When I left Peaks Island on 4/29/2022 I headed to Vermont to visit family. When I visited sister dear after Christmas on my way home from Florida and told her that I was planning on leaving on this trip 5/1 she thought it a good idea to stay with them for the weekend before and leave on 5/1 from their house. So that is what I did. I am so glad too because it was a great way to kind of casually start a trip like this. It was a brilliant weekend of fun to be with family and I even got to see my brother-in-law coach a baseball game. The game was played under a beautiful blue VT sky with 40mph winds out of the north which made fielding the ball hard, but such is baseball in late April. After the game my two nephews wired an outlet into the camping area of the truck so that I could charge my 500W Jackery power station while I drove. So handy for times when I know I will be staying in a campground without shore power. The evenings were filled with wonderful meals, laughter and reminiscing, designed to take my mind off what a daunting trip I was undertaking.
On the day of departure, sister dear took me out for a wonderful breakfast at a bakery in their town which we enjoyed in chairs on the sidewalk in some beautiful sun. Warm, this time, with no wind. After our walk home, I gave out a few last hugs and was on my way.
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| Sister Dear and I at breakfast |
From VT I drove west crossing the southern part of Lake Champlain into Crown Point, NY and wondered down State Rt 9N along the east side of Lake George. Through towns named Hague, Silver Bay, Bolton Landing, Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs. The latter looked like a town I would like to come back and visit. Then it was west through rolling farm county on Rts. 29 and 80 to Glimmerglass State Park at the head of Lake Otsego. I had finally returned to a place I hadn’t seen in more than 45 years. My dad grew up in Cooperstown, NY (at the foot of this lake) and as a family would come to visit my grandparents here. Such memories. I went into the park and stopped long enough to take a few pictures.
The final part of the day's drive took me on a circuitous route over hill and dale, as my father used to say, to and through Cooperstown to Crazy Acres Campground. Located in Davenport, NY it was a nice little place to call home for the first couple of nights on the road.
Over the next couple of days I would have to relearn everything I knew about camping. The weather was pretty bad. Rain at night and afternoons. I couldn't remember where I had packed anything, and in spite of my best efforts, nothing was handy when I needed it. I will just say it once, this is truly tiny living. I would have to learn how to do the "Cooperstown Shuffle" (what my dad called any dance he did with my mom) of camping. Before using any space I had to move stuff, in that space somewhere else. After doing this enough times and after many anxiety ridden moments thinking about how I was going to survive this trip, some order in the chaos presented itself.
While using this campsite as a home base, I traveled to find the site of the Stewart family farm in Stamford, NY. My 4x great grandfather was an original settler in this area. I used several old county maps, old photos my grandmother and grandfather had taken in 1958 and others I had take in 1972 on a visit with my grandmother. The farm itself burned down in the 60's. It was a 170 acre dairy farm which I confirmed by doing some deed research again for the first time since retiring. I even stole a small rock from the stone wall these settlers likely built.
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Farm house in late 1800's
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What the site looks like now
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I also visited Cooperstown, and found nothing as I had remembered it. I seems to be all about baseball and not much else. I did visit the Farmers Museum, and the Fenimore Museum of American Art. Both made the trip worth it. I ate at the only restaurant that looked familiar, The Cooperstown Diner- "The Littlest Diner with the Biggest Burger." Been there for 100 years but I passed on the burger and had a BLT.
Off to visit Niagara Falls.
