Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Letchworth State Park, New York


The nickname for this park is 'The Grand Canyon of the East'. This seemed like a good reason to check it out on our way to Toronto, plus Brian had been there as a child and was curious to see it now.
The park is nice and we enjoyed our visit, but it doesn't have much similarity to the Grand Canyon. There are three major waterfalls - upper, lower and middle. The upper waterfall is about 107 feet high and the cliffs rise about 600 feet above the Genesee River, one of the only rivers that flows north.


Much of the rock is limestone, and I thought the picnic tables they made from it were pretty unique.


The river has carved some interesting outcroppings and rock formations.


We knew we were in Amish Country pretty quickly, and I was glad to have a chance to buy a few things at one of the local Amish markets. 


Onward to Toronto from here. We're in a pretty crummy RV park so it will be nice to move on.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Back to the Blog

Since I haven't posted anything since May 26 I guess it's pretty obvious that I've taken a break from blogging. I'll see if I can get caught up a bit and then get back to posting on a semi-regular basis.

We've spent most of the time since leaving Alabama in Florida. Our first stop was to visit with Paul and Helen, our good friends we originally met in Mexico.


Paul and Helen have a lovely piece of property outside of Inverness and we were able to park there for a few nights. Their friends Sam and Donna were visiting as well and we enjoyed meeting them. We even formed our own little RV park. Great to spend some time with them and see the area.


Brian's sister Laurel purchased a home in Port St Lucie -PSL- so we were on a mission to get there in time to help with the move. Of course there were a few glitches and we found that she would be delayed a few weeks. The plan was for Brian to fly to New York, help Laurel with loading her rental truck, and then drive it down to Port St Lucie, which he eventually did. When we arrived at Laurel's we backed the Bus into the driveway so Brian could unload all his tools.


While waiting for Laurel, we joined with Brian's brother Bruce and sister-in-law Eileen to begin the remodeling process. Lots of work and challenges. Both Brian and I found the heat and humidity to be the biggest challenge of all. Granted we lived in the Caribbean for six years, but we never felt as hot in Vieques as we did in Florida.


Not all work and no play, though. Our friend Chuck is a bass player and has moved from LA to Boynton Beach, not too far from PSL. We always loved going to hear him in LA so it was great that we had a chance to catch him with one of the bands he now plays with in Florida.


Bruce, Eileen, Brian and I spent a very pleasant afternoon in a club on the water visiting with Chuck and enjoying some fine music.


The first month of our stay was spent on Hutchinson Island near PSL in one of those parks where people buy a lot and usually come down for the winter. There were small lots with everything from open pads to old trailers to two-story houses on them. We were able to get a good deal on a monthly rental. Although we weren't too far from the beach it was just too hot to spend any time there. Too bad.


After the first month on Hutchinson Island we moved to an RV park closer to Laurel's house and that worked out fine. We also took a few days and moved the Bus closer to Chuck so that we could spend more time with him. We stayed at John Prince Park in Lake Worth and had a site that backed right onto Lake Osborn.


It was a beautiful, spacious park and we were able to take some nice walks although with the many warnings about alligators I was always looking over my shoulder. Never saw one but we did see some cool birds.

 

We're heading for Toronto to visit with my niece Shelby, her husband Dan, and their very cute little boy Sam who we will meet for the first time. We haven't seen Shelby and Dan for two years so are looking forward to our visit. On the way to Toronto we stopped in Winchester, Virginia, to visit with friends Patti and Denny. We spent much of our time with them in Vieques so it's always a pleasure to see them again and get caught up on things.