Blogs from New York, United States, North America - page 8

Friday 30th: We left Sanford around 8.30am. One van (with a bike aboard) and three bikes running. This was going to be our last day on the bikes and our planned destination was Albany in New York State where Ronnie's motorcycles will store our bikes. Around 208 miles expected today. We had some navigation confusion early on, mainly around avoiding freeways or not. However we sorted out the route and with the exception of a missed turnoff from the freeway, we did ok. Getting off the freeway a turn too late, we had to do a loop back to join the correct route which involved our only gravel today, a short link road. By this time, Keith who was following us in his rental van decided to make his own way and took his own route ... read more

Thursday 22nd: Leaving Hancock we were in full rain wet gear. Not only was it raining but it was only 11 degrees. Immediately, following our BDR Route, we were on a gravel track through a forest with very dark trails. The weather was seriously gloomy and with overhanging trees it was like night time. Our GPS’s didn’t adapt so the glare from them really affected our vision. I changed my GPS to 50% backlight which solved the problem. After quite a few miles on this “dark” trail we came to a road closed sign on our route. We decided, discretion once again winning out over valour to backtrack and work our way around this road closed situation.Not always as easy as it sounds but it worked out ok in this instance, albeit with a big loop. ... read more

Tuesday 20th: Leaving Corning (or at least trying to, without getting onto the expressway) we ended up travelling a roundabout route getting a mini-tour of the town. Eventually after around 15 miles of back roads, we linked up with the BDR route. We were on country roads both sealed & gravel through forests and farmland. This area appeared from the architecture (especially Farmhouses & barns) to have a Dutch influence look about it. Looking it up later I found, there has been a Dutch influence here since the 1700s and Pennsylvanian Dutch is still taught as a first language in some communities. The Pennsylvania Dutch (also called Pennsylvania Germans or Pennsylvania Deutsch) are descendants of early German immigrants to Pennsylvania who arrived in droves, mostly before 1800, to escape religious persecution in Europe. Travelling through these ... read more

While Karen and I packed the coolers and cleaned up after breakfast, the guys went for a quick fish in the river. On the recommendation of Miss Elaine, We were heading up the Au Sable River to Lake Placid. The Ausable River, also known as AuSable River and originally written as "Au Sable", runs in the U.S. state of New York, from the Adirondack Mountains and past the village of Lake Placid and Au Sable Forks to empty into Lake Champlain. It has an East and West branch that join at Au Sable Forks. That is exactly where our house was located. As we drove up the Au Sable toward Lake placid we kept wondering where the attendees of the 84 Olympics spent the night. It’s fairly rural and accommodations were limited. Miss Elaine worked in ... read more

Today is the day I planned specifically for Ed and Terry…we were headed to Cooperstown…the Baseball Hall of Fame. Anyone who knows anything about St Mary’s, knows the Wilson’s we’re all about baseball. Their dad, Truman. Was their coach. There mother sat in the stands and cheered on 5 boys and continued on thru their coaching careers, as long as she was able. Going to Cooperstown was a dream of theirs. My son, Corey, is all about baseball and has been a die-hard Atlanta Braves fan since our neighbor, Zeke Hubbard, sat a Braves cap on his head when he was five years old. Several years ago Corey and Jennifer visited Cooperstown for the baseball Hall of Fame induction. Bobby Cox (longtime Braves manager) and several Braves players were taken on to the Hall of Fame ... read more