits areas and live animals. We had a wonderful time and on the way home, there was a little farm that had a honor system flower stand with PEONIES! They were beautiful and SO reasonably priced, so I had to stop and buy some!
June 18- We went to Oswego to visit the beach there. It has a nice park and beach area. There was a couple of boats that were floating tiki bars that you could hire. We traveled the coastline east and saw the lighthouses along the way. It was a nice way to spend a day.
June 20- There was an event on base called MountainFest. The festival was set up in a field right at the end of our campground area, so we walked over and looked around a bit. It was super hot, so we didn’t stay long, as there was NO shade at all. We did sit outside the camper at 3pm when the paratroopers were scheduled to arrive. It was nice to be able to watch that from the just outside the camper.
One place we found in Watertown is the Little Trees Car-Freshner factory. I had to take photos to send to James, as he has tons of them hanging on his rearview mirror. LOL!
Next stop…Plattsburg, NY
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Niagara Falls KOA in Grand Island, NY (May 16-23)
We moved to Grand Island, NY just outside of Niagara Falls. We opted for the KOA and it is really nice…we got a good spot. We are in the back where it is nice and quiet. There are a group of RV’s in the front section of the park that are traveling together in a tour group. We had never seen that before.
I absolutely hate to own up to this, but as I was pulling out of a gas station, I turned too early and scraped along one of the poles protecting the gas pump! I am so mad at myself!! It didn’t do much damage and Ed was able to buff out the glaring yellow that really called attention to my goof-up. I guess I should be glad that I’ve been driving this huge setup full-time for going on 3 years and this is the first time I have hit anything with it.
May 17-We went to the falls on the American side. The city of Niagara Falls is surprisingly rundown and mostly abandoned. We read on several sources that it is not advised to be in the city area after sundown. Not encouraging. The park where the falls is located is nice. I was pretty underwhelmed with the entire experience. I know that is probably not a popular opinion, but something just felt ‘off’. The American side is at least a nice park with walking trails that are well kept. I can’t really put into words why it seemed ‘off’.
May 20- We decided to try the Canadian side of the falls. We didn’t spend very long there as we didn’t really enjoy the ‘Vegas’ cheezy touristy vibe of that side. We went under and behind the falls, which for my claustrophobic self was challenging, but also interesting. We unfortunately were there on Victoria Day, which we weren’t aware of…and boy were there a TON of people everywhere. We tried to get lunch, but when we saw the prices we just decided to bail and maybe come back. We did figure out by riding the bus to the flower clock, that there were areas a bit away from the falls that were more to our liking, so decided that maybe we will return another time to explore further.
May 21- Ed really wanted to do the boat tour Maid of the Mist that goes up to the falls, so we went back to the American side of the falls. We explored the gorge at the old power plant, saw some fun graffiti, did the Cave of the Winds Walk to the base of the falls and then road the Made of the Mist boat tour. It was fun and it did make for an enjoyable day, even if we did end up getting soaked! LOL
One interesting experience we had was the restrooms in the visitor center at the falls. Ed went in one way (left) and I went in the other way (right)…as we rounded the corner, we were face to face! We both were a bit surprised! We have never experienced a restroom for both sexes that was a multistall restroom! We have seen plenty of them that are individual restrooms with just a single toilet and sink with a locking door, but never one like this! We both had a good laugh at our shock and then realized this was a first for us, so I decided I had to document our first experience using a shared public restroom. LOL
We will be heading off to Ft Drum next…
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TT Kenisee Lake in Jefferson, OH (April 29-May 16)
We were able to book the spot I fell in love with last year again at the campground. I was thrilled to snag it!
May 1- We visited the Cleveland Zoo and also went to the West Side Market. I loved the market, it was a bit overwhelming as I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but I would love to have access to a market like this everywhere we stay!
May 2- We visited Walnut Beach and walked around.
Our first week here, we just chilled at the campground alot and I painted some rocks to leave at campgrounds along our travels. I really enjoy these relaxing times when the weather is so beautiful and we can just enjoy ‘being’, yk?
May 7- We went to Erie, PA and visited the Erie Zoo and Presque Island. While at a gas station, I found this huge area in the pavement that looked like a huge shoe print! I thought it was funny.
