Baseball, Bridges & Breweries

Cooperstown, NY
Glimmerglass State Park

 

 

We've had a great time traveling with Curt and Glenda this past month and our time together will be ending in Cooperstown, NY.  But first a visit to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  Since we lived several years in Upstate New York, we've been here before but it's been a long time. 

 

Double Day Field

Steve & Curt

National Baseball Hall of Fame

It's a very large and takes up a few buildings.

 

 

Curt's favorite part.

 

Cooperstown has a very cute Main Street.  Glenda and I had no interest in the Hall of Fame, so we walked and window shopped through town.

We walked up and down the town and picked out some cookies at the bakery,

and had some great ice cream.

 

Saw this guy in one of the shops.  I later found out it was Cal Ripkin.

 

 The process of bat making from a log (at the bottom) up to the finished bat (at the top).

 The oldest covered bridge in New York happens to be the oldest in the US as well.

 

 

 

 

We grabbed a couple geocaches in the park and walked around the beach and let Hurley swim in the water.  It was pretty humid out and he just can't handle that very well.

There was a beautiful marina on the lake and Glenda and I walked along the path with gardens between the water and the flower gardens in the park.

Lake Otsego

 

We visited a couple of breweries nearby.  Ommegang Brewery is a large Belgian Ale producing brewery.

They have beautiful grounds and a nice café.

 

After a snack and a flight of beer, we headed out for a drive and ended up at Council Rock Brew Pub.

Our last dinner together before we part ways tomorrow.

Back at the trailer Curt had a surprise for Steve.  He had been traveling around with a special bottle of 2017 Dark Lord Imperial Stout beer that he was saving for our last night.  It is a Russian-Style Imperial Stout brewed with coffee, Mexican vanilla, and Indian sugar. They really enjoyed it.  Glenda and I took a pass.

One last campfire.

The next day Curt and Glenda headed out towards their hometown of Illinois to visit family.  Then we will head to Arizona where they winter for a few months.  We will see them again in November before we head back home and then see them again in Feb/March before we both leave for our summer destinations.  So it's more of a See Ya than a Goodbye.

Forgot to mention that we stayed at Glimmerglass State Park. It's a nice little campground in Cooperstown.

 

$26, W/E - site #1.

 The campground is small but the park itself is very large with several pavilions to rent, walking trails, swimming beaches and huge grass areas.

 

--A little scary story--

We were in line to use the dump station and there was an older, larger gentleman ahead of us dumping his tanks.  As time went by I noticed that he seemed almost "frozen".  Just standing there, looking my direction but not moving.  I realized something might be wrong and told Steve to go see if everything was ok or if he needed anything.  At that moment he fell right over backwards in an odd spot, stuck between the garbage can and some pipes. Steve ran over and after having some difficulty trying to get him up I ran over.  I got behind him and put my arms around him and pulled up while Steve pulled him up from the front.  It was very difficult awkward and we were barely able to lift him up. Poor guy.  His glasses, medications, wallet, etc went flying everywhere.  After talking to him, we noticed he was on oxygen and several medications and must've had an "episode".  We gathered his belongings together and helped him get things put away so he could go back to the campground where his wife was waiting.  He didn't want us to call any one.  He thanked us and drove away. I'm not so sure he should really be driving an RV alone but we we're glad he was ok. Kind of scary.

 

We lifted the jacks the next morning and headed to our next stop in Brockport, NY, where we used to live to visit friends.

Along the way we stopped and found a cache at a 9/11 Memorial in a nearby small town.

 

It was very nicely done and was made with one of the columns from the wreckage at Ground Zero.

 

Next Up, a couple of weeks moochdocking at our friends in Brockport, NY.

 

Hiking to the Highest Point in Vermont - Mt. Mansfield

Waterbury,Vermont
Goldbrook RV Park

One of the last highlights of our time in Vermont would be hiking to the highest point in the state.  Especially since we struck out in the two previous states, New Hampshire and Maine.  Mt. Mansfield is the highest elevation in Vermont at 4,393 feet with a gain of close to 2000 feet. It would be 10 miles round trip back to the truck.

 We drove to Underhill State Park to begin the hike.

 Oh, we're smiling now.  Not so much a few hours later!

We parked and hiked up the CCC road for 1 mile to get to the trailhead.

At this point we started up the Sunset Ridge Trail through the woods which crosses over a stream a few times for 1.7 miles.

Glenda and Curt

This is a moderate to strenuous, all uphill trail with some scrambling.

 There are several huge chunks of quartz which is common in the Green Mountains.  It's very pretty.  Some are covered with moss.

You probably can't see it, but at the top center of the mountain ridge are some antennas.  We will be parallel to these at the top and you will see much closer up pictures of them.

Once you leave the tree line you get up into the alpine where the trees are much shorter and scraggly due to the extreme cold and winds.  Now you begin to climb the interesting rock dome-like area.

The views go on forever up here.  You can see the Adirondack Mountains in New York and Lake Champlain.

 Up here the rock has interesting swirling textures of fine sandy loam and quartz.  Really unusual and it reminded me of the outside of oyster shells.

The trail switchbacks up the alpine ridge. Once you break onto the ridge, there is no shelter if a quick moving storm should come through.

Just follow the blue blaze up, up and up.

"Are we there yet?"

That top peak is not actually the summit.  You can't see it as it is behind the first peak.

There are several large cairns to help guide you up.

And up.

And up.

And up!

The rock surface is just so pretty and interesting you have to remember to look around at the views below you too.

You get a slight break in the climb just before the trail junction at Laura Cowles.  The ground is seeping with water and little bits of color show through.  A nice boggy/pine smell fills your lungs.

At the junction it's just another mile or so up the Long Trail to the summit.

I didn't get pictures of the planks, but you walk over a couple and then climb the last stretch.

There's those antennas I mentioned earlier.

There it is, up ahead, the TOP!

And here we are!  At the "chin".

The summit marker.

It's very cold and windy up here so a quick snack, rest and a couple of pictures and down we go.  To the north is Canada, NY to the west and if you look east you can see Smugglers Notch.

Down is always harder and a little rough on the knees and feet so you have to keep enjoying those views and try not to think about it.

Just WOW!

It seemed like the rock face took forever to get down.  Then a little more scrambling and a bit of butt scooting and we were done.  Of course there was still that last mile along the CCC road to get back to the truck.  Our reward was a great dinner out.  No pictures, but I had a Filet Mignon that was served on a hot brick which I then cooked it how I wanted.  Interesting.  We all had great food to fill our bellies and we looked forward to some Ibuprofen and a nice bed.

SUCCESS in Vermont !!