The zoo was pretty pitiful, but I did find this chipmunk entertaining…a little girl had dropped her boboa tea and the chipmunk was quite thrilled to enjoy her loss!
At Presque Isle, I thought this guy was quite regal.
In looking for things in the area, I had read about this cemetery called Lakeview Cemetery that has a weeping angel statue and many other really cool statues/monuments/crypts. We spent 2 days here exploring! I had to laugh and say to Ed “Did you ever think that someday you would spend two days exploring a cemetery with your wife?” His answer was a resounding “NO”. We have found a few really neat cemeteries along our travels!
The large monument is James Garfield’s burial monument. It is stunning both inside and out. It was recently renovated and actually just reopened a day or two before we were there. I have to say, it was a bit creepy to go down into the crypt and to see the caskets that hold him and his wife!
These are not all the photos I took, believe it or not! LOL! It is a really interesting place!
May 10- We rode the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. It was a nice train ride and not at all crowded, which was wonderful!
We also went to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and hiked the Ledges Trail and visited Brandywine Falls. I loved the trail…it was so mossy, ferny and kinda spooky! There were so many trees that looked like they might just pull away from the ground and walk away! LOL!
We were able to see the Northern Lights from our campsite! It was really cool!
May 12- Mother’s Day. Ed took me to a great little diner called Andover Diner. I wish we had found this place sooner! It was so good and the prices are wonderful! I splurged and got a chicken fried steak breakfast. The photo shows what I had left after stuffing myself! Those ladies in the kitchen certainly earn their wages…they never stopped moving and were so kind!
We went to the Flea Market that Ed enjoys in the area and then spent the rest of the day just chilling. I painted some more rocks and a few canvas. I love having time to create.
May 13- We went to see the World’s Largest Rubber Stamp! As a letterboxer, I just HAD to go see this. There is a letterbox in the area, however, I was unable to snag it, because someone was sleeping right next to the area it is stashed…boo.
We also went to the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick. I absolutely loved this museum and the curator. He was so inviting and enthusiastic about the museum and it’s history. I really enjoyed everything here and wished we had gotten there a bit earlier so I could have spent more time to see everything. Oh well, we will come again.
May 14- We did the Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Tour. It made for a wonderful day! We had lunch at Mary’s Diner in Geneva and the reuben was delicious!!!
We also went to this interesting place where they have a 50ft statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe! It was an experience…
We have really enjoyed our stay here at Kenisee Lakes. This is one of my favorite campgrounds with a surrounding area that has so much to do. We will be back for sure! Next up…New York!
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Buckey Lake KOA in Buckeye Lake, OH (April 28)
We did a one night stopover at the KOA in Buckeye Lake, OH on the way to Kenisee Lake. This is a nice campground and we got a really nice site. We didn’t do alot in the area except walk the mall and stopped into Goodwill for a bit.
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TT Indian Lakes in Batesville, IN (April 14-28)A
We moved to Batesville, Indiana and got a great site. This is a huge campground with lots of annuals, but also plenty of transient sites.
April 18- We went to Dayton, Ohio to go to Aullwood Audubon. This is a huge nature center, educational farm and farm discovery center, and a 200 acre nature sanctuary with 8 miles of walking trails. It was awesome! If I lived in this area, I would be a member and would visit very often.
April 19- We took the truck to Cincinnati to have some brake work done and took the bus to the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens. This is a beautiful zoo!!
One day when we were just hanging out at the campground, we decided to try Skyline Chili, as we had seen so many advertisements and lots of chatter online about how good it is. I got just a small bowl of it and Ed got it on the spaghetti…
Ummm……YUCK! Maybe if we had done a bit more research and knew that it was more a mediterranean style meat sauce with warm spices, I could have approached it differently. Unfortunately, we were not at all prepared for what it was. It is not something I will ever get again. We both tossed most of it. The fries were decent LOL.
April 23- We drove to Jungle Jim’s in Fairfield. It is this HUGE funky international marketplace. I could have spent the entire day here! They have food and products from all over the world. This place is a foodies dream.
We spent much of our time here working on our college courses, chilling around the campground and enjoying the beautiful weather. I really enjoyed walking around the campground. We found a great little bakery called Schmidt’s in Batesville that is apparently famous for Cherry Thing-a-lings which are “A warm, ooey-gooey, delicious fritter donut family recipe with cherries coated in a special glaze.” They only make them for 5 days in February. Unfortunately, they were not making them while we were there, so we got other goodies.
We will definately be returning to Indian Lakes when we are in this area again. We both really liked the campground…but now, we are headed off to Ohio.
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TT Diamond Caverns in Park City, KY (Mar 28-Apr 14)
March 28–We arrived at Diamond Caverns Thousand Trails and got settled in. This is an older campground that has buddy sites and we were fortunate enough to get a site that isn’t a buddy site and it is full hookup and 50 amp.
March 29–We went to breakfast at Farmwald Dutch Bakery and Deli. It was meh…I was pretty disappointed honestly and Ed wasn’t really impressed either. We drove around Cave City and went to Glasgow. Cave City has some touristy areas that were all closed, but we are hoping maybe will be open on the weekend. Well, Dinosaur World was open, but no way I am braving that during spring break! LOL!
April 1- We went to Bernheim Forest and spent the day walking the trails and visiting the Giant Trolls! It was such a great day and the trolls are really interesting. I have seen online where these trolls are all around the country and was excited to finally see some. The nature center and trails here are really nice.
April 4- We went to Bowling Green and had lunch at Mission BBQ. We then went onto Nashville for a Falconry class!!! It was so awesome and we had such a wonderful time!
April 8- We drove to Munfordville to see this place called “Kentucky Stonehenge” and then went to a cool roadside market called Dennison’s. Today was the Solar Eclipse and while it was a bit cloudy, we were able to see it. I was on the phone with James while it was occuring…apparently it was much more impressive in Dallas! I caught some photos and also noticed that my window suncatchers were casting prisms that reflected the eclipse.
April 9- We went to a place called Lost River Cave and took a boat tour into this cave…I almost had a panic attack when we had to all duck down in the boat while passing under an extremely low portion that lead into the cave!!
This video shows us going under the low portion on the way out.
April 10- We went back to Nashville and took a showboat cruise called General Jackson. When we were waiting to board, a performer came out to talk to the people waiting. He was asking where everyone was from and when he got to us, he said he was from McKinney! The boat cruise and show was really fun and the food was pretty good.
We really enjoyed the campground and the area around it. It is a bit remote and there is very limited options for food or groceries closeby. We did enjoy the seclusion though. Next we will be heading to Indiana.
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KOA in Crossville, TN (March 27)
We left Acworth and stopped overnight at the Crossville KOA in Tennessee. It is a very nice campground with nice wide and long sites. They had this teeny tiny cabin I had to get a photo of. The sunset was beautiful. Life is good.
Heading to the next spot tomorrow morning …
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Payne Campground in Acworth, GA (Mar 20-26)
March 20–We arrived at Payne Campground in Acworth, GA, which is at Allatoona Lake. We decided to make a bit of a detour so that we could stay close to my cousin, Vickie, to get a visit in this year again. We got an amazing site that was off on its own, very large and so nice!!
Remember that monk bread I got at the Abbey? Well, that naughty dog of ours decided that he wante to eat it while we were out running errands! He climbed up on the counter and tore the plastic off and consumed about 70% of the bread! I HAD NOT EVEN OPENED IT YET!!! Grrrrr!
March 23–Had lunch with Vickie and she got her first tattoo at Acworth Tattoo Company!!! She got paw prints to honor her pets, past and present. She was nervous about it, then afterwards was like “that was so nothing!” lol After getting her tattoo, we came back to the camper and spent the afternoon into late evening visiting. It was so nice to see her!
March 25– On Vickie’s recommendation, we went to Amicalola Falls State Park and did a hike and then walked down to the base of the falls and back up. Ed was not thrilled with the 425 steps up…down wasn’t so bad. LOL! The falls were really pretty and it was worth the work!
After the falls, we went on a hunt for a letterbox that took us up the mountain on a very narrow road to a church. It was kinda wild, as there is nothing else up there except the church, a graveyard and a shelter for Appalacian trail hikers. Oh, and the letterbox was nowhere to be found…bummer.
Ed tolerated me hunting a few more letterboxes, one that required another short hike. By the end of the day….we were exhausted!
March 26–Rained all day and we just packed up in preparation for tomorrows move…